American Culture and Star Trek: Original Material @ Omni Prime

“There is nothing like Star Trek” (Richards). The Star Trek universe has grown larger than anyone could have ever imagined. The voyages of the starship Enterprise take place in an expanding universe of places and people. Star Trek has worked its way into the vocabulary of our time. There are many words and phrases from the series that are now part of our everyday language, words like “phaser” and “warp”, phrases like “Beam me up, Scotty” (Kirk), “He’s dead, Jim” (McCoy), and “Make it so” (Picard). NASA’s first logo was surprisingly similar to Starfleet’s logo. Moreover, the first space shuttle, at the request of 7,000 letters from Star Trek fans, was named Enterprise (startrek.com). American culture has had a profound influence on the Star Trek universe, through controversial issues such as America's racial tensions, our conflict with the former Soviet Union, our moral perceptions, and Star Trek’s own fan subculture and, in turn, Star Trek has had a profound influence on American culture.

When Gene Rodenberry created Star Trek in the 60’s, America was in the midst of the Cold War. McCarthyism lead people to greatly fear communists and racial tensions were high. Star Trek greatly reflects and addresses this unstable atmosphere. The Soviet Union was represented in Star Trek by the Klingon Empire (Angel). America was represented by the United Federation of Planets, the largest peaceful coalition of races in the quadrant. Each planet in the Federation was represented in a council. The Federation was a "democracy" with an organizational structure similar to the United Nations. For a long time the Klingons and the Federation were on the edge of war, just like the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Federation made peace with the Klingons in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). However, peace with the Klingons was first shown in Star Trek: The Next Generation, created in 1987, which takes place about seventy years after Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Ronald Reagan probably knew the Cold War was nearing its end around in 1987. Just as we made peace with the Russians the Federation made peace with the Klingons. If in 1987 Reagan did not know that the Cold War would end within a few (four) years, it would be a freak coincidence that Star Trek would foreshadow world history. The Klingon Empire and the Soviet Union are similar in governmental structure and military nature. Angel describes this very well: “Both governments are based on a hierarchical system that keeps the strongest person, whether his strength comes from political cunning or actual physical might, at the top of the government and in charge of the government. This person had to remain strong, as fools and weak leaders do not last long” (Angel).

Rodenberry also represented America’s relationship with China though the Romulans. In the original series the Romulan Star Empire was a very reclusive race, yet they controlled a vast amount of territory that they conquered. China, like the Romulans, conquered a great deal of land and remained reclusive as a world power until Nixon opened up relations with them in 1972. Also, the Romulan Empire’s system of government is similar to China’s (Angel). The war between the Klingons and Romulans closely resembled the problems between the Russians and the Chinese following the death of Stalin. By 1963, the two countries were exchanging insults across their shared border and engaging in competition to be the superior nation (Angel). The Romulans’ isolationist policy let up during Star Trek: The Next Generation. “Incidents” between the Federation and the Romulan Empire would occur near the Neutral Zone, the strip of demilitarized space that separates the Federation from the Romulan Star Empire. Small disputes between America and China existed during The Next Generation and still exist today, a recent example being the capture of a crashed U.S. spy plane and imprisonment of its personnel by China in early 2001.

Racial tensions were one of the things that every Star Trek series confronted. Star Trek: The Original Series is noted for featuring the first interracial kiss on network television (Hegarty). This happened at the time when racial tensions were at its pinnacle in the United States. The Original Series also featured a Russian, Chekov, at the ship’s helm which, during the reign of McCarthyism, was a dangerous thing to do. There were shows in the 60’s that did have African-Americans in them, however, they did not use them the way Star Trek did. Even though Pounds, author of Race in Space: The Representation of Ethnicity in Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, argues that Rodenberry used African-Americans in only a “servant” type role, I believe that Star Trek portrays are more optimistic view (Pounds wrote this in reference to TOS and TNG only, even though DS9 was being aired at the time he wrote his book). Granted that Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) was Captain Picard’s bartender, a service position, Lieutenant Commander LaForge (Levar Burton, an African-American) was the Enterprise-D’s chief engineer, a very prestigious position. Pounds also did not refer to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine though he could have given his book was published in 1999. In DS9 the captain in charge of the Federation’s most strategically placed space station, Captain Sisko, was an African-American. This greatly refutes his claim that “the ethnic characters of the regular cast of Star Trek are uniformly depicted in subordinate roles” (Pounds 172). More support against his claim can be added when ethnic character Hikaru Sulu is promoted to captain in the Star Trek year of 2290 and gets his own starship, the Excelsior. Moreover Pounds said that “within the repertoire of Star Trek roles, ethnic characters are relegated to the status of devoted servant, vicious criminal, knife toter, high-tech mechanic, metal inferior, sexual superman, violent savage, and, at every point, an individual prohibited from forming any romantic relationships” (Pounds 172). Rodenberry couldn’t have been so naïve. Star Trek portrayed ethnic characters in the strongest light. Captain Sisko was married! Sisko loved his wife dearly and Pounds cannot say that ethnic characters couldn’t engage in romantic relationships in Star Trek. Guinan also had an extremely important role. In the TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” Guinan told Picard what to do and saved the entire Federation from its destruction. She sure does sound like she’s a “mental inferior” as Pounds writes. He also believes that Kirk was the center character on posters of Star Trek because he was white (Pounds 99), but could it not be because he was the captain? Hegarty, who wrote a review for his book, agrees with this supposition.

