There have been many documentaries on our favorite franchise, but which do you consider the best? (I'm sorry I didn't include every title. Please share any that you believe are worth seeing! Thank you! 
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I voted for Trekkies - because it's hilarious, and it captures Star Trek as a pop culture phenomenon.
The DS9 documentary is also pretty great, but it felt a little self indulgent and cringey with some of the singing. The 25th Anniversary Special was very exciting when it came out - again at a time when Trek was really in the zeitgeist.
The DS9 documentary is also pretty great, but it felt a little self indulgent and cringey with some of the singing. The 25th Anniversary Special was very exciting when it came out - again at a time when Trek was really in the zeitgeist.
As much as I enjoyed the DS9 documentary, I also found it a little self-indulgent. I would assume that most people watching it already know it's a great show, yet it sometimes felt like it was trying to convince us just how great it was.
I also wasn't entirely on board with applying today's perspectives to a TV series made in the 1990s. For example, the discussion of Garak being gay felt more like a modern interpretation than something that was explicitly established in the show itself. ("Not that there's anything wrong with that!")
I also wasn't entirely on board with applying today's perspectives to a TV series made in the 1990s. For example, the discussion of Garak being gay felt more like a modern interpretation than something that was explicitly established in the show itself. ("Not that there's anything wrong with that!")
Big fan of Chaos on the Bridge. Maybe one day they'll do something similar for Discovery's utterly chaotic production.
What We Left Behind takes top marks in every column for me. The biggest one is that I get inspired to write something after each time I rewatch it.
Not quite enthused about the Center Seat doc, however. It purports to be about the 55 years of the franchise to that point, but to my memory, they only covered up through Enterprise. And they also repeat a lot of apocryphal stories that don’t match up with the historical record.
Not quite enthused about the Center Seat doc, however. It purports to be about the 55 years of the franchise to that point, but to my memory, they only covered up through Enterprise. And they also repeat a lot of apocryphal stories that don’t match up with the historical record.
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We dismantled the first episode here in The Off-Center Seat. The first episode is more oral tradition than oral history and often overstates and exaggerates. I wasn't impressed. The second episode was a hair better, but still full of dubiousness. I bailed on it pretty fast.
Anecdotes by uber fans and raconteurs aren't necessarily a recipe for accurate history.
Yes, The Captains was really good. Shatner is always charming with just about everyone and I wasn't sure how he'd be with the other four, but he was great. It also gave us Avery Brook's infamous piano jam/groovy interview.
What did you enjoy most about the latter?
Shout put out a Blu-ray box set of Shatner’s Trek docs he did for EPIX (including The Captains and Chaos on the Bridge) a few years back, and it was well worth buying. It’s got a special convo between Shatner and Christopher Plummer that’s so good.
I enjoyed Chaos on the Bridge and liked What We Left Behind other than a few issues. Haven’t really watched a lot of them and still surprised To The Journey isn’t actually out for public consumption yet.
Yeah, that whole thing seems like a major clusterfuck.
I feel bad for those who invested.
Yeah the whole thing has made me think twice if I wanted to donate to another crowdfunded campaign in regards to Star Trek (maybe even anything).
Same. Between this and the Jerry Goldsmith biography debacle (where we only got PDFs of Jeff Bond's manuscript after the organizer gambled away the money & disappeared), I'm leery of crowdfunding campaigns these days.
Well, damn. So much for my plans to beg y’all to fund research for our book. Drrrrrrat.
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As a proofreader's son, I am highly vexed at this twisty anomaly. But 'tis far too soon to call it off.
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