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The (First) Final Frontier: The Enduring Appeal of Star Trek and The Moral Imagination
One of the things that has been keeping me sane in (solitary) lockdown is movie nights with my friends. With two close guy friends from high school, in particular, I have a weekly date for a movie at 8 p.m. EST (1 a.m. GMT) and this week it was my turn to pick the film. I had given the selection a fair bit of thought ahead of time, and presented them with a few options that I thought would be fun to watch; we settled on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
One of my friends had never seen any Star Trek property, and the other had only seen the new films, although his dad had been pressuring him to try the older ones. At the end of the film, they were so taken by what we had watched that it was decided we are going to Zoom again to watch an episode of The Original Series (any of my selection) and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock on Friday.* Such an enthusiastic response left me wondering, what exactly is the magic of the original films and show?
I am not much of a sci-fi fan and tend to be picky about TV because I don’t watch particularly much, so it surprised even me how much I enjoyed TOS the first time I watched it in high school. Although I’ve dabbled in the other properties, none of them ever provoked the lasting affection or interest that the ‘66 series and its movies did for me. Likewise, the friend that had seen the new J.J. Abrams films had never bothered with the originals because, though he thought the new movies were good, he didn’t think they were special.
At its core, I think that the most outstanding part of the films and show is their fundamentally conservative message and embrace of the moral imagination. By a conservative message I don’t mean that TOS subscribed to the economic principles of Milton Friedman or celebrated the thought of Russell Kirk, but that, within the framework of a quite progressive society, it had surprising fidelity to some very Burkean ideals and ideas about man and his nature.
Part of what brings this message to the forefront is the setting of the show. A lack of physical money and the presence of the United Federation of Planets, among other things, suggests to viewers that the crew of the Enterprise hails from a post-scarcity system, something some fans describe as a “utopia.” They, though, have escaped the utopia and traded the sure and steady for danger and adventure. As much as anything, Captain James T. Kirk is a cowboy, setting off for brave new worlds armed with a phaser and a set of quite traditional principles (duty, honor, honesty, etc.) that he intends for both himself and those under his leadership to live by. Such an openly paternal, though not condescending, figure might find little affection among critics today.
And the crew of the ship is as much bound by personal fealty and love as shared ideals. Indeed, it is the true diversity of viewpoints resident on the vessel, especially among the three main characters (headstrong Kirk, logical Spock, and compassionate McCoy), that allows it to operate as smoothly and successfully as it does. I’ve always thought the conception of the triumvirate as the divided parts of a whole both beautiful and valid, and the idea of the divvied up heart, mind, and soul speaks to a view of man as a creature that needs more than reason to thrive, and at the same time benefits from control and strong moorings.
Those relationships form the most obvious manifestation of that conservative message, showing that even hundreds of years in the future, in space, and among aliens, the fundamental need of man for love and companionship has not perished (very Burkean, indeed). Each man judges the other for his actions and ideals, not his position on the ship or status as a part of a particular race (much as McCoy antagonizes Spock for his duel heritage, he extends the same fierce protectiveness and exasperated affection to the alien, albeit with a different flavor, as he does to Kirk), and they are improved by their tripartite bond. Purely as a viewer, this evolving, complex relationship is the most compelling part of the series, a high wire act of mutual love, annoyance, fear, and hope that becomes its narrative and emotional core.
I think it’s instructive to explore one episode for an example of the holistic reality of this message. Take “The Empath,” from Season 3. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy encounter and are imprisoned by a race of science-oriented, emotionless humanoids on a dying planet, and, after a series of failed escape attempts and injury at the hands of their captors, the captain must choose which of his two officers will undergo an “experiment” that has a high chance of rendering him either dead or insane. The morality play that ensues, both between McCoy and his superiors and Kirk and the Vians, would be, at its fundamental level, as at home in Shakespeare as in outer space. In other words, “human” nature, across species and time, never fails to assert itself, and the moral quandaries which plagued Elizabethan noblemen do likewise to 23rd-century space officers, their answers coming from a similarly ancient source.
Certainly, there is much to make fun of in the original Star Trek series. William Shatner’s sometimes hammy acting, and seemingly pathological need to be shirtless at least once an episode, aliens that look curiously like small dogs donning party store horns, Leonard Nimoy’s heavy eyeshadow, and Kirk-fu all strike a less-than-serious chord and render some parts of the series basically unwatchable, but its fundamental message, skillfully conveyed in so many aspects, makes it a special cultural product despite these shortcomings. The magic of Star Trek is in the world that it builds, full of fresh possibilities and diverse, full characters who encounter the inevitable challenges of every human life with all of their flaws and triumph and fail.
