What is Star Trek About?

What is Star Trek About?

A Reflective Essay

What is Star Trek about?  This is an interesting and loaded question.  From it's beginning with the original series in the 1960's Star Trek is and always has been about deep, thoughtful, intellectual stories about an optimistic future for humanity.   The concept as conceived by Gene Roddenberry was a future in which humanity (a united humanity) works together with other races and species in common cause.  The cause being exploration, learning and personal betterment.  A future where humanity has overcome its internal struggles and provincial attitudes and prejudices and moved beyond national squabbles, beyond poverty, disease, war, into a more enlightened future.  In the original series this was often shown in the form of episodes that were in truth morality plays, set in a sci-fi concept and a future several hundred years hence. Episodes like "Let That be Your Last Battlefield" that took a very blunt look at racism (timely in the 1960s), "Space Seed" which discussed the potential ills of genetic engineering with Khan and his genetically augmented ilk and "A Private Little War" which commented on the Vietnam War.  Star Trek is also about exploring the human condition through both human and non human characters.  Characters like Spock, a half-Human half-Vulcan who can be seen as a personification of a bridge between worlds.  The Next Generation continued this trend, with humanity even more "idealized", and the Federation having achieved peace with it's longtime adversaries the Klingon Empire, even having a Klingon Starfleet officer, Worf on the bridge of the Enterprise.  TNG also looked at hot button topic through the Star Trek lens, with episodes like "The Measure of a Man" which looked at individual rights, technology and personhood, "Chain of Command" which tackled the subject of torture, and even whole species like the Ferengi who represent unrestrained capitalism and the Borg, which serve as a commentary on the dangers of technology taking over, as well as the fear of loss of individuality and self.  Star Trek being as much a scifi show as a philosophical exploration of the human condition is exemplified in TNG by the character of Data, the android who aspires to be more human, the machine who would be man".  Deep Space Nine looked heavily at religion and piety, through both the Bajorans and their gods the Prophets in the wormhole and the Dominion, run by the shapeshifting Founders, whom the Vorta and Jem'Hadar revere as gods.  DS9 also looked at conflict and war (both the Klingon conflict and the Dominion War) and shades of grey, with storylines such as the Maquis which challenged the Roddenberry vision of utopia by saying that while Earth and the Federation are paradise, out on the frontier things be otherwise.  "It is easy to be a saint in paradise" said Commander Sisko in "The Maquis, Part II".  Episodes like "Nor the Battle to the Strong" and "The Siege of AR-558" looked at the realities of war and frontline ground combat.  Yet through all of the war stories and moral ambiguities the optimism remained.  The human condition is explored in both Human characters like Captain Sisko and nonhuman characters like Garak, Martok, Odo and Dax among others.  Star Trek Voyager saw a crew placed in a seemingly impossible situation, being stranded a lifetimes travel away from home, with the very real possibility of never returning and never seeing loved ones again.  Optimism kept the ship and crew moving forward through myriad threats, from Borg Space to radioactive nebulae and dangerous anomalies.  Voyager also explores the human condition in Seven of Nine, the former Borg drone assimilated as a six-year-old child, now an adult exploring her humanity for the first time, and the holographic Doctor exploring his own personhood.  Star Trek Enterprise, as a prequel show, went back to a time when Earth was just taking its first steps in interstellar exploration, before Starfleet had been honed and seasoned and forged into what it would be in The Original Series.  Enterprise saw humanity overcome xenophobia, deal with conflict with various interstellar powers either by force or diplomacy and even face the possibility of it's own extinction at the hands of the Xindi superweapon.  The series would also see Earth, the Vulcans, the Andorians and the Tellarites come together in common cause to fight a common enemy, the Romulans.  The optimistic attitudes of Archer and his crew saw the forging of the coalition that would ultimately become the Federation.  The common thread through all of these shows is that through optimism and perseverance and cooperation one can overcome adversity and achieve the seemingly impossible.

