Captain's Log: Season One

Setting off on a voyage of re-discovery, one episode at a time

On WAM Wednesday next week, at 1701D hours, we set off on our adventure, with the WAM for the first episode, “Encounter at Farpoint, Part One”.

Season one is widely considered the worst in the show’s run, which is understandable given how far the quality of the scripts, acting, and production were to improve year after year. But there is a certain charm to season one that it is still possible to enjoy, and the model work and matte paintings are of an excellent quality right from the start.

In many respects, the theme of season one is trying to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that this is indeed Star Trek. But to achieve that goal the writing and production staff make some odd decisions that we’ll look at in the season one WAMs. There’s no doubt that Roddenberry and Dorothy “D.C.” Fontana do provide strong production continuity with classic Trek - but it’s not always to the benefit of the new show that they do. The more Roddenberry hands over the reins to Rick Berman, the stronger the show gets. Berman starts at the beginning as Supervising Producer, but he’s headed for the hallowed Executive Producer role, effectively taking over the helm from the ‘Great Bird of the Galaxy’. When Berman assumed the throne there was no doubt that he earned the position, and he did Roddenberry proud as he took the show to the height of its eventual success.

We’ll be voyaging through season one from Wednesday 15th June through to Wednesday 7th December, provided there are no temporal anomalies, alien incursions, or hostile god-like entities.

Welcome aboard! The voyage is about to begin.

I love this promotional cast photo for the first season (above) - everyone looks so serious! Except Patrick Stewart whose slight grin seems to say “you think you’ve got trouble, I’m in charge of this lot!”