Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Rant About Star Trek: Enterprise That Does Probably Not Belong Here
Reve BM, Editorial, rant | March 13, 2001 | Reve BM

Posted on 03/13/2002 3:13:17 PM PST by ReveBM

Okay, let me first off say that I am a big fan of the newest Star Trek series, Enterprise. I thought that the last series, Voyager, had gotten tired and had too many episodes revolving around the masturbatory holodeck. And, don't even get me started on the series before that, Deep Space 9, with its "angry pissed-off black man in space" theme.

The new Enterprise series has a freshness about it not seen in my opinion since the original series of 1967-69, what with the swashbuckling Captain Kirk. A good slice of the new series' appeal for me is its handsome, rugged, all-American Captain, Jonathan Archer.

One particular episode, though, rubbed me the wrong way. If you've watched the series you may remember the pivotal episode where they visit the "Great Plume of Agasoria", a stellar object that has religious significance for many alien peoples. Smack in the middle of this episode, the alien doctor pointedly asks Captain Archer whether he has a faith (I don't remember the exact wording, he may have used religion or some other wording).

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

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.

Perhaps in the Star Trek future, people who are religious do not go into space, staying on their farms (as shown in the first episode of the series) or perhaps forming small communities on spacefaring cargo ships (as shown in another episode). However, religious people don't seem to go into Star Fleet, to my knowledge. It's fine and understandable to run across aliens who are committed religiously, particularly the Vulcans, but I have yet in my memory to run across a significant Star Trek character who is committed to Christianity. You might think I'm harping on Christianity in particular, but it's not only a major and still-growing religion in our world today, but it's the dominant religion in the United States, which fields a large portion of visible Star Fleet personnel, perhaps due to the San Francisco location of its training center (or perhaps many other people in the world died during nuclear war)?

Wait, I get it, maybe religious people are somehow screened out during Star Fleet Academy, perhaps for unacceptable views they might have on one or another topic.

Let's also not forget that in the future, at least according to Star Trek, there is no capitalism at some point. The description of how this happens and in what century is vague, but I vividly remember more than one Star Trek Captain saying that in the future they don't use money anymore, just look to expand their "human potential". Thank God for the Ferengi.

Star Trek is written by writers and reflects their view of what the future will be like. They obviously seem to assume that Christianity and capitalism will die out over the generations. This reflects the fondness of liberals in particular to enter our schools and inculcate our young people so that they don't have unacceptable, politically incorrect views among the future generations, whether regarding homosexuality or some other topic.

It would have been extremely refreshing to have had Captain Archer at LEAST say "Yes, I have a faith, but it's very personal to me" and leave it at that.

Whether Christianity could survive the discovery of intelligent life on other planets is a topic for another day. I have read some science fiction suggesting it could. Others may disagree.

Have a nice day!


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: atheist; starfleetmafia
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 161-177 next last
To: Dr. Frank
I heard Picard state this explicitly himself, either in an episode or in one of the films. (Which is weird in a way, because I don't think this was true in Kirk's time, I think they did have money; apparently the Federation of the future "abolishes money" within a span of 70 years or so....)

Actually, there is a conflict on this topic within the "original series", when extended to include the feature films. In several episodes of the old TV series, there are references to the use of money by people aboard ship. While on board a Space Station, the crew members on "shore leave" have to buy drinks. Uhura asks: "how much for the Tribble". People are heard wagering in monetary units which are simply called "credits". The "parallel universe" Kirk tries to bribe Spock.

However, when we fast-forward to Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home, there is at least one scene that leads the audience to think that money is not used in Kirk's time (the restaurant scene). That might be explained away as a cashless (as contrasted with moneyless) period. Kirk's 23rd-Century debit card would probably not work at Pizza Hut.

61 posted on 03/13/2002 8:56:20 PM PST by Cloud William
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

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

I agree. However, I was a bit surprised that the religion question was not the usual set-up for a response dismissing religion as a silly superstition, discredited since the 21st century. We'ver certainly seen that one beore.

