Star Trek: Franchise, History, and Cultural Impact

TV series

^{1 The} pilot film The Cage, produced in 1964/1965 and first broadcast in 1988, does not count as one of the three seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise.
² After the second season, the series Enterprise was renamed Star Trek: Enterprise.
³ The original English title is given in parentheses if it differs from the German television title, and otherwise corresponds to the German television title.

Movies

See also: Star Trek universe races and factions, Star Trek timelines, Starships and space stations in the Star Trek universe, Star Trek technology.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was a passionate advocate of egalitarian politics and frequently used the series to convey his vision of a future society based on these principles.

Introduction

Star Trek describes a utopian future in which humanity has made enormous social and technological advances. The stories are told by ship's crews and fellow travelers on starships and stations of the scientific and military Starfleet. Humanity has overcome most of today's problems, such as social inequality, racism, intolerance, poverty, and war. Also, capitalism and money function no longer exist. Humanity has grown into a global entity and is colonizing other planets beyond Earth. It follows the principle of peaceful coexistence with other life forms. The intelligent beings in the Star Trek universe differ in terms of their ethics and form of society.

Cosmic and astrophysical objects shown in Star Trek include singularities, spaces that are absolutely empty, wormholes, and dark matter nebulae. Real and currently known objects are also part of the Star Trek universe; there are repeated mentions of Andromeda and M33, as well as Rigel and Wolf 359.

21st and 22nd century

In 2053, after 27 years, the Third World War ends on Earth, destroying many large cities, killing several hundred million people, and causing the disappearance of several state governments. Ten years later, the human Zefram Cochrane manages to launch his spaceship Phoenix into space. His ship is the first to have the warp drive he invented, which makes it possible to fly at faster-than-light speeds. Cochrane's first warp flight leads to some Vulcans becoming aware of humanity, and as a result humans have their first conscious contact with aliens (→ First contact). Strictly logical thinking, free of emotions, is of central importance in Vulcan culture, and their life expectancy is significantly higher than that of humans.

In the course of the following decades, humans are able to further develop the warp drive for even higher flight speeds. In the middle of the 22nd century, humans cooperate with the Vulcans in space exploration. As a means for space exploration, but also for defense, humans use Starfleet, which consists of starships, crews and other organizational parts. Their headquarters are in San Francisco. By joint decision, they send the newly built starship Enterprise NX-01 into space for this purpose in the year 2151. The command of the ship, which reaches a maximum of warp 5 and is a prototype with about 80 crew members, is given to the human Captain Jonathan Archer. On their often aimless voyage, the ship's crew comes into contact with numerous, previously unknown intelligent species and in some cases also sets foot on populated planets (→ Enterprise). In 2153, the Xindi species attacks Earth, killing at least seven million people. However, the Enterprise is able to put an end to the Xindi's destructive activities (→ Enterprise: Season 3). The mission of the Enterprise NX-01 ends in 2161.

With the common goals of peaceful coexistence, including trade, research and science, humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites found the United Federation of Planets in 2161, which later includes other cultures such as the Betazoids. It acts politically according to the principle of multilateralism. Its headquarters is in Paris.

The Prime Directive is the most important political principle of the Federation. It contains a binding principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other civilizations, especially as long as they have not yet developed warp technology. Such "pre-warp civilizations" enjoy special protection of their cultural and intellectual development from interference by more advanced civilizations. The prime directive includes a prohibition in principle of all measures which could be suitable to change the natural development of a pre-warp civilization, even if this would happen under the best intentions or unnoticed. Allowed are only camouflaged anthropological observation expeditions with the goal of exploring non-spacefaring civilizations while observing non-interference.

The United Star Ship, or United Space Ship, (U.S.S.) is the name given to all spacecraft operating on behalf of Starfleet. The names of the space ships are usually geographical designations, such as names of states, cities, rivers and other places, names of important persons from the history of Earth, but also common designations of ships of the U.S. Navy, such as Enterprise or Constitution, or ships of other navies, such as Yamato or Akagi.

Both the Federation and other cultures living in the Milky Way divide their galaxy cartographically into the four quadrants Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. The solar system is located on the border between the alpha and beta quadrants.

23. century

In 2254, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 under the command of Captain Christopher Pike receives a distress signal from the planet Talos IV after a loss-filled mission on Rigel VII. This distress signal turns out to be a trap set by the Talosians (→ The Cage (1965)).

Two years later, the Klingon T'Kuvma tries to reunite the rival Klingon houses to prevent a complete disintegration of the Klingon Empire. To achieve this, he instigates a war with the Federation. The U.S.S. Discovery with the disgraced officer Michael Burnham and under the command of the unusual Captain Gabriel Lorca plays a weighty role in the solution of the war. Eventually, Michael Burnham, along with the crew of the Discovery, manages to end the war in 2257. With the U.S.S. Enterprise badly damaged, Captain Christopher Pike takes command of the Discovery to solve the origin of seven mysterious signals. It is discovered that the signals point to a way to prevent the artificial intelligence "Control" from destroying all life in the universe. In the end, the universe can be saved by the Discovery escaping into the distant future via an artificially created wormhole with data that is important to Control and cannot be deleted; Captain Pike paves the way for her with the repaired U.S.S. Enterprise. On the way Control can already be destroyed. When the Discovery arrives in the future, Captain Pike sets off on further missions with the Enterprise in the year 2258. (→ Star Trek: Discovery).

