Posted on 06/30/2010 9:05:26 AM PDT by iowamark
If you're a big fan of the Star Trek science fiction genre, then there's a good chance that you're a humanist at heart.
That's the way that Susan Sackett, the longtime personal executive assistant to Trek franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, sees it.
Ms. Sackett, who met recently with the Greater Worcester Humanists group at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester, said Mr. Roddenberry was an admitted humanist who liberally sprinkled his out of this world stories about Capt. James Tiberius Kirk, Mr. Spock and the other Star Trek characters with the fundamentals of humanism — a non-theistic, or secular, approach, philosophy, or ideology.
Star Trek has been woven into the cultural fabric since the original television series aired on NBC TV in the mid-1960s. Many sociologists have viewed many of its episodes as morality plays set against the backdrop of space.
The genre has been incorporated into many college studies programs.
Ms. Sackett said that Star Trek, like humanism, promoted ethics, social justice and reason, and rejected religious dogma and the supernatural.
“A lot of science fiction is filled with humanism,” said Ms. Sackett. “You usually don't run across an archbishop of Alpha Centauri.”
She said Mr. Roddenberry, who lectured in Worcester in the 1990s, strived in his Star Trek ventures to affirm the dignity of all people.
“Rationality was the key. … There was no recourse to the supernatural,” she said.
Ms. Sackett said Roddenberry was so resolute about religion that he refused suggestions to add a chaplain to the crew of the starship Enterprise.
She said Star Trek was imbued with what she called the “IDIC Philosophy,” namely, infinite diversity in infinite combination.
Ms. Sackett, with the aid of film clips, said that “The Return of the Archons,” from the original series, was a good example of how Mr. Roddenberry employed elements of humanism in his works.
In that episode, a planet's population follows, in a zombie-like manner, a mysterious cult-like leader, who allows no divergent viewpoints.
The society absorbs individuals into its collective body and the world is free of hate, conflict and crime but creativity, freedom and individualism are stifled.
Ms. Sackett said that “Archons,” like other Star Trek storylines, warns how people can be controlled by religion. In the end, the viewer discovers the cult leader is actually a computer.
Ms. Sackett said that Mr. Roddenberry, a voracious reader, was upset because many rabid fans began to view Star Trek as a religion and its central characters as saints.
She added that, after Mr. Roddenberry's death, some of the Star Trek vehicles, particularly the television spin-off series “Deep Space Nine,” were permeated with religious themes, something the franchise creator would not have appreciated.
Ms. Sackett also noted that the Star Trek series' principled “prime directive,” that humans should not influence or interfere with other races and peoples, was actually a snipe at American involvement in Vietnam, something that television network censors never picked up on.
Ms. Sackett, in a tidbit offered to “trekkies” or “trekkers” in the audience, said Mr. Roddenberry saw himself more as Capt. Picard, the cool-headed commander in the “Next Generation” series, and noted that the Kirk character was modeled on Horatio Hornblower, the protagonist of the C.S. Forester novel series.
In summing up, she said both humanism and Star Trek espouse a rational philosophy that champions compassion and creativity
The two, she said, advocate open societies and participatory democracy.
Ms. Sackett, who was raised in Connecticut, began her association with Mr. Roddenberry in 1974, serving as his assistant until his death in 1991.
She also served as a production assistant on the first Star Trek movie, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” and worked closely with Mr. Roddenberry on the next five films.
Ms. Sackett, who is a member of the American Humanist Association board, also was involved with the first five seasons of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” writing two of that series' episodes, “Menage a Troi” and “The Game.”
She is the author of several books, three of them about Star Trek.
I'd never heard about Gene Roddenberry's beliefs, but I was clear about those of Joseph Campbell, from whom George Lucas borrowed philosophical ideas when he was writing his Star Wars movies. Just because I thought the shows were entertaining doesn't mean I subscribe to the beliefs of their creators.
There was in "interfaith" chapel aboard the original NCC-1701 (seen briefly at the beginning of Balance of Terror). All the original series' subtle religious references (ex.: "A Pearl of Great Price", etc.) are fairly well cataloged in an out-of-print book titled "Star Trek: The Good News In Modern Images". Online reviews refer to the author's approach as "Christianity Lite, blended with Jungian Pop Psychology". From what I recall, that's a pretty fair summation.
The things you find in a university library when you're supposed to be studying for a calculus exam...
Of course. I had forgotten about that one.
Voyager was uber poop. The only thing that could have truly saved that series (and its credibility) was janeway’s quick and irrelivant death in a permanent and can never come back fashion.
she conveniently forgets “Bread and Circuses” and those pesky son worshipers...
the motion picture was the last major effort roddenbury devoted to trek. people see what they want to see.
less PC= better ratings.
shepard smith even reported that some fan were making “alternative lifestyle” versions of treak in fan productions on the internet. (btw some of them are not terrible)
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