*Update: We watched The Search for Spock and, after some negotiation, an episode of TOS, “The Enemy Within,” last night/this morning (there’s a time difference between us and it was 5:30 a.m. by the time I got off the call), and I am happy to report that all enjoyed the movie and the show, and we learned the valuable life lesson that you can tell the evil product of a transporter accident by the (frankly unsightly) amount of eyeliner he is wearing.
Published in General
Leonard Nimoy’s son Adam has produced and directed a wonderful documentary called “For the Love of Spock” about his gifted father and the famous role he created. I highly recommend it.
“Star Trek” had the advantage of real writers, several who had significant success with the science fiction genre already. Theodore Sturgeon, Norman Spinrad, D. C. Fontana, Robert Bloch, and Harlan Ellison – a pretty good lineup. D. C. Fontana might not have come in with SF chops, but she went on to, writing for “Deep Space Nine”, “Babylon 5”, and numerous other books and productions.
Compare that with the writers they employ nowadays. These schlubs would mung up “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” (Mama Bear is not only head of Star Fleet Intelligence. She’s also a Romulan double-agent!)
Good point! I watched a little bit of Discovery, and deeply regretted that choice. The new writers do seem excellent at ruining the complexity and depth of characterization of a lot of the original characters, like Sarek.
I don’t know. I have yet to discover it – and not for want of watching it. I’ve watched several episodes of the original series with Mr. Weeping recently, and I just don’t get the attraction. I just don’t.
I know. I know. I’m ducking.
Oh, don’t feel bad, I’m not a militant fan. (And I can relate to that feeling with a different popular thing; I’ve read multiple Charles Dickens novels, know that they’re supposed to be some of the best of English writing, and feel absolutely no love or interest in them). It isn’t for everyone (my parents hate it), and that’s okay. Some of the episodes are also very bad.
The thing about Star Trek was it’s American optimism, and then second there was its swashbuckling adventure along with its intriguing characters; such that have never been reproduced in its spin-offs; and its motto: “Where no man has gone before”. From what I understand NASA even took its original logo from the Enterprise’s insignia. It foresaw communicators and talking desktop computers (Siri?). And they had novel, cutting-edge clam-diggers for pants.
But I never warmed to any of the movies or the later version. For one thing Star Trek (there will only ever be one Star Trek in my mind) is artistically done: it’s bright with colors in the uniforms and even the multi-colored lighting in the ship’s corridors. All star treks since have been, it would seem, shot in greys, at night. Okay, Deep Six Nine (or whatever it was called) was okay-ish.
That’s such a good point, I think the color palate was something that saved even some of the more mediocre episodes, and enriched the series as a whole. Someone was very deliberate in that, especially the way that the officers and aliens were dressed, and it creates kind of a neat, intrinsic contrast between the different specialties and species. Like the difference between the gray robes of the emotionless, dying Vians and the bright colors of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Gem in The Empath, which is a good visual summary of the struggle between pure rationalism and emotional complexity.
Star Trek 19: The Wrath of Sulu – Oh My!
Haha, that reminds me, my friends were very amused by Kirk’s womanizing ways (especially since his son makes an appearance in II and he flirts with everything that moves), and came up with an idea for a new Star Trek show that’s just Captain Kirk visiting a planet he’s been to every week to find his copious amounts of illegitimate children. Star Trek: The Wrath of Back Child Support.
Looking back on it, Star Trek was more space fantasy than science fiction; painted in emotional splashing water colors rather than penciled rational schematics. One scene that comes to mind was in one of the first episodes when Gary Lockwood? and a female crew member got telekinetic powers and fought to the death. They ended up on a planet somewhere with a castle high in the background. That castle and the scenery around it and the sky beyond, was a still matte shot, but the castle was a modified photo of a real middle-eastern castle.
This isn’t it, but it’s nice to look at anyway. This is from Requiem for Methuselah.
In one of the original Star Trek shows, Dr. McCoy was dying of some fatal disease. The transporter had an image of his body from before he caught the disease, so all they did was get the transporter to cough up the healthy McCoy. Here’s the thing that’s always bugged me: Why didn’t they transport all those red-shirted security guards back into life?
Star Fleet health insurance didn’t seem to cover redshirts. I think McCoy spent about 35% of his airtime just declaring them dead on various away missions.
If they never come back to life, they can pay them scale.
My God, Jim! I a doctor not a mortician!
I find Star Trek to be theatrical.
