Does Star Trek Even Make Sense?

Sierra Times ^ | May 1, 2003 | J. Neil Schulman

[J. Neil Schulman]

Does Star Trek Even Make Sense?

by J. Neil Schulman

Let’s get this out of the way. I’m a Trekkie.

I’ve been watching Star Trek since it hit the air in 1966. I know every episode of the original series by heart. I watched the Star Trek animated series. I’ve seen all ten of the theatrical Star Trek films, and the spin-off TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and now the latest Star Trek series, Enterprise.

Carrying a press card from the tabloid newspaper, The Star I covered the first major Star Trek convention held in New York City, where I met all the original series’ bridge crew except William Shatner.

At a later convention I fondly recall reclining on a bed at a room party, next to, and chatting with, Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura.

I even spent a half hour on the phone, sometime in the mid-70’s before Star Trek: The Motion Picture revived his career, chatting with Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry. Believe it or not, he was so unbothered by fans at that time that his home phone number was publicly listed.

I’ve gone to the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas several times, and bought my daughter a Tribble.

The point to this is that I feel well-qualified to discuss the ins and outs of the Star Trek universe.

The new series, Enterprise, takes place earlier in the story time-line that the rest of the TV series, before the formation of the Federation, on the maiden voyage of the first Starfleet vessel with a warp-drive fast enough to get anywhere interesting. It’s also before Starfleet’s “Prime Directive” has been passed into law, making it a crime for Starfleet to interfere with the “natural” cultural development of another species – or does that just apply to species that haven’t yet developed warp drive? And does the Prime Directive apply to anyone not in Starfleet? The different Star Trek series keep contradicting each other on these points.

I can see what Gene Roddenberry was thinking when he thought up the Prime Directive. It had something to do with avoiding that bugaboo of the anti-American left, “cultural imperialism.” I don’t recall that Roddenberry ever tried to stop Star Trek from imperializing cultures around the world with American values, so maybe he did think this idea only applied to extra-terrestrials.

But for the life of me, I can’t figure out what the heck the darned Prime Directive means in the first place.

Star Trek episodes throughout the years have made a point of extending human rights to intelligent rocks (the Horta on the original series episode “The Devil in the Dark”); self-aware robots (“Data,” a regular on Star Trek: The Next Generation), and self-aware computer programs (“The Doctor,” on Star Trek: Voyager).

Now, on a new episode of Enterprise, “Cogenitor,” Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) upbraids his chief engineer, Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trineer), for teaching a third-gender sex-slave from a newly encountered species how to read and awakening in it enough of a desire for freedom to ask the Captain for political asylum.

This newly encountered species isn’t rocks. They are almost human. They look human, eat human food (although they find it unfragrant), and one of their females even wants to have sex with a human male on a first date. That’s human enough for me.

Trip demonstrates that the alien third-sex “cogenitor” (Becky Walhstrom) -- treated like a useful fertilization machine by its own culture, not even given the status of having its own name -- has superior cognitive abilities. It learns how to read complex material in a single day, understands human movies at first viewing, and outplays Trip, an experienced player at a game of skill, on its first try.

Captain Archer, concerned with maintaining diplomatic relations with a technologically advanced, and therefore useful future trading partner, more than the messy business of opposing slavery, hands the refugee back to his/her/its shipmates, where the raised-consciousness Cogenitor promptly commits suicide.

The episode ends with the Captain laying a guilt trip on Trip.

Never mind that Captain Archer is the real guilty party for denying the slave asylum, using 21^st century multicultural relativism as his justification.

Probably one of Archer’s ancestors also had practice papering over the brutal crimes of other “equally valid” cultures by working as a producer for CNN.

Wonderful message Star Trek sends out. Rocks, robots, and computer programs can have the protection of human rights, but not third-sex alien slaves. I’m sure this policy will make perfect sense to whatever extraterrestrials we humans actually encounter in the future.

The point is that the morality and politics of Star Trek verges on incoherence. In other words, it’s typical of the sort of writing you’d expect from current-day American liberal TV writers. It appears to be written for the sole purpose of allowing one character each episode to spew moral outrage at another character, and which character gets tagged outrageous and which one outraged is pretty well unpredictable. There are no discernible, consistent, overriding principles to help us, just the outrage du jour.

It’s enough to make Spock weep.

Copyright © 2003 by J. Neil Schulman. All rights reserved.

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In addition to having written for The Twilight Zone, J. Neil Schulman is author of the Prometheus-award-winning science-fiction novels, The Rainbow Cadenza, and Alongside Night. His newest novel is the comic theological fantasy, Escape from Heaven.

[Mr. Mojo]

Welcome to FR, Neil! ...Great to see you here.

Molon Labe

[Bobby777]

alright!!, a rabid TOS fan!! ...

