Trek5

Trek5 started in 2001 as a website devoted to the fifth Star Trek series, Enterprise. The earliest version in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is from September 2001. By December, the site had undergone a major design change, to what would become its distinctive silver-and-gold look.

Trek5 had news, Enterprise reviews, screencaps of the other series and special features, including an entry about the design of the Enterprise NX-01 and Gene Roddenberry’s original 1964 Star Trek pitch.

By the middle of the second year of Enterprise, Trek5’s creator, Matt, and his collaborator, “Captain Mac”, had lost interest, feeling the series was failing to live up to Roddenberry’s vision of Star Trek. “Little did we realize that we were stopping short of the arrival of terrific fourth-season showrunner Manny Coto,” Matt wrote three years later.

The last functioning version of the site is from February 2006. That month, Matt posted a goodbye message, explaining that a combination of personal circumstances and Star Trek’s malaise had made it difficult for him to continue updating Trek 5.

The Star Trek market has grown smaller. There is no new Star Trek on television or in the theaters. Trek conferences are fewer now and more expensive, and it’s harder for me to develop features.

He also felt the official Star Trek website had improved and TrekPulse (now TrekCore) had become the go-to place for screencaps. Trek5 was less distinct and less relevant as a result.

With these thoughts in mind, I have decided to close the door, beam myself up and warp out of here — or at least 1/4 impulse.