Society and Star Trek
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Star Trek
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Gene Roddenberry was an ardent proponent of egalitarian politics, and frequently used the shows to showcase his vision of a future society based on those principles.
Early progress
A prominent female crew member, Uhura, was played by Nichelle Nichols, one of the first African American women to hold a major acting role on American television. Only two decades after the second World War, Star Trek featured an officer of Asian ancestry, Hikaru Sulu (George Takei). In the second season, a Russian character, Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) was added.Modern viewers might find the old series' portrayals of minorities and women to be prejudiced by today's standards, but the program was progressive and daring for its time. One of Star Trek's claims to fame in the United States is that it featured the first televised kiss between a white character and a black character. The episode "Plato's Stepchildren" showed Captain Kirk and Uhura being mind-controlled and unwilling, but they pressed their lips together, though there was no passion in it.
Later series also went against stereotypes. Star Trek: The Next Generation had a bald, French man as its main character, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine starred a black man, and Star Trek: Voyager starred a woman as captain. Additionally, as Klingons had been used in the original series to represent the real-world Soviet Union and the Cold War going on, TNG's use of a Klingon ally in the main cast foreshadowed the end of the Cold War two years before the Berlin Wall fell.
Lesbian and gay characters
The canonical Star Trek television series have never portrayed any openly gay or lesbian human characters, despite pleas from many gay and gay-friendly fans over the years to include such characters. In the late 1990s gay characters and crew members began to appear in Star Trek novels, comic books and video games. Although Roddenberry had promised to introduce gay characters into the fourth season of , no gay crew member was ever introduced into a Star Trek television series, although certain future episodes would explore the issue of gender identity among extraterrestrials, and hints were dropped that certain characters might have been bisexual. Other science fiction-fantasy franchises would integrate gay characters into their respective canons; examples include Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Babylon 5, and Firefly.Federation economics
added much more information on the Star Trek universe. The Federation has an economy of abundance without money, enabled by advanced replicator technology. Labor, purchase, and sale are not necessary, as there is no scarcity to limit the satisfaction of one's material needs and wants. Greed and jealousy are thus greatly reduced. Characters often explain that the purpose of the people of the Federation is personal and universal beneficence. However, certain resources are still limited, such as those necessary to power warp and replicator technology, and interplanetary commerce is not uncommon. TNG had the Ferengi obsessed by "gold"; later this was elaborated into a fictitious precious material called "gold-pressed latinum", for which the principle of economic scarcity presumably still prevails.Alien species
Many of the alien species encountered in the series are strikingly similar to humans, both in physical form and in relationships. Mixed-race offspring are also possible. In the TNG episode "The Chase", it is explained that many primordial worlds of the galaxy were "seeded" by an ancient race of space-travellers, so that their dying race would live on in various forms around the galaxy. The TOS episode "The Paradise Syndrome" also addresses the question of why the galaxy has so many humanoid species. In translating markings on an obelisk, Mr. Spock reads among other things that a group of space-travellers called the Preservers seeded them or arranged for their long-term protection.Trekkies and Trekkers
Fans of the original Star Trek series came to be known as Trekkies. By the time Star Trek: The Next Generation was produced, the term "Trekkies" had come to imply a certain nerdy fanaticism among fans and was considered pejorative by some. In response, some fans of the new series decided to call themselves "Trekkers". The terms have become interchangeable.Star Trek as a religion
After Roddenberry's death in 1991 (and indeed for some time before) there were growing signs that some Trekkies/Trekkers have gone beyond looking at the franchise as simply entertainment, and are now considering Roddenberry's concepts to be almost a religion unto itself. This first manifested itself in the negative response of some fans to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and its grittier, less-positive look at the future, which led to some fans accusing the show's producers (particularly Roddenberry's successor Rick Berman) of virtual blasphemy. The later series Voyager and particularly Enterprise, as well as most of the movies, have also come under fire for allegedly violating Roddenberry's principles, although supporters of post-Roddenberry producers of the franchise credit Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore and others for allowing Star Trek to expand far beyond its creator's original dream.Star Trek in pop culture
Due to its popularity, some of the concepts and the language of Star Trek have found their way into the culture of the population at large and can be considered to be pop culture. Phrases such as "Beam me up, Scotty!", "He's dead, Jim", and "Resistance is futile" are widely recognized and understood, as are warp drive and transporters. However, the exact phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" is never actually uttered in any episode of the Original Series although there are a couple of examples of "Beam us up, Scotty" being uttered in the Animated Series. The phrase "to boldly go..." is often the example given for the avoidance of split infinitives in English grammar. The term "red shirt" has been used in many instances to refer to extras in television series or video games whose only point seems to be cannon fodder. This phrase originated from the security ensigns that beamed down to planets with the main characters in TOS, who wore red shirts.