I always have to be on a guilt trip when I explain I prefer TOS to TNG to Gen X'rs ... and I haven't seen the latest movie after getting suckered into buying "Insurrection" (a two-part TV show instead of the movie it was made out to be) ...

HOWEVER, I did like "Generations" and "First Contact" a lot ...

sure, in TOS the boulders were made of styrofoam and bounced off people (oh well, you can't REALLY crush the actors on set) and sure Mark Lenard (Spock's dad, later) showed up first as a Romulan ...

And I could have liked some of "Voyager" if about 4 crewmembers had been thrown overboard ... FReepmail me to ask which ones, otherwise it'll start a flame war ... LOL ...

[Krafty123]

Neelix, Tuvoc, Chakotay, Kes?

[Green Knight]

LOL! That's the thing about Voyager that gets me. On every show there tends to be one character you just don't like. I liked all the characters on TOS, but never cared for Wesley on TNG. On DS9, it was Kira. But Voyager? I couldn't stand half the cast!

Janeway, Chakotay, Neelix, and Kim, to be exact. I used to like Paris, but once they de-balled him, I stopped liking him, too. And on top of that, the other characters were barely likable, save for the Doctor. All in all, Voyager was a disappointing show. I had hopes for Enterprise, but apparently it's a continuation of the same downward spiral that started with Voyager.

[goldstategop]

The Original Series is the one that blazed the path for the rest. The Next Generation showed you could write literate and thoughtful stories for television and it got better with each season. Deep Space Nine was probably the penultimate of the shows that followed since it was basically an action show set in space with a spiritual theme. The final season paid a homage to the tradition of the Saturday matinee serial. You had to follow each "chapter" to find out what went on in the next one that followed. Voyager was supposed to be Captain Hornblower but never quite lived up to the advertised billing. Enterprise has returned the show to its pre-Federation roots. Personally it would help if Captain Archer would just throw caution to the winds and make up the rules as he went along. Its not called the Final Frontier for nothing.

[patriciaruth]

Die hard Terkies, you have to admit that Kirk’s love life did can back to haunt him

Trekkers, please.

And Kirk was sexist and a womanizer, as I have noted, so no excuses are made for the realities of TV show sales in those days.

They all had to end with a fist fight. And no one used seat belts. But we nerds still loved it.

[Bobby777]

you got 2 our of 4 ... good job though ... I'll FReepmail ya ... LOL

[Krafty123]

Janeway would make 5 :-) Seriously, as a whole the cast was much better than DS9...

[Bobby777]

you know I liked the commander on DS9 ... but not ON DS9 ... remember him when he was Hawk on Robert Urich's show? ... he was a TOUGH guy ... pretty cool ...

[patriciaruth]

Will Stryker? Who's that?

IIRC, he was the genius son of the ship's surgeon.

[Lobster 6]

Earth to Treckies! You can't make this Trecky stuff up! Everybody! Get a life!

Sorry, the bad Lobster 6 took over.

I really thought the Green chick was sexy in episode 43,560! Bring back the kick butt Gorn! Big lizards are cool!

[Green Knight]

No, that was Wesley Crusher.

[Krafty123]

Will Riker?

[Green Knight]

I loved DS9, personally. Thought it was one of the best Treks. Yeah, it was weak in the first couple of seasons, but things really started to pick up once the Dominion was introduced.

[patriciaruth]

Anybody like Stargate SGI? It was good until the French bought it for SciFi channel. Now that the French are selling SciFi channel, it may improve (if it survives).

[mercy]

I actually think Startreck has been a significant negative influence on young minds in this country. An advanced planet where a 'Federation' is in control of everything and this 'new world order' is held up as man's destiny.

I believe that many many small minded people actually believe in a 'Startreck Ideal' and hope for that supposedly 'advanced' world to come.

It does not occur to many of them that only a rigidly totalitarian regime could ever impose such an order upon a planet as diverse as ours.

[Bobby777]

I really thought the Green chick was sexy

She blowed up REAL GOOD!!! (moral: one should be careful what necklace the evil dictator gives one as a gift)

[Green Knight]

I'm a fan of Stargate SG-1, too. The French own the Sci-Fi Channel? No wonder the Sci-Fi Channel has been pissing me off as of late, what with cancelling Farscape. I'm STILL fuming over that one! Hell, I'm still miffed over the cancellation of The Invisible Man.

[patriciaruth]

that was Wesley Crusher.

Correct

[Green Knight]

I'm a fan of Stargate SG-1, too. The French own the Sci-Fi Channel? No wonder the Sci-Fi Channel has been pissing me off as of late, what with cancelling Farscape. I'm STILL fuming over that one! Hell, I'm still miffed over the cancellation of The Invisible Man.