Good Writing is Key

I mentioned Star Trek yesterday, so today I thought I'd add why it was such a great show. It was the writing. Sure, it's true, the casting was great. Shatner as Kirk, Nimoy as Spock, etc. But if there wasn't such great writing to carry that show, especially during the first two seasons, it would never have had the resurgence it had later. The characters were right on, their acting was right on, but the stories, the writing was the key to its success.

It's when the writing suffered during the third season, that's when the plug was pulled on the series. Sure there were some good episodes in the third season, a couple really great ones, but overall the writing suffered and the show ended. Of course we all know what happened next. From reruns, a new generation fell in love with Star Trek, and then the movies came back with the original cast.

But the movies sucked. I was astonished at how horrible the first one turned out. You would think with an opportunity to reclaim a place in Sci Fi annals, they would put their best foot forward, but no. They rehashed an old plot, and played up a romanctic angle with some newbie character, and thought it would fly.

Sure the audience came, after over a decade of waiting, and the success of Star Wars, they were bound to come. But the bottom line was it was a lousy movie, a lousy plot and lousy writing. In my opinion, all the Star Trek movies were bad, and that goes for the latest reboot, too.

Don't even get me started on the Next Generation show. Yuck.