Star Trek has been referenced, parodied and spoofed in a wide range of television series, movies and other contexts. See References to Star Trek for a listing of such references.
In 1977, due to lobbying from fans of the series, NASA renamed its prototype space shuttle from Constitution to Enterprise.
In the early 1990s, a project at Apple Computer to port the Macintosh operating system to non-Apple personal computers was given the code-name of the Star Trek project as its goal was to go "where no Mac had gone before".
In 1996 the province of Ontario issued an optional Star Trek license plate. It was discontinued in the early 2000s.
In 2004, billionaire Richard Branson announced plans to develop the first commercial passenger carrier into space, Virgin Galactic. The first spacecraft of the line will be called the V.S.S. Enterprise and the second V.S.S. Voyager.
Role-playing worlds
Similar in concept to Fan Series, literally thousands of people have created their own little pockets of the Star Trek universe to gather with their friends and create new stories and adventures. Each player creates a character, which is frequently based on the more popular alien species from the various series (including Klingons, Vulcans, Trill, Betazoids, as well as Humans), and some also play the less-seen species, such as Deltans.The players are assigned to simulations ('sims') or platforms as crewmembers, and each sim represents a star base, star ship, a colony, etc. The most common thing is to find people simming as crewmembers aboard a Starfleet vessel, with less common examples see people aboard Starfleet star bases or planet-based facilities.
The games operate by having each crew member write mini-stories called 'posts' and having them distributed (generally by email) to the rest of the crew to read. The posts are based around the writer's character's reactions to and involvement with a central storyline for their particular simulation. For example, if their Star Ship is under attack and their character is an engineer, they might write a post featuring their character repairing the shield generators. Or, if their character was a Tactical Officer, they could write about trying to disable the attacker's weapons with the phasers. Or if they were a doctor, they could write about trying to treat the injured. The possibilities are endless.
Other writers create their own posts simultaneously from their character's Point of View. Posts are distributed to the crews in one of several ways, which include:
- All posts are sent to a central email address where the Game Master (who typically plays the Captain of the particular ship) reads them, edits for inconsistencies, spelling/grammar, etc, then distributes them via email to everyone on the crew.
- Posts are emailed directly from the author to every other crewmember. (This is generally achieved via the use of a Mailing list such as Yahoo Groups.)
- Posts may be placed on a bulletin board
- A live interactive chat is held, scheduled by the Captain or Game Master. (Depending from group to group, the Captain position may be held by another person, different from the Game Master)
The story telling experience is also enlarged in this medium, as there is no budget or time restriction imposed as there is for an episode or movie. Also, plot lines are not restricted to following the activities of only a handful of characters. Games often contain anywhere from 5 to 10 to 20+ writers and characters, and each is able to partake in any given storyline, and contribute significantly to the plot. (Unlike in the series', plots are not driven solely by the highest ranking characters, with even the newest members playing the most pivotal roles.)
The medium also allows fans to re-explore old territory that may only have been touched upon a few times in the various series. Some stories see ships taken across into the Mirror Universe, or visiting worlds only seen in the Original Series, such as the civilisation based around 1930's Chicago mobsters. Wars are fought against old enemies, such as the Borg and Romulans and The Dominion. Brand new races and planets are also created in the many different games.
As is typical of most games, the writer's character is given a rank and position of responsibility (just like most of the characters in the series and movies), and as their experience in the game grows, they are rewarded with promotions to higher ranks, and sometimes also with commendations. These types of rewards are greatly respected by those in the game, and some players even address their in-game superiors as 'sir' or 'ma'am' during instant message conversations and the like.
Many different games have come and gone over the years, and games of this manner have existed on the internet for at least the last 10 years. Some games consist of only a small number of players with only a single simulated ship, whilst others have vast 'fleets', literally containing hundreds of players on dozens of different simulations, and games of all manner of sizes in-between.
The medium in which the game takes place has varied over the years. Some are live chats, traditionally held on IRC, while others have been held on bulletin boards and email lists. The experience varies from group to group. Several groups have even existed on the Prodigy web boards, and AOL's bulletin boards. Some groups continue to use a bulletin board style over an email based system, thus allowing a central location where the group can view their 'posts' rather than stuffing their email boxes with the game email.
Technological inspiration
In 2006, William Shatner and The History Channel presented a television program entitled "How William Shatner Changed the World" which showed how concepts and technology from Star Trek inspired real-life inventions. These include:- The mobile phone from Kirk's communicator
- Non-invasive medical scanning equipment from McCoy's sickbay
- The iPod from the Enterprise-D's digital music library
See also
References
External links
article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki
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