I will freely admit that upon seeing them get the new Enterprise-A at the end of STIV, I was elated at the thought that there could be new Star Trek adventures to come, possibly introducing new and younger characters somewhat worthy of replacing those the actors were becoming to old to realistically portray (under Kirk’s command, especially). But it didn’t happen. In retrospect, I would rather have seen them ride off into the sunset on the high note that was STIV. There are plenty who disagree with me, who feel as you do about STVI, but I stand by it as a valid opinion. With that said, I am nervously excited to see the newest additions to the legacy of those characters. I have often thought about how great the possibilities could be in taking the franchise back to the glory years of the TOS-era. There is so much unexplored history there—Pre-TOS, in between TOS and TMP, in between TMP and TWOK, etc. Well, I’m getting my wish.

“just been 2 toyfair,bridge playset on view there,faithful layout to trek canon,champagne coloured metal finish around consoles,and view screen in front as always.transporter room slightly different but retro,costumes almost exactly like st tos,kirk in jumpsuit,and also space suit “.

It would seem Carol was correcting him, given what she said was a direct response to David’s assertion about Starfleet. It would have been awkward for her to say ‘David, you know Starfleet aren’t the military, they’re a scientific organization dedicated to exploration..!’. Instead, she points out that Starfleet are peacekeepers, as if to say ‘David, you know better’. It seemed like a clear and concise counterpoint to what he was trying to say.

And I didn’t mean to imply that TOS lacked drama. Far from it. Just that if Rodenberry had always had his way, it likely would have been less dramatic than it was. One has only to look at the monumental battle between Gene & Harlan over COTEOF to see that. The finished product is a fantastic thing, but compared to the original it was a butchered work (I won’t even get into his false claim that Ellison had Scotty dealing drugs). As I said before, part of why TUC drives the point home is it’s our heroes dealing with a difficult internal struggle, not a misc alien culture we have no investment in.

I understand Gene had reservations about some of the films, and I respect that as well as your opinion that they were too miltaristic. I just disagree with it. I think Treks II-IV are a special case in the issue of exploration, as they were all chapters in one story that was focused on the characters and not their mission. Plus they still manage to deal with great scifi concepts like the Genesis Device, Spock’s Katra, Time Travel, the alien Probe, etc. So I don’t think the films were really so far removed from the series as you might think. Trek VI we’ll just have to agree to disagree on, as I think it’s just as optimistic about the future (if not moreso) than anything in TOS.

As for Gene agreeing with the social commentary but not how it was presented…I always felt it was a bit pompous that our heroes had magically progressed beyond these issues (something never explained in any Trek in a satisfying way), and they were only dealt with in the context of other species. For me, Trek VI was not only a more realistic depiction of these issues, it was more effective because it was our heroes dealing with those feelings. It makes Kirk’s sacrifice to save the Klingon Chancellor, as well as his final words to her (”You’ve restored my son’s”) all the more moving. To have had the same storyline tackled through another culture would have diluted it’s impact.

To me, that was a fatal flaw in Gene’s thinking – he wanted to tackle these problems, but he didn’t want ‘his’ characters involved as anything other than 3rd-party observers. That removes the drama from the storytelling.

This is where I think you are misreading Gene’s criticism, as well as my own deference to that criticism. I don’t think you would get any argument from gene about the worthiness of the movie’s theme. You certainly won’t get it from me. Nor have I suggested that “fear of change” will disappear from human nature by the 23rd Century. It was more about corruption at the highest level of his benevolent Starfleet, and the very idea that its members would go to such lengths as to attempt to maintain the “Clod War” between the Klingons and the Federation. I understand that it was meant to parallel the stance taken by the military and intelligence hierarchies of the Soviet Union and The United States, but he felt it shouldn’t have. When TOS wished to make a social comment, it most often did so by depicting other worlds and other governments as suffering from similar issues to those they wished to comment on. Kirk and co. would retrospectively speak of humanity’s own “past”, and how they overcame that particular issue–whether it was racism, global war, disease, etc. STVI was a departure from that format–as it was so much more direct in its comparison. Instead of showing another culture the error of their ways, Starfleet itself was portrayed as having learned nothing from Earth’s past! Is this clearer to you now?

As for the “military angle”, you will never convince me that, in TOS, a scientist would ever have referred to Starfleet as simply “the military”. It was way too many other things, first and foremost, and not comparable to any orginization we know today. STVI turned it into just that.