[ReveBM]

Have fun with this rant, please.

[Hawkeye's Girl]

Well, Kirk, McCoy, and company certainly were Christian (see "Bread and Circuses" among other episodes), but every Trek since then has been PC to the max.

I like this one too, but it still has too much PC in it.

[Reagan Man]

Captain Archer's response: "I try to keep an open mind".

I noticed that remark too and thought it was quite odd. OTOH, Star Trek has always stayed away from controversial issues like the actual real world religious practices of flesh and blood contemporary people. If Gene Roddenbury was still alive and active in the production of "Enterprise", I don't believe he would have not gone there either.

A generic statement, like what you mentioned, "Yes, I have a faith, but it's very personal to me", would have been appropriate.

[ikanakattara]

I see this new Star Trek series as an attempt to undo the damage caused by the ultra-liberal, fiercely anti-capitalist & pacifist Gene Roddenberry. I also see a significant influence from JM Straczynski's epic Babylon 5. B5-like elements include the grungy, less-than-perfect sets; moral ambiguity, and the subtle tense conflicts between alien races w/ different aims (i.e. humans chafing under the "UN-like" domination of the Vulcans, obviously "for our own good" but still obnoxious nonetheless.)

How they get from Enterprise to the first (1960s vintage) Star Trek series will perhaps be revealed as the series continues. I for one find it a more-than-refreshing change from the sappy, ultra-liberal followups.

As far as religion goes, there are VERY few good depictions of religion in TV or movie sci-fi. JMS did wonders with religion and religious issues in Babylon 5 and even more in the 13 episodes of the Babylon 5 spinoff "Crusade," whose religious themes are deep and powerful, if not explicitly Christian.

Written sci-fi has better treatment of Christian themes, but not many. First and foremost was Episcopalian Cordwainer Smith, who dealt with many moral and spiritual issues in the short story collection "The Rediscovery of Man." Walter Miller's Canticle for Leibowitz follows an order of Catholic monks through the rise and fall of civilizations in a post-nuclear holocaust world (and provided inspiration for more than one Babylon 5 episode.) Recently, Mary Doria Russell explored what happens when missionary priests meet some unusual aliens in The Sparrow and Children of God. Then there are of course the classic CS Lewis "space trilogy" volumes.

In other words, it's out there, but you really have to look.

[hellinahandcart]

Gotta disagree with you about DS9. The last two seasons were better than Next Generation at its best (even though I hated the final episode), and even during its boring beginning phase it was still better than Voyager. By a mile.

And it pisses me off that no one is showing reruns of DS9.

[guitfiddlist]

I swore off all of the Star Trek followons, once the Next Generation became "The Enterprise: Day Care Center in The Sky"

[Shermy]

I like this series' almost week by week exposure of the duplicity, cunning, lying, and repressed violence of Vulcans. The whole Spock thing hid their faults behind a green visage of intellectual and tempermental superiority. And the blame-humans-first angle - insufferable. This series shows the Vulcans as they really are.

< /rant>

[PatrickHenry]

Star Trek lost me as a fan years ago when they dropped capitalism from the future. A post office style economy can't build starships, so the whole series became absurd.

[The Iguana]

One of my pet peeves with Star Trek.

Considering Roddenberry's secularistic impulses, however, it's not surprising.

"Classic" Trek did indeed have references to Christianity - perhaps it was necessary to be successful in the still-conservative network TV of the 1960's. By the time of Next Generation (which I actually regard as probably the best overall of all the series), however, it's as if Christianity - and virtually every other major human religion - is vacuumed out of human society. There's plenty of Bajoran religion, Betazed religion, Klingon religion, Vulcan religion, little green fuzzy religion - you name it. But by the 80's, Roddenberry and Berman had made a conscious decision not to allow any real world religion to penetrate the Trek universe. Instead, religious issues with dealt with through the prism of fictional alien faiths.

One episode that sticks in my head - and sticks in my craw - was the DS9 episode were Kaiko faced a Bajoran boycott of her class over her insistence on teaching about the scientific aspects of the wormhole, which ran contrary to the tenets of the Bajoran traditional belief of its origin as the home of the Founders (especially remarkable considering that the show actually concedes they exist). The show was clearly a thinly-veiled commentary on the teaching of evolution in public schools - and with a predictable angle.

The remark by Archer noted above thus caught me by surprise. I guess I was so pleased to see at least ANY reference to a human faith that I muted my usual disgust for this perennial annoyance of the Trek universe.

I don't see why Berman & Co. seem to be so afraid to allow human faiths to have some kind of presence in their universe. While Roddenberry may have had some firm belief that humans of the 22-24th centuries would "outgrow" religion, it's fairly obvious that it's unbelievable that many humans wouldn't take faith with them to the stars - any more than they do so today when they go to work or pilot planes or man ships or go to war in Afghanistan.

In other words, it's one respect in which Trek has remained consistently unbelievable.

