NOT using the
panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin,
Ireland in August 2019 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)),
I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF
DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation
is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes
reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of
mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
The Reverend
Martin Luther King, Junior, his wife, and children would have never watched STAR TREK in today’s world.
That’s because ALL TREK is now hidden behind a pay wall and no longer broadcast (note the first five letters, they’re significant here.) On BROADcast TV, anyone, anywhere – whether walking down a street and seeing a TV in a window, an airport, a bus station, even on a cell phone – can catch an episode.
Add the fact that
NO TEENAGER WILL EVER BOTHER TO WATCH STAR TREK, because the “newest” series is
targeted at the old men (and a Caucasian old white guy) who used to watch Star
Trek, can afford to pay for CBS All Access (which primarily runs old TV shows…),
and have lots of time on their hands. In addition, most teens have enough angst
in their lives – watching an elderly man whine and regret his stupid decisions…where
exactly is anyone “boldly going”?
Roddenberry’s
dream of a “‘Wagon
Train to the Stars’…Roddenberry wanted to tell more sophisticated stories,
using futuristic situations as analogies for current problems on Earth and
showing how they could be rectified through humanism and optimism,” has
totally died.
In Star Trek:
Discovery, the Federation is embroiled in a some sort of, admittedly Modern, attitude of hands-off, the rest of the world can just go its own way. We have our OWN bipolar society to deal with...our own entitlements and privileges to protect. So I suppose its a reflection of reality in the way ST:TOS was...it's just it doesn't offer any solutions, or even serious reflection.
The “new” Star
Trek, instead of “boldly going” has the stated purposed of being “…the
beginning of a wider expansion of the Star Trek franchise by
CBS and Kurtzman, leading to multiple other series being produced…” has become exactly what the society that produced it is -- self-centered, petty, and unable to do anything because there's no one around to inspire it any more. Partisan politics make assumptions that "the RIGHT party speaks for America", when in fact...well, you watch the news. The "new" TREK is exactly what we have -- and doesn't bother to look at what we might be...
It makes
me feel old when the mission of Star Trek has morphed from “‘Wagon Train to the
Stars’ [THAT series original premise: The
series chronicles the adventures of a wagon train as it makes its way…across
the Mid-Western plains and the Rocky Mountains…and the trials and tribulations
of the series regulars who conducted the train…GR [wanted to] tell more
sophisticated stories, using futuristic situations as analogies for current
problems on Earth and showing how they could be rectified…” to self-flagellation and non-morality lessons, reassuring itself that the future is bleak and there's nothing anyone can do about it, so you might as well just get more TV in your life...
In other words,
Star Trek was about MOVEMENT. I do not impugn Stewart’s desire to do something
totally different in ST:P, he doesn’t want to disappear into a role he can’t
escape from. BUT…the intent had been for ST to move into the future BOLDLY, not
reflect on opportunities lost. Certainly not to
lock out underrepresented populations!
Star Trek
introduced “…interracial casting…the first American live-action series to do
this…an African woman, a Scotsman, an Asian man [who WAS gay and later movies
moved the image forward]…an alien [a half-breed…hat-tip to American-Korean
babies?]…[and] a Russian…giving women jobs of respect…Black actresses at that
time on television were almost always cast as servants…Whoopi Goldberg recalled
that the first time she saw Uhura, she excitedly told her mother: "Mama,
there's a black woman on television and she ain't no maid!’ In an interview,
Nichelle Nichols…was told there was a big fan who wanted to meet her…Dr. Martin
Luther King…said, ‘I am your greatest fan.’…Star Trek was the only show that [they]
would allow their three little children to stay up and watch. [She told King
about her plans to leave the series.]…he said, ‘You can’t. You're part of
history.’”
As well: “King explained
that her character signified a future of greater racial harmony and
cooperation. King told Nichols, ‘You are our image of where we're going, you're
300 years from now, and that means that's where we are and it takes place now.
Keep doing what you're doing, you are our inspiration.’…‘he said, “Don't you
understand for the first time we're seen as we should be seen. You don't have a
black role. You have an equal role.”’”
The new,
navel-gazing, cash-cow TREK is no longer going anywhere, and the only thing it’s
doing is boldly raking in cash and excluding the people it should be inspiring…
FOR A RESPONSE TO MY ESSAY, ERIC DONTIGNEY HAS SOME SHARP COMMENTARY! (Read it here: https://ericdontigney.com/blog/the-once-and-future-star-trek/)
FOR A RESPONSE TO MY ESSAY, ERIC DONTIGNEY HAS SOME SHARP COMMENTARY! (Read it here: https://ericdontigney.com/blog/the-once-and-future-star-trek/)
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_influence_of_Star_Trek,
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/star_trek.html,
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31876/12-star-trek-gadgets-now-exist,
https://qz.com/766831/star-trek-real-life-technology/,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Discovery,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_Train,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Picard,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.
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