Seven years later, in 2265, the Federation sends the starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 on another five-year mission of space exploration (→ Starship Enterprise, The Enterprise). The human Captain James T. Kirk is in command of the ship, which houses more than 400 crew members, and his science and first officer is the half-human, half-Vulcan Commander Spock. During the mission, the crew also discovers the genetically engineered superhuman Khan, who is partly responsible for the "Eugenics Wars" at the end of the 20th century. As Khan and his crew prove to be a threat to the Enterprise, Kirk proposes to let them live on Ceti Alpha V, an inhospitable but habitable planet. (→ Starship Enterprise: The Sleeping Tiger). Three years after the end of the 5-year mission, in 2273, the Federation deploys the Enterprise again to avert the threat to Earth posed by a gigantic cloud drifting through space. The Enterprise crew is able to successfully complete the mission under the command of Kirk, who has now been promoted to admiral (→ The film).

Twelve years later, in 2285, Khan, who has escaped from his exile, wants to take revenge on Kirk, because the planet Ceti Alpha V, where Kirk had abandoned him and his crew, had become uninhabitable in the meantime due to the explosion of the neighboring planet Ceti Alpha VI. To this end, he seizes the "Genesis technology" secretly developed by Federation scientists, which enables terraforming. Shortly before Khan detonates this along with himself and his spaceship to kill Kirk, the selfless Spock saves the Enterprise by repairing the ship's drive, but exposes himself to a lethal dose of radioactivity in the process (→ The Wrath of Khan). It soon transpires that Spock transferred his spirit into Dr. McCoy, the ship's doctor, shortly before his death and that Spock can be brought back to life if his spirit is united with his dead body. Because Starfleet Command has forbidden Kirk from retrieving Spock's body left on a planet, he and his crew steal the Enterprise from space dock. During the mission, the crew finds Spock's body, but, defending themselves against hostile Klingons, they destroy the Enterprise. In the process, however, they are able to seize a Klingon starship (→ In Search of Mr. Spock). Three months after Vulcans reunite Spock's body with his soul, the crew, including Spock, travels on the Klingon ship by means of a time jump to the year 1986, succeeding in bringing two humpback whales to the year 2286, when this species is already extinct. The ultimate goal of the mission is to have the humpback whales communicate with an alien space probe that has appeared at Earth and initially threatens it (→ Back to the Present). As punishment for refusing the order given to him, Kirk is subsequently demoted to captain. As a result, he is given permanent command of the newly built starship and follow-on model U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A.

Kirk and his crew are on this spaceship in 2287 to put an end to an apparent hostage situation. However, this turns out to be a trap set by the Vulcan Sybok, who has been expelled by his people because he is overly emotional, and he uses it to seize the Enterprise. With it, he flies to the planet "Sha-Ka-Ree," located in the center of the galaxy, on which he assumes God exists, but after Kirk's doubts, among others, he must realize that he was mistaken (→ At the Edge of the Universe). Four years later, Kirk and McCoy become temporary victims of a conspiracy initiated by the Klingon Chang, who tries to sabotage peace talks between his people and the Federation. Through investigations, however, the Enterprise crew, which is on the verge of signing off due to its age, is able to put an end to Chang's criminal activities (→ The Undiscovered Country).

Another two years later, in 2293, Kirk takes part as a guest in the maiden flight of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B, which, however, threatens to be destroyed in a suddenly appeared energy ribbon. When Kirk manages to help the Enterprise escape from the energy ribbon by making technical modifications to the ship, the ship's part of his whereabouts is destroyed by the ribbon and Kirk is killed to the appearance of everyone. In fact, however, he ends up in the "nexus," a timeless place full of bliss (→ Meeting of the Generations).

24. century

In the first half of the 24th century, the starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C is used for the first time. Despite its inferiority, it helps defend a Klingon outpost against attacking Romulans in 2344 (→ The Next Century: The Old Enterprise). As a result of this assistance, a peace treaty is negotiated between the Klingon Empire and the Federation.

In the year 2364, 71 years after the maiden voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B, the Federation commissions the new Starfleet starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D as its flagship. Commanded by the human Captain Jean-Luc Picard and now housing more than 1,000 individuals, the much larger ship also fulfills the mission assigned to it of discovering alien worlds, unknown life forms and new civilizations (→ The Next Century). Among such previously unknown life forms are the Borg - human-machine hybrids whose self-image is to assimilate other cultures into their collective and thus evolve. With the intention to assimilate humans as well, a Borg ship threatens Earth at the end of 2366. Although numerous Federation starships fall victim to the Borg on their way to Earth, and Picard is temporarily assimilated, the Enterprise is ultimately able to defeat the Borg ship (→ The Next Century: In the Hands of the Borg and Attack Target Earth).

As part of its mission, the crew of the Enterprise NCC-1701-D sometimes plays a mediating and supporting role in conflicts between other cultures. Among these cultures are the Klingons and the Bajorans. Since the latter suffered for decades from the violent oppression of their people by the Cardassians, they accept the help of the Federation. This is also shown by the fact that Starfleet members operate the former Cardassian space station Deep Space Nine together with Bajorans in order to secure political stability from 2369 on. For this purpose, Picard puts Starfleet officer Benjamin Sisko in command of the station. It is located in the Alpha Quadrant, in close proximity to the opening of a stable wormhole that allows time-saving passage to a distant region of the Gamma Quadrant. The station crew is sometimes involved in political and religious power struggles between Bajorans, Cardassians and Federation renegades. After their first contact with the Dominion, based in the Gamma Quadrant and led by the shape-shifting Founders, the peoples of the Alpha Quadrant face the threat of attack. For this reason, Sisko is also given permanent command of the warship U.S.S. Defiant (→ Deep Space Nine) in 2371 for defensive purposes.

In the same year, the scientist Dr. Soran accepts the destruction of planets and their inhabitants to get to the nexus, so Picard and the crew of the Enterprise try to stop him. This results in the destruction of the ship's drive section and the emergency landing of its saucer section, which the crew must subsequently abandon. Forced to enter the nexus, Picard convinces Kirk, who is found there, to help him stop Soran from carrying out his plan. Together, they are able to defeat Soran, but Kirk dies in the process (→ Meeting of the Generations).

Also in 2371, the new Federation starship U.S.S. Voyager under Captain Kathryn Janeway begins its mission to search for a missing Maquis ship (→ Starship Voyager The Caretaker, Part I) in the Alpha Quadrant, but shortly after setting off, it is shipped to an area of the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light years away and thus forced to embark on an unintentionally long journey home. On their flight towards Earth, the Voyager crew is repeatedly confronted with unknown species, some of which threaten them, including the Hirogen and Species 8472 (→ Starship Voyager). The latter even prove superior to the Borg, who originate from the Delta Quadrant. In 2373, when the Voyager crew encounters the Borg for the first time during their flight home, a new confrontation between the Federation and the Borg also occurs in the Alpha Quadrant. The newly commissioned U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E, taken over by Picard and his crew, follows a Borg ship on its time travel to the year of the first contact between humans and Vulcans. With the support of Zefram Cochrane, the crew manages to keep the Borg from preventing first contact and thus the conquest of space by humanity (→ First contact).

Meanwhile, the conflict between the Federation and the Dominion, which the Cardassians have now joined, has escalated to such an extent that an interstellar war breaks out at the end of 2373. In the course of this war, Starfleet also suffers significant losses, which lead Sisko to decide to persuade the Romulan Star Empire to enter the war on the Federation side. At the end of 2375, among other things after several hundred million casualties on both sides and the realization that a secretly operating Federation section is responsible for an intended genocide of the Founders, the war ends (→ Deep Space Nine: Seasons 6 and 7).

Also in 2375, Picard and his crew fight against some previously incurably ill Son'a, who want to harness the rejuvenating effect of a planet's rings and forcibly resettle its inhabitants (→ The Uprising). Two years later, after more than six years of flight time, Voyager finally succeeds in returning home to Earth (→ Starship Voyager). Another two years later, in 2379, Picard and his crew and the Enterprise NCC-1701-E take on Shinzon, a clone of Picard who wants to destroy all life on Earth with a superweapon (→ Nemesis).

In 2380, the U.S.S. Cerritos embarks on a voyage with several young ensigns, including Beckett Mariner, and under the command of Captain Carol Freeman. Among the Cerritos' primary missions are "secondary contacts" with alien species. During an attack by the Pakleds, the Cerritos is aided by the U.S.S. Titan under Captain William T. Riker. (→ Lower Decks).

In the 2380s, it becomes known that a supernova is imminent that will destroy Romulus and the surrounding planetary systems. Despite strong protests from some of its member worlds, the Federation decides to launch a large-scale relief program and builds a fleet of starships to resettle 900 million Romulans. Command of this fleet is assumed by Jean-Luc Picard, who is promoted to admiral. However, on April 5, 2385, a turning point occurs when out-of-control androids attack Mars. Large parts of the planet's infrastructure are destroyed, as well as the rescue fleet in orbit. As a consequence, all artificial life forms are banned from the Federation. Likewise, all further efforts to evacuate Romulans are stopped. Picard resigns from Starfleet in protest (→ Picard).

In 2387, the still living Spock, by now ambassador of the Federation, makes a last attempt to stop the Romulan supernova by creating a black hole. However, he cannot prevent the destruction of Romulus. Driven by revenge for the death of his family, the Romulan Nero attacks Spock's ship with his starship, but the power of the black hole throws them into the past. Because Nero continues his revenge in his new sojourn time, the year 2233, he first attacks the Federation starship U.S.S. Kelvin, by whose destruction an alternative course of the following history is created. This resulting parallel universe is referred to as the "Kelvin timeline." (→ Star Trek).

In 2399, Jean-Luc Picard lives in seclusion on his vineyard in France. There he meets the mysterious Dahj, who turns out to be a flesh-and-blood android and the daughter of Lieutenant Commander Data, who was killed in 2379. After Dahj is killed by assassins, Picard learns that she has another sister named Soji. With the intention of rescuing her, Picard sets out with a small crew on the starship La Sirena to find her. After Soji's rescue, they head to her home planet, which is home to a colony of androids. It now becomes apparent that the attack on Mars was planned by the Romulan secret organization Zhat Vash. The Zhat Vash wants to destroy all artificial life because its members have found records of an ancient civilization that was destroyed by artificial life forms and they now believe that this will happen again (→ Picard).

32. century

After the "Temporal Wars", all time travel technology was destroyed after the 29th century and banned until further notice. After both Michael Burnham and the USS Discovery have traveled from the 23rd century to the distant future, they meet again in the year 3189. The crew of the Discovery must learn that the Federation has disintegrated and greatly shrunk due to a catastrophe called "The Blight." Many worlds are no longer members of the Federation - even Earth is no longer a member, nor is Starfleet Headquarters. No one knows if "The Fire" was an attack or a natural phenomenon. Because of the fire, all ships with active warp drives exploded, and it was therefore no longer possible to reach the various member worlds with starships. Eventually, however, the cause can be found, and the reconstruction of the United Federation of Planets begins (→ Discovery from season 3).

Events in the Kelvin timeline as of 2233

The alternate history beginning in 2233 has been officially called the Kelvin timeline since 2016. Previously, unofficial names were used for it, including "Abramsverse" and "NuTrek". In the year 2233, it is the human George Kirk who, during Nero's attack, of necessity puts the starship Kelvin on a collision course with Nero's spaceship in order to put it out of action. His kamikaze flight also saves his heavily pregnant wife, who gives birth to their son James T. Kirk a short time later (→ Star Trek).

In 2258, Kirk, now 25 years old, is appointed captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701. As such, he fights with the support of his crew and Spock's other self from the future against the still vengeful Nero. The latter, after destroying the Vulcan homeworld, intends to destroy Earth as well. Through the efforts of the Enterprise crew, however, Nero fails and dies (→ Star Trek). In the following year, 2259, Kirk and his crew fight - with ultimately successful results - against Khan, whom the commander-in-chief of Starfleet has instrumentalized politically (→ Star Trek Into Darkness). Partly because of this success, Kirk and his crew are commissioned on their first multi-year mission to explore space, which they embark on in 2260. Three years into the five-year mission, in 2263, the Enterprise crew successfully fights a plan by a vengeful former Federation starship captain to attack Earth and the Federation with a bioweapon. In the process, the Enterprise is destroyed; the successor ship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A is built (→ Star Trek Beyond).

Main characters

The table names the main characters of the television series and assigns them to the functional areas they essentially hold within the spaceship or space station crew of the television series and, if applicable, the associated motion pictures. Exceptions such as temporary changes of function are not taken into account. The background colors also indicate whether the life form is human (green), extraterrestrial (red), artificial (gray), or half-human and half-non-human (orange).

* recurring minor character

Original television series and way to the cinema

Gene Roddenberry had the idea for a science fiction series in the early 1960s. It consisted of having the series set in a "positive future" - a remark to be understood in the context of the ColdWar, the preceding Cuban Missile Crisis and a nuclear war that was realistically feared at that time. In 1964, Gene Roddenberry was given the opportunity to direct a pilot. However, the NBC television network rejected the film The Cage for various reasons. Those responsible at Paramount considered the character distribution too bold and radical: a woman as first officer and - with regard to Spock - an "alien who looks like Satan" were not acceptable to the American television audience. NBC, however, gave Roddenberry the opportunity to produce another pilot, on the condition that appropriate changes would be made. It was not until the late 1980s that The Cage was broadcast in its actual form.

The composition of the ensemble was subsequently changed, but Spock, still played by Leonard Nimoy, was retained. With this reorientation and redistribution of roles, the pioneering idea of a woman in a leadership position was lost for the time being. The new pilot, Tip of the Iceberg, was accepted by the television network and the first season of Starship Enterprise was filmed. However, this episode was broadcast as the third episode. The episode broadcast as the first was The Last of Its Kind.

The portrayal of women and minorities in the old series was progressive and daring for its time. There was an important female crew member, played by Nichelle Nichols. She was one of the first black women allowed to play a major role on U.S. television. Just two decades after the end of World War II, Star Trek had a Japanese officer, Hikaru Sulu (George Takei). Then, in the second season, even Russian navigator Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) was added. Starship Enterprise also featured the first televised kiss between a white man and a black woman in the United States, but a head obscured the view of the kiss at the last moment - which was common in movie and television kisses at the time. Many (southern) U.S. states banned broadcasting of this episode at the time.

The TV series was finally canceled in 1969 due to poor ratings and despite protests from fans. The original plan was to discontinue the series after the second season (1967/68). The progressive character of the series was retained in subsequent productions. Starship Enterprise only gained increasing popularity through numerous reruns in the 1970s, which enabled the further development of the franchise.

