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| In the not-too-distant future, somewhere in time and space... |
If there’s one defining trait of all Star Trek fans, it’s a desire to watch something other than Star Trek. This ranges from a large majority of fans considering Galaxy Quest to be the best Star Trek movie to the writers of DS9 deciding to write a Heinlein riff as opposed to a Trek series about what one does when the war is over on the grounds that being on a space station all the time is boring to the experience of watching Discovery being best described as, “For ****s sake, we lost a fourth season of Hannibal for THIS!?!?!” I myself have partaken in this with my claim that Dirty Pair is the best Star Trek series. (In retrospect, this is a hyperbolic and slightly untrue claim. In truth, Dirty Pair is probably on par with TNG in terms of overall quality.)
This is an understandable position for a fandom to have given the source of its “love.” The most iconic of the series, TOS, is marred by a large majority of its episodes being **** be it because of the writing quality, the unintentional implications involving race, gender and sexuality, the intended implications of having an entire episode hinge on the rape culture we’re meant to align ourselves with to such a degree as Spock can make a ****ing joke about it to the survivor, and the fact that the Klingon’s character design, that is the character design for the race of beings defined by their anger, savagery, and how unwilling they are to know their betters, can best be described as “blackface and Fu Manchu eyebrows.” (There are other examples that I could go into, but I’ll save those for if I ever do a complete rewatch of TOS, which doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen, regardless of the patronage I get for it.) TAS, despite being infinitely better than its predecessor, is marred by its status both as “kids cartoon from the 70’s, so who gives a **** if its good” and “flagrantly the fourth season of TOS that, if considered as such, gives the series a net positive in terms of quality episodes.”
TNG, while the only straightforwardly good series, is hurt by its writers wanting it to be more like the Star Trek from their childhood memories (which is to say “TOS, but without the camp, humor, or anything else that makes TOS distinguishable from any other golden age pulp sci-fi story”) and despise the show for not being that. DS9, as said before, crippled itself by changing narrative hooks from “post war reconstruction” to “let’s make the Federation look bad by having them go up against the Mekon.” Voyager, for all its faults, is ultimately too mediocre to have anything interesting to say, thus making it the worst Star Trek series (if one ignores the racism of TOS, as many a fan is wont to do). Enterprise, while a better series than Voyager, only ever reaches the highs of “it’s fine.” And then there’s Discovery, which I have heard similar things about, but I haven’t watched due to it not being on television or Netflix.
Which brings us, roughly 500 words in, to the subject of today’s post: Other Space: The Second Best Star Trek Series Ever. Created by Paul Feig, creator of Freaks and Geeks and the director of the Ghostbusters reboot, (as an aside, we should probably find a better means to differentiate it from the 1980’s predecessor than “Answer The Call.” As a way of alluding to the series past, might I suggest “The Real Ghostbusters”) Other Space tells of the crew of UMP Cruiser and their misadventures through an uncharted portion of the universe due to an inexplicable wormhole appearing right in front of them.
Those familiar with the various Trek series might recognize this as the base plot for Voyager. The difference comes in the little things, such as the lack of a subplot that was used to be the ashcan pilot in the previous series (much to their detriment), a smaller cast to focus upon, an addition of a general sitcom tone, and a lack of Neelix. But the series to actually compare it to would be Seth McFarlane’s The Orville, which takes the base premise of TNG and makes it into a Seth McFarlane sitcom, much to its detriment. From what I’ve seen of that series (which amounts to one SFDebris review), the main issue with that series (which Other Space inexplicably avoids) is that the baseline characterization of a Seth McFarlane sitcom (wherein all the characters are assumed to inherently despise one another and the enjoyment comes from watching them make each other suffer) conflicts with the utopian line in the sand that TNG draws in regards to conflict. If one actually watches the first season of TNG, where it’s the least compromised, it’s clear that “no conflict” actually means “the characters actually like one another” (later writers would disagree with this assumption to the point where some erroneously argue that Worf actually lies awake at night thinking to himself “why can’t they let me just kill Geordi”).
However, for all the characters faults (and, let’s be honest, terribleness), when watching Other Space, one gets the sense that (in normal, not trapped on an inhospitable hellscape planet where time is much faster there than on the ship, circumstances) these people get on with one another. Take, for example, the lead pair of siblings Stewart and Karen Lipinski. The series opens with Stewart being given the role of Captain of the ship on the grounds that he’s one of two people to pass the exam. His sister, who was the other person to pass the exam, is not given her own ship but instead made his second in command. Their reasoning is “because she’s too scary,” which is the nice way of saying “she’s an angry woman.”
