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Star Trek: An Introduction
- 1. STAR TREK: AN INTRODUCTION Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Our continuing mission? xplore strange, new worlds, to seek out new civilizations
- 2. TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO STUDENT HAS GONE BEFORE
- 3. WHY STAR TREK? Philosophy ART literature sex SCIENCEFICTION WAR GENDER COMMUNISM WORLD PEACE ECONOMY RACE BODILY AUTONOMY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EUGENICS ARCHAEOLOGY ALIENS CULTURE HISTORY colonization MORALITY ANTHROPOLOGY SCIENCE FRIENDSHIP HUMANITY
- 4. THE FIVE YEAR MISSIONSpace: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
- 5. Gene Roddenberry • Born August 19th, 1921, in El Paso, Texas. • Majored in Political Science at university, got his pilot’s license, flew with the US Air-Corps. • 1945, joined a commercial airline. Experienced third plane crash. • Began writing for television. • Filmed the pilot, The Cage (TOS; S1E1), beginning on November
- 6. ENTERPRISE CREW First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy.) Captain James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner) Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley)
- 7. Ensign Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) Officer Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols)
- 8. Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (James Doohan) Ensign Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) Doctor Jabilo* M’Benga (Booker Bradshaw) * Called “Geoffrey” in one work but Jabilo in two. Never given first name
- 9. Star Trek: The Original Series 1966-1969 3 series, 80 episodes. Abbreviated to TOS. Star Trek: The Animated Series 1973-1975 2 series, 22 episodes. Abbreviated to TAS. Star Trek: The Next Generation 1987-1994 7 series, 176 episodes. Abbreviated to TNG.
- 10. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1993-1999 7 series, 173 episodes. Abbreviated to DS9. Star Trek: Voyager 1995-2001 7 series, 170 episodes. Abbreviated to VOY. Star Trek: Enterprise 2001-2005 4 series, 98 episodes. Abbreviated to ENT.
- 11. Star Trek: Movie Series 1979-2002 10 movies; 6 TOS, 4 TNG. Referred to individually. Star Trek: Reboot 2009- 3 movies. As a series, called Nu!Trek. Star Trek: Renegades 2015- 1 series, 1 episode. Abbreviated to REN.
- 12. Thousands of Star Trek novels. Literally thousands. I’m not going to even try to count them because I don’t hate myself that much. Hundreds of Star Trek comics. These have the best and most ridiculous crossovers, such as Star Trek and Doctor Who. Hundreds of Star Trek fanzines. The fanzine particularly came about in the late sixties and early seventies and EXPLODED in popularity before internet fanfiction.
- 13. NOT TO MENTION THE FANFICTION. I’M NOT GOING TO COUNT THOSE, BUT THERE ARE A LOT.
Editor's Notes
- Q: Why are they different colours? A: To make it look nice. All of these are issues that are discussed across the different series of Star Trek.
- The first of the quotes is James T. Kirk’s original speech over the TOS eps, the only one not having it being The Cage. (S1E1 PILOT). The second is one narrated by Patrick Stewart in TNG in every opening of the episode. What does this quote mean? Why is it used? “to boldly go where no man has gone before” now widely quoted everywhere, even though not knowing star trek roots – cultural impact of star trek throughout the world and throughout history now. Space: the final frontier, recalling the exploration of the “frontiers” of America, of asia, of Australia, which implies a colonizational aspect. Is star trek colonial? Is Starfleet colonial in its movement forwards? Hint at a discussion of Starfleet later on in the lecture series. Five year changed to continuing because it was the next generation. To explore “strange new worlds”, why this phrasing? To seek out new life and new civilizations? Why say that? Talk about the METRE in the phrasing, why its so enjoyable to say. “to boldly split infinitives” in boldly go where no man has gone before – changed from MAN to ONE to effect a gender and race neutral idea when looking at fictional races such as the Klingons. “no one has gone before” – again, colonial language: people are already present on these planets, and you’re indirectly saying Starfleet has the only “people”.
- Our three primary crew. James T. Kirk – born in Iowa, dressed in gold for command. The captain of the ship, and grew up in Iowa. At thirteen, he was an inhabitant of Tarsus IV, a colony governed by Governor Kodos – Kirk was one of nine eyewitness survivors to a massacre performed by Kodos in order to save those on the colony that were starving due to a food crisis; Kodos was a believer in eugenics, and was selective about his targets. FOUR THOUSAND targets out of eight thousand citizens. Immediately we see Star Trek examining the thought of eugenics, how and why. Leonard McCoy – born in Georgia, dressed in blue for medical. Chief Medical officer. Has a daughter named Joanna, but went through a bitter divorce by the time he was commissioned by Starfleet. Spock – our alien! Born on Vulcan, a desert planet: his birth was something difficult to engineer. Vulcans were the first species to make contact with humanity a century or so before the work of TOS, but cross-species marriages still thought to be very odd, particularly with the very primary differences between Vulcanity and Humanity. In Spock, we witness a constant example of an alien culture, with completely different priorities, coupled with his struggle to balance both his Vulcanity and Humanity.
- Pavel Chekov – born in Russia. He’s one of the youngest of the crew, and that he’s a Russian was incredibly crucial for the time – in 1964, interactions between Russia and the US were strained to say the least, and the Russians were looked upon with horror and disgust by much of the American populace and government. Having Chekov present was an incredibly bold move, especially given his obvious nationalism. Hikaru Sulu – born in San Francisco on Earth, which is Starfleet’s primary HQ on the planet. San Fran is the base Starfleet peeps usually return to when they get to Earth. Takei himself has Japanese roots. Nyota Uhura – Uhura was of African descent, and she’s fluent in Swahili. Having a black woman as HEAD of a department on a ship is… Well, it was pretty damned big in 1964.
- Montgomery Scott – Scotty was born in Scotland, and James Doohan was not at ALL from Scotland, but people tended to think he was legit. He was a big engineer, and was thought of as a “miracle” worker. Janice Rand – Janice is a great character throughout season one of TOS, acting as a pretty normal woman with fabulous hair: she shows the fierce independence of women of the era. Her miniskirt was part of the independence movement in the 60s. Doctor M’Benga is seen later in the series, and he’s one of the main doctors on the TOS ship beside McCoy: he’s something of a specialist in Vulcan biology, and is considered to be Bones’ superior in that regard. In the 60s. Just saying it was the 60s.