Quick! What character best represents the heart of NX-01? Yeah I don't know either. And quick! The brain? Heh heh. At first you thought you'd say the Vulcan, right, then that colossal confusion about T'Pillhead muddied your choice. Archer? Henry maybe. I see that I'm stuck in a recent cycle of beatings to improve morale but felt that this was important. What's missing from the latest Enterprise is a quick sense of reasonable expectation (which we should have by this point).

I am not alone believing the success of Star Trek directly relates to how well it functions as myth. Good stories help us recognize and handle elusive components of ourselves. Myths explain. They comfort and entertain. The power of their allegory acts as an open-ended tool applicable to situations expected and unexpected. Mythology doesn't have to be set in the past; the future will do nicely (though I have trouble summoning a contemporary mythos). Timeless by nature, myths resemble accurate history less and good advice more.

However you can't just randomly generate a pantheon, collect them into stories, and expect it to work flawlessly. Nor did Roddenberry "get lucky." Within its particular context (i.e., in accordance with its own rules) the collection must align with human experience. The encoded evolution of interpersonal exchange is what's important here. How much human history, seen and unseen, must have been reflected in these stories before they merited recording (oral or otherwise)! Somehow they contain detected and undetected components that continually reinforce a reputation of value. The content delivered in the message must forever conduce successful interpretation into the contemporary context of the delivery.

So what set TOS apart? Not only from the other series, but other television programs as well? Back in the day the sky was literally the limit. To paraphrase Triskelion's Providers, "There was nothing we could not do!" (Similarly, getting around that perverted sense of perfection proved problematic!) That represented a lot of change that required understanding to integrate. The characters in TOS grew to mythic proportion, perhaps at times even past into caricature. (It was never attempted as myth until TMP.)

Lesser stories take place on a stage viewed by a detached observer. The grander stories - the myths - envelop the audience both during and after the narration. (Usually the "before" comes from the presumed historical nature of the narrative.) Get "Enterprise" involved with what really matters again - a better sense of understanding ourselves. There seems to be one final frontier that never disappoints its explorers.