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My wife and I recently finished watching Star Trek: The Next Generation together and have recently begun Star Trek: Voyager. I think what I like about Voyager, besides the stirring opening music, is that it is something we don't see much of in the Star Trek universe. That is a genuine space epic. In the original Star Trek and in Next Generation, characters might return home several times during the story. Voyager is more like the Odyssey or the Aeneid; getting home simply is the story. Unlike the Odyssey and the Aeneid, Voyager is an epic journey through the heavens! (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the Iliad of Star Trek: It's the war epic!)
That's one of the lessons of a show like Voyager. Space isn't emptiness; it isn't darkness or void. Space is filled with the light from a million suns; it is the aether that bears their light to us; it drinks in the light in a way we, beneath our lowly atmosphere, cannot.
This is what Ransom learned in C. S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, the first of his Space Trilogy, which also includes Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, which make up what is probably the best Christian science fiction there is. One of Lewis' goals in writing these books was to overcome the modern reduction of the universe to a collection of various chunks of matter moving about in accordance with a few laws of physics. How dull!
Lewis was a scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature, and he knew how to view the universe differently. He knew an older way of viewing the universe, the lovely medieval idea that the earth is a God-created island set in the center of the heavens, which makes music to God as they circle around us. Lewis wanted to show us a glimpse of that in his space trilogy. It's a testimony to his genius that he was able to do it without sacrificing the modern heliocentric model of the solar system. (I believe I read about this in this biography of Lewis.)
I suspect a similar, perhaps frequently unconscious, distaste for the dull, cold, and dead space of modern science motivates other science fiction. Why else do we love to imagine that space teems with living worlds full of Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, Wookies? We are trying to reimagine the cosmos as the heavens. In helping us reimagine space as something other than cold emptiness, Christians can be thankful for good science fiction. In the original Star Trek and The Next Generation, the heavens are an endless ocean filled with light and life. We seem to have been made to explore it; so we depart from our home shore (Earth), and we set our sails (warp engines) and venture out on the waves. In Voyager the heavens are the same ocean; a little ship has been carried off to uncharted waters, and its crew begins the Odyssean journey home.
It's all quite wonderful, and I think the word "heavens" captures such a universe well. Of course, it isn't exactly like Lewis' portrayal of the heavens; in the Space Trilogy, the heavens still honor God, while our own fallen world is in rebellion. In Star Trek the heavens themselves are at war, one race against another, a third race amongst themselves; and it is at best unclear if there is any God. It doesn't quite communicate the Christian view of the heavens as testifying to the infinite glory of their Creator.
But it's a start. If it helps us view the cosmos as more than various chunks of matter moving about in accordance with a few laws of physics, then it does us good. In helping us reimagine the heavens, it can help us understand their grandeur.
I am told that Lewis thought it more likely than not that God created other populated worlds. I am not entirely sure if he meant other universes, like Narnia and Charn, or other populated planets in our own universe, or both. At any rate, I like his attitude towards alien races: If there are any, they are created by the same God we are!
But even if there are no other populated worlds out there, and even if we never colonize distant star systems, the words of the Psalmist still ring true: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."
*The original version of this post was aired in 2012 at a Kevin C. Neece website, but Google can't find it online anymore. I'd like this post to have a second life. And if you hate Star Trek: Voyager, know that at least I agree with you that the original Star Trek is totally the best.
Discussion (55)
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Well, yes, but...
Space IS largely empty, still. Even with relatively-high-level warp drive a la Star Trek it could take WEEKS just to get to Alpha Centauri. And NOTHING in interstellar space is closer than Alpha Centauri. So much for "4 days there, 4 days back" for the Klingon Homeworld in Episode ONE of the "Enterprise" series. Yes, maybe it is "Neptune and back in 6 minutes!" but SPACE IS WAY BIGGER!!! (As mentioned in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.)
And all the talk about running into things at FTL speeds? I saw a simulation just recently where a sped-up (obviously) trip to the center of the galaxy was simulated. At NO POINT was there another star in the way.
Meanwhile, the single biggest problem with Voyager, at least story-wise, is probably the good old "nothing changes" thing. Sometimes referred to as the "reset button." No matter how damaged they are at the end of THIS episode, everything will be fine again for the next one.
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Just stay out of those uncharted nebulas (nebulae?).
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No, it's full of light.
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One must read Out of the Silent Planet to appreciate Augie's point here. The spiritual is alive everywhere in great and true diversity.
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A beautifully written post, St. A.!
This series aired when our children were tiny, so I caught only scraps of it from time to time. One thing I found admirable and common sense is the writers didn't make up more fake hoodoo than they had to; Voyager didn't cross into another dimension or alternative universe. The Delta Quadrant was in regular space, in the same timeline as the rest of us, just much, much farther away than Federation starships had ever patrolled. IIRC, 27,000 light years from Earth, because of encountering a super-duper wormhole. Star Trek has always had its own mumbo-jumbo for dates and distances, so once in a while it's nice to have a bit of reality.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but gradually they were able to relay short messages to Earth via intermediaries. This didn't really undermine the Odyssean tone of the show; it was like Bounty survivors getting word back to England. They were still essentially on their own.
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