The moon landing in 1969 triggered a strong enthusiasm for space and space travel in the USA. The almost daily repetition of the series on local TV stations, its unusual way of criticizing the social conditions of the time (racial discrimination, the Vietnam War, etc.), and the same enthusiasm for space ensured that Star Trek's popularity rose sharply in the 1970s. Not least because of this, NBC planned a second series with the working title Star Trek: Phase Two. However, work was suspended with the prelude to Star Wars. The animated series The Enterprise, produced in 22 episodes between 1973 and 1974, continued the concept that had begun the 1960s series. Many actors, such as William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, participated as voice actors. The animated series was awarded an Emmy in 1975.

Later, Paramount Pictures made the decision in favor of a feature film, which premiered with the title Star Trek: The Motion Picture on December 6, 1979. It was not particularly well received by critics. Because of budget overruns on the film, Roddenberry held only an advisory role from the second film onward, while Harve Bennett took over as director. The films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: In Search of Mr. Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: Back to the Present (1986) followed. In 1989, the fifth feature film, Star Trek V: On the Edge of the Universe, hit theaters, but made far less money at the box office than its predecessors. Nevertheless, the sixth film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which alludes very openly to the ending Cold War, followed in 1991.

After the production of the first feature film, Roddenberry called the animated series a mistake and determined that it should not be included in future Star Trek productions. After that, the series was considered uncanonical and thus no longer part of the Star Trek universe. Since its release on DVD, however, the series has once again become part of the official canon, as officially announced by CBS and www.startrek.com, among others.

From 1987: New start on television and spin-off series

After the financially successful Star Trek theatrical films of the 1980s (see below), Paramount decided to produce the new television series Starship Enterprise - The Next Century, which had its U.S. premiere in 1987. The plot is now set some 100 years after that of Starship Enterprise, in the 24th century. The new starship, the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D, is larger, stronger and more modern. The budget of around 2 million US dollars per episode, which was unusual for television series at the time, allowed for significantly better props and special effects. New standards for television series were set with contemporary animation effects by the Oscar-winning effects studio Industrial Light & Magic.

The Federation has an abundance economy without money, made possible by technology that can convert energy into food, complex constructions, and any kind of matter (replicator technology). Labor, buying, and selling are not necessary because there is no scarcity to limit the fulfillment of all material needs and wants. Certain resources are still scarce, however, including those needed for faster-than-light flight. Interstellar trade in these goods is not uncommon. Greed and envy are greatly reduced in this society. The characters in Starship Enterprise - The Next Century often explain that the purpose of the Federation and its work is general and personal welfare. Many episodes take up philosophical themes, for example the episode Who Owns Data? , in which personal rights of an android are negotiated. The series often tries to convey a pacifist and tolerant message.

The great success that Paramount Pictures had with this series led to seven seasons with a total of 178 episodes being produced until 1994. An eighth season was not filmed to pave the way for the series crew on the big screen. Thus, in 1994, the seventh Star Trek film, Star Trek: Meeting of the Generations, hit theaters: Captain Picard from Starship Enterprise - The Next Century meets Captain Kirk from Starship Enterprise. The film was heavily criticized, yet it met financial expectations. In 1996, the eighth film Star Trek: First Contact was released. With this, the most successful Star Trek film to date, the crew around Captain Picard had also established itself in the cinema. The ninth film, Star Trek: The Rebellion, followed in 1998, and the tenth, Star Trek: Nemesis, in 2002. This fourth film about Jean-Luc Picard's crew was a financial failure in theaters and only covered its costs with its DVD release.

Even before production of Star Trek Enterprise - The Next Century was halted, another spin-off was launched in 1993 with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The plot is initially set parallel to that of Star Trek - The Next Century. In contrast to the previous two series, the action here takes place not on a starship, but on a space station. The station is located on the edge of the Federation's influence and gains strategic importance when the discovery of a wormhole in the immediate vicinity opens the gateway to the unexplored Gamma Quadrant of the Milky Way. In the third season, the warship USS Defiant stationed on Deep Space Nine was introduced as a setting, which becomes increasingly important as the series progresses. The series is also characterized by a large number of recurring secondary characters, the intensive thematization of politics, war and religion, the deviation from the Star Trek-typical ideals of a peaceful, war-free future and the series format, which is increasingly characterized by cross-episode and cross-season story arcs as the series progresses.

Roddenberry died in 1991 before the realization of the project. His successor was Rick Berman. With Deep Space Nine, the character of Star Trek also changed away from the overly optimistic: a damaged world is presented. However, the ethical-moral discourse and a progressive character remained: The commanding officer is an African-American. As in the 1960s, a scene caused a scandal in 1995. The episode, which shows a kiss between two women, was therefore not broadcast in some U.S. states. Deep Space Nine ended after seven seasons and 176 episodes in June 1999.

With the end of Star Trek Enterprise - The Next Century, the developers began production of a fifth Star Trek series: Star Trek: Starship Voyager. In it, after almost 30 years of Star Trek, Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) takes on the leading role in a Star Trek series for the first time. The series is set in the same time frame as Deep Space Nine, but in the Delta Quadrant. The starship Voyager is shipped to a point in the Milky Way far from Earth. To get home, the starship would need 75 years. The search for a faster way is the common thread of the series. To do this, formerly hostile groups work side by side. Voyager started in January 1995 and ended in 2001, after seven seasons with 172 episodes.

