Cultural influence of Star Trek

Star Trek is one of the most culturally influential television shows—and perhaps the most influential science fiction TV series—in history. The original series, which aired in the late sixties, has since spawned five successor series, eleven movies, a plethora of merchandise, and a multi-billion dollar industry collectively known as the Star Trek franchise (currently owned by CBS Television Studios, which now owns television properties previously held by Paramount Pictures, the studio that produced Star Trek for many decades; CBS Paramount continues to hold DVD rights to the TV series, and the rights to produce feature films).

Star Trek: The Original Series

“	The fact is, never in the history of any entertainment medium has there ever been a story, an idea, a situation, a set of characters, or a theme that has approached the magnitude or impact of Star Trek.	”
—A Vision of the Future (1998)[1]:56

Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek in 1964 to NBC as a classic adventure drama, calling it a "Wagon Train to the Stars". In reality, Roddenberry wanted to tell more sophisticated stories, using futuristic situations as analogies for current problems on Earth and rectifying them through humanism and optimism. The show's writers frequently addressed moral and social issues in the episodes by tackling topics such as slavery, warfare, and discrimination. The opening line "to boldly go where no man has gone before" was taken almost verbatim from a US White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957.

A major inspiration for Star Trek was the science-fiction film Forbidden Planet whose influence is especially apparent in the pilot episode The Cage^[2] .^[3] There were previous sophisticated science fiction TV shows that were either anthology series such as The Twilight Zone or the British Quatermass serials, but Star Trek was the first American science-fiction series with a continuing cast that was aimed at adults telling morality tales with complex narratives.

Although earlier British science-fiction shows done with marionettes^[4] and soap operas^[5] had interracial casting, it was unique for an American live-action series to do this. When there were few non-white or foreign roles in American television dramas, Roddenberry created a multi-ethnic crew for the Enterprise, including an African woman, a Scotsman, a Japanese American, and—most notably—an alien, the half-Vulcan Spock. In the second season, reflecting the contemporaneous Cold War, Roddenberry added a Russian crewmember. The original series is also credited with American television's first interracial kiss, although this had happened earlier in a British medical soap opera, Emergency – Ward 10.^[6]

The series gained multiple Emmy award nominations during its run, but never won. Despite a restricted budget, the show's special effects were superior to contemporary TV shows, its stories were often written by prominent science fiction authors (though often re-written by the show's regular writers),^[7] and many of its production values—such as costuming and set design—were of high caliber for such a low budget. Some of the production staff of The Outer Limits worked on Star Trek and often made creative re-use of effects of props from the earlier series.^[3]

During its network run from 1966 to 1969, TOS's ratings were mediocre. A letter-writing campaign by fans, unprecedented in size, contributed to NBC's decision to renew the series for a third season, but the network put the show in a disadvantageous timeslot, and TOS was finally canceled after its third season.

Cancellation and aftermath

In 1976, a letter-writing campaign compelled NASA to name the inaugural (and test) space shuttle Enterprise after the fictional starship. In this image, Enterprise is rolled out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities with Star Trek television cast members and creator Gene Roddenberry in attendance.

After its cancellation, through reruns Star Trek became more popular and reached a much wider audience than when it had originally aired.^[8] Known as "trekkies" or "trekkers", the show's fans formed clubs and organized conventions. In 1976, following another fan-organized letter-writing campaign, NASA named its first space shuttle orbiter, Enterprise (OV-101), after the fictional starship.

NASA also employed actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura to attempt recruiting African-Americans and women to become astronauts. Nichols considered quitting her role on Star Trek during the second season to pursue a different acting job. She was talked out of this decision by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who told her that a show that depicted a black woman working alongside whites in a position of importance helped further the goal of racial equality.

A direct follow-on to Nichelle Nichols' inspiration was actress Whoopi Goldberg, as Nichols' role as Uhura was her inspiration to get into acting. Nichelle Nichols has told in multiple interviews^[9] that Goldberg told her that as a child seeing Star Trek for the first time, Ms. Goldberg ran around the house screaming "Hey Mom! Look! There's a black woman on the TV and she ain't no maid!" Ms. Goldberg was eventually to portray the recurring El-Aurian female character Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Waxing and waning

In the mid-seventies, encouraged by the burgeoning fan base for the show, Roddenberry sought to start a second television series (Star Trek: Phase II); this abortive attempt morphed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. The movie did sufficiently well at the box office, grossing more than $80 million in the US and $139 million worldwide,^[10] to spawn several more movies during the eighties. In 1987, Roddenberry created a second TV show, Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), which was set aboard the fifth Federation starship Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) more than seventy years after events in the earlier series and related movies. Unlike TOS – which often reflected a bold, interventionist American philosophy — TNG had a less aggressive and more socially liberal message. This show, unlike its progenitor, entered syndicated, rather than a nationwide network, from the beginning, and was sold to individual local TV stations. It became the number one syndicated TV show, lasting seven seasons, spawned two sequels, a prequel, four movies, and a vast marketing franchise.

