As quarantine enters its third week it becomes obvious that this is, indeed, a marathon, not a sprint. For the first time in history, saving mankind means staying home and watching TV. In order not to screw this up, we can rely on TV shows particularly suitable for a binge marathon.
The Star Trek franchise doesn’t need introducing, the series having become a household name just like that “other” space opera. A spin-off of the original Star Trek series from the sixties, “the Next Generation” takes place a hundred years later, the mission “to boldly go where no one has gone before” reinvented for eighties audiences.
Airing for 7 seasons from 1987 to 1994 it is a show influenced by the start of globalization, promoting a message of acceptance of other civilizations and the will to solve conflicts peacefully, to “live long and prosper”. “Star Trek” has spawned a number of different shows, mostly prequels, the newest being “Star Trek: Picard” a sequel, 26 years after the end of the original show.
The show hasn’t aged well, visually speaking, the then state-of-the-art computer imaging looking cheesy now, the costumes and characters so well known that they seem almost caricatures, some scenes have even gained new fame through internet memes.
Still, the 178 episodes are a great way to escape this timeline until mid-May at least and should you still need to escape to “the final frontier”, you can follow up with “Star Trek: Picard”
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” is available on Netflix, there are 7 seasons.
The first season of “Star Trek: Picard” is streaming on Amazon.
