America got its first look of a program that would later become legendary on September 8, 1966 at 8:30 PM on NBC. America was never the same after Star Trek made its debut that night. The series did not receive the recognition it deserved until it was canceled after only three years and later returning in syndication. However, Star Trek was never an ordinary science fiction program to begin with. Comparison to other programs in this genre is difficult because Star Trek is certainly not an unconventional science fiction program- it is a science fiction program that displays America during 1960's. In fact, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, during an interview said, "I have no belief that Star Trek depicts the actual future, it depicts us, now, things we need to understand about that". Even David Gerrold, a writer for the series, writes in his book that "[t]he stories are about twentieth century man's attitudes in a future universe. The stories are about us". Naturally each episode does not make a social commentary, but all through the program, characters, themes, and it goes without saying, individual episodes make powerful reflections on sexism, feminism, as well as racism and improving race relations, all crucial social affairs during the late 1960's, and to a certain extent, social affairs of today.
Star Trek made notable advances in regards to minorities. The Civil Rights Movement was already prospering by the late 1960’s. When the pilot episode aired in 1966, Congress had already approved countless Civil Rights Acts, the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and constitutional amendments prohibiting the poll tax and increasing the right to vote in Presidential elections to the citizen in District of Columbia, where a better par...
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...ket Books, 1986. Cited as Compendium. (All airdates from the episodes were taken from this book.)
Asherman, Allan. The Star Trek Interview Book. New York: Pocket Books, 1988. Cited as Interview.
Blair, Karen. "Sex and Star Trek." Science Fiction Studies, 10 (1983), 292-297.
Editor, "Talk of the Town." The New Yorker, 64 (12 December 1988), 37-38.
Greenberg, Harvey R. "In Search of Spock: A Psychoanalytic Inquiry." Journal of Popular Film and Television, 12 (1984), 52-65.
Gerrold, David. The World of Star Trek. New York: Bluejay Books, 1984.
Stine, G. Harry. State of the Art: Star Trek Revisited. 108 (November 1988), 158-166.
Tyrell, William Blake. "Star Trek as Myth and Television as Mythmaker." Journal of Popular Culture, 10 (Spring 1977), 711-719.
Wortland, Rick. "Captain Kirk: Cold Warrior." Journal of Popular Film and Television, 16 (Fall 1988), 109-117.
With ominous opening monologues, mind-bending special effects (at the time, anyway) and totally unexpected-twist endings, The Twilight Zone captured the attention and imagination of America at the end of one of the most influential and change-inspiring decades of the century. During the fifties, Americans experienced vast changes not only in our country's position in the world, but also in our own culture -- and one of the leading vehicles for this change was television. In a time when situation comedies and game shows dominated the air waves, Rod Serling's science fiction anthology program stood out as an example not only of the artistic potential of television in terms of writing and special effects, but also of the power television had as social commentary and a thought...
Tuchman, Gaye. The TV Establishment: Programming for Power and Profit. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., l971.
Hubler, Richard G. “He Doesn't Want To Be A Star.” Saturday Evening Post 225.42 (1953): 34-158. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
To fully appreciate Star Trek’s influence, you have to understand its enormous scope. Although the first series only ran for three years, the show gained popularity in syndication. It would go on to spawn five new series with a total of 726 episodes, 12 films, 31 Emmy Awards and 149 nominations, one Academy Award and 15 Oscar nominations, 120 CDs, 40 video games, 70 million books in print and one invented language, estimated to be spoken by over 100 people.
Star Trek Next Generation is an example of a space opera. Space opera includes a lot of romantic elements such as love stories, space battles, oversized heroes and villains, exotic locations, and gorgeous women. Anyone with even just some exposure to Western pop culture has heard of at least one of the Star Trek series. The series predicted many technological mainstays such as the tablet, automatic doors, mobile phones, and natural-language AI programing long before their commercial-market debuts. It is set about 71 years after the first series, in 2364. The show’s overarching focus is human exploration; i.e. humanity vs. alien, the discovery of new life, humanity as savage, and social/political relationships with alien cultures. The show also displays some examples of progressive gender politics. However, the show itself puts more focus on humans (the human condition) that any on any other/alien race and could have done more in the promotion of gender politics and equality.
This episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation begins with a performance from Data and his quartet. Data tells Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher they may want to wait for the next performance, since his peers in the group believes he lacks “soul” in his playing. Picard sends a valuable message to Data and the viewers; never advertise your shortcomings. Picard insists on hearing Data play, and of course, as the concert starts, the Enterpirse is hailed by the Sheliak. They, by treaty, with the Federation have ownership of Tau Cygna V, however, there are human inhabitants colonized there. They demand the removal of this “infestation” immediately, and Picard is reluctantly happy to oblige. Upon arrival, it is discovered that the radiation levels in the planet’s atmosphere are so
Goodale, Gloria. "TV in black and white." 20 November 1998. Christian Science Monitor. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.
Paul S. Boyer. "Television." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Retrieved November 24, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-Television.html
... rights proved to be a positive initiative in many social ways. In 1946, professional football teams started to desegregate. However, the Washington Redskins did not officially integrate until 1965. In 1947, Jackie Robinson, who was also a World War II veteran, became the first back professional baseball player since the 1880s. The famous TV series, Star Trek, even started hiring interracial casts. Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhuru, proved to be TV’s strongest African American character. In 1968, Star Trek featured the 1st black-white interracial kiss to be shown on TV.
Arguably, the most recognizable character from the Star Trek series is Captain James Kirk. However, in the recent revival of the series it was in fact Spock who took over the captain’s chair. While both of the characters both have admiral qualities that suit them for leadership roles, only one is best fit for captain. Due to his ability to think logically, command others, and show humanity, James Kirk is more suited for the role of captain.
Media can and has been used in many different ways to educate people in regards to social issues and public opinions; now whether or not the media is able to effectively portray these issues and educate the public correctly is an entirely different story. If I were to analyze the Star Trek episode that was shown in class, I would deduce that it did not effectively discuss the issues in regards to racism/xenophobia.
The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century. Ed. Orson Scott Card. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2001. 212-217.
Star Trek series has many episodes that have social commentary, making strong comments on sexism, improving race relations (racism), militarism, xenophobia and all other major issues during the 60s. By the time the first episode aired in 1966, Congress had passed numerous civil rights acts, the Voting Right Act in 1965 and the constitutional amendments outlawing poll taxes and other disfranchisement tactics. There are many illustrations in which Star Trek brings up the question of these social injustices. To begin with the crew of the Enterprise was racially mixed to represent all of mankind. In fact, two regular characters that represent minorities rapidly gaining status in American society, Lt. Sulu
Tiptree, James Jr. Houston, Houston, Do You Read?: Science Fiction: The SFRA Anthology. Ed. Warrick. Green Bay, WI: Harper Collins, 1988. 434-474.
“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” argues that the application of film and literary genre theory do not fully translate when analyzing television, because of “the specific industry and audience practices unique to television, or for the mixture of fictional and nonfictional programming that constitutes the lineup on nearly every TV channel. 2” The goal of media genre studies, Mittell asserts, is to understand how media is arranged within the contexts of production and reception, and how media work to create our vision of the world.