Many things have influenced Star Trek. The American people, being the influencer of television ratings had a great deal to do with how the series progressed, although Gene Rodenberry set the stage for it. However, it is exceptionally difficult for only one man to imagine every detail of several civilizations. Therefore many writers have helped him with such a task. Roddenberry created a world in which the human race was united and contributed to creating an inter-system "democracy" called the United Federation of Planets. Starfleet, the military strength and exploratory arm of this organization, would explore the galaxy meeting countless new races and triumph over obstacles. This is very much portrayed in TOS and TNG, the two series that Rodenberry had considerable influence over. Paramount on the other hand, was not interested in creating a masterpiece television show like Roddenberry was. Paramount was interested in ratings. This caused a conflict between Roddenberry and Paramount that continues to exist even today between Eugene and Majel Roddenberry and Paramount. This conflict has spilled over to other shows beyond Star Trek that Roddenberry also created such as Earth: Final Conflict. Star Trek: DS9 seemed to reflect a bridge to what Rodenberry wanted and what Paramount wanted. In DS9 exploration was kept to a minimum. This was because the Federation enters a bloody war of epic proportions when the Dominion tries to invade the Alpha Quadrant (a quarter of the galaxy which encompasses the vast majority of races previously encountered in Star Trek). The Federation and Klingon Empire fight alongside each other against the Dominion for most of the series. Paramount gave fans what would get them the highest ratings, battle.

Another interesting concept is how right and wrong was viewed and how that concept evolved. In TOS and TNG in general the distention was clear as black and white. An excellent example of this was in the TNG episode “The Pegasus”. Picard had to choose between allowing a cover up to continue or to expose it. A few individuals in the Federation developed cloaking technology. Such a technology was in violation of a treaty that the Federation signed in good faith with the Romulan Empire that has kept peace for sixty years. Although cloaking technology would allow the Federation to level the field with the Romulans, who already have cloaking technology, Picard decides to expose the cover up and deal with the consequences of doing so. At the expense of making several admirals upset and risking his career, he did what was right. This clear distinction between right and wrong deteriorates when Paramount follows a different path, a path more complex when good and evil are distorted.

In DS9 a darker part of the Federation was portrayed. An excellent example of this is when the Federation forged Dominion documents saying that the Dominion would attack the Romulan Empire after it has defeated the Federation. Those who found out the document was a forgery had an “accident” and died. This brought the Romulan Empire to become an ally of its old adversaries, the Federation and the Klingon Empire, in the fight against the Dominion.

Star Trek has not only been heavily influenced by American Culture but has influenced our society on both cultural and technological levels. Many technologies start out as something someone would only dream of in science fiction. The doors that open when you walk up to them in Star Trek have become a reality. The hand-held medical device that Dr. Crusher uses inspired the Palm Pilot (Startrek.com). When Star Trek TNG came out in 1986, on Picard’s desk sat a computer that was surprising similar to today’s laptops. Amazingly, the matter-antimatter reaction which powers starships may soon be a reality. “The mixing of matter and antimatter is almost certainly the most efficient kind of power source that a starship could use, and the way it's described is reasonably correct -- the antimatter (frozen anti-hydrogen) is handled with magnetic fields, and never allowed to touch normal matter, or KA-BOOM!” (Batchelor). In a 1997 study by Purdue University, studies found that grade school students would learn more science from watching Star Trek than any other source, including their science classes.

Star Trek has had a considerable influence over society as well. Countless television shows have jokes or skits relating to Star Trek. Saturday Night Live has done this on numerous occasions. Parodies appear funny when the audience is familiar with the original material and thus Star Trek demonstrates that it has had impact on America. DeForest Kelly was able to immortalize himself in American society though the words “He’s dead, Jim”. The sci-fi movie industry has its basis in Star Trek as well as Star Wars. Star Trek is, according to Patrick Stewart, a Shakespearian Star Wars. “Trekker”, formerly "Trekkie", is the only word that refers to a fan group in the Oxford Dictionary.

Star Trek has played a very significant role in American society as it showed people an optimistic view of the future, where racism, hunger, and suffering have been practically eliminated. It portrays a world in which the acquisition of material goods are no longer the driving force of people’s lives, but the challenge of improving one’s self and one’s understanding. It showed how one can see past one’s differences and strive for a future in which all would be happy to live in. It shows its audience a parallel to America’s history in the 60’s and foretells what has not yet come to pass. It has reflected America’s culture and reversely America’s culture has reflected it. It has inspired new technologies and opened minds to endless possibilities. Star Trek is significant.

Hegarty, Emily. Race in Space: The Representation of Ethnicity in Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation (book review). Journal of Popular Film and Television; Spring 2002, v.30, 1, 71(2)

Pounds, Micheal C. Race in Space: The Representation of Ethnicity in Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press 1999.