The Roddenberry Utopian Vision

There seems to be some "hue and cry" over the cancellation of Starfleet Academy. Opinions drawn over characters like Holly Hunter's among others. With fans going back and forth. There are fans saying that cancellation will make the show more popular, and other fans going back to Gene Roddenberry's "original vision" for Star Trek...

I laugh. I laugh at the "superior intellect".

Gene Roddenberry did envision a perfect, utopian future... without conflict. Which made telling Star Trek stories challenging. How do you tell a Star Trek story where everybody gets along? There has to be some conflict. There has to be some pro-versus-con (or Khan), some good-versus-evil. Some challenge.

Roddenberry's vision of the future? What actually hit the screen?

In "The Cage", Majel Barrett is first officer. That's forward thinking. There's Spock. An alien. Subordinate to Pike and possibly "Number One". It wasn't until the late '80's and into the '90's that a woman was a starship captain. It wasn't until Star Trek: Discovery that an alien was a starship captain.

When Shatner was cast and Star Trek finally launched as a series, we still see that 300 years in the future we're still objectifying women. Men wear pants. The female crew members wear skirts that barely cover their bottoms.

Aliens are either evil or dumb. Or, if they're "Vulcanian", they're arrogant jerks.

We're still yelling and pontificating in the future. There's still hate and avarice.

The point of each episode is to face that darkness we try to hide and learn and grow from it.

As progressive and forward thinking as Roddenberry was, what ended up on screen was a future that was very much a product of the times. More of a pop culture commentary of the '60's.

What's enjoyable about Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the dialogue that skewers the utopian vision.

The real premise of Star Trek is that even in the future, humans are still pretty much the same. It's only the technology that changes.

But that's just my two cents worth...

By all means share your thoughts in the comments. Keep it civil. Don't say anything in the comments you wouldn't say to your mother or your grandmother. Remember you can always find me on ComicVine as AirDave and on Facebook at Earth-Dave.