Trek is also frequently and entirely justifiably accused of resorting to essentially magic when it comes to the science and technology aspect. This is absolutely true but mostly irrelevant. The thing that fans clamouring for more realism are missing is that Trek is to some degree sociological fiction, not science fiction. Alien species aren't usually there to speculate on what alien species would actually be like, they're plot devices. They're there to explore some aspect of human societies, usually to contrast with the utopian Federation to examine why they don't work. Sometimes they've developed advanced tech that's caused social chaos or cohesion, other times they've got some arse-backwards political idea that's easily exposed as nonsense when you compare it to Federation benevolence.
Trek examines sociological issues primarily by means of other species. Sometimes it does so by asking purely speculative, science fiction questions to examine how some technological development might affect us. Sometimes it looks at purely societal issues, often pointing out the flaws of taking things to extremes and the virtues of moderation. Usually, it examines the effects of both technology and politics simultaneously. Because that's the thing about the human condition : you can't fully examine humanity without considering both. Humans like building clever gadgets, and those gadgets influence and change their politics and philosophy, which in turn influences the clever gadgets they build.
In part two, I'll look at the nature of the Federation utopia and how a combination of technology and politics is essential in maintaining it.
What Some Nerd Thinks About Star Trek (I)
Part One : The Sociology of Star Trek A long time ago on an island far, far away, I wrote about why Star Trek is a better show than Battlestar Galactica. That is, Trek is an optimistic piece of science fiction whereas BSG could be accurately titled, "The Very Depressed People Who Got Chased By Sex-Mad Emo Robots And Then They All Died"...
THIS!
ReplyDeleteThis is what is missing from the recent ZAP-POW-BOOM! Star Treck reboots.
Gilmoure deTrimar "Beyond" actually handled this a bit better than the previous movies. Really, Beyond went a long way toward pulling back the Reboot from the brink. It was a pretty decent Trek flick. Not perfect, but definitely a big step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteRhys Taylor yeah this is right up my alley. :)
ReplyDeleteThere's one key element that Star Trek is missing that has become a critical element of our future...and you're looking at it: social media.
My guess, and this is going to be an unpopular opinion for most everybody today, is that eventually the glut of social media interactions...as well as the underlying philosophy that all this interactivity is just plain awesome...is going to be seen as one of the biggest blunders in human history.
Twitter is terrible for people. Facebook is an intellectual solvent. Combine this with celebrity worship and the ability to bubble up into our own private, self-reinforcing info-biospheres and you have a recipient for catastrophic damage to our collective psychology. And no one who has a connection is immune. Not you and it me. It's bringing us all down.
Christopher Butler Adding "Beyond" to my list of things to watch...
ReplyDeleteThere will definitely be an element of how people interact with each other in part two. Although people still disagree in the 24th century, and occasionally have some almighty rows, bullshitting and petty bitchiness appear to be almost entirely a thing of the past. All but the most villainous can be reasoned with if they face overwhelming evidence. That's something sadly lacking in today's society, especially in social media. In real life I can have profound disagreements with my friends, and it doesn't matter. On social media it's rare indeed to have a petty disagreement that doesn't break Godwin's Law within five minutes...
Though I'm less convinced that this is an intractable problem of social media. Requires further thought.
Part two here : http://astrorhysy.blogspot.cz/2016/10/what-some-nerd-thinks-about-star-trek-ii.html
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