The crew of the Enterprise in Star Trek IV- The Voyage Home (1986)
Over the course of 50 years, Star Trek (ST) has grown from a cult television show — cancelled after just three seasons — to a franchise that has generated six television series comprising more than 700 episodes, 13 films, and an uncountable number of books and comics. Its diverse fan base stretches across the world, with a fictional universe of depth unmatched by anything save that other great science fiction (SF) saga: Star Wars.
Many aspects of the original ST show, which was aired from 1966-1969, seem dated today. Yet it continues to resonate despite its perceived flaws. One of the reasons for this longevity is the important difference between ST and other SF: its optimistic projection of the future.
Before ST there had been, in literature, the dystopian visions of Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Fahrenheit 451. In film, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Thing From Another World (1951), The War of the Worlds (1953), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Time Machine (1960) depicted paranoiac scenarios involving either hostile aliens or inept human beings.
The cult TV show was ahead of its time with its vision of a multiracial, post-capitalist world
While all of these works have merit, ST took a different path, and portrayed a future in which humanity had regrouped and united after near-cataclysmic global warfare. Gone was the concept of the nation state. Gone also was the concept of money. Poverty and hunger had been eliminated. Race and sex were no longer barriers to social mobility. Humankind had finally evolved, grown out of its infancy, and, recognising that a galaxy of other species was out there, had come to embrace them in a United Federation of Planets.
The main crew of the Starship Enterprise reflected this new harmony: while Captain Kirk and Dr McCoy were white American males, the helmsman Sulu was Japanese, the navigator Chekov was Russian, the chief engineer Scott was Scottish, the communications officer Uhura was a black woman, and the science/first officer Spock was a half-human, half-Vulcan alien.
Remembering that ST was aired in the United States during a decade of divisive social and political crises, it is in some ways remarkable that this champion of a post-nationalist, post-capitalist, multiracial world acquired such popularity. And while the emphasis of the show was usually on the trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, the presence of the other characters should not be dismissed.
“An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains – however improbable – must be the truth.” — Mr. Spock (as descendant of Sherlock Holmes)
Nichelle Nichols, whose character Uhura often had little to do, wanted to leave ST after its first season, but was convinced to stay on when Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a fan of the show, remarked to her how important her role was for black people. In later years, Nichols went on to use her fame to encourage more women to join Nasa.
It was powerful ideas which made the show such a success, as series creator Gene Roddenberry and various writers indirectly commented on issues of race, politics, the environment and, of course, science. Parallel universes, time travel, artificial intelligence/life, faster-than-light travel, and a host of other theories and technologies were explored by writers who included famous SF authors such as Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, and Norman Spinrad. Even the SF master, Isaac Asimov, who originally criticised the show, came to appreciate it, and sometimes acted as an unofficial adviser to Roddenberry.
Not that Roddenberry did not have to disguise his vision for the show: the futuristic setting allowed the creative forces behind ST to critique history and discuss the human condition in a roundabout way. Without this device Roddenberry knew that they would never have been accepted by a network office: “It would have been greeted like a combination of blasphemy, communism, anarchy and insanity.”
When originally pitching ST, the Enterprise crew was supposed to consist of an equal number of men and women, with a woman as second-in-command. But the networks, according to Roddenberry, felt that audiences wouldn’t find a woman in a position of command believable, or be able to identify with an alien. “I figured I could save one, so I kept Mr Spock, moved him up to second-in-command, and gave him the woman’s logical qualities...,” he said.
“Science fiction today is one of the last places a philosopher can operate.” — Gene Roddenberry
Still, the network NBC’s promotional materials airbrushed out Spock’s ears and eyebrows, concerned that the so-called ‘Bible Belt’ viewers would find the character too satanic. A later producer thought the show too cerebral, demanding fewer ideas and more action.