Sadly, Trek in the modern "NuTrek" era has strayed from the core ideals of optimism and enlightenment and deep intellectual storytelling.  The Kelvin Timeline movies presented a rebooted alternate timeline Original Series era as a trio of summer action flicks, veering much more toward Star Wars than Star Trek.  The deep character introspection and thoughtful storytelling and the humanity are lost in the nonstop action, lens flares and constant "pew pew pew" space battles.  Star Trek Into Darkness took a noticeably darker tone for Star Trek than it's predecessor and successor.  The streaming era of Trek also made the same missteps with Star Trek Discovery (especially in seasons 1-3) and Star Trek Picard.  The dark, pessimistic tone of Discovery's season 1 Klingon/Federation war and Mirror Universe arc strayed from the core essence of Star Trek to such a degree that it was massively disliked by the fanbase.  Season 2's Red Angel/Sphere Data/Control story attempted to return to the lighter tone, but only did so to a point. The Section 31 black ops story, an element that has long been a point of contention with the fans did not help. Season 3 saw Discovery and crew thrust into a far future in which the Federation is in decline and even Earth itself has withdrawn and become isolationist and xenophobic.  This is not Star Trek. Seasons 4 and 5's storylines would start to veer a bit back toward the more bright optimistic tone of Trek of old. Star Trek Picard also embraced the darker, more pessimistic tone, with Starfleet following the attack on Utopia Planitia having become paranoid and distrustful.  All synthetic lifeforms (androids and the like) are banned, and Starfleet brass looks down upon even their most decorated officers (Jean-Luc Picard). Season 2 eschews some of this in favor of a time travel based story, while season 3 although visually and tonally dark does carry a spark of the optimism of old, with Picard and the TNG crew working with the crew of the USS Titan to save the Federation from a Borg/Changeling plot.  Animated series Star Trek Lower Decks harkens back to 90's trek with a heavy does of comedy, while Star Trek Prodigy focuses on a group of alien youth who, having found a derelict Starfleet ship use it to escape their circumstances and find a better future.  Thankfully this series does get closer to the old Hope and Optimism of 'classic' Trek.  The streaming movie Star Trek Section 31 is tonally, visually and story wise complete miss.  A group of misfits on a generic Suicide Squad/Guardians of the Galaxy-style black ops mission to defeat a threat to the galaxy is not Star Trek.  Other than the name and one or two characters, nothing about this movie says Star Trek.  Star Trek Strange New Worlds, the Discovery spinoff series following Captain Pike, Lieutenant Spock and Number One and their adventures on the USS Enterprise in the years before TOS is a return to form for the franchise.  Stories with substance, a message, well written characters, and above all hope and optimism.  Stories of a crew working together to solve problems, not a crew cursing and sniping at each other very other scene (see Discovery).  A light, colorful, optimistic tone that hearkens back to TOS and 90's era trek.  As for the upcoming Star trek Starfleet Academy show and future projects...time will tell.

That brings me back to the original question: What is Star Trek about? In my opinion, Star Trek is about hope, optimism, a better semi-utopian future that we as a present day society should aspire to.  A future in the human race has moved beyond racism, sexism, prejudice, societal ills like poverty, homelessness, war disease, famine, petty political and territorial disputes, a future in which humanity can move forward united for a greater good.  It is about deep, thoughtful storytelling and exploring the human condition through both human and non human characters.  It is about people who regardless or gender, race, religion or species work together in common cause.  It is about how people and the connections between them can be more profound than any newly discovered planet or spatial anomaly.  Star Trek Enterprise summed it up best in Captain Archer's speech in the penultimate episode "Terra Prime":

"We are all explorers, driven to know what's over the horizon, what's beyond our own shores.  And yet, the more I've experienced, the more I've learned that no matter how far we travel, or how fast we get there, the most profound discoveries are not necessarily beyond that next star.  They're within us, woven into the threads that bind us, all of us, to each other. The final frontier begins in this hall.  Let's explore it together."

That is Star Trek.  Sadly that future seems less and less likely of late.  

Happy Holidays!