Rob Price
Welcome to Star Trek Day!
This is not in any way intended to be a comprehensive dissertation on how the fictional universe of Star Trek (TOS) influenced the real world, but instead my own brief observations merely hinting at the cultural impact this show has had on so many lives and how it influenced, bent and helped shape our current world views.
In 1964, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, sold the show to NBC execs as a basic adventure series calling it “Wagon Train to the Stars” referencing a popular western series of that era. But hidden within the storytelling were sophisticated themes that addressed the contemporary issues on our own planet while setting them in an idealistic society that had already conquered many of the issues that we are honestly still battling today. The show would rectify these conflicts using humanism and optimism as well as some fight scenes and laser beams. The writers frequently addressed societal moral failings like racism, slavery, warfare and discrimination.
The show was well ahead of its time in its casting, having a diverse crew of both alien and multi-cultural earthlings. Earlier British science fiction series with marionettes and soap operas had some interracial casting, but this was the first American live-action series to see people of non-white or foreign background. Roddenberry’s casting for the crew of the ship called Enterprise, consisted of a multi-ethnic group of people which included Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) an African woman communications officer; Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) as a Scottish chief engineer; Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) as an Asian helmsman; Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) a Russian crew member; and an alien, the half-Vulcan Spock (Leonard Nemoy) who is the second in command and chief science officer.
The 1960s were a time of racial unrest and social upheaval and not only did the series combine these characters and put them on equal footing, Star Trek is also credited with being the first American show to have an interracial kiss between a white male actor and a black woman, which of course was extremely controversial. The show also highlighted the expansion of female contributions with characters like Uhura being on the bridge crew and holding a rank of Lieutenant. It wasn’t just the overt scenes of equality that made a difference, but there are times where Uhura, a black woman, is asked to take over the job of a male helmsman, and she does so without question. The action of doing this is subtle and in today’s day and age, no one would even blink at it. But in that time, it showed that women and people of color were equal, at least in this futuristic world. Nichelle Nicoles recalls a story, where she was planning on leaving the show, and she was visited by Dr. Martin Luther King, and he convinced her not to, by reminding her that she is “…Part of history”. The show was not perfect in its inclusion, women were still dressed in outfits that accentuate their sexuality and during the initial series homosexuality is not mentioned or seen within the storylines. It wouldn’t be until the 21st century when Star Trek finally included LGBT+ characters. The show inspired people such as comedian actress Whoopi Goldberg and computer engineer and Apple Co-Creator Steve Wozniak in moving forward within their respective fields.
After the show was cancelled its influence remained. The show even inspired the naming of a NASA space shuttle and Nichelle Nichols used her public influence to convince NASA to include people of color and women into the space program. She remained a volunteer within NASA for several years advocating for diversity. The shows reach goes far past just its moral and ethical mirror it shined on the world of its day, but its characters and stories inspired people to become artist, authors, scientists and engineers and so much more. It revolutionized fandom and put new energy into science fiction conventions. Some colleges even teach Klingon as a language.
Gene Roddenberry believed that infinite diversity in infinite combinations brought about beauty, growth and progress. I am often amazed that as more series and movies are made that take place in the Star Trek Universe, more people don’t remember this. With all the progress the world has seen, there are still fans of the show that object to a woman of color being a captain, or a gay couple, a trans character or any number of other issues of diversity. Somehow, the original message of optimistic peace within our society has been lost on some of the viewers who I am going to assume are only there to see laser battles and fight scenes and not feel the heartbeat of what Gene originally had in mind. Where the series influenced pop culture in many different ways, it was its integration of diverse characters and the hope of a world where we can all live freely and outwardly be our true selves.
The original series has spawned a multitude of films and spinoffs and in each incarnation the diversity and equality has gotten stronger and more prominent, losing some of its subtlety but still pushing the boundaries of cultural acceptance showing us an inclusionary world distant from the same exclusionary one we still live in. It is true that society has come further in some respects than I thought it would, but we are still light years away from the world Gene Roddenberry imagined. We must keep moving forward…boldly going!
