Star Trek: 56 Years of Making History
If you are a high schooler who enjoys science fiction, like Black Mirror, you should try Star Trek as a franchise. From my personal experience, I grew up hearing about Star Trek mostly as a joke. The multicolored tacky-looking suits and the cheesy acting have formed this unfair stigma around the show that it's all goofy and ridiculous. I started watching Star Trek: The Original Series about a year ago because I was interested in a science fiction franchise that had been going strong for nearly sixty years and still has a moderately sized fanbase. What keeps something consistently relevant like that for decades on end?
Science fiction as a genre is so interesting to me because it can warn us of the bad directions we can easily go in the future, yet remind me of the hope we have for humanity ahead. Most mainstream science fiction today is more about entertainment than why the genre was created in the first place, which is to reflect to people the point we are at and present the many paths we could take from here. Good science fiction can have you thinking for days. Science fiction novels like Fahrenheit 451 are still popular today because they have shown us dark reflections that are possible and seem more real today than they ever were.
Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, understood science fiction very well and did a pretty good job picking stories to tell in the original series. A particular episode from season 3 sticks out to me lately because of how relevant it is now, despite coming out in 1969. The Mark of Gideon is the name, and it depicts a planet where medical advancements have allowed people to live to be very old. Their population has grown so much that people are nearly shoulder to shoulder 24/7 and can’t find a place to be alone peacefully. Spoiler warning for this episode, but their ruler, Hodin, decides to inject a disease from Earth into his daughter that his planet doesn’t have a cure to. His daughter knows of this and agrees because he has convinced her to believe it's the only option. His end goal is to demonstrate to the people of the planet that “Royalty is resorting to ending their lives, for the greater good of society, and you should too!”
That premise is dark and morally ambiguous, and extremely scary. What if our world comes to that? For reference, Earth in 1969 had about three and a half billion people on it. Today, our world (with rising ocean levels, mind you) has about 8 billion people on it. It has more than doubled since the airing of this episode, and that is with less land to inhabit. According to sealevelrise.org, “Although the sea level has risen by 6.5 inches since 1950, nearly half of it (3 inches) has occurred in just the last 20 years. This small increase in sea level has caused, on average, a 233% increase in tidal flooding across the United States.” The scariest fact to me is that in the sixties, assisted suicide was completely illegal in the US, but in the present day, most US states allow it. A lethal injection that will take you away peacefully, with the help of officials. Sounds familiar. Granted, this isn’t related to overpopulation…yet. But that is why I find old science fiction like Star Trek so interesting. They predicted these problems over half a century ago and the dark possibilities that go along with situations like them.
Star Trek isn’t all doom and gloom, though! Actually, it’s mostly a fun show, due to the great cast. William Shatner adds his own charm to the lead captain, and was definitely a pop culture icon for a while throughout the 80s. He also recently went to space in 2021, setting the record for the oldest person to travel to space ever, still spry at the ripe age of 90. He did this with the help of Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin. Jeff Bezos has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, so much so that he offered this trip to Shatner. I think that sums up the dedication of this fanbase pretty well.
Shatner isn’t the only talented person on the show; however, in my opinion not even the most talented. That title would go to Leonard Nimoy, who plays Mr. Spock. I must say, if it wasn't for Spock, this show would not be very watchable. A lot of the best comedy comes from Spock’s deadpan-type delivery on so many lines. His character shows very little emotion because that is his culture. I think there’s a pretty obvious parallel to many Earth cultures there too, that is intentionally made by the creators. The delivery of his signature catchphrase, “Fascinating,” is a good way of expressing his curiosity about something unknown or not understood rather than fear or worry. A character with no emotion sounds very hard to make interesting, and it is, but Nimoy gives a very iconic performance that has stuck out for decades. I think that is why Spock is the most well-known character from the original series.
Leonard Nimoy is objectively the best at acting, but my personal favorite inclusion on the show is DeForest Kelley. He plays Doctor Leonard “Bones” Mccoy in the Original Series, and man, I love his character. He is mostly cynical, and a little sour at points, which plays really well off of Spock, who is logical, hopeful, and careful. The banter between them is often pretty well written, but something about Kelley’s performance is so likable. He represents an older generation aboard the ship, and I have an affinity for the older characters in television that are a little sour but loveable because you can tell they still care a lot about the people around them, they just don’t show it very outwardly. It's a pretty common character type, but Kelley is one of my favorite performances I’ve seen of that mold.
I recently watched Star Trek the Motion Picture (1979) (the director's cut) for the first time, and I must say, I was really pleased. Reviews I’d heard going in labeled it “slow” and “pointless,” which I don’t see myself. Maybe those opinions come when comparing it to the original Star Wars, which hit theaters a year prior. Star Wars is more about entertainment with action, whereas Star Trek is entertainment with intrigue. Star Trek, the Motion Picture, isn’t perfect. I think the storyline is a little too convenient at points, and the characters’ story arcs (such as Captain Kirk) weren’t completed in very satisfying ways that seemed truly justified. However, I do think it accomplished its main goal of intriguing the viewer because I couldn’t help agreeing with Spock whenever he said: “fascinating.”
That's the point I am at right now in watching the franchise in the order it came out. I would definitely recommend watching at least a few episodes of the original series before binging the movies. It made the viewing experience for me a lot cooler. I haven’t seen some of the more popular stuff yet, like the later movies in the franchise or Star Trek: The Next Generation, but from what I’ve heard, I believe they find a good balance between intrigue, action, and good acting, better than anything I’ve seen up to this point in my viewing process. So if it only gets better from here, I am beyond excited, and more people should be! Give this franchise a chance if you haven’t. It’s cheesy, yes, it’s melodramatic at points, yes, but I believe those things make it all the more comforting to watch, in a strange sense. I hope to see this franchise live long and prosper throughout my lifetime.