You can imagine the stage sets.
When watching it now, You need to rewind and imagine how the broad community lived.
lots of people watched it in black and white. On tiny TV set. Had party line phones. 1 car families. Stay at home mom’s. The early space race.
There is an episode on the Smithsonian channel about them restoring a lot of the sets and props.
I’m getting ready to watch original series again this summer. I hope it is still on Netflix.
Maybe that’s why he looked like this when he got drafted back into service in the first movie; the stress of always being the away mission doctor was too much and Bones became a hippy cult leader.
Fascinating
All of the Star Trek tv series are on Netflix, and Amazon Prime has all of the movies.
One of them also came up with a much less family friendly title. Star Trek: The Late Adventures of James T. Kirk, Intergalactic Man-W****.
aka Denny Crane
If it’s not there and you are an Amazon Prime member, you can watch it there for free. It’s currently one of their Prime Video options – along with (I think) all the other Star Trek TV series, Babylon 5, Farscape, and some of the different Stargate series.
I use the original Star Trek (new when I was in college, watching every episode on a friend’s TV in her packed dorm room), every day. I am constantly bombarded with emails at work, from minute one to the minute I leave. I make a point of responding immediately if I am not on the phone, so the sender knows I received the email. My normal response is this: …working…. Imagine the voice of the Star Trek computer. Yeah, it lives “rent-free” in my brain, and most of my internal customers know to hear that sound when they see my response.
Who Mourns For Adonis. It wasn’t my favorite Star Trek episode, but I think that I think about its ending more often than I should since I first saw is as a child. Perhaps it is more poignant today than it was when written.
APOLLO: Stop! Stop! Stop!
(His lightning bolts end, and the temple dissolves into rubble. Scott helps Carolyn to her feet as Apollo walks around, surveying the ruins.)
APOLLO: I would have cherished you, cared for you. I would have loved you as a father loves his children. Did I ask so much?
KIRK: We’ve out grown you. You asked for something we could no longer give.
APOLLO: Carolyn, I loved you. I would have made a goddess of you. I’ve shown you my open heart. See what you’ve done to me.
(He becomes a giant.)
APOLLO: Zeus, Hermes, Hera, Aphrodite. You were right. Athena, you were right. The time has passed. There is no room for gods. Forgive me, my old friends. Take me. Take me.
(And he disappears one last time. Carolyn cries.)
MCCOY: I wish we hadn’t had to do this.
KIRK: So do I. They gave us so much. The Greek civilisation, much of our culture and philosophy came from a worship of those beings. In a way, they began the Golden Age. Would it have hurt us, I wonder, just to have gathered a few laurel leaves?
The castle was actually from the first Star Trek pilot, with Jeffrey Hunter. The second ST pilot, with William Shatner, used the painting of the Delta Vega lithium cracking plant. Desilu did a pretty amazing job with some of the early episode matte paintings, but they had to have been hard to do once the show was picked up for regular production, and the matte work was used far less after first handful of episodes:
Yeah, I knew that was the wrong picture, and guessed I was remembering the wrong episode. But I couldn’t find the actual photo anyway. And the mining camp just doesn’t have the scope of the one I was referring to. Maybe you can find it?
Found it.
Thanks for the episode.
Having a rounded and/or extended career before coming to Star Trek was a major reason for it’s success. Gene L. Coon, who was the series’ producer after the first nine episodes and running through the end of Season 2, also wrote 13 of them. He used a pen name for his Season 3 shows (and with good reason, because having no control over how they turned out, they mostly turned out rotten), but writing/producing under his own name, Coon created this bad guy:
…and these bad guys:
…and before he came to the show, Coon created these two guys:
The point here is aside from its optimism, Star Trek under Coon wasn’t afraid to also have a light touch and venture into comedy, mainly with the McCoy-Spock banter, but sometime in complete episodes, as with Kirk’s battle with the Tribbles or on Harry Mudd’s android planet (in fact, Roddenberry eventually thought Season 2 had too much comedy). That’s something that remained part of the next few series — sometimes with better results than others — but the latest ST iterations are dark, pessimistic things, where the current writers, actors and directors see dark things in the world going on and can’t possibly imagine them getting better unless they beat you over the head with the problem. The original series was done in the dark times of the 60s, but had the optimism and humor to say the future will be better.
I love Star Trek and have all of the shows on DVD’s. I remain a “Next Generation” guy, proving again that I am out of step.
And the minis…
https://www.retrospace.org/2013/05/mini-skirt-monday-152-star-trek-minis.html
…and the less than minis: