Star Trek's Earth, Alien, & Demigod Plot Clichés
Star Trek Franchise Repeated Science Fiction Dramatic Devices
Jul 18, 2009
Since its 1966 premiere, the classic Star Trek television series has had four spin-offs and been the basis for eleven movies. Adding up all these episodes, there have been more than seven hundred Star Trek stories – and many more "non-canon" tales in licensed media like books and video games.
With so many episodes, it shouldn't be a shock that Star Trek reused plots and dramatic devices regularly. Even casual fans will find these Star Trek plot clichés, which appear in many of the series and movies, familiar after a while.
The Twentieth-Century Earth Plot Cliché
The original Star Trek series visited a number of planets which were almost identical to modern Earth, but with a twist. These were featured in the episodes "Miri," "Bread and Circuses," and "A Piece of the Action."
Traveling back in time to twentieth-century Earth was another dramatic device. Original Star Trek adventures of this sort include "City on the Edge of Forever," "Assignment: Earth," "Tomorrow is Yesterday," and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The crew of Voyager landed in 1990s Los Angeles in "Future's End." Captain Archer visited 2004 Detroit in the Enterprise episode "Carpenter Street" – though technically in the twenty-first century, the idea is the same.
Star Trek crews have also visited Earth at times close to the twentieth century, as in The Next Generation's "Time's Arrow" and Deep Space Nine's "Past Tense" (both to San Fransisco), and in the film Star Trek: First Contact.
The Alien Crewman Saves the Ship Plot Cliché
In Starfleet crews, multiculturalism and diversity is always encouraged. But aside from political correctness, having nonhuman crew members around comes in handy very often when danger strikes. Unique characters such as half-Vulcan Spock, android Data, or Voyager's holographic Doctor often save the ship when others can't, or are the only ones unaffected when the crew is incapacitated.
In addition, Spock and Data have the distinction of sacrificing themselves to save their shipmates in the movies Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: Nemesis.
The Outwitting the Demigod Plot Cliché
Captain Kirk had a knack for running into, and ultimately defeating, powerful, godlike beings on the original Star Trek series. Episodes using this theme included "Where No Man Has Gone Before," "Who Mourns for Adonais?" and "The Squire of Gothos." Kirk also exposed "false gods" in "The Apple," "Return of the Archons," and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Q, another omnipotent demigod, was a recurring villain on Star Trek: The Next Generation, appearing in the pilot "Encounter at Farpoint," as well as the episodes "Hide and Q," "Q Who," "Déja Q," "QPid," "True Q," "Tapestry," and the series finale, "All Good Things ..."
Q even returned to pester the crews of Deep Space Nine in "Q-Less," and Voyager in "Death Wish," "The Q and the Grey," and "Q2."
Other Star Trek Plot Clichés
Going back to twentieth-century Earth, or being saved by an alien crew member, or grappling with a godlike being are therefore familiar motifs – but they aren't the only dramatic devices reused on the Star Trek shows and movies. Other Star Trek plot clichés have included having the Enterprise be the only ship in range of a disaster, holodeck malfunctions, and foiling the plots of rogue Starfleet admirals.
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