Starting in 2001, the sixth series Star Trek: Enterprise was produced, again under Rick Berman's supervision. As a prequel, it takes place about one hundred years before the plot of Star Trek: Enterprise and thus before the founding of the United Federation of Planets. The first three seasons brought steadily declining ratings and persistently poor reviews, which is why the series was given another general overhaul for the fourth season. The changes made, however, did not lead to a ratings upswing, whereupon the series was canceled in February 2005 after four seasons. Paramount also fired Rick Berman because of the series' lack of success.

Since 2009

The eleventh feature film Star Trek was released in 2009 and represents a new beginning for the Star Trek franchise. The plot depicts events before the beginning of Starship Enterprise and thus the prehistory of its main characters, but in an alternate timeline. This made it possible to develop new films in a direction that also allowed deviations from the previous canon. Director J. J. Abrams cast numerous familiar roles with new, young actors. The eleventh Star Trek film, Star Trek, was a commercial success and received positive reviews. In 2013, the twelfth Star Trek film, Star Trek Into Darkness, was released; it is also set in the timeline created in the eleventh installment. This also applies to the 13th film, Star Trek Beyond, which was released in 2016.

As of August 13, 2009, all Star Trek theatrical films have grossed more than $1.4 billion worldwide, and have been nominated for an Oscar a total of 14 times. Only the 2009 film won an Oscar in the "Make-Up" category.

In 2015, development began on a new Star Trek television series. It is called Star Trek: Discovery; its launch took place in September 2017. It was initially available exclusively on CBS All Access, CBS' streaming service. The series forms a prequel to Starship Enterprise, but is set in the main timeline, i.e., not the timeline established in the feature films released since 2009. Since 2018, Star Trek: Short Treks has published short stories that highlight individual characters from the universe.

In August 2018, work began on the series Star Trek: Picard. This is set twenty years after the film Star Trek: Nemesis, and the character Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek Enterprise - The Next Century has a central role here once again. It began airing in January 2020.

In October 2018, it was revealed that a new animated television series called Star Trek: Lower Decks was in the works. It will be a comedy-only series developed by Mike McMahan, who previously served as a screenwriter on Rick andMorty. It began airing in August 2020.

Currently, at least three more series are in development. Another animated series aimed at a younger audience is being developed by Kevin and Dan Hageman for the Nickelodeon channel. This series is to be called Star Trek: Prodigy and is expected to begin airing in 2021. In January 2019, CBS announced that a live-action series was planned that revolves around the secret organization Section 31. Michelle Yeoh, who has already appeared in Star Trek: Discovery, is to take on the lead role here. After Alex Kurtzman hinted at more live-action series in January 2020, CBS confirmed in May 2020 that one of them would be titled Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The series is expected to revisit the characters Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) from Star Trek: Discovery and feature their adventures aboard the USS Enterprise. An air date has not yet been announced.

So far, 122 directors have been used in the TV series and the movies. With 62 episodes, David Livingston is the most frequently used director in the TV series.

The German dubbed versions for feature films 4, 5 and 6 were produced by Cine Adaption, for all other feature films by Berliner Synchron. The original dubbing for Star Trek was done by Beta Film. The other live-action television series were dubbed by Arena Synchron for television broadcast, with the exception of the first season of Enterprise, which was edited by Bavaria Synchron.

"Star Trek" is an overall product worth billions. Since the 1960s, the rights holders have been generating profits not only from the broadcast of the TV series, the distribution of the theatrical films and the sale of videocassettes and DVDs.

In addition to countless repeats of all series, the productions including the animated series have been marketed on DVD since 2002, starting with Star Trek - The Next Century. Various DVDs of the theatrical films have also been released as "Special Editions" since 2001. Scenes were added to Star Trek I, II and VI. All in all, these editions are characterized by a uniform look and digitally remastered sound and picture quality. In November 2004, Star Trek: Meeting of the Generations was released. Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Uprising were released by June 2005. Star Trek: Nemesis followed in early November 2005. To mark the 40th anniversary of Star Trek on September 8, 2006, a "Star Trek 40th Anniversary Movie Collection" featuring all the "Special Editions" was released.

In 2007, Star Trek Enterprise was digitally restored on behalf of broadcaster CBS (Star Trek Remastered) and, above all, the special effects sequences were modernized with the participation of Star Trek experts Denise and Michael Okuda and Gene Roddenberry's son Eugene. In addition, the theme song was re-recorded and the entire series was transferred to HDTV format.

On December 18, 2007, CBS, which holds the television rights to Star Trek, fired the editors of the official website for lack of new episodes. Paramount Pictures launched its own website shortly thereafter to market Star Trek XI. On July 15, 2010, CBS relaunched StarTrek.com, where entire episodes of the series, and some in HD, can now be watched as a video stream (though only within the U.S. due to IP address verification).

The first Star Trek television series was marketed on German television as Raumschiff Enterprise. The feature films, on the other hand, were always sold as "Star Trek". Deep Space Nine was the first series to run in Germany under the original series title.