Star Trek and its spinoffs have proved highly popular in television repeats, shown repeatedly on TV stations in the US and throughout the world. The Star Trek franchise is similarly prolific. Only Star Wars has had as significant an influence as a science fiction and popular culture phenomenon. According to Forbes magazine:^[11]

• the five live-action Star Trek series have garnered 31 Emmy Awards and 140 nominations. At least nine specials have been produced
• the eleven movies have cumulatively grossed US$2.145 billion at the box office: the most successful movie was Star Trek (2009) grossing $385 million worldwide and after a combined nine nominations for four films, it was the first Star Trek film to win an Oscar. Having been nominated in four categories, it received the award for Best Make-up^[12]
• at least 120 compact discs and 40 video games contain "Star Trek" in their titles; the CDs are mostly soundtracks and audio books but also Klingon language instruction
• about 70 million books are in print
• the franchise entails a merchandising business with a total lifetime gross of about $4 billion from companies including Playmates Toys, Hallmark Cards, and Hasbro
• resorts include rides and attractions at Paramount-owned amusement parks as well as Star Trek: The Experience formerly at the Las Vegas Hilton

Star Trek conventions have been popular, but are waning and are now often meshed with conventions of other genres. Fans coined the terms "Trekkies" and "Trekkers" to describe themselves, and produce an abundance of material like fanzines with fiction, art and songs.

The show’s cultural influence goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. An entire subculture grew up around the show and, anecdotally, there are indications that Star Trek has influenced many people's lives. Many scientists and engineers claim that their professional and life choices were influenced by Star Trek.^[13] The inventor of the first non-vehicular cell phone, Martin Cooper, states he was motivated to develop it from watching Star Trek.^[14] In addition, phrases like "Beam me up, Scotty", "Resistance is futile" (from the Borg), and Treknobabble have entered the vernacular. Words from the show including Klingon have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, and "Trekkie" is the only fan label listed in that dictionary. Fictional devices in the show have also been claimed as inspirations for actual devices like mobile phones (communicator).

A broad consensus amongst fans is that the Star Trek franchise became formulaic and mediocre in the 1990s due to over-exploitation of the franchise by Paramount and production of multiple spin-offs and movies, though fans do not necessarily agree as to when this began (some adult viewers of TOS felt it also could be formulaic and repetitive ^[7]). The release in May 2009 of Star Trek, a reboot involving characters from the original series and set in an alternate timeline, was developed with the partial hope to resurrect the franchise.

Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly, in reviewing the new film states that the Star Trek franchise had "devolved into a near-irrelevant cultural joke, likely to inspire giggles and unprintable curses from even its most ardent supporters."^[15] Leonard Nimoy wondered in 2003 whether or not the franchise "had run its course".^[16] Director J. J. Abrams argued "people [may not] even understand what Star Trek means anymore", and joked that a parody like Galaxy Quest which "mocks the paradigm" made the task of producing a credible Star Trek film that much more challenging.^[17] Even on set, Abrams felt nervous "with all these tattooed faces and pointy ears, bizarre weaponry and Romulan linguists, with dialogue about 'Neutral Zones' and 'Starfleet'".^[18] In covering the relaunch film, Jensen remarked the series' optimistic nature ran counter to an increasingly cynical culture, and that the film had been delayed from December 2008 to May 2009 to "rehab" the series' image.^[15]

Upon release, the film was a major critical and box office success, sparking comments by fans and critics that the franchise has a bright renewed future.

Science-fiction, fantasy, and television

The first television series with comparable story-line and set-up to Star Trek (aside from the genre rival Doctor Who) was the 1990s series Babylon 5. When pitching the series, the producer J. Michael Straczynski had hoped that television executives would think Trek had opened up the market for science-fiction on TV. However, he was told that Star Trek only created a market for more Star Trek and that the prospects for non-Trek related science fiction were seen as bleak. Eventually, Babylon 5 was greenlighted. Three script writers who had worked for Trek's original series were to write for Babylon 5 (including D. C. Fontana who had written for three different Trek series), and Star Trek actor Walter Koenig was cast in a recurring role. All this, and the strong similarities of the series' premise to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" invited comparison to "Star Trek." In addition, Babylon 5 was the first television series since Star Trek to get nominated for or win the Hugo award for best science fiction drama, which had only recognized feature films in the media category since Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry's widow and Star Trek actress, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, publicly stated that her decision to do a guest star appearance on Babylon 5 was to stop the feuding and bickering among hardline fans of the two series, which broke out occasionally at science fiction conventions.

