The Impossible Has Happened by Lance Parkin

Author:Lance Parkin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2016-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

LINCOLN: What a charming Negress. Oh, forgive me, my dear. I know in my time some used that term as a description of property.

UHURA: But why should I object to that term, sir? You see, in our century we’ve learned not to fear words.

Star Trek portrays a better future, one that’s better because humanity has learned to celebrate diversity, to work together for the great good. The original series depicts neither the Federation nor the future Earth as a utopian civilization. It doesn’t depict Earth at all, except by showing us people who have come from there. Kirk’s is plainly not the perfect society. More than that, it makes no real effort to depict the broader culture. Star Trek is a primetime action adventure serial, not a lecture series on alternative politico-economic systems.

While Roddenberry and others involved with the show talk about episodes that are allegorical, or satirical, there’s surprisingly little social commentary. We see a number of alien societies and they’re usually modeled along the lines of some extreme rule or code—a good example would be “A Taste of Armageddon,” where warfare is ritualized and people trudge dutifully into disintegration booths if the computer simulations demand it. Kirk finds this repugnant, as do we, although it’s hard to explain exactly why it feels even more inhumane than using real bombs and hearing the casualty figures on the evening news. In “This Side of Paradise,” crew members, including Spock, are infected by spores that make them forget their duty and surrender to blissful hedonism. It’s a (rather heavy-handed) allegory for drug dependency and, again, almost all of us will side with Kirk as he seeks to free his crew; the story certainly does nothing to challenge the idea that he has chosen the right course of action. In other words the show’s social values are broadly our own.

In places the overt message may be a little more controversial to some sections of the audience. There are religious groups in modern America who might object to Kirk’s offer to supply contraceptive devices to an overpopulated planet in “The Mark of Gideon.” The portrayal of a pacifist in “The Savage Curtain” makes him appear naïve to the point of suicidal stupidity because he seeks a diplomatic solution to a problem. But the most devout Catholics and dedicated pacifists in the audience would probably agree Kirk is espousing normative liberal American values of the 1960s. There’s very little to suggest his future Earth has adopted radically different social models. The economic implications of living in a society where machines supply every material need would be immense, but they’re barely touched upon in the original series.

It’s ironic that perhaps the most sophisticated examination of utopianism in the original series is in the much-reviled “The Way to Eden,” which Star Trek fans invariably describe as “the one with the space hippies.” It’s interesting because it features a group who have renounced the lifestyle of the United Federation of Planets, an otherwise unchallenged society where self-determination and freedom seem absolute.

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