Starlog

“What Star Trek technology is on your list of must-haves?” Could the Star Trek universe exist without this type of technology? How would it be better (or worse) with (or without) this technology? Be sure to use evidence to support your argument.

I think that the replicator is a very interesting piece of technology that is integral to the Star Trek universe and the message that it is sending to it's viewers, and if it suddenly became real, it would have huge effects on our society today.

The replicator is there not only for convenience of plot but to drive home the point that the federation is post scarcity, which is a thing that comes up time and time again. And while the Star Trek universe could exist without the replicator I do not think that it could exist without the ideal that it stands for.

“Who is your favorite Star Trek character?” Feel free to discuss any character from the franchise. Why is this character your favorite? Is it someone you personally connect with? Is it someone who played a particularly powerful role in the franchise? How is this character grounded in the social or political time of their creation?

Jadzia Dax is probably my current favorite character in the Star Trek franchise, quickly followed by Data. She is my favorite character because I admire her courage to break boundaries that other people try to set for her, her role in furthering queer representation both explicitly and sub textually, and just her general strength of character. While maybe not the most prominent character in the series, whenever she is on screen she unashamedly brings all of herself with her and shines brilliantly while doing so.

Most of the time when people talk about Jadzia and queer representation the question "Are Trills trans?" tends to emerge. While this is an interesting question, I think that it can sometimes lose the thread of why Jadzia is powerful representation, not only for the queer community but also for women as a whole. Jadzia is not afraid of taking up space and being herself in a world that doesn't always think that that's what she should do. Whether it's playing tongo with some Ferengi or talking with a partner of a past life she is always willing to push boundaries. As a joined Trill she has multiple identities and she is not afraid of embracing different aspects of them and bringing them into her own identity, and because of her constant state of transcending expectations and being wholly herself, I don't think that the Trans Trills question is the most important part of her representation.

Having a character that has lived as multiple genders and brings masculine and feminine energy to the screen and kisses someone of the same gender all while being unapologetically themself is fantastic queer representation regardless of the specific labels put on that character after the fact, especially in the time when Don't ask Don't tell was largely considered a step forward for queer rights.

In your opinion, what are the benefits of adhering to canon? What creative potential exists in jumping off from it? Where has Star Trek (or other similar franchises) done it well or poorly?

I think that adhering to cannon makes it easier for viewers to suspend their disbelief and makes it possible to establish a certain logic in the series that not only makes the story possible to understand but can also introduce fun ways to play with the narrative within its logic and rules. If there was absolutely no cannon at all you would not be able to have a non-anthology show let alone a franchise. Cannon is what makes the world. Cannon also introduces world mechanics which can help viewers understand the message of the text and can make fun and creative ways to play to the mechanics advantages. A good example of this would be how the Next Generation two parter Unification uses the well established relationship between the Vulcans and the Romulans along with Spock's past to build a story that could not exist without these previously established world mechanics.

However, cannon can also become a sort of trap that forces a series into corners that do not make sense and can hold back a metatext from expanding and growing with our modern world, and in these cases it's probably better to abandon the cannon and retcon. Turnabout Intruder, the last TOS episode, established that women cannot be captains in Starfleet, which was later disregarded, and rightfully so.

Which pilot best addresses the contemporary societal issues from when it was produced while taking the most advantage of the television format on which it was shown? Rank the episodes you watch in numerical order where 1 is the episode that best answers the question prompt.

Emissary - Deep Space Nine

Encounter at Farpoint - Next Generation

Where No Man Has Gone Before - The Original Series

The Caretaker - Voyager

The Cage - The Original Series

In my opinion, Emissary, the pilot episode for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, is the pilot that best addressed the contemporary issues of the time, while also taking the most advantage of how television was aired and viewed at the time of it's release, in this case the episodes assets played brilliantly with being aired in syndication ans also with the state of the Star Trek franchise at the time.

The series as a whole takes Star Trek in a slightly new direction with more of an emphