How to Ruin Classic Star Trek
Star Trek, the original 1960’s
version, is perhaps the best sci-fi series ever aired. It featured
scripts written by “real” sci-fi writers like Harlan Ellison, actors like William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy who played their parts so
well they became typecast for decades, dramatic music, and special
effects that were the best of their time. More than that, Star
Trek featured Gene Roddenberry’s vision
of mankind’s future, a future in which we had virtually overcome
war, corruption, prejudice, sexism, racism, and practically every other
human failing. It was a future that we’d like to be a part
of.
When I learned that G4
television had come up with something it was calling “Star
Trek 2.0″ based on the original series, I was intrigued. How
could you improve on a classic? After watching just part of one
episode, I came to realize that you couldn’t… at least not the way G4
tried to do it.
What G4 has done is cram the video into about two
thirds of the screen. On top, they placed “Trek Facts”
which provide little bits of trivia about the show and the
episode. This, at least, is mildly interesting. On the left
side of the screen they display a scrolling list of “Trek
Stats” such as “Uhura touches earpiece” and “Red
shirt deaths”. These might be interesting if they started at
zero during the first episode and increased as the events they portray
happened during the episode(s). But they don’t. On the right
is some weird random thing they call the “Spock Market” which
seems to have nothing to do with the show, either. Then, across
the bottom of the screen is the ultimate eye candy for ADD sufferers
watching the show… they display a question and let the people who
visit the G4 web site submit answers and chat with each other.
This chat is mostly inane in the bits I’ve seen on Trek 2.0. Worst
of all, they shove a huge G4 TV logo in the bottom right. A lot of screen real estate is wasted for this
crap, which doesn’t improve the episode at all. Here’s what
it looks like:
I hope the ratings for
Star Trek 2.0 are so low that
they cancel the idea and stick with airing the show unmodified, as
originally intended.