10 Times Star Trek Should Have Known Better
Star Trek has always tried to be a beacon of a better tomorrow, but sometimes the beacon faded.
Star Trek has a reputation for progression and for being aware of the injustices of society. This was earned in The Original Series, even if some of the episodes may seem dated today. The fact is, Star Trek was pushing the envelope in the 60s in ways that were as shocking then as anything its doing today. A black woman on the bridge, and she isn’t a maid? What bizzarro world did we wake up in?
This reputation comes with scrutiny and Star Trek is no stranger to dropping the ball. If it is held to a higher standard today, that is simply because it is that franchise that continually tried to get it right yesterday. Did it always succeed? Well, no, not always. For every Balance Of Terror, there were episodes like Turnabout Intruder. For every Doomsday Machine, there was a Spock’s Brain. This has been true of every Star Trek iteration from the beginning, but which are those times when Star Trek really did let us down?
There can be any number of reasons as to why and how. Sometimes, a script just slips through that should never have been greenlit. Some episodes fall apart in the filming stage, while others were always hoping for the best, though suffering from a lack of planning for the worst. There are examples across every iteration of Trek of episodes that simply dropped the ball, for one reason or another. Does that make them all terrible? Of course not. Does it make them unwatchable? We actually have a list of unwatchable episodes, which you can check out here. There are the episodes that just left a bad taste in the mouth, suffering from a lack of subtlety, shoddy delivery, or a combination thereof.
Brace yourself, this isn’t a list of the better moments from this finest of franchises.
10. The Omega Glory
The Omega Glory was one of the early contenders for Star Trek’s first season of stories. Along with Mudd’s Women and Where No Man Has Gone Before, it was one of Gene’s earliest ideas for Trek. Thank goodness it didn’t end up becoming the pilot, for who knows if there ever would have been a Star Trek in that case. Captain Ron Tracey loses his entire crew, believes a planet holds the key to the fountain of youth, and Captain Kirk saves the day by quoting the American Constitution.
There’s lack of subtlety and then there’s forgetting the mission that Starfleet was supposed to be on. George Takei has spoken many times about Gene’s wish for the bridge of the Enterprise to represent ‘Starship Earth.’ Nichelle Nichols was there to represent people of colour, while George was there to represent Japanese people, and indeed Asian people as well. Walter Koenig was there to show that in the future, the superpowers would be at peace with each other. While there was certainly an American focus, the captain was played by a Canadian.
The Omega Glory seemingly abandons the idea of Starship Earth and instead lifts the United States Constitution up as an example of a better way of governing. It was a bit of a stark reminder that the writers were, unsurprisingly, predominantly Americans. This example was an early slip in the attempt for a unified earth. The Yangs and the Kohms may have attempted to find peace through a ‘we, The People,’ lens, but Star Trek needed to do better if it was to truly show a unified future. Thankfully, much of The Original Series stuck to that initial premise.