Star Trek fandom in fiction

Some television series have major or supporting characters who are Star Trek fans with this affecting the storyline of the show. The major character of Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a Star Trek fan. The Season 5 episode The Replacement in which there are two Xanders is a simultaneous tribute to three episodes of the original series in which there are two Captain Kirks.

In crossover casting, two other television series have cast actors from Star Trek in shows in which other characters are Star Trek fans who frequently refer to Trek moments or cite Trek storylines. The character Hiro Nakamura on NBC's Heroes likes to describe his ability to teleport as "like Star Trek," and has often performed the Vulcan gesture to "live long and prosper." His father is played by original Star Trek cast member George Takei (Sulu). Additionally, Nichelle Nichols who portrayed Uhura in "The Original Series" and Zachary Quinto who acts as Spock in the 2009 movie "Star Trek" both play prominent roles throughout "Heroes".

Over a dozen actors from various Star Trek series have made guest appearances on one or the other of the Stargate series. In those series, Colonel Jack O'Neill makes unsuccessful pitches to name new space vessels after the Enterprise and also gives the Vulcan salute in tribute to Trek. In an earlier episode of Stargate: SG-1 O'Neill travels back in time to the 1960s and during an interrogation by an Air Force officer he refers to himself as "James T. Kirk, captain of the federation starship Enterprise". Another "Trek" reference is made when a character questions whether or not another team member can be "beamed up". The response is "What am I, Scotty"? Later in the series, advanced alien technology allows team members to "beam" up and down in manner similar to that seen on "Star Trek".

In the Cold War submarine film Crimson Tide, in a moment of crisis the USS Alabama executive officer played by Denzel Washington gives a pep talk to his young radioman referring to Kirk's telling Scotty they need "more power", or in this case the need to restore radio communications. For comic relief, the sitcom Frasier has a recurring Trek fan character, Noel. This plays a role in several episodes including one in which he deceives Frasier into believing a speech is written in Hebrew when it is really in the Klingon language.

Parodies and tributes

Star Trek has been the subject of a large number of parodies and tributes.

Prominent among film parodies is Galaxy Quest, as it parodied the original Star Trek series, elements of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the whole Trekkie phenomenon. Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is a fan-made parody of both Star Trek and Babylon 5.

On television, the animated series Futurama makes frequent references to Star Trek and parodies some of its better known plot elements on a regular basis, including the character Zapp Brannigan who is based on a combination of Captain Kirk and William Shatner, and cast members of the original series have taken part in one episode.^[19] Prominent examples in other television series include multiple episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy.

There are many other parodies in comic strips, music and computer games, such as Eminem's song "We made You" Eminem was dressed as Spock, Dr. Dre as Kirk. The back cover of Blondie's Parallel Lines shows a band member wearing 'Spock Socks'.^{[citation needed]}

NASA and other institutions have paid explicit tribute to the series in the use of names of ships and characters from the series. Subtle acknowledgments in media and real life include the use of Star Trek ships' registry numbers, especially the Enterprise's NCC-1701.

Another Star Trek band, Warp 11, has released several studio albums.

Locations

Replica of a Constitution-class ship in Vulcan, Alberta.

Riverside, Iowa has proclaimed itself the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, asserts in the book The Making of Star Trek by Stephen Whitfield, that the character of Kirk had been born in the state of Iowa. In March 1985, when the town was looking for a theme for its annual town festival, Steve Miller, a member of the Riverside City Council who had read Roddenberry's book, suggested to the council that Riverside should proclaim itself to be the future birthplace of Kirk. Miller's motion passed unanimously. The council later wrote to Roddenberry for his permission to be designated as the official birthplace of Kirk, and Roddenberry agreed.

In the Star Trek 2009 film, Riverside is depicted as having a Starfleet shipyard on its outskirts, where the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 was built.

The city of Garland, Texas is the first city known to have an official place name based on the TV series: "Star Trek Lane", located off of Apollo Road and east of North Jupiter Road (32°57′11″N 96°40′52″W / 32.953°N 96.681°W / 32.953; -96.681).^[20] The city of Birmingham, Alabama also boasts a "Star Trek Lane," and "Star Trek Circle", in the Sunrise East subdivision of its Roebuck neighborhood.

