Going Boldly as One
On paper, the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Residence departs from the usual Star Trek mannequin. Positive, it continues the story started in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. And positive, it’s bookended by a plot about speaking with a wierd probe from deep house. However at its coronary heart, The Voyage Residence is a comedy set in 1986. Director Leonard Nimoy additionally provides his castmates extra consideration than they’ve ever acquired earlier than.
The Voyage Residence works for a number of causes, together with the truth that it’s actually humorous, but additionally as a result of it understands one thing underscoring the entire earlier motion pictures and episodes: that the collection’ attraction goes past foremost character Jim Kirk and first supporting characters Spock and McCoy. Viewers care about all the crew and their interactions with each other. The Voyage Residence faucets right into a key reality concerning the franchise: Star Trek works finest as an ensemble.
It’s no shock then that The Subsequent Technology, which obtained a inexperienced mild largely due to the success of The Voyage Residence (and since Shatner and Nimoy stored elevating their charges), rapidly adopted an ensemble strategy. Within the place of Kirk deliberating with Spock on one shoulder and Bones on the opposite, TNG launched the Prepared Room, the place Picard discusses issues along with his senior workers. Deep House 9, Voyager, and Enterprise continued on this custom (though, as a starbase, DS9 employed an workplace as an alternative of a Prepared Room).
Greater than a storytelling conference, these sequences sign to the viewers that each one of characters matter, not simply the captain and his finest associates. With this acknowledgment, it’s simpler for audiences to just accept that the chief engineer and the helmsman can carry their very own episodes, not simply get a bizarre subplot the place they giggle at a harem or do shirtless swashbuckling.
So engrained into Trek is that this ensemble strategy that followers reject trendy collection that focus extra on a single protagonist. Sure, Picard gave Jean-Luc a brand new crew with Raffi, Rios, and Jurati, and sure Discovery did give us episodes that fleshed out Owosekun and Airiam. However exterior of essentially the most minor particulars, these supporting members are relegated to a distant again seat to Picard and Burnham. In consequence, followers complained concerning the lack of consideration to the bridge crew greater than some other aspect of these collection.
Conversely, followers embrace Decrease Decks and Unusual New Worlds partially as a result of they’ve such vibrant casts. Okay, we nonetheless know subsequent to nothing about Ortegas (she flies the ship), however we all know that La’an struggles together with her notorious final title, that Quantity One doesn’t let her Increase standing hold her out of Starfleet, and that George Kirk is extra than simply Jim however with a mustache. We all know that Ransom likes understanding, that Shaxs noticed dangerous issues within the Cardassian Struggle, and that Dr. Migleemo is a foodie.
