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The obvious answer is Rick Berman.

And maybe it's as simple as that. After all, before signing on with "Trek" at the beginning of the decade, Berman was in charge of Paramount's miniseries division, and he had been responsible for the Emmy-winning children's TV series "The Big Blue Marble." When he first met with Roddenberry in 1986, during his initial talks with Paramount about a new "Trek" series, Berman told the so-called Great Bird of the Galaxy he didn't know one thing about "Star Trek," aside from the one or two episodes he had seen as a kid. If nothing else, Berman was honest.

Five years later, Berman found himself in charge of the franchise. Within two years he had alienated Spock and had become one of the men responsible for killing off Captain Kirk in the film "Star Trek: Generations." For longtime fans like me, it's been downhill from there.

"The dirty little secret is Berman and the people running 'Star Trek' right now hate 'The Original Series' and hate being compared to it," says Altman, referred to by the Los Angeles Times as the "world's foremost Trekspert." Altman, during his days as a sci-fi magazine journalist, actually used to have a good relationship with Berman until he became critical of "Next Generation" and "Voyager."

"They are not people who have any affection for the old show. When [producer] Harve Bennett and [director] Nick Meyer took over the franchise for 'Star Trek II,' they went back and looked at every episode of 'The Original Series' and learned everything they could about what worked and what didn't. When these guys [Berman and writer Brannon Braga] took over, they hated the original and resented being in the shadow and avoided watching it. They'd be happy if people forgot the original, and that's unfortunate."

Rick Berman is the anti-Gene.

It's so very easy to condemn a man for what he's not, so very convenient to blame a man for the death of a childhood memory. Berman's "Trek" is not Roddenberry's "Trek." It's not as charming, not as intriguing, not as much fun. At its best, it's just a bland, monochromatic revision of Roddenberry's original show; at its worst, it's just a good-looking TV show ... and about as empty as space itself.

But Berman, who declined to be interviewed for this story, never came into "Star Trek" claiming to be the franchise's savior -- though, paradoxically, it was Berman who saved the show. If nothing else, he has managed to both bring back and keep alive a show, or some variation, all those years after NBC first killed it off. As Nimoy reminds us, "The Original Series" lasted 79 episodes; between the three subsequent series, there have been hundreds and hundreds of hours of "Trek." That, in itself, is an accomplishment. Without Berman to keep the show alive, there'd be no Berman to blame for the show's death.

One former colleague, who did not want to be identified in this story, says that Berman didn't even want to do "Voyager," insisting it was time to give the series a rest. The story goes that Paramount insisted on a third series to follow "Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine," and that Berman reluctantly agreed.

"Rick is not a wide-eyed visionary," says Torme, who is now creating the animated series "Doomsday" with Howard Stern for UPN. "He is more of a professional producer. He always approached the show from a practical level. When I first met him, he was a straight-ahead producer who was Paramount's guy, and he adapted. He became more of a 'Star Trek' guy. But he wasn't dying to be on 'Star Trek.' This was just his next job, and fans resent it because he wasn't a dyed-in-the-wool fan. It's fair criticism, but you have to keep in mind where he is coming from. And in his defense, the amount of work he's put into the show is unbelievable."

To lay the blame at Berman's feet alone is certainly not fair. Paramount Pictures, from top to bottom, has done a lousy job of tending to "The Original Series." Yes, a handful of episodes are available on DVD -- looking and sounding quite remarkable, actually -- but the first four films have yet to make it on disc. A publicist in Paramount's video department says that this is all according to a "logical plan": The films are simply being released in reverse order, she says, noting that the Nimoy-directed "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" will be out Nov. 9, as will the documentary "Trekkies."

"Star Trek IV," like all of its predecessors and successors, will be released without any frills: no director's commentary, no outtakes, no extras except for a tiny featurette on the making of the movie. (The DVDs containing old episodes also contain no outtakes -- which is a shame, since "Star Trek" blooper reels used to be the highlights at conventions.) There also will not be a director's commentary with "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," since Nimoy has not had any talks with Paramount about "Star Trek"-related matters since 1993.

Paramount's screwy release plan means that the year will end without the release of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" on DVD -- even though 1999 marks the 20th anniversary of that film's release. "I would love to hear Shatner do commentary on 'Star Trek V.' I asked him if he wanted to, and he said he did -- only, he told me, nobody asked him," Altman says, his voice rising. "I mean, this is the 20th anniversary of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture,' and why isn't there a special edition of that film? There's so much archival material. It's absurd, especially because Robert Wise wasn't happy with the cut because it was rushed. They're doing anniversary editions of 'Young Frankenstein,' why not 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'?"

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