While the Xindi plot on “star Trek” was novel and interesting — the Xindi were, in fact, five intelligent species who evolved on the same planet simultaneouesly — it felt to this old Trekkie like the franchise was spinning its wheels, reaching desperately for something that felt relevant. While the show’s fourth season branched away from the Xindi plot and began leaning into three- and four-part episodes, it still never seemed to hit a new stride. It was an interesting show, the writing was good, and the characters were, for the most part, dynamic, but the fact remained that Gene Roddenberry’s ideas still weren’t welcome. The show’s final episode ran on May 13, 2005, canceled after only four years.
Then Viacom infamously split and the franchise seemed to end. Trekkies were at peace with this.
There would be no “Star Trek” again until the summer of 2009 when J.J. Abrams rebooted the film series with a new cast playing the characters from the 1960s TV series. In that film, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were younger, hotter, more impulsive versions of themselves. That, too, was a timeline marked by a major terrorist attack — the destruction of Vulcan — this time, at the hands of a vengeance-minded terrorist from the future. The film featured explosions, shooting, swordfights, and so, so much action. The film was a hit.
This, it seems, is what audiences wanted from “Star Trek” post-9/11. They essentially wanted “Star Wars.” It’s telling that after “Star Wars” itself was rebooted in 2015, that action-packed “Star Trek” was largely abandoned. Violence and revenge were in vogue. Diplomacy was still out.
It’s only now, in the 2020s, that Trek finally seems to be finding its way again. “Enterprise,” meanwhile, was a casualty of the times.