62 posted on 03/13/2002 9:01:30 PM PST by Cloud William
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Hodar
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.

You must've missed the Vulcan ritual scenes in Star Trek III - The Search for Spock. Several of the Vulcan guards had prominent "Asian" features. Also, the Vulcan IDIC symbol refers to "Infinite Diversity, in Infinite Combinations". I suppose they managed to evolve beyond the need to be "hyphenated-Vulans"!

63 posted on 03/13/2002 9:14:07 PM PST by Cloud William
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: 1/1,000,000th%
They have the transporters and the synthesizers, so manufacturing and short range transportation are no longer economic considerations. Energy is, but appears to be even more plentiful than water today.

Long range commerce seems to be largely in luxury goods. Remember some of Quark's trading concessions?

I don't think that the Star Trek universe's economics stands up to scrutiny any better than its physics or its military science.
64 posted on 03/13/2002 9:18:17 PM PST by VietVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: Hodar
the entire rationale for having Vulcan's be a monothlistic society just came crashing down. With multiple races, each with diffent views

One would think a lesser feat of reason of a race devoted to exclusively to logic would be that melanin content in the skin has no bearing on one's capacity for logic.

65 posted on 03/13/2002 9:22:59 PM PST by Pistias
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: ReveBM
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!

66 posted on 03/13/2002 9:29:28 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReveBM
And, don't even get me started on the series before that, Deep Space 9, with its "angry pissed-off black man in space"

Damn! You sound like you think every "black man" on TV is angry and POed.

In fact you sound like some black guys who think every white guy is out to get them.

Oh, and currently Enterprise is the worst Star Trek of the five. It's stories are too drab and unexciting (might change though).
DS9 is the best. IMHO

67 posted on 03/13/2002 9:33:51 PM PST by rwb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReveBM
people who think "keeping an open mind" is one of life's highest virtues. I respect people more who've thought deeply about various things and have opinions about them.

"Keeping an open mind" about something and having an opinion about it are not mutually exclusive, though you appear to believe so.

68 posted on 03/13/2002 9:37:24 PM PST by rwb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: egarvue
I'm glad to see adventure come back into the Trek universe.

Me, too, and not only for the adventure.

Tonight the Enterprise engineers built their first "phase cannons" and kicked alien bug-eye.

69 posted on 03/13/2002 9:40:50 PM PST by Jay W
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: ReveBM
It's a crazy insane Rant. wink wink And for the record Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the best Star Trek ever!!!!And they only had a couple of angry black man episodes which aired near the end of the shows run. And were completely out of place.

I think that you are missing the bigger issues on ST:E. For example they just had an episode called Dear Doctor. Where they encounter a pre-warp race threaten by an uncurable desease. There is a second less advanced race living on the planet as servants for the first race. After lecturing the humans not to judge the treatment of the servant race, the Doctor tells the Capt that he doubts a cure can be found. But surprise surprise, the very next day he finds a cure and determines that they second race would be better off if the first race died out. So he tells Capt Archer that he wants to withhold the cure. Because, get this, he does not want to interfere with evolution. The Doctor has concluded that the second race might be evolving into something better. And if they are evolving, they might be better off on their own. So he thinks that it would be just great to withhold the cure, let the first race die out. So that maybe thousands of years in the future the second race might be better off. Archer ends up taking the "enlighten" view that they should let the first race die out so that they don't interfer with evolution. In the "Scientific" future they don't want to interfer with blind chance.

They also have an anti-hunting show coming up. Where they visit a planet of hunters. It turns out that the hunters favorite prey is intelligent. See animals are people too.

70 posted on 03/13/2002 9:41:17 PM PST by Sci Fi Guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Frank
Small problem: they've "abolished money". (!) I heard Picard state this explicitly himself, either in an episode or in one of the films. (Which is weird in a way, because I don't think this was true in Kirk's time, I think they did have money; apparently the Federation of the future "abolishes money" within a span of 70 years or so....)

