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I don't take Star Trek seriously. Why should we?
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| Title: | I don't take Star Trek seriously. Why should we? |
| Creator: | Sarah Berry |
| Date(s): | spring 1988 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS, a little bit of Star Trek: TNG |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
I don't take Star Trek seriously. Why should we? is a 1988 essay by Sarah Berry.
It was printed in the January/February 1988 issue of Empathy News.
Some Topics Discussed
- Gene Roddenberry and those who created Star Trek are self-important white guys who are bolstered up by fans and fandom
- we need better heroes
- basically, "get a life"
The Essay
I watched Star Trek for years, because it is fun. I don't take it seriously. Why should we? People write of this wonderful love which surrounds the programme.... Have you watched "The Cage" video? Have you listened to Gene's overblown remarks? He and his proteges have certainly latched on to their mortal godhoods and have been made aware of their self importance by the adoration of the fans.
People write of the wonderful ideals: the way the programme "struggled" to represent social equality. Absolute rubbish. Token minorities in token roles scattered hither and yon. That Star Trek really spelled out was the obvious magnificence of the narrow-minded, white, male, American way! For instance, did Kirk ever uphold the Prime Directive? No, he saw fit to rearrange entire cultures, to corrupt their beliefs and ways of life and infect them with American (not even Earth) lifestyles ("The Great Satan" as the Iranians call them).The Enterprise had no regard whatsoever for whatever they came across, colonists and indians... and the buffalo for that matter. They didn't mind introducing freedom and democracy as long as it was their brand of freedom and democracy! Star Trek was stilted and bigoted against women. So called "primitive" cultures, Russians, Koreans... you name it they had little regard for it.
I'm tired of people believing Star Trek somehow symbolises all that will be good and wonderful in the world to come. One programme, the future does not make! You may now point out all the truly amazing ways Star Trek has made the passage of the world more sensible.
Star Trek - The Next Generation. Let go, people. Star Trek is great. It's fun to watch. Give the future a chance. Our favourite characters are still around. Don't you want the chance to see other good characters and the possibility of original stories? If there's anything to get irritated about, it could be the age we have to wait before we see this innovation.
So, Star Trek is firmly rooted in your soul, but how much more of the new earth, of the Klingon/Romulan Empires, of Vulcan culture and so on and so on, will we now see? Aren't you curious to know more of this exciting universe, especially through new eyes? Or are you going to see no further than Kirk and Spock?
What you see [with grumpy fans] may not be "negativeness", it may be the bitter taste of realism. We don't need heroes, we need ourselves. We need to know ourselves, to recognise our strengths and weaknesses (so that we can work within them), and finally, we must learn to love ourselves. We don't need to gaze adoringly at 2-D pictures and dream.
I've been depressed too and programmes like Star Trek can cheer me up, but not because of its "optimism", but because it's fun and makes me laugh. I'm not misguided enough to think that I should take men in silly trousers using death machines as they please, as role models. I want to believe in me and in what I can do and how I can help change the world in small ways (maybe I can only do that for me). Kirk and Spock as role models aren't much cop! Only by believing in yourself can you hope to share the best of yourself with others. There is no one more worthy of respect than yourself. Everyone has flaws, anybody who is perfect is not mortal and doesn't exist on this Earth.
I enjoy Star Trek hugely. It has been incorporated into the world on so many levels and in so many ways. There always seems to be something which reminds me about Star Trek on a day to day basis. But I expect to enjoy The New Generation too. And I hope I have my priorities reasonably sorted out, because I know that the heroes of real life are far more important and mundane, and that these screen copies are very poor indeed!