Today is the day: Star
Trek’s 50th birthday. To some it may seem strange to be celebrating
the 50th birthday of a television series, but Star Trek was never just a television series. Star Trek has
always been about the future, and what humanity can accomplish when we move
past racism and discrimination. Star Trek, at its barest roots, provides one
thing: hope. Growing up I watched Star Trek and I saw a world where the colour
of your skin didn’t matter. I saw a world where your gender did not define you.
And I saw a world where your sexuality was just that, yours. That is the world
I have always wanted to live in, and that is the world that I want to strive to
create.
On a segue that’s a terrible transition; there is a
lot of pop culture that I like. I like Star Wars, I like superhero stuff, I
like Firefly, but there is very few things in pop culture that I love. In fact, I can only think of two:
Star Trek and Mass Effect. And to be very honest, I love Mass Effect because of
how much it reminds me of Star Trek. I like Star Wars because it’s exciting,
but that’s all it is. The plots are simple, the dialogue basic, and the morals
in it are quite literally black and white. Star Trek makes you think. It makes
you look at your own morals and ethics and question things you never thought
you would have to question. And, as I said before, Star Trek gives people hope.
I could talk about the real world, physical changes
that Star Trek has given us: from laptops and tablets to cellphones to the
space shuttle; but I want to look at the other, less noticeable impacts it has
had. Star Trek created a sense of wonder in multiple generations that led so
many people to pursue science as their career paths. The inventor of the modern
cellphone did so because he wanted a communicator like Captain Kirk’s! But for
the young children watching it for the first time in the 60’s, there was
something much more important that it showed: people of different cultures and
skin colours working together. At the height of the cold war there was a
Russian officer, at the height of racial tensions in the States there was a
Black officer who happened to be a woman. These things did not go unnoticed!
Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Uhura, was considering leaving the show
at one point, and was convinced to stay on the show by none other than Martin
Luther King Jr. Nichelle had been offered a role on Broadway and was
considering leaving the show. She says this of Dr. King’s visit:
“I was a singer on stage long before I was an actress, and
Broadway was always a dream to me. I was ready to leave Star Trek and pursue
what I’d always wanted to do.
“Dr. Martin Luther King, quite some time after I’d first met
him, approached me and said something along the lines of ‘Nichelle, whether you
like it or not, you have become an symbol. If you leave, they can replace you
with a blonde haired white girl, and it will be like you were never there. What
you’ve accomplished, for all of us, will only be real if you stay.’ That got me
thinking about how it would look for fans of color around the country if they
saw me leave. I saw that this was bigger than just me.”
What Star Trek did in the
60s was groundbreaking, and cast members are often asked what Gene Roddenberry
was trying to accomplish with his diverse cast, but he wasn’t really trying to
accomplish anything. The multicultural cast was just a reflection of the world
that he believed in, and he wanted everyone to see it.
Actress Whoopi Goldberg grew up in the 60’s and she
recalls the first time she saw Star Trek: "Well, when I was nine years old
Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come
here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on
television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be
anything I wanted to be."
Stories like this are so common in the Star Trek
community. You hear stories of people who were bullied because they were smart,
but held onto hope because Star Trek showed them that intelligent people are
the ones who save the day; you hear about people who grew up without friends,
but Star Trek showed them a future where everyone was accepted so they held on.
There’s a quote from Futurama that rings true for almost every fan: “... it
taught me so much. Like, how you should accept people, whether they be black,
white, Klingon or even female... But most importantly, when I had no friends,
it made me feel like maybe I did.”
There is a reason that Star Trek resonates so
strongly even after 50 years. There is a reason why Star Trek is still
important. Most pop culture isn’t actually important, sure it can give a
glimpse into what life was like in a certain time period, but it is rarely truly
important. Star Wars, while entertaining and good, is not important in a
significant, cultural way. Star Trek is. It is rare that one can watch a
television series from the 60s fifty years later and still get inspired by the
future it portrays. Star Trek is especially important now when most science
fictions show a bleak and desolate future where humanity is struggling to
survive: there is no hope in that. But Star Trek continues to provide that
hope. Even in its darkest moments, even when its characters made decisions that
were wrong, it still provided hope.
My entire sense of justice and what is right and
wrong comes from Star Trek. It showed me why racism is both wrong and pathetic.
It showed me why hate hurts everyone involved. And it showed me that helping
someone is never wrong. Star Trek taught me to be true to myself, and it taught
me that society should accept me for whom I am, and not force me into something
else.
People sometimes find it odd how emotional I can get
when seeing the Enterprise on the screen. Every time the Enterprise is shown
for the first time in a film I get emotional; my heart starts racing and tears
form in the corners of my eyes, and the people around me can probably feel my
love for that ship radiate off of me. You see, seeing the Enterprise fly across
a television screen is one of my oldest, fondest, and most significant
memories. We often forget our memories from when we were toddlers because they
aren’t significant—we may remember the lessons we learned, but we rarely
remember how we learned them—but seeing the Enterprise for the first time has
never left me. I remember crying when the Enterprise was shown in space for the
first time in Star Trek 09, feeling emotionally drained for days afterwards,
and seeing it floating there every time I closed my eyes. It may seem odd or pathetic
to you that I get so emotional other a fictional ship, but seeing it reminds of
the first time when I was watching my dad’s favourite show with him, it reminds
of me of every lesson I learned from the franchise, and it reminds me of who I
want to be.
I love Star Trek. I love each of the series and the
films. The first real adult novel I ever bought and read was Star Trek Voyager
#18: Battle Lines. The first video game I ever finished was Star Trek Voyager:
Elite Force (great game). The first graphic novel I ever read was Star Trek The
Next Generation: The Gorn Crisis.
To me, and many others, Star Trek not just a science
fiction franchise, but the reason we haven’t given up. I believe in the world
that Star Trek portrays. I believe in Star Trek.
Here’s to the next fifty years, and to a ship called
Enterprise. We have many more adventures to come, and I think Kirk said it
best: “This is the final cruise of the Starship Enterprise under my command.
This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them
and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages
we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where
no man - where no one - has gone before.”
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