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Posted on 09/28/2007 9:32:11 AM PDT by goldstategop
Star Trek — the Kirk version — was the first television show I ever watched regularly. By age three, I had become convinced that, just as mid-afternoon was naptime and early morning was breakfast time, Sunday nights were always and forever to be designated as Star Trek time, and I began a lifelong interest in all things science fiction. My social life has been in decline ever since.
To a small town, midwestern boy still learning to read picture books, Star Trek seemed both awesomely exciting and delightfully familiar. On one hand, I revered Kirk, Spock, and McCoy as space-faring titans, legendary futuristic nomads who spent their days gallivanting amongst the stars and doing as they pleased. These were men who had escaped the world of plastic toys and parental authority for something far better: a universe filled with bigger toys, like phasers and space ships, and broader authorities, like Starfleet and the Federation. At the beginning of each episode, Kirk proclaimed that the crew’s mission was “to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” In other words, they ran around getting into trouble and figuring out how stuff worked, which is a pretty accurate summary of the job description for most little kids.
Eventually, the local affiliate cancelled the Sunday-night reruns, but it wasn’t long before the franchise returned with a new crew piloting a new Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. And my how things had changed. Klingons were no longer the enemy, and they had evolved rather quickly from leering, brawl-crazy drunks with strange bumps on their nose bridges into honor-obsessed, vaguely feral warriors. And, in a triumph for diversity casting, one of them was even on the crew of the Enterprise. In the future, apparently, we will rise above any qualms about illegal aliens to embrace — and employ — actual aliens.
Also new were the room-sized virtual reality playgrounds called holodecks. With the touch of a button, these snazzy rooms could put you into any environment you could imagine, even letting you play out your favorite novels as one of the characters. Not wanting to fail on my duties as a child, I immediately began pressuring my parents to begin the conversion process on my bedroom.
In another important change (for me, at least), I was six years old, not three, and already well on my way to becoming both a full-fledged geek and a conservative. Even to my gestating right wing sensibility, changing “no man” in “to boldly go where no man has gone before” to simply “no one” seemed needlessly P.C., an evisceration of one of the original’s most important and traditional lines. Also, it may have made some difference that I still believed girls had cooties. Such are the limits of gender politics to a six year old.
Still, even if my burgeoning conservative radar alerted me to a few of the show’s ideological underpinnings, I managed to completely miss its larger political posturing until far later in life. Where Kirk-era Star Trek took what was essentially a Cold War liberal view of society, arguing for racial tolerance while wrestling (in Kirk’s case, often literally) with relations to foreign — or more accurately, alien — entities of overwhelming power, Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted as little more than an hour long commercial for socialism.
The show was almost Brechtian in its explicit endorsement of some of the wackiest tenets of the left. In the series pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint,” the crew is put on trial by Q, a sarcastic, temperamental, all-powerful being who reflects the show’s disdain for God-figures. During the course of the trial, Lt. Riker proclaims that “Humanity is no longer a savage race!” Roughly translated, this comes out as, “Hey there God, not only are you a belligerent twit, but we don’t need you any more — nyah-nyah, nyah-nyah!” Somewhere, a cranky tenured professor is telling the same thing to his freshman lit class.
With that, the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, reintroduced the series as a vision of the future in which in humanity has transcended its pettiness and imperfections, taming its baser instincts so that it might teeter on the edge of Utopia. Taking place in a moneyless, peaceful, egalitarian society, it announced triumphantly that man, through socialism, can do all — and that when we do, we’ll be lead by a tea-drinking, smartypants Frenchman named Jean-Luc.
The pilot episode’s story is a classic tale of the evils of the market economy, in which a sniveling capitalist overlord withholds all but the most meager resources from his workers. The Farpoint of the title is a grandiose, technologically advanced city built when a developer finds an alien species that can convert energy into matter. The creature feeds on raw energy, and it is starving, so the developer doles out just enough of his planet’s rich geothermal energy resources to keep it alive, forever enslaving the creature to its energy-hording master. In the end, the crew of the Enterprise dishes out a full meal of the ship’s energy and set the creature free.
The episode comes across as a sort of inverted Randian parable that shames anyone who would withhold anything from a person — or in this case, a glowing, city-sized, tentacled alien — who claims need. Society’s job, we’re to understand, is to give freely without regard to cost. True, this works somewhat more plausibly in a society with almost infinite energy resources. Forget ethanol and wind turbines; let’s start funding research into dilithium crystals!
Other early episodes were similarly well-stocked with absurdity. We see short-lived security officer Tasha Yar participate in a tribal fight to the death using a weapon that appears to be a cross between a baseball glove and a spiked, copper-plated watermelon. Somehow this seems like a less than efficient killing device, but I’m sure the prop department thought it looked cool at the time.
Later, young Wesley Crusher, the ship’s requisite brainy, annoying kid, meets up with The Traveler, a sort of interstellar metaphysical shaman. He helps little Wesley to come to the conclusion that “space and time and thought are essentially the same thing,” which sounds like the sort of loopy declaration Barbara Streisand might make on one of her more cogent days.
But despite all this, I remained a Star Trek devotee. As far as pop culture obsessions go, one could certainly do worse. Star Trek products, like the energy provided by dilithium crystals, are nothing if not abundant. With five live action series and one cartoon comprising 30 seasons and 722 episodes of television, as well as 10 movies, a handful of video games, and hundreds of officially licensed novels, reference books, and short stories, it’s entirely possible to become completely drunk on Star Trek and its ancillary material. It may not be as potent as Romulan ale, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to come by. For a show that despised capitalism, it sure knew how to make money selling stuff.
In some ways, it’s strange to think that so many conservatives — and, as evidenced here today, so many conservative pundits — are also science-fiction fans, and even stranger to find that they’re fans of a show as vigorously liberal as Star Trek. Last I heard, conservatives were supposed to stand athwart history yelling “stop!,” not peer into the future drooling “cool.” But in another way, it makes sense. Star Trek, like all good science fiction, encourages its fans to spend time considering how society will evolve, and what societal consequences will result from changes in technology, media, and government policy. It’s punditry as pulp adventure. From Star Trek to National Review — surely that must qualify as “to boldly go…”
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I’m really bummed there are no Star Treks series on currently. The Star Trek series was always thought-provoking, intelligent storytelling. That just doesn’t fly in this current climate of lobotomizing reality shows.
Well.....occasionally, anyway.
I grew up watching ST:TNG and I liked it. Not everything has to be politicized. It’s a TV show. I like Farscape too. I don’t agree totally with the creators’ world view, but I like the show.
Star Trek the Neurotic Generation had better effects, better acting, and better scripting than “old” Star Trek.
But the old Star Trek had better stories and was a lot more fun. If I want to be preached at, I’ll go to church.
They were always pretty much aligned with the left in their social agenda. If you payed careful attention you would see that they didn’t like capitalism. Still, I watched it religiously and still catch the reruns. I can sift through the propaganda and still enjoy the show.
A show on sci-fi comes on mondays @ 7pm. Enterprise, is a prequal to the very first ST series with Kirk & Bones. It has Scot Bakula playing the capt. It is pretty good but you would need to judge it for yourself.
Actually, if you examine ST:TNG, you’ll see that the period when the show started getting wildly popular...from about season 3 onwards...is when they started abandoning (or at least playing down) some of Roddenberry’s loopier liberal themes, and started playing up more of the Kirk-esque badass elements. Riker becaume more of a traditional authority figure, and less of an Alan Alda-meets-the horny lounge lizard kind of guy. Worf was the honor figure. The Ferengi, the capitalist bad guys, utterly flopped as villains, and so the anti-capitalist stuff was played down. The Romulans, inspired by Rome and modern day China, became the new villains, along with the Borg. Think about it; who typifies the “hive mind” better than liberals?
Carolyn
JJ Abrams is going to screw all of Trekdom up in his movie due out Christmas 2008.
Shatner is Kirk! Nimoy is Spock! Recasting those icons with MTV generation people will give the same results of replacing Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger!
Conservatism is about finding the best in ourselves and in others and freeing the human spirit from the shackles of oppression. There is no reason, therefore, that a conservative should not embrace the freedom offered by science fiction. However, the liberalism of Trek is highly annoying, which is why when push comes to shove I am a Stargate SG-1 fan. :)
Ok. Spock’s Brain was DREADFUL.
I LOVED the original series. Campy and fun. I still have a concordance somewhere.
TNG was just boring to me.
Now, Deep Space 9 was the best soap opera on tv!
Voyager is my favorite, behind the Original.
I’d take Janeway as my Captain over ol’ Boiled Onion Head any day. :)
During the course of the trial, Lt. Riker proclaims that “Humanity is no longer a savage race!” Roughly translated, this comes out as, “Hey there God, not only are you a belligerent twit, but we don’t need you any more — nyah-nyah, nyah-nyah!” Somewhere, a cranky tenured professor is telling the same thing to his freshman lit class.
The writer missed the point,Q was a near omnipotent being that had all the negative qualities in himself that he hated in mankind,in other words a Super jerk.I never saw any anti religion or anti capitalism in that episode.some people just like grasping at straws
As a science fiction geek I still loved it.
I didn't care much for The Voyage Home and the Final Frontier films, and I didn't care much for the Next Generation or Enterprise Series.
The one TOS episode that revealed Kirk to be a good Conservative was The Omega Glory. However, in later years, Roddenberry's pacifism and liberal leanings pretty much ruined the franchise, when he started up the Next Generation Series.
I mean, come on, what self-respecting starship captain would command his vessel with his psychologist sitting next to him all the time.
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Spock, Scotty, Bones, Kirk and the other O.G.’s solved problems by shooting, socking and applying the classic “two clasped hand special sock to the back of the neck”.
When the female skipper showed up I abandoned ship. BTW, wasn’t she Patricia Shroeder?
Nah, Kirk just had a thing for green women.
