Transforming Humanity

 

"Space the final frontier these are the voyages of the star ship enterprise…." These words were spoken by William Shatner,

We have chosen to research Star Trek to determine if it is a cult TV show or a franchise chain. Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960’s. Gene was a long-term science fiction fan, he was also a World War veteran; he wrote Star Trek due to his time in the WW1 as a soldier. It was based on a World War in space with various aliens battling it out with humanity from across the stars.

 

Star Trek’s main goal was to excite and transform humanity. It also changes space travel and the future for centuries to come. When Star Trek first aired in 1966 little did they know how much success the show would have decades on from the original release. From video games to successful movies, the first movie being aired in 1979 after the success from TOS (The Original Series).

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From Actor to Director

 

Although William Shatner was not only an actor, he also directed one of the Star Trek movies “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” and more recently William’s image was used in the 2016 movie “Star Trek Beyond”, making William Shatner one of the long-standing actors of the show, his success as an actor and one of the richest actors in the Star Trek franchise.

 

Unfortunately, ratings did not agree with Star Trek’s success, (1969) it saw the end of the Star Trek series. Gene took a more social political approach to the scripts causing the ratings to plummet during its third series. Many fans of this classic TV show were saddened by this loss during that time. Even though Star Trek was no longer on TV, various novels and a dedicated magazine was produced from writers to carry on the show’s legacy.

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Was it a flop?

 

Since the failure of the original series of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was released towards the latter end of the 1980’s. This made it a success of the newly released show, featuring none other than one of the greatest actors of all time, Patrick Stewart. His career success was because of his portrayal of Jean-Luc Picard.

 

From deep space nine to voyager, Kate Mulgrew became the first female lead role of the series, making Star Trek Voyager a much more loved series than The Next Generation. Even today Star Trek has been in alternative timelines of the show. It has shown different intakes of the characters from the original series through to the most recent movie. These movies failed to impress the box office thus ending the new reboot movies.

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Platforms

 

2017 saw the release of a new Star Trek series called Star Trek Discovery on CBS. This streamed on Netflix. Star Trek Discovery is a success. Its third series having finished streaming, created a whole new audience for Star Trek.

2021 is the 55th anniversary since 1966.

Star Trek is now one of the biggest franchises in the world, being at the top with favourites such as Doctor Who and Star Wars.

 

2020 saw a new Star Trek series called Star Trek Picard bringing back Patrick Stewart reprising his role after 25 years, thus making Patrick Stewart one of the most loved Captains of all time.

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Future Franchise

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Little did they know the actors and actresses in this Star Trek classic were the first in the cult TV show to lead into what would one day be a franchise for future actors and actresses to follow on from the original show’s footsteps.

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Rotten Tomatoes has ranked the third series of Star Trek the original series as one of the worst in its history. It has mixed ratings from viewers and with a bad critique “Budget cuts leave the stars of Star Trek stranded among shoddy set pieces and clunky writing - though even at its worst fans may still enjoy its campy delights” [1]

Star Trek classic series is a cult TV franchise. It wasn’t that well known in the 1960’s having been cancelled in 1968 due to TV critiques and budget cuts, Star Trek has since then transformed into a franchise with various memorabilia and replicas of the show and many fans of the show cosplaying as their favourite characters.

Star Trek is very much the cult classic it was back then but has evolved throughout the years.

 

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Bibliography:

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Howell, E., 2018. Star Trek: History & Effect on Space Technology. [online] Space.com. Available at: <https://www.space.com/31802-star-trek-space-tech.html> [Accessed 15 March 2021].

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[1] Rotten Tomatoes. n.d. Star Trek: Season 3. [online] Available at: <https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/star-trek/s03> [Accessed 15 March 2021].

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