As a child of the 80’s I remember watching re-runs of the Original series and being constantly fascinated with the different worlds & ideas. For me Star Trek is the embodiment of science fiction, the big what-if scenario with a dose of science based stuff thrown in. It was a glimpse into the future. As Roddenberry put it…Wagon Train to the Stars.
(Laika, Keystone/Getty images)
Even now, over 35 years
later, if my dad (now 73) sees me watching any kind of science fiction he
starts telling me, for the zillionth time how when he was young they read comic
books about going to the moon and then they all watched the space race.
Comic books were becoming reality. He, and many others, followed with rapt
attention the first satellites to orbit the planet, the first dog in space
(Laika, 1957 and how the bloody Russians didn’t care about getting him back),
he laughs at the antics the American crews used to get up to when contacting
Earth and retells the story of Apollo 13, as if anyone on the planet doesn’t
know the story at this stage. “Houston we have a problem”
But for me, Star Trek could be the same. Is Star
Trek a window into our future? In the late 80’s when RTE broadcast the
Next Generation, I remember watching it thinking…”It’s Star Trek but
not as we know it”. At the tender age of 11 I didn’t understand the idea
of a series reboot but I didn’t care. This was something new, crisp,
clean and fun. Exploring space and travelling – for the first time –
where no ONE had gone before, as opposed to the
Original series where no MAN had gone before. Obviously women
were superior in the 1960’s and had gone there first, much like the American’s
beating the Russian’s to the moon.
The ideals in Star Trek, did and still attract me.
Equality, free medical care, free education & a society devoid of
money. Futuristic ideals that sound fantastic (albeit naive), some would
say sound Communistic (go Russia!) and others who think it’s all just
fiction. But since Star Trek aired over 50 years ago we see laptops and
handheld computers, Mobile phones (cell phones if you’re American), 3d printers
(aka replicators), mass freely available worldwide communications and freedom
of information, universal translators – there’s an app for that called Voice Translator by
TalirApps which understands 71 languages, androids like Data, the list goes on…
(Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro (right) and Geminoid
HI-1)
So what’s next?
Research is currently being funded into FTL, (Faster Than Light) travel so will
we see warp speed any time soon, I hope so. The Mission to Mars is
probably the most exciting project of our time. Mars is the stepping stone
of the human race on its voyage into the universe. Human settlement on Mars
will aid our understanding of the origins of the solar system, the origins of
life and our place in the universe. As with the Apollo Moon landings, a human
mission to Mars will inspire generations to believe that all things are
possible, anything can be achieved. I like this idea. Will we get
there, who knows, but what will we accomplish on the way; we will inspire young
people to become scientists, engineers, doctors, jet propulsion experts.
In the mean time what will they discover and invent. That’s the ball game
folks.
The social and political
debates that Star Trek explored are the most important things to me. In
the Original series, there were constant debates about society and they were
the only TV series that got away with it because it was based in the future so
wasn’t real. TV history and real-life history changed when Kirk and Uhuru
(Nichelle Nicholes) kissed, but Roddenberry got away with it whilst planting
the idea of interracial relationships in the psyche of Americans. Don’t
forget this was the 1960’s, race riots & protests...
Star Trek was the first
show to cast an African American woman in a role that was not a servant/maid or
second class citizen. In an interview, Nichelle Nichols, who played the
black female communications officer, said that the day after she told
Roddenberry she planned to leave the show, she was at a fund-raiser at the
NAACP and was told there was a big fan who wanted to meet her. Nichols said,
I thought it was a
Trekkie, and so I said, ‘Sure.’ I looked across the room, and there was Dr.
Martin Luther King walking towards me with this big grin on his face. He
reached out to me and said, ‘Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.’ He said
that Star Trek was the only show that he, and his wife Coretta, would allow
their three little children to stay up and watch. [She told King about her
plans to leave the series.] I never got to tell him why, because he said, ‘You
can’t. You’re part of history.’
When she told Roddenberry
what King had said, he cried. She went
on to recruit & influence generations of African American astronauts.
Nichols also influenced
another of my favourite actors – Whoppi Goldberg – a regular in the Next
Generation – to become an actor. Nichols has said in multiple interviews
that Goldberg told her that as a child seeing Star Trek for the first time, she
ran around the house screaming, “Hey Mom! Look! There’s a black woman on the TV
and she ain’t no maid!”
Throughout the three year
run, individual episodes made strong comments on sexism and feminism, racism
and improving race relations, as well as militarism and peace, all major social
issues during the late 1960’s, and to a different degree, social issues of
today.
In the Next Generation,
the idea of ownership, freewill and sentience were constant themes for Data’s
character to explore, which, for me made his character so much more interesting.
In fact, it was probably the characters redeeming quality (as opposed to Wesley
Crusher who was annoying all the time). In today’s context, this equates
to slavery and the trafficking of people/children for prostitution. In my
college years I remember conversation about philosophy and faith – Star Trek
being a constant reference.
In the Outcast (117th
Episode, S05, E17) there is an interesting story of a race called the
J’naii. They are a race with no gender. When the main character of
the story admits to identifying as female after being seen kissing Riker (that
bloody kissing again) it leads her down the path of receiving, against her will
“Psychotectic Therapy”. Basically being changed to having no
gender. During the episode Worf admits to being uncomfortable with the
J’naii due to pre-conceived ideas of gender but changes his mind by the end of
the episode.
There’s
not a lot of difference between this story (aired in 1992) and the constant
struggle by LGBT people for equal rights. You need only look at countries
like Qatar that put LGBT people to death and most of the African countries
where “Conversion Therapy” is regularly used. Whilst sometimes, the
treatment of LGBT issues in Star Trek have been clumsy (and some would say
haven’t gone far enough) hopefully this is all about to change with the new
series, Star Trek; Discovery, which has just hit our TV screens touting an
openly gay character played by a gay actor who should understand how to play
the part. Let’s hope it works.
Constant complaint I hear
include...We shouldn’t care about LGBT stars coming out...We shouldn’t care if LGBT
characters are on TV...What do the Gays need Pride for?...These questions I will
blog about next week.
The older I get (over 40 now) I have become to realise that the themes explored in Star Trek endure
for decades after their first airing. This makes Star Trek timeless and
always relevant. At this stage it should be put on the leaving cert
curriculum.
John "The Captain" Ryan.
#Sci-Fi #geminoid #sxsw #StarTrek #LGBT
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