Star Trek

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Transmitted:	September 1966 - June 1969
Country of origin:	USA
Genre:	Space exploration, alien enemies, Ensemble cast
Starring:	William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Grace Lee Whitney, Majel Barrett
Rating:	4/5
No. of seasons:	3, plus 7 movies

So this is where it all began, eh?
The show that would not die, could not be killed, and whose legacy persists even to this day. And what a great show it is, at least for a couple of seasons.
Listen, there's little point me saying what this is about as, frankly, if you don’t know the general set-up of Star Trek, you probably aren't capable of turning a computer on. Instead, I'll focus on the shows strengths and weaknesses.
Thing is, I'm a really late convert. I was brought up on TNG, DS9 and Voyager as well as, latterly, Enterprise.
I liked those shows.
The effects were good, the stories, for the most part, strong.
There was none of the campiness of The Original Series, none of Kirk's womanising, and I thought that was a good thing.
But I was wrong.
Well, except for the womanising part because, great fun as the show is, Kirk's dalliances with anything vaguely female quickly becomes irksome.
Whilst the effects were good for the time, they clunk now, of course, but that matters not one jot as this is all about the dynamics between the characters: Kirk and Spock, Spock and McCoy, Kirk and Scotty, Chekov and Sulu.
It's funny too.
Laugh out loud funny, on occasion.
Season 1, the stories are very strong for the most part and, whilst the show does dip quite steeply as it progresses, it is still interesting to see TV sci-fi blooming.
Yes, there's one too many alien entity that looks like a Greek or Roman God and, yes, there is an over-reliance on reusing SFX shots and, yes, if you insist, that backlighting effect they use whenever a beautiful woman is on screen is sickening but to only see the negatives would be to suffer from a naivety that I myself was guilty of for many years, and now feel foolish about.
Though I will never love it in the same way as TNG or DS9, the original Star Trek is still massively entertaining, and essential viewing for anyone who wishes to claim true geek status.
A genuine cult classic.

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