They did, and they said that they didn't eat real meat. Picard made a big anti-religion speech in one show. Which is why I think Deep Space Nine was so much better. They had crime, vice, and the mob. They had shows dealing with faith, conversion, and other religious issues too.

So if the future society of Star Trek is a free society, and has no money, then how is their government "committing" anything to "Monuments"? What, are people just doing everything that is necessary (sweeping the floors, serving food, etc), voluntarily?

You've given several examples of why Star Trek: The Next Generation was the worst of all the Star Treks. Picard was the liberal ideal of a military officer. And ST:TNG was the liberal paradise. No religion, No money(and by extension no business or private property), and an authoritarian social order with the perfect liberal giving the orders.

71 posted on 03/13/2002 10:03:40 PM PST by Sci Fi Guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: Jonah Hex
Did you see JMS' latest - "Jeremiah" - on Showtime? What did you think? I liked it, and will watch the series. JMS is a great, imaginitive writer!
72 posted on 03/13/2002 10:37:55 PM PST by B5Lurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: <1/1,000,000th%
Has anyone ever heard a decent rationalization of how the Federation economy worked?

In Kirk's day the federation economy seemed to be more or less like ours. They had dilithium miners out there, trying to get rich (battling the horta), and there was that fat slob of a trader who sold them the tribbles. Only in the next series -- with Cpt. Pickard and that idiot "counselor" with the jugs whose job was announcing her feelings -- did the economy vanish, as in a Hollywood scriptwriter's Bolshevik fantasy.

73 posted on 03/14/2002 2:47:31 AM PST by PatrickHenry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: ReveBM
In the the "Great Plume" episode, the Doctor participates in a religious ritual. The Vulcan babe has been shown expressing her beliefs in something that resembles a combination of yoga and pantheism. A cogent argument could be made that Enterprise advocates freedom of religion, not exactly a novel concept to our Founding Fathers.

With regard to the capitalism comments on this thread, the transport ship episode showed interstellar commerce, and multiple episodes show businesses in a favorable light. However, it seems entirely appropriate to separate the commerce from the military. To criticize Enterprise for not spending more time showing capitalism is kind of like complaining that "Saving Private Ryan" didn't focus on the merchant marines.

74 posted on 03/14/2002 3:03:58 AM PST by Young Rhino
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReveBM
You can actually watch it?
The acting is weak.
The stories are poor.
The dialog is worse.
The predictability of the situation is beyond boring
The Star Trek Universe - what ever bad happens at the start, will be set right in under 55 minutes.

The only thing it has going for it is the opening song. Richard Dean Anderson, StarGate SGI is much more fun. (ShowTime)

75 posted on 03/14/2002 3:15:08 AM PST by Utopia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: B5Lurker
Nope, I hadn't. (I've been traveling a lot lately.)

I watched all of the B5 series, however, and Crusade. JMS definitely earned his "chops" writing for other series and proved it with his own.

76 posted on 03/14/2002 3:29:00 AM PST by Jonah Hex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry
(Although it's rumoured around Star Fleet Academy that once you go Vulcan, you never go back.)

The only problem is that Vulcans only do it once every seven years!

77 posted on 03/14/2002 3:34:55 AM PST by reg45
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

Comment #78 Removed by Moderator

To: Dr. Frank;PatrickHenry
I've gotta agree. Socialist dribble (tribble?).
79 posted on 03/14/2002 4:42:39 AM PST by <1/1,000,000th%
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: ReveBM
I think your dead on! This has always been the thing that turned me off about startrek most. Other than their leftist views its been a good show. We should hope our future is as productive as the show depicts. Of course they will have to quit being godless socialists or it will never happen except in the movies.
80 posted on 03/14/2002 5:17:45 AM PST by Khepera
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 161-177 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson