A Star Trek Fan

I've been a fan of the Star Trek series for decades. I watched every episode of the original series, and its re- runs over and over again. 

When Star Trek: The Next Generation was announced, I was skeptical, at best. I predicted it would be a flop. No way it could do justice to the original Star Trek. How wrong I was. To this day I feel it was ten times better than the original, although I'm not sure I could say why.

Some might say the graphics and technology was a big plus, but the original series' technical stuff was just as good, for its time. I'm guessing it's the characters. I simply enjoy them more for some reason. Maybe because there's more to the characters- call them deeper, if you will?

I saw every Next Generation episode, plus the umpteen re- runs, just as I did with the original show. Then last night, for the first time in years, I stumbled on to back to back series of The Next Generation on BBC America. What was kind of neat was it had apparently been so long since I'd watched the show I didn't recall the episodes we were watching, although Connie said she remembered parts of them.

Connie asked me which of the Star Trek series I thought the best. Hmmm??? Actually pretty easy for the best one: The Next Generation, which set the stage for the other ones. They were all good, with one exception, so I hate to grade them in order, but I'd say The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyageur. 

Then there's that other one. I thought Enterprise was crap. I can't believe it lasted four seasons. Wikipedia points out it was simply called Enterprise the first two seasons. They should have left it at that but made it Star Trek: Enterprise after that. How dare they equate that show with the others in the series?

Why did I think it was crap? I guess I shouldn't be so judgmental after having only watched a half hour of two different episodes, but those two half hours were enough for me to change the channel. I guess the characters seemed shallow and the set seemed to be of people living in a cave with the dark background all the time, at least the two times I watched it.

Come up with a new Star Trek series and I'll be watching it, but not if it's anything like Enterprise.

*****

And check this out: I was reading through the Wikipedia entries on Enterprise when I noticed the name Andy Mangels. His name even had a link and he has his own Wikipedia page. He wrote some stuff used in the Enterprise series, among other things.

A relation? Maybe, although Wikipedia says nothing about his growing up. I did have a cousin Andy, although I'm not sure if his last name was Mangels. It very well could have been, though. I've sent out a few e-mails to others who might know. It wouldn't surprise me if it is my cousin Andy. There's not many Mangels around, at least in this country.