So far I've surprisingly pleased with "Enterprise" as well - it is leaps and bounds better than the moribund "Voyager" and generally more interesting than the premise-limiting DS9. Hopefully we'll see more of this issue addressed as the series unfolds.

[Cable225]

I think you're reading too much into it.

It's very easy to find PC messages and left-wing slants in any form of entertainment; movies, TV, music, books, without expressly looking to see if you can find it.

Along with Enterprise, some of my favorite shows are -
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - demons, monsters, witches, a major character is a lesbian, uncomplimentary religious references
Angel - same as Buffy
NYPD Blue - nudity, language, PC storylines
Friends - co-habitation, gay references, sex references, sleeping around

I could keep going. Now, could I stop watching these shows because there are things I don't agree with, sure. But I enjoy a well-written show with a good storyline, which the first 3 are, and Friends is funny as hell. The point is, if we tune out and turn off every single reference we find semi-objectionable, we'd never find any time to wind down and relax.

My advice, if you like Enterprise, watch it, enjoy it, and stop worrying about this reference or that reference. We all have to take a break from the fight sometime.

[Hodar]

Star Trek, for me, was a pretty complete concept; in that it postulated a possible world. One of the starring creations Rodenberry made was the planet Vulcan. His idea was imagine a planet with one language, and one race. Isolated, and without outside influence, this culture would develope unique characteristics (ie. Logic instead of emotion). The modern equivalent is Asia. Asia developed a monothiestic culture, one religion, one 'base' language, and everyone fit into their niche' in this world. I found the idea compelling, and it gave a strong foundation to the whole Star Trek universe.

Then Voyager came out, and introduced the first Black Vulcan... whoomp ... the entire rationale for having Vulcan's be a monothlistic society just came crashing down. With multiple races, each with diffent views, a planet as Vulcan would not have evolved as it did. They lost me... I don't care if you make the Captain a black, bi-sexual, or a black heterosexual, or make the entire crew ethnicaly diverse. But, when you inject diversity into a culture that developed soley due to a lack of diversity, they killed the series in my mind.

[Free2think]

I fail to see how keeping an open mind offends people, but sure enough someone comes along and shows us that keeping an open mind bothers the faithfully challenged.. eeewwwww... its those opened mind people again.. they really piss me off!! "sarcasm" Yes were out there buddy.. And we have open minds!! we don't care who or what you believe in, we just sit back and let you non open minds bash each others faith or lack of... "This is truely America the home of the offended " Captain Archer's response was most adequate not to offend the majority of viewers... How does it feel to be a minority?

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Well, you hit some good points. The Star Trek society is highly illogical and it is no wonder that Real Life(tm) is turning out completely different than Roddenberry's vision.

[Redcloak]

I've also noticed the dearth of Christians and references to Christianity in the Star Trek universe. Nor can I recall any references to Jews.

[Willie Green]

A good slice of the new series' appeal for me is its handsome, rugged, all-American Captain, Jonathan Archer.

I prefer the Vulcan babe.

I think she's HOT!!!

(Not as hot as 7-of-9, of course. But still HOT!)

[boris]

"I thought that the last series, Voyager, had gotten tired and had too many episodes revolving around the masturbatory holodeck."

I hated that captain who thought she was Katherine Hepburn and wasn't. I wanted to see unspeakable things done to her by Klingons.

--Boris

[aruanan]

Let's step back a bit and realize that in the Star Trek universe at this point Earth is just emerging from a hard 100+ years of recovering from nuclear war. If there were ever a time for people to turn to God, perhaps it would have been in the aftermath of that holocaust. However, not so for the boys at Star Fleet.

You're arguing about what would have or should have happened in an imaginary world?

[Question_Assumptions]

My main problem with Enterprise is that the crew just seems so goofy-stupid. They make really dumb mistakes to push the plot along all too often. It's a lot better than Voyager, though, and there have been a few really good episodes so far.

If you want to see some really good stuff, watch Smallville.

[DouglasKC]

We could theorize that the Christians of the day are too advanced to waste time serving in Star Fleet and flitting around the galaxy. They already know the truth.

[roachie]

FWIW, in the aforementioned episode with The Great Plume of Agasoria, Dr. Phlox said he had attended Mass at St. Peter's (in addition to spending time with Buddhist monks). So we know that the RCC would possibly last until then ;)

BTW, I am a dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie, too.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I stopped watching Enterprise after the first episode because they brought time travel into it.

This was the great curse and silly deus ex machina of Voyager: when things get tough, roll out the tachyons!

I also wished that Enterprise had been pre-transporter and pre-replicator. These two technologies are so preposterous and deus-ex-machina-up-the-wazoo, that they undermine any logic (of which there is very little) in the shows.

Finally, if Trek wanted to be truly PC, then a large percentage of the crew would be Chinese and Indian. Unless of course they are nuked into oblivion before the all-out move to space. Or maybe they didn't fit the genetic profile of the fascist state that is the Federation!