Journalistic voices

The original Star Trek series Starship Enterprise was criticized for being one-dimensional with regard to its main characters. Film critic Georg Seeßlen, for example, opined in epd Film in 1999 that the characters sometimes had to be "almost ridiculously striking. The follow-up series The Next Century received praise from critics from the third season onward for an improvement in narrative style and for more complexity than in the first two seasons or in Starship Enterprise. Deep Space Nine was initially criticized by fans for being too philosophical and intellectual, but later reviews praised it for such things as cross-episode storylines.

It was judged that Star Trek worked better as a television series than in the format of a feature film. In Wired magazine (2017), journalist Adam Rogers attributed this to the screenwriters' persistence and willingness to experiment: because they ventured into other genres apart from science fiction, they could have "satirized themselves or had characters fall in love for an episode" without major consequences for the overall narrative. If, on the other hand, Star Trek were "squeezed into the corset of a Hollywood flick," it would "inevitably turn into a conventional adventure story with a third-act reveal and a finale full of CGI and explosions."

At least over the first nine Star Trek movies, it can be said that those with even numbers were more positively reviewed than those with odd numbers. Both reviews and leaderboards indicate that The Wrath of Khan and First Contact were found to be the most watchable, whereas On the Edge of the Universe was often cited as the weakest screen adaptation. On several occasions, Star Trek films, for example The Uprising, have been negatively criticized for being more on the level of an average television episode.

Reviews of the films that were part of the reboot series, released from 2009, were divided. Some critics, such as Michael O'Sullivan of the Washington Post, praised the films as a successful revival of Star Trek and the decision to reboot it in a separate timeline. Others, however, gave the films a scathing review; DLR culture editor Hans-Ulrich Pönack, for example, judged Into Darkness to be "banal, emotionally indifferent."

For Brian J. Robb, longtime editor of Star Trek magazine, it was clear in his book A Brief Guide to Star Trek (2012) that "great storytelling" was the secret to Star Trek's success. However, Robb speculated, the franchise had failed in transforming itself over time to escape "ossification and irrelevance."

The more recent Star Trek productions - meaning at least Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery and the reboot films - have been repeatedly criticized for not offering enough new things and relying too much on the familiar. Robb, for example, criticized Voyager and Enterprise for a stagnation in the innovativeness of Star Trek as a whole. In this context, author Andreas Rauscher spoke critically of a "mode of replay" in the epd Film 2017 about the past 15 years of Star Trek, among other things because Discovery once again addressed the Klingons.

In the U.S. magazine The New Yorker, journalist Joshua Rothman criticized the Star Trek universe in 2017 as "the most boring and old-fashioned of all the science fiction universes" because, even after 51 years, it evokes the time when Starship Enterprise was created - the alien races, for example, still reflect the enemies of the United States during World War II. Nevertheless, J. J. Abrams succeeded in giving the franchise a shiny new look with the 2009 reboot and recapturing the "sexy" atmosphere of the original series.

In Rolling Stone (2017), German journalist Dietmar Dath compared Star Trek to Star Wars as the work with the most unrealistic future perspective. According to Dath, Roddenberry had erroneously assumed "that in the future everything would have to become better and better - and within his left-liberal Yank horizon that meant: more and more lawlike ('Prime Directive'), more civilized ('Federation'), and more reasonable." Every century has overcome "at least one prejudice, one superstition, one stupid cultural inheritance" - "I wish!" Dath commented.

Television critic Sonia Saraiya, writing in the Internet magazine Salon.com in 2015, found Star Trek to be an "admirable love letter to future generations,". However, she said, Star Trek tends toward "fan service, moralizing speeches, and deeply awful special effects." Saraiya therefore considers Star Trek to be the opposite of series like Game of Thrones and the "epitome of kitsch"

Television screenwriter David Gerrold, who got into a dispute with Roddenberry over the direction of the series during the production of Starship Enterprise - The Next Century, later disparagingly judged Star Trek as the "McDonald's of science fiction" and as "fast-food storytelling": "Every problem is like every other problem. They're all solved in an hour. No one gets hurt and no one has to worry. You give an hour of your time and you don't really have to get involved. It's all artificial."

The Next Century series is credited with being a role model for Star Trek productions. In the U.S. magazine The Atlantic, for example, author David Sims said (2017) that The Next Generation remains "the gold standard for the franchise.

Viewpoints of scientists and book authors

In an essay for the book Zukunft im Film (2000), the German philosopher Ingrid Weber said that Star Trek lived above all from the multifaceted nature of the themes it dealt with.

In a 1997 essay, the German sociologist Kai-Uwe Hellmann understood the human "ability and willingness to learn tirelessly" - and with it openness, contact and "disturbance in the sense of experience with the alien" - as the utopian aspect of Star Trek. Star Trek thus avoids "those serious design flaws of many utopias that make them at once problematic and unrealizable, namely, being able to survive only as closed systems, treating people repressively, and insisting on immutability."

