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.
At the time the Nazis hijacked the swastika, it was a "good luck" symbol in the West.
The only thing interesting about TNG was the Borg and Klingons the rest was leftist crap.
Gene Coon.
BTW, I see there are 36 full Star Trek episodes online at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0177731/videogallery
Your questions were the same as mine. How were societal tasks (cleaning, building, waiting tables, etc) allocated? Did it just work out that everyone wanted to do the exactly perfect job to fill all the needs? I don’t think so.
The only sort of diversity leftists allow is the kind where everyone is exactly the same in every way.
...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 government. There I fixed it.
In the very first episode of The Next Generation the crew of the Enterprise is shopping at a Farpoint bazaar. Then there is the Ferengi and the gold-pressed latinum.
This no monetary system thing is ludicrous to the extreme but they repeated it in the movie First Contact. (avaiable at Hulu for free)
Look at the bright side, the Ferengi and non-Federation worlds adopted the Ron Paul gold standard, hee hee
I’m a Trekkie despite the humanism. Captain Kirk and Warf were favorites because they bucked the milksop humanism.
I’m a Trekkie despite the humanism. Captain Kirk and Warf were favorites because they bucked the milksop humanism.
That is one of the big reasons I like the JJ Abrams movie. They had the Nokia phone in the antique car little Kirk “borrowed”, McCoy mentions he was stripped to his “bones” in his divorce, one of the workers admired Kirk’s motorcycle, obviously it is something that can be replicated and is expensive of the guy would have his own, and is surprised Kikr throws him the keys.
I liked the episode when they had those dissatisifed Federation citizens sabotating the weather system on that hedonistic planet Risa and how the visitors acted like those British sailors hijacked by the Iranians starting to whine about not having their pleasures.
“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.”
Nah. I just wanted to see what green-skinned hottie Capt. Kirk was going to score. Oh yeah, and what random unknown guy on the landing party was going to get killed.
as explained on the show the gold is worthless, its just the way to keep the latinum, which is apparently a liquid.
I think she's blowing smoke. There are no religious connotations to "Landru" in that episode. Watch it. It reminds one almost precisely of the cult of personality you see with a Hugo Chavez or Castro, or more disturbingly--of Obama. It reads as a warning against mindless totalitarianism.
I remember an episode from the Original Series in which a people worshiped “The Sun”; but it was revealed at episode’s end to be “The Son” (of God). Also, the characters constantly make references to God “My God, Man!”, “Oh, my God”, etc.
Interestingly, George Lucas explained to Bill Moyers in a 1999 interview, that he consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs.He wanted to tell an old myth in a new way. But the old myth he referred to was Eastern religion, not Western Christianity. The Force was the God-force of pantheism and New Age Humanism. And the the instruction scenes between Yoda and Obi-wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker provides a comprehensive instruction and initiation into Cosmic Humanism theology.
Which that chatterbox Morn demonstrated in “Who Mourns for Morn”, by regurgitating a glass of latinum, from his second stomach, and giving it to Quark.
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