The Two Sides of ‘Star Trek’
... When it was created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966, “Star Trek” was meant to expand the notions of what a unified world could achieve — a mission that was deeply complicated by the turmoil of the era. And the newest incarnation of “Star Trek” arrives at a moment when the country again finds itself teetering between limitless potential and peril, yearning to boldly go in all directions but potentially stuck in neutral.
The original “Star Trek” imagined the futuristic fulfillment of John F. Kennedy’s inspirational oratory, in which his New Frontier became “the final frontier.” The budget surpluses and budding space program of the early 1960s gave rise, in the 23rd century, to the utopian United Federation of Planets. On the Starship Enterprise, men and women, blacks and whites, Americans, Russians and Asians — with names like Uhura, Chekov and Sulu — worked side by side, reflecting Mr. Roddenberry’s belief that “when human beings get over the silly little problems of racism and war, then we can tackle the big problems of exploring the universe,” said David Gerrold, a writer for the original “Star Trek” series.
But events during its brief original run — the race riots of Newark and Detroit; the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the nation’s ever-deepening commitment to the Vietnam War — inevitably affected the tone of the show. By the second season, episodes like “A Private Little War” (in which Captain Kirk attempts to balance an arms race between two extraterrestrial tribes) were commenting on America’s intervention in Indochina....
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The original “Star Trek” imagined the futuristic fulfillment of John F. Kennedy’s inspirational oratory, in which his New Frontier became “the final frontier.” The budget surpluses and budding space program of the early 1960s gave rise, in the 23rd century, to the utopian United Federation of Planets. On the Starship Enterprise, men and women, blacks and whites, Americans, Russians and Asians — with names like Uhura, Chekov and Sulu — worked side by side, reflecting Mr. Roddenberry’s belief that “when human beings get over the silly little problems of racism and war, then we can tackle the big problems of exploring the universe,” said David Gerrold, a writer for the original “Star Trek” series.
But events during its brief original run — the race riots of Newark and Detroit; the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the nation’s ever-deepening commitment to the Vietnam War — inevitably affected the tone of the show. By the second season, episodes like “A Private Little War” (in which Captain Kirk attempts to balance an arms race between two extraterrestrial tribes) were commenting on America’s intervention in Indochina....