10 Greatest New Beginnings In Star Trek
Spring is a time for rebirth, but what does rebirth look like in the final frontier?
In the current age of nostalgia, new beginnings are more important than they have ever been. As heartwarming as it was to see the Enterprise-D fly again, or William Shatner's Kirk clasp Spock's hand for the first time in years, a new start must be the way to boldly go forward.
Shows like Strange New Worlds must balance the task of crafting new, exciting stories, while also including characters from other iterations, previously played by different actors. Jeffrey Hunter, Sean Kenny, and Bruce Greenwood had all commanded the Enterprise before Anson 'The Peak' Mount donned the Starfleet gold. Having said that, Mount's Pike is a new, inspired take on one of Star Trek's oldest legacy characters.
While other Star Trek properties have had varying successes with handling nostalgia, each of them has offered something new and fresh to the universe. Which of them did it best? Let's take a look.
10. DS9 Gains A Klingon And Goes Bald
It is sometimes a little easy to look at the gap between seasons three and four of Deep Space Nine and say 'That's where the show gets really good!' While that's doing a serious disservice to the first three years, there is a certain...logic to the statement.
DS9's debut year was truncated (for a '90s Trek) and was then followed by a somewhat standard second season. The show was still following the groundwork laid by The Next Generation, focusing on episodic storytelling, while the actual shooting method softened the edges of every scene. Darker stories bled through early- on (Duet, Necessary Evil etc) before The Jem'hadar kicked things into gear.
The third year saw an increased Dominion threat, now in Changeling form, as well as the introduction of the USS Defiant. However, it was the fourth year, and The Way Of The Warrior specifically that saw Deep Space Nine both hit its groove and take a new direction. Avery Brooks was finally allowed to shave his head, Michael Dorn joined the cast as a series regular, and the Klingon Empire decided it was time to 'go nuts'.
Season four of Deep Space Nine ranks among the very best of Star Trek's offerings, not least for the fact it offers a bold new direction for the show and introduces themes that still resonate in the franchise to this day.