And as Eddie Murphy said, “If the b!tch is green, there must be something wrong with the pu—y.”
The other versions are for fags
Now, the Enterprise series was a different creature altogether--a missed opportunity to create something memorable.
Give me Kirk over Picard anyday. Picard may have been more “in control” of things, but Kirk always got the women.
I had to settle for reruns of the original ST but I watched the ST: TNG. Couldn’t access ST: Enterprise so I’m reduced to watching re-runs. I do enjoy Star Trek. I also enjoyed watching another Roddenberry series called “Andromeda”. I don’t even think re-runs are being played on that one. Dang! It was good too.
DS-9 was by far the best of the “new” series. Unfortunately, it had a dull and uninspired finish.
jw
Hi, goldstategop:
The original “Star Trek” always seemed steeped in the Cold War to me. The Klingons were the Russians and Kirk was always ready to go to war at the drop of a hat.
“ST:TNG”, “DS-9” and “Voyager” reflected the insidious creep of Political Correctness and issued the dawn of the Metrosexual Ship’s Captain. One’s whose first line of defense was Shields and Negotiations. Very much in line with the political climate of the day.
Thankfully, “Babylon-5” was there to show the Roddenberry Redux kids that a lower budgeted show with superior Special Effects and put them all to shame.
Jack.
She wasn’t a psychologist - she was the zampolit. Never doubt it. Ever crew member on the ST:TNG Enterprise was just one improper, non-PC emotion or statement away from “re-education.”
I’ll take a female skipper. Honor Harrington comes to mind.
But I don’t think she’d last long in the Federation Star Fleet.
The three things I dislike in any science fiction:
1. Really, really bad science that you just can’t believe even as fiction
2. Leftist utopianism
3. Time travel (probably the most abused and over-used sci-fi plot trick)
jw
Picard: "I understand what you've done here, Q. But I think the lesson could have been learned without the loss of 18 members of my crew."
Q: If you can't take a little bloody nose, then maybe you should go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous..., with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid!"
That episode finally showed some backbone.
a bump to that too... Babylon-5 was very good.
jw
I enjoyed some of the Voyager episodes, but the final episode was just horrible. The crew was stranded a gazillion miles from our system for seven years. But as they are flying home and see Earth for the first time in 7 years they just stand silently at their stations? I expected a little celebration or emotion or something!!
But TNG gave us MUCH better Klingons and Romulans, and the REALLY frightening villains of the ST Universe - the Borg.
Lazy script writers gave us a new latin phrase:
Deus Ex Tachion
I also remember one story where Data creates a small girl child andriod, similar to himself. The Federation wants the andriod but Picard argues - rather successfully IMO - that the state has no right to confiscate the children of its citizens. That doesn't sound like socialism to me.
I think the main complaint most Trekie fans have with ST:TOS and TNG is that most Trekies dig the hound-dog Kirk - fighting and - well, you know - his way across the galaxy. Shatner played his great - a man who knows he's being paid to make decisions, makes them, and doesn't look back. That was one of the best scenes in the horrid ST V movie. As Spock and Bones look at their past and have reqrets, Kirk wants nothing of it. The past is the past! He's made his choices and now, by damn, he'll live with them. Picard on the other hand, was the talker, the deep thinker, the boring captain. Even in the the first TNG movie, Picard gets beat up by the main villian. Yet, when he brings Kirk back, Kirk kicks that guys arse.
Anti-Irish? That’s a new take. How so?
LOL.
If only someone could go back in time and kill all the lazy writers that used time travel to get every one out of a pickle at the last moment!
True!
The author missed a few glaring conservative points.
Star Trek NG was floundering by the end of the second season. It was a intentional move to more conservative plot lines that saved them.
Voyager was rescuded by the sex appeal of the curvacious borg character.
Enterprise was EXPLICITLY stated to be a move to a more kirk like anti-pc effort. But that floundered when PC flooded back into the writing. (stygma, the final episode with the racism overtone ham fisted waste of Peter Weller’s acting talents)
The liberals are quick to claim trek but that is about as successful as their perenial lifestyle claims on dead corpses.
Self Reliance always worked on Trek.
Capitalism did save the day when negotiating.
it was almost truth justice and the american way makes for a superior galactic future.
ping
John Colicos, who portayed the Klingon governor in that episode where Kirk and Spock were trying to get the Organaians to fight back against Klingon occupation. actually provided the show with how the Klingons should look. He described them to the producers as “Mongols in outer space”. Interestingly on TNG, they seemed more like Vikings.
My most devout desire was (and is!) a technophilic, capitalistic, expansionist, militaristic society to come and kick the Federation, Klingon and Borg’s combined @$$e@ from one end of the galaxy to the next for fun and profit.
You are not MORG. You are not IMORG. Gaaaaa!
Actually, given the worlds and races viciously subjugated by the Klingon Empire, I was actually in favor of the plan to attack the Klingons in ST:The Undiscovered Country. I mean, if the Federation had been similarly weakened, what the would the Klingons have done?
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