If you ask me, the heyday of Star Trek was between around 1988 and 1998. As far as I’m concerned, that’s when all the best Trek was produced: The Next Generation really got into its stride, Deep Space Nine was produced, and we got Generations (1994) and First Contact (1996), in my opinion the two best Star Trek films. This was the era of Star Trek which made so many people fall in love with the franchise: plots were gripping, the characters interesting and most of the writing was spot on. There had obviously been absolutely fantastic Star Trek before then in the Original Series, and especially in films like The Wrath of Khan (1982), but that was slightly before my time. I came to trek after Gene Roddenberry brought it back in 1987. Beginning with Voyager, though, the franchise sort of went into decline: the films Insurrection (1998) and Nemesis (2002) missed the mark badly; Voyager was a poorly written mess and Enterprise just continued the downward trend. Since then, I’m afraid Trek hasn’t appealed to me as it once did, particularly after it got bogged down in nonsense about Spore Drives, alternative realities and in rewriting its own cannon.

Yet now we have a glimmer of hope, for in Picard we can glimpse Star Trek as it once was. Of course, a large part of this may be nostalgia, but in Picard we find the intriguing plots and characters that made us Trekkies in the first place. After watching the first episode of the third season last week, I found myself dying to watch the second, just as I once felt about the next episode of Deep Space Nine. It felt like Trek as it once was had finally returned, and it was awesome: I felt exactly the same pangs of excitement, glee and wonder that I remember feeling when I first watched TNG and DS9. The characters who captivated us all those years ago were back together at last, combatting duplicitous, deceitful enemies and saving the Federation just as they once did.

For me, though, something is still missing. The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine first came out when I was at school. I loved them, and couldn’t wait for the next Wednesday or Thursday evening when they were on BBC Two. I shared my love for Trek not only with my family, but also with one of my classmates, Andrew Fox. I think I’ve mentioned here before that Andy was an even bigger Trekkie than I was. He loved it so much that he got all the episodes of DS9 on video and watched them before they aired on TV. I remember practically begging him to tell me what was going to happen in upcoming episodes, especially when the Dominion War got going.

Andy had Muscular Dystrophy and passed away in 2001. He was such a Trekkie that Star Trekkin’ was played at his funeral. Now that the type of Star Trek we love seems to have been revived, I can’t help wondering whether he would be as enamoured with it as I am, or what he would have said about the sight of Worf with grey hair. His enthusiasm for Star Trek was infectious, and he used to love revealing DS9 plots to me – his eyes used to seem to light up when he was describing battles between star ships. I’ll thus always associate Star Trek, on some level, with my friend Andrew; the fact that it has returned to it’s heyday, and the characters who played such a big part in my youth have reappeared, only makes me reflect on how there are also things which can never return.