An unincorporated area near the Las Vegas Strip contains a residential street named "Roddenberry Avenue". While the mailing address lists the avenue as being located in Las Vegas, Nevada, the physical address is an unincorporated township called "Enterprise". There is no indication that the township's name has any connection with the Star Trek series, and it is unknown whether or not the street name is a deliberate tribute to the Star Trek creator.^[21]

A limited number of Famous Players theatres in Canada house large replicas of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A. One such theatre can be found in the town of Thunder Bay, Ontario, another in Windsor, Ontario, another at the 'Colliseum' theatre in Ottawa, Ontario, another in Richmond, British Columbia as well as one in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In the Greater Toronto Area, replicas can be seen in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Toronto, and in the SilverCity in Richmond Hill, Ontario. In addition, a replica of the Sovereign-class USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E can be found in Laser Planet in Oakville, Ontario as well as in the Colossus theatres, in Langley, British Columbia and Laval, Québec.

References

1. ^ Poe, Stephen Edward (1998). A Vision of the Future. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671534815. 
2. ^ Forbidden Planet, Science Fiction Movies, Leslie Neilsen. Scifidimensions.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-15.
3. ^ ^{a b} The Outer Limits Connection – Star Trek Myths Pt.2. Fastcopyinc.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-15.
4. ^ Cast of Characters: Lieutenant Green. Spectrum-headquarters.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-15.
5. ^ Stephen Bourne (9 June 2005). Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 172–. ISBN 9780826478986. http://books.google.com/books?id=YYaryaqLfd4C&pg=PA172. Retrieved 15 June 2011. 
6. ^ Soaps | British. TVARK. Retrieved on 2011-06-15.
7. ^ ^{a b} The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Gen Ed Peter Nichols, Granada 1979, Page570
8. ^ Shult, Doug (1972-07-03). "Cult Fans, Reruns Give 'Star Trek' an Out of This World Popularity". Milwaukee Journal. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rx0eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gX4EAAAAIBAJ&dq=star-trek%20syndication%20%7C%20rerun&pg=6303%2C2206524. Retrieved March 4, 2011. 
9. ^ both in the film Trekkies and in this BBC interview BBC Interview with Nichelle Nichols
10. ^ "Star Trek: First Contact — Box Office Data, Movie News, Cast Information – The Numbers". http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1979/0ST01.php. Retrieved 2009-07-21. 
11. ^ One must click on a web slide-show at this link to glean the statistics David M. Ewalt, (May 18, 2005). "Star Wars Vs. Star Trek". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2005/05/16/cx_de_0516match.html. Retrieved 8 March 2011. 
12. ^ "Star Trek Wins First Oscar". http://www.trektoday.com/content/2010/03/star-trek-wins-first-oscar/. Retrieved 2010-03-08. 
13. ^ Among many statements to this effect see. Startrek.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-15.
14. ^ Laytner, Lance. ''Edit International'' Star Trek Tech (2007). Editinternational.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-15.
15. ^ ^{a b} Jeff Jensen (2008-10-24). "'Star Trek': New Movie, New Vision". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20233502,00.html. Retrieved 2008-10-18. 
16. ^ Star Trek Database. Startrek.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-15.
17. ^ Geoff Boucher. "‘Star Trek’ director J.J. Abrams on tribbles and the ‘Galaxy Quest’ problem". Hero Complex. http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2009/01/29/star-trek-direc/. Retrieved 8 March 2011. 
18. ^ CINETOPIA – cinema food wine art – Vancouver's luxury movie theater. Cinetopiatheaters.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-15.
19. ^ Cook, Lucius (April 26, 2004). Hey Sexy Mama, Wanna Kill All Humans?: Looking Backwards at Futurama, The Greatest SF Show You've Never Seen. Locus Online. Retrieved on July 2, 2007.
20. ^ "Yahoo Maps". http://maps.yahoo.com/index.php#mvt=h&q1=3499+Aquarius+Circle%2C+Garland%2C+TX&trf=0&lon=-96.681463&lat=32.952364&mag=1. Retrieved 2007-02-27. 
21. ^ Google Maps: Roddenberry Ave. Google.com (1970-01-01). Retrieved on 2011-06-15.

• Nygard, Roger, director; Crosby, Denise, host. 1997. Trekkies (film documentary: official website). Los Angeles: Neo Motion Pictures.
• "Star Trek as a Cultural Phenomenon", US Centennial of Flight Commission
• "Star Wars Vs. Star Trek", Forbes.com — see also Comparison of Star Trek and Star Wars
• Whitfield, Stephen E. & Roddenberry, Gene. 1968 (27th printing, 1991). The making of Star Trek. (ISBN 4-501-62109-5; ISBN 0-345-34019-1 (27th pr.)). New York City: Ballantine Books.

External links

• Star Trek parodies and pop culture references at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Star Trek parodies and pop culture references (film) at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Star Trek parodies and pop culture references (television) at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Star Trek parodies and pop culture references (music) at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Star Trek parodies and pop culture references (literature) at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Star Trek tributes at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)