Naturally, such a turn of events makes Karen angry and lashes out verbally towards Stewart. In a typical sitcom, this relationship would be stretched out over the course of the series, but Other Space decides to have this largely be resolved by the end of the first episode wherein, after an attempted coup gets foiled by a louts eating machine, the siblings having a heart to heart. Karen admits that part of her resentment comes from a history of Stewart being able to succeed with little to no effort in fields she works extremely hard in (so systemic sexism). They mostly reconcile their issues (though captainship isn’t resolved until the final episode wherein alien intervention allows them to be co-captain of the ship [which they basically were anyways]) and grow as people.
This kind of character growth isn’t typically seen in sitcoms like this (or, at least, so quickly). Indeed, this isn’t the kind of growth seen in most science fiction series outside of a 37 episode long arc full of betrayals, cruelties, and odd episode about the space capitalist dressing up in drag. And this is how character development goes for the rest of the cast (with the exception of Zalien and ART, who pretty much stay in the characterization of “those guys from MST3K,” but you can see the depths of that characterization as the show goes on). From the growing relationship between Kent and Natasha to the (quite frankly terrifying) depths of Tina to Michael… Michael… he’s doing fine. (In all seriousness, Michael’s a nice guy, who probably doesn’t deserve what’s happened to him… well, maybe except being left out of the ad, but he lied about ART being in the bathroom.)
In many regards, Other Space seems to be doing a lot of what Trek tries to do, but tended to fail at more often than succeed. The characterization method of Other Space is akin to that of the character arc of Dr. Katherine Pulaski, wherein we’re introduced to her as an antagonistic force but, over the course of the season, she becomes a better person and more friendly with the cast (specifically Data). This was not read as happening by most people due to the second season being the nadir of TNG in terms of quality and has since been ignored in favor of the characterization of Pulaski as the “TNG’s Token Racist.” The base plot, as mentioned, is effectively a better-made version of Voyager’s “Lost in Space” narrative. It even works in a more cutting take on the space-based vision of the future that Star Trek posits by claiming that humanity would grow bored of space were there no aliens to conquer than DS9’s “if an alien outsider came to conquer the Federation and wanted nothing more than to conquer the Federation, then the Federation would fight back by any mean necessary, even if those means were dirty” take. And it’s much funnier than TOS.
So then, why is it the second best Trek series? Well, the show has some… problems. The early characterization of Stewart and Tina’s relationship in the first episode is creepy, bordering on stalkery. The lack of incidental score is a bit off putting at first (though I got used to it as the series went on). Trouble’s Brewing, the “robots are people too” episode, comes largely out of nowhere, setting up themes and ideas which were only marginally implied in the previous episodes and are completely ignored in the later ones (the idea that Kent could print Natasha a 3D Body, for example, deflates the tension in the final two episodes' “going home means we can’t be together” subplot, even though the prospect of printing her a 3D body is never brought up in those episodes).
But perhaps the biggest thing working against Other Space being the best Star Trek series is… well, it’s too well made. I should probably elaborate. You know the question every Sci-Fi geek has ever asked or been asked about which is better: Star Trek or Star Wars? Well, my response is typically that Star Wars is better, but Star Trek is more interesting. The same is true of Other Space. It lacks the spangly bits that a lot of Star Trek has that makes it interesting… and, also, terrible. Other Space just isn’t the kind of show where the cast is going to discover that Satan was actually a misunderstood goodie trying to teach magic to people over a pint of beer or call one of its aliens after a Hayao Miyazaki character that gets ruined because apparently the only character design the creators could come up with is “discount Klingon,” or drop all the plot stuff in favor of telling a story about the writing conditions of the Golden Age of Sci Fi that has nothing to do with anything and is one of the best episodes the series ever did because of it, or any of the other odd and uninviting aspects of Trek that make the show what it is.
To put it another way, you’re never going to see a massive psychochronographic project where Other Space is the centerpiece. (Or, for that matter, of Star Wars movies, though the expanded universe is a whole other matter.) At the same time though, this might have more to do with the series lack of a second season than anything else. It would perhaps be wrong to judge a show’s capability to inspire on one single season. At the end of the day, Other Space is a wonderful, half of the time great, series about a bunch of weirdos coming together to explore a strange and terrifying universe. And when the worst episode of the series can be described as "at worst, superfluous," you could do a whole lot worse.
Episodes Rankings:
8) Trouble’s Brewing
7) Into the Great Beyond… Beyond
6) First Contact
5) Powerless
4) Finale
3) Getting to Know You
2) Ted Talks
2) Ted Talks
1) The Death of ART
Wait, I wrote this whole article and didn’t once mention Chad from Auxiliary Deck? What is wrong with me?
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