According to the German media scientist Knut Hickethier in an essay for the book Unendliche Weiten... (1997), Star Trek works because it depicts "the future so completely present, so thoroughly staid and conventional"; dangers are "quickly domesticated or eliminated." Star Trek is basically "a petit-bourgeois variant of the grand narratives of science fiction." In an article for Zukunft im Film, Klaus Sachs-Hombach, also a media scientist, supported his claim that Star Trek is kitsch by arguing, among other things, that it contains trivial, unchanging narrative patterns such as "departure, mortal threat, and happy ending." In terms of content, there are features of a utopian community, but the kitschy way in which it is presented turns the so-called message into the opposite.

Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking approvingly opined that science fiction such as Star Trek not only served the purpose of entertainment, but also served the serious purpose of expanding the human imagination. Physicist David Allen Batchelor of Goddard Space Flight Center, in an article on NASA's website (2016/17), praised Star Trek as "beautifully intelligently written and more scientifically accurate than other science fiction television series." Star Trek is "almost the only series that features scientists and engineers as positive role models," he said.

The science magazine New Scientist summarized in 2009 that Star Trek had rarely been at its best when it tried to be inspiring. By contrast, "some of its clunkiest and most moralizing episodes" were those in which it tried to address such "heavyweight issues" as environmentalism, technocracy, and heredity.

Addressing the conquest of distant worlds, Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem sharply criticized Star Trek in a 1999 interview with Rainer Schmitz: "It is teeming with such nonsense that it can only take your breath away. You don't have to be a physicist for this insight. The universe is so big that there is room for every kind of stupidity."

The U.S. civil rights activist Martin Luther King once said of Star Trek that it had changed the face of television: For the first time, he said, people from different countries and with different skin colors were shown on U.S. television as they should be, as equals.

In his book The Politics of Star Trek (2015), U.S. political scientist George A. Gonzalez opined that the "analytical brilliance" of Star Trek was its creators' ability to effectively and credibly convey the competing worldviews of Marxism and that of Samuel P. Huntington. In particular, Star Trek shows both the hope and optimism of Marxism and the demoralization and pessimism of Huntington's Clash of Civilizations.

Gonzalez further concluded that from an analytical standpoint, the franchise could be useful and insightful in helping viewers understand current real-world political problems, including increasing nationalism and a threat to democracy: through species such as the Klingons, the Bajorans, the Dominion, the Kazon, the Cardassians, the Romulans, the Xindi, as well as Nazis and Section 31, the Star Trek franchise shows how politics around the world is becoming increasingly regressive and dangerous.

The original series in particular was understood to have a male bias. New York Times writer Camille Bacon-Smith, for example, said of the protagonists of Starship Enterprise in 1986 in this context: "Leatherstocking and Chingachgook explore the wilds of space." The British book authors Michèle and Duncan Barrett interpreted the series 2001 as "boyishly uninhibited," the follow-up series Starship Enterprise - The Next Century, on the other hand, as "highly intellectual," since it was characterized by faith in science, technology, rationalism and democracy and thus characteristic of so-called modern societies. Deep Space Nine and Voyager, on the other hand, differed significantly from this, for example because of "radically destabilized personalities," and could thus be interpreted as postmodern.

In 1997, German political scientist Richard Saage was certain that The Next Century "undoubtedly" inherited the trend toward a positive vision of the future expressed, for example, in Arkadi and Boris Strugatzki's episodic novel Return (1962): "Normative aspects of social coexistence push the action pattern into the background."

Comparing the utopian works of Edward Bellamy and William Morris, the German political scientist Herfried Münkler in 1997 emphasized the remarkable aspect of the Star Trek series' conceptions of the future, namely that they assume "a simultaneity of technological progress and moral development of mankind" and that this co-evolution is not coincidental but compelling; moral progress is a condition for dealing with technological progress. In this respect, Star Trek tells the counter-story of the "'Promethean gradient'" coined by Günther Anders.

In his book The Utopia of Rules (2015), U.S. ethnologist David Graeber called Star Trek the "quintessence of American mythology" and asked whether the United Federation of Planets - which was characterized by, among other things, high-minded idealism and strict military discipline - was not really just an American vision of a kinder, gentler Soviet Union that ultimately 'worked'. Social classes have been overcome, as have antagonisms of race and gender. In the United Federation, however, there is no hint of political constitution, of democracy, or of elections - but there is no one to notice or criticize it either. Libertarians and conservatives therefore condemned the series as leftist propaganda. To counter the criticism, the Borg were introduced as an enemy communist civilization.

In the US magazine The New Yorker (2017), Manu Saadia, author of the book Trekonomics, opined that Star Trek could often be seen as patronizing, if not purposefully deceptive. For example, while the intentions of the explorers were represented as pure and unencumbered by ethnocentrism, their science was always above the native superstitions of the aliens.

The six Star Trek series have been nominated for a total of 155 Primetime Emmy Awards and won 33 times. So far, six feature films have been nominated for a combined 15 Oscars, with only the eleventh film receiving an Oscar. Across all television series and feature films, there have been 484 nominations and 120 awards for positive awards to date, and - for films 5 and 7 - seven nominations and three awards for negative awards.

• 2017 Induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame

• 3D chess
• Klingon language
• Teleportation
• Infinite expanses - A spaceship changes the world