Why we still love Star Trek

newscientist ^ | 12 June 2009 | Lawrence Krauss

[JoeProBono]

NOTHING has surprised me more in the past month than the barrage of phone calls I received from reporters about the new Star Trek movie. Many asked me to comment on what Star Trek technologies have been realised since the original series, which ones remain a vague hope and which are impossible. Others wanted to know what I thought of the science in the movie, from space-diving to black-hole time travel. Frankly, I had expected quite the opposite reaction to the prequel, figuring that fans would pan it and pundits would bemoan an attempt to hark back to a 1960s phenomenon. Yet the fascination with Star Trek is everywhere, in magazines and on the opinion pages of major newspapers.

Why, 43 years after it first aired, does Star Trek still hold us in such thrall? I think that a large part of the fascination can be traced to our many current crises, both fiscal and environmental. Of all science-fiction drama in the past half-century, Star Trek was based on a hopeful view of the future - one where the "infinite possibilities of existence", as the character Q said in The Next Generation series, could be exploited for the benefit of humankind and aliens alike.....

[fwdude]

I always thought the original series gave plenty of deference to God.

It did, being created in closer proximity to a period of our history when reverence for God was a more mainstream value. The Next Generation is another story, and flows from the original eastern-philisophical premise of rebirth-evolution-destruction-rebirth- etc. pointing to ultimate evolutionary perfection. Yes, the battle scenes are good, and the pitting of good against evil is a classic theme, but this gets muddled as the series progresses to where the enemy is ambigous in his identity.

[Palmetto]

Insightful post....thanks.

[martin_fierro]

I think Kirstie Alley ATE her.

[martin_fierro]

Why we still love Star Trek

Well, duh.

[wally_bert]

From the old series, yes.

The later incarnations of Trek are pretty leftist. It is Babylon 5 that seemed far more tolerant and fair of religion than later Treks and the creator is an atheist, JMS.

[absolootezer0]

I always give the creator or Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, a pass. He flew B-17s in WWII, and witnessed a lot of killing and inhumanity at 20,000 feet. So he creates a story about the “Enterprise”, basically a B-52 in outer space, trying to do things as morally as they can.

yeah.. but you're missing the very important part- that when diplomacy failed, there was never a hesitation to blow the other guy to kingdom come.
ST- in all incarnations- may have been mostly humanist, but they knew where to draw the line and procede with "aggressive negotiations" :)

[5thGenTexan]

Roddenberry himself stated that the show was ment to be a stealth social commentary. He used the other planets they visited as the canvas for touching on things he could not address directly at that time.

[Chode]

at least on the left

[Poe White Trash]

>>> Will we as a species finally discard the silly religious myths that separate groups and get in the way of an honest and realistic assessment of the world around us, so that we can address real problems with real solutions? <<<

Yes, let’s discard those restrictive religious myths so we can get down to the serious business of exterminating each other on the basis of political, economic and cultural differences.

“That’s asking for trouble.”

Yes, it is, and in more than one way. I had no idea that the _New Scientist_ printed tripe like this.

To slightly mis-quote Mark Twain: The author is an athiest. And an ass. But I repeat myself.

[Poe White Trash]

And it would seem that I’m an ass who can’t spell: athiest=atheist, of course.

[Charles Martel]

Cool episode.

There was another episode where a religious reference was included right before the closing credits: The Empath. Scotty, upon hearing Kirk musing about their chance encounter with "Gem", refers to her as a "Pearl of Great Price".

There's a book, long out of print, titled "Star Trek: Good News in Modern Images" (IIRC) which lists all of the religious or biblical references in the original series. I remember reading it in the university library over twenty years ago, when I was supposed to be studying for an exam.

[Charles Martel]

Well, duh.

Ah, indeed. Hey, do you recall Eddie Murphy's comments (from his first HBO special, I think) regarding Kirk and the Orion slave girls?

[GOPJ]

Roddenberry insisted that actors not “drama queen” the show. He felt a starship and endless high emotion were incompatible. It’s one of the reasons watching the show isn’t draining - lots of over acting of parts was discouraged.