Posted on 05/26/2018 11:00:40 AM PDT by Rummyfan
It has become commonplace to lament that we don’t have a common culture any more—a repertoire of art that we can all enjoy regardless of our political loyalties. Well, maybe it’s because we have a lot of people trying to mark off parts of the culture as their tribal territory, off-limits to partisan enemies.
I thought of this when someone sent me a link to a recent podcast for science-fiction fans, in which political commenter Ana Marie Cox puzzles over the fact that Ted Cruz is a big Star Trek fan. (To save you some trouble, it’s about 28 minutes in.) Why is this such a mystery? “The original Star Trek universe, for its time even, was pretty social justice warrior-y.”
Try not to spit out your coffee. To paraphrase Dr. Carol Marcus, Jim Kirk was many things, but he was never a social justice warrior.
Cox is partly just trying to flog her own science-fiction column, which features, from what I can tell here, ridiculous political over-analysis of pop-culture sci-fi. But this also reflects how PC didacticism is becoming the mainstream culture’s official theory of art, a topic I’ve been railing about a lot recently. Certainly, if you watch Star Trek and your main takeaway is that it’s a good advertisement for lefty politics—because, as the podcast host puts it, “there’s no money, and everybody’s super-liberal”—you’re really missing the point.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
I’m on!! I saw every original ST episode and Spock NEVER got laid. In fact I recall him and Solo were very close...
I've always felt Saavik was likely a product of Spock and the Romulan Commander's "diplomatic relations" during The Enterprise Incident.
In my ears 20s Star Trek was one of my favorite shows. As I came to learn what a miserable leftist Gene Roddenberry was it lost its appeal. I still watch it at times but it’s not the same!!!
ears = early ....damn auto correct!!!
I think the original Star Trek is fine, but in the course of time Roddenberry inserted more Socialism and Leftist propaganda into the mix. Star Trek the Next Generation is the culmination of a lot of that. I now find it unwatchable although I did watch it when it came out originally.
Even then you could see Leftist turn it had taken it’s promotion of Socialism and that people only worked for the good of mankind and the Federation. Not for any incentive or monetary gain. That aspect was totally absurd.
“Kirk apparently made it with a green alien woman”
That was Pike, and he just barely held on - or they would have had him. It was really close.
On the same token, you could also say that Kirk “never got laid” because all you saw was the makeout scene. I named two specific episodes with implications for Spock’s sex life. Now “Amok Time”, where he’s going through the mating frenzy, all he did was fight.
Kirk was a Kennedy-style liberal, a "Spacethefinalfrontiersman," going from planet to planet to spread or defend Western Democracy.
Neocons inherited than mantle.
So if Cruz is a neocon, he has every right to Captain Kirk.
Trying to fit Kirk (or Rod Serling) into today's politics isn't easy or particularly worthwhile.
Too much has changed in 50 years.
Spock had at least three women in his life, a close encounter is insinuated in each one:
1 The Enterprise Incident - The Romulan Commander
2 All Our Yesterdays - Zarabeth
3 This Side of Paradise - Leila
Those three women you named were beards to cover for Spock being a bit light in the loafers.
How could you not know Sock had his genitals removed?
“Free-dom?” That is a worship-word. You will not speak it”
Free Dom? We say it is a right given us by God so maybe those Yang’s had something going there.
Huh? I grew up in the 1950s and watched Star Trek during the 1960s. The dress was pretty tame for the 24th century. :-) The show was not overly political and did not shove politics down your throat. It was a just a fun show to watch.
Of course you are free to boycott the show if it is so objectionable. The reruns are still out there.
Loved the original series. Warts and all.
Even the animated series captured the spirit of the Original Series well. There was little, if anything PC about it. It might have made winking reference to some of Kirks exploits (the animated episode “Jihad,” for example). But it was amazing to see how “adult-situations” it could be with an episode like “Mudd’s Passion.”
The Next Generation felt…off. Dr. Crusher soon developed into a proto-SJW. Picard “surrendering” n the first season became a joke. And the entire crew acted as if they were under the watchful eye of some omniscient HR Director. “A Halloween party on politically-correct college campus is something I read after the series ended.
I saw maybe a half-dozen episodes of Deep Space 9. I;ve been told that that’s the series to watch, but the first year seemed less entertaining than Next Generation’s first year and I was going to hang around for more disappointment.
The movies are also spotty for me. Most are fair or worse. The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan are the only ones I care for. I can watch The Next Generation and often be entertained by it, but it’s almost for me to call it Star Trek. Especially knowing the direction it and, subsequently, the other shows have gone. Star Trek went gone on for a long time, but it ended for me with Spock’s death at the end of The Wrath of Khan.
Episode: Who Mourns for Adonais?
“Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.”
- Kirk to Apollo, on how Humanity has changed since Apollo left Earth
Just quoting from the episode.
Yes, I realize that.
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