(Originally posted in 2004 on another one of my blogs)
Devoted Trek fans tend to regard the first movie as an overbloated mistake, and it was the next movie, The Wrath of Khan, directed (and I believe largely written) by Nicholas Meyer that set the gold standard for Trek cinema. The Search for Spock was Leonard ("Mr. Spock") Nimoy's directorial debut and a dismal one too. But he followed it up with The Voyage Home, the most commercially successful film in the series (not coincidentally, Meyer co-wrote the picture, contributing much of the funny material). Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, was William ("Captain Kirk") Shatner's turn at the (directorial) helm and may have led to the final demise of his reputation among fans (assuming his infamous "Get a life" sketch on Saturday Night Live had not quite killed it). It was an embarrassment. The sixth movie (and the final one featuring all the members of the original cast) was again written and directed by Meyer and considered a success.
As for movies featuring the cast of The Next Generation, many fans were disappointed by the Kirk/Picard teamup in Generations; they were elated by First Contact; let down (but by this time it was expected) by Insurrection ... and, sadly, by Nemesis as well.
Me? I have been skeptical about the "every other" hypothesis for quite some time. The Voyage Home may have been a box-office blockbuster but I found it dangerously close to self-parody.The Undiscovered Country pushed this tendency over the edge, with a Klingon quoting Shakespeare and Mr. Spock making a poker-faced quip about Nixon in China. One had the sneaking suspicious (and one had read interviews that confirmed it) that Meyer really didn't think much of Star Trek other than as a source of employment. I remember having been embarrassed by The Final Frontier, but I liked all the TNG installments, even if they were no more than big-budget t.v. episodes.
Last night I watched The Final Frontier for the first time since its initial release and was surprised to discover that it didn't stink. In fact I quite enjoyed it. Why had I been embarrassed the first time around? I can't quite say, other than that originally, it did not live up to my expectations and this time I had none. I enjoyed the camaraderie of the crew, which was stronger than in any of the other installments, and I only wished that the premise of the plot (seeking God at the centre of the galaxy) had been developed more intelligently.
As far as I'm concerned, then, the "every-other" phenomenon (whether it's Star Trek or anything else) is an illusion generated when eagerly anticipated events build up inflated expectations, which the actual event necessarily fails to fulfil. Which leads to more realistic expectations the next time around (when the event is part of a series); to say nothing of the fact that the people responsible for the events may try harder to please.
But once this series of events is comfortably ensconced in the past different perspectives become possible.
(Flashforward to the present, 2010:
The new Star Trek definitively breaks the pattern, as it is odd (whether considered No. 11 or No. 1) but good.)
Bonus: You will gain a new respect for Star Trek V as William Shatner elucidates its meaning for you:
