Wednesday January 28, 2009 12:03 PM

The Star Trek Philosophy

 [Webmaster's notes: I had not heard or read these words until finding them recently in the form of an MP3 recording of Mr. Roddenberry speaking at a gathering in around the year 1976. I might assume this occasion was at the point when NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US space flight program)) had named its first recoverable orbital vehicle (Space Shuttle) after the immortal Star Trek space ship U.S.S. Enterprise. I find these words remarkable because it is the first time I had heard that Star Trek had really been meant for what I had come to believe it was. Star Trek had been meant to appeal to our common but often-hidden belief that we really want to be a part of something bigger than what we see here on Earth, and we want so much to share in the 'Family of Man.' These words below are a direct transcription of Mr. Roddenberry.]

I think probably the most often-asked question about the show (Star Trek) is 'why the Star Trek phenomenon?' and it could be an important question because you can ask, how can a simple space opera with blinking lights and zap guns and a hobgoblin with pointy ears reach out and touch the hearts and minds of literally millions of people and become a cult in some cases? Obviously what this means is television has incredible power. They are saying that if Star Trek can do this, then perhaps another carefully calculated show could move people in other directions. What is to keep selfish interests from creating other cults for selfish purposes? Industrial cartels? Political parties? Governments?

Ultimate power in this world, as you know, has always been one simple thing. The control and manipulation of minds. Fortunately, however, any attempt to manipulate people through a so-called 'Star Trek formula' is doomed to failure, and I'll tell you why in just a moment. First of all, our show didn't reach and affect all of these people because it was deep and great literature. Star Trek was not (Henrik) Ibsen or (William) Shakespeare. To get a prime-time network show on the air and to keep it there, you must attract a minimum of 18 million people every week. You have to do that in order to woo people away from 'Gomer Pyle,' 'Bonanza,' 'Beverly Hillbillies,' and so on; and we tried to do this with entertainment, action, adventure, conflict and so on; but once we got on the air, and within the limits of action-adventure, we did not accept the myth that the television audience has an infantile mind.

As a matter of fact, we decided to risk the whole show on that premise. We believe the often-ridiculed mass audience is sick of this world's petty nationalism, and all its old ways and old hatreds and that people are not only willing, but anxious to think beyond those petty beliefs that have, for so long, kept mankind divided. So, you see the magic ingredient that many people keep seeking, and missing, is not in Star Trek. It is in the audience. There is an intelligent lifeform out on the other side of that television tube. The whole show was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins, not just to tolerate, but to take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in lifeforms.

We tried to say that the worst possible thing that could happen to all of us is for the future to somehow press us into a common mold where we begin to act and talk and look and think alike. If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there, and I think this is what people responded to.

The result was, seven years after being dropped by the network, after saying those things, there are now more people watching it than ever before, and if you ascribe those things to any mystic or scriptural brilliance in Star Trek, you've missed the entire point! What Star Trek proves, as faulty as individual episodes could be, is that the much maligned common man, and common woman has an enormous hunger for brotherhood. They are ready for the 23rd century now, and they are light-years ahead of their petty governments and their visionless leaders.

--Gene Roddenberry ca. 1976

  Star Trek Trivia

The meaning of NCC in the Enterprise's registration number has never been officially defined. It is commonly assumed to stand for Naval Construction Contract (an idea proposed in the 1970's by the "Star Trek Blueprints" of the Enterprise). A variant suggestion is Naval Construction Code. The prefix NCC was chosen by Matt Jefferies, by taking the common airplane prefix "NC" and adding another C to it.

Cloaking devices were not used aboard Federation starships for several reasons:

First, within the Star Trek universe, the episode "The Pegasus" established that the Federation had under the Treaty of Algeron (a treaty between the Romulan Empire and the Federation) agreed not to develop or use cloaking devices.

Second, it was Gene Roddenberry's stance that "our people are scientists and explorers -- they don't go sneaking around."

Third, as a matter of series development, keeping cloaks out of Starfleet helped keep some variety between Federation and Klingon/Romulan ships, and kept the cloak from being an easy way out of an episode plot-crisis.

The future Enterprise-D was shown with a cloak in "All Good Things..." Presumably this was because the Romulans had been conquered by the Klingons in that future history, which would thus void the Treaty of Algeron. It should also be kept in mind that that future is conjectural and that things are not fated to go that way in the Star Trek timeline. More recently, the U.S.S. Defiant was fitted with a cloaking device "loaned" to the Federation by the Romulans, with the agreement that the vessel was only to be used in defense of the Borg and the Dominion.

Star Trek has a predilection for mostly humanoid aliens whose major difference in appearance would be in the cranial or facial features. Why?

As a matter of a TV show, Gene Roddenberry had a stated preference for portraying most aliens that way. And as a matter of money, it was easier on the makeup budget. (One of the main points of Roddenberry's first ST proposals to the networks was that makeup costs could be held down by having most aliens be variations on the human form.)

Within Star Trek, The Next Generation episode "The Chase," in order to explain this, established that most races in the Galaxy are descended from a common ancestry. Thus they all tend to follow the same general humanoid pattern.

Star Trek ® Star Trek: The Next Generation ® Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ® Star Trek: Voyager ® and Star Trek: Enterprise ® are registered trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. No Infringement Intended.

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