Boldly Go

It was fifty years ago today that Kirk, Spoke, Uhura, Scotty, and Bones took off on their five-year mission.  Although the show itself lasted only three years, its impact has been felt for fifty.  As a lifelong geek, I'm proud to tell my students I am a fan of Star Trek (even when they insist Star Wars is better as though I am only allowed to like one of them).

Awards shows don't reward science fiction, so the Star Trek franchise has never gotten the critical acclaim it has rightfully earned.  Awards are not, however, the sole measure of successful television.  Star Trek has inspired our culture in more ways than most people realize.  This short list is just what I have thought of.

Science Education - I know more than one person who went into a scientific career because they loved Spock or into engineering because they were inspired by what Scotty was able to do with a warp engine.  They were under no illusion that these things actually exist, but they were inspired by the scientific possibilities.  There is, by the way, a fantastic book out there all about the scientific concepts used in the show.  It is called The Physics of Star Trek.  If you go to GRACE, it is in our library.  There are certainly some things that the show stretched because it is fiction, but there are also a lot of ways in which they were visionaries ahead of their time.


Technology - Speaking of being ahead of their time, take a look at some of the technologies envisioned by the creators of any of the Star Trek movies or shows.  Just in the collection of pictures below, you should recognize the precursors to Palm Pilots, Bluetooth, Google Glass, Skype, Cell Phones, and iPads.  I'm not saying that these wouldn't have been invented without Star Trek, but every invention starts with an idea, a dream of something in the future.  That's what the writers of Star Trek gave inventors.

A Vision of Racial Harmony - When Whoopie Goldberg was cast in Star Trek: The Next Generation, there were quite a few people scratching their heads about why a movie star of her status (which was quite big at the time - Remember Ghost?) would want to be cast in episodic television.  Even Gene Roddenberry didn't think she was serious when she requested a role.  She was asked about it in an interview for the DVD box set, and she said two things that stuck with me.  "First," she said, when you get to be a movie star, you get take the parts you want."  True, but why did she want it?  She said that when she was growing up, she didn't see African American portrayed in roles of authority.  However, in 1966, she watched Lieutenant Uhura command respect and hold her own as a bridge officer.  I've seen interviews with Ronald McNair and Mae Jemison, black astronauts in the 80's and 90's, in which they said the same thing.  They believed that careers in space could be within their reach because of Star Trek.

A Vision of Gender Equality - Lieutenant Uhura also inspired women of other races.  She was on that bridge with men and was a trusted advisor to Captain Kirk.  By the time of The Next Generation, the doctors were women.  There were female captains, and in the episode "The First Duty," the head of Starfleet Academy is a woman.  Captain Janeway commands the respect of her people on Star Trek: Voyager, when they actually benefitted from having a more motherly leader in their captain.

Gene Roddenberry's view of the future may not match our reality, but it does give us something to think about and some things to aspire to.  Thanks for the last fifty years, Gene.