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This week: Star Trek Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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“Star Trek?” I asked her. “Really?”
“What?” she demanded, bending unnaturally black eyebrows together.
“There are two kinds of people in the universe, Molly,” I said. “Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans. This is shocking.”
She sniffed. “This is the post-nerd-closet world, Harry. It’s okay to like both.”
“Blasphemy and lies,” I said.
― Jim Butcher, Ghost Story
“I handed them a script and they turned it down. It was too controversial. It talked about concepts like, 'Who is God?' The Enterprise meets God in space; God is a life form, and I wanted to suggest that there may have been, at one time in the human beginning, an alien entity that early man believed was God, and kept those legends. But I also wanted to suggest that it might have been as much the Devil as it was God. After all, what kind of god would throw humans out of Paradise for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the Vulcans on board, in a very logical way, says, 'If this is your God, he's not very impressive. He's got so many psychological problems; he's so insecure. He demands worship every seven days. He goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. He's a pretty poor excuse for a supreme being.”
― Gene Roddenberry
“["The Devil in the Dark"] impressed me because it presented the idea, unusual in science fiction then and now, that something weird, and even dangerous, need not be malevolent. That is a lesson that many of today's politicians have yet to learn.”
― Arthur C. Clarke
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I've always been a Star Trek fan.
Not one of those weirdos who dress up and go to conventions (not that there's anything wrong with that), but simply someone who's always enjoyed watching the show. I'd say I grew up with Star Trek, but there's debate over whether I grew up at all - but for me, it's always been around, in the background, something to provide both entertainment and food for thought.
As I'm sure you've heard countless times from other sources, Trek reached its 50th anniversary this month. I count among my earliest memories seeing Spock's pointed ears on the television and going "What's this, now?" or whatever the kid equivalent was. It got me to watch. I can't say I understood it all at first, but it was enough to instill in me a lifelong love of science fiction. I don't know how old I was - four? Five? The series had already been cancelled, but was in syndication, and I quickly figured out how I could watch it every week, pre-cable, pre-VCR, pre-Internet, lousy antenna reception and all.
Volumes, by now, have been written on that show, its concept, its various themes and character interactions. I have nothing to add to that, except for my personal experience: the awesome feeling of watching the first movie when it came out in theaters seeing the remodeled Enterprise on the big screen; the trepidation and, later, joy of getting into watching The Next Generation and DS9; the complete letdown (for me) that was Voyager.
Hell, I even watched the animated series when it came out. The one nobody talks about. Say what you want about it, but I was at the perfect age to actually enjoy it.
Yes, I even enjoyed the newest movies, with the new cast. All of them. Warts and all.
It always makes me think about where we are, where we're going, and what may be possible.
And isn't that what a fantasy/SF writer *should* be thinking about?
Not all of us can leave our mark on the world like Gene Roddenberry did. But it's never a bad idea to try.
Maybe Trek didn't inspire you the way it did me. That's okay. But you did get your inspiration from somewhere, and that's as good a place as any to start thinking about where you want to take it. |
Since we're talking about Star Trek, I thought I'd highlight some science fiction this month:
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Last time, in "Water" , I talked about one of the basic requirements for life as we know it.
R. Michael Wood  : I'm sure, by now, this has been pointed out, but I'll offer it up, just in case. I believe you meant that water becomes less dense when solidified, as the same number of molecules expand into a larger space, allowing it to float on liquid water. On the reverse, solid methane becomes more dense, as the same number of molecules take up a smaller amount of space, allowing it to sink.
Good catch! Let this be a lesson to all writers: Edit first, then proofread. Fortunately, I was able to change the editorial after reading your comment, so no one ever has to know about my mistake. Wait...
And that's it for me for September! See you next month. Until then,
DREAM ON!!!
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Fantasy: September 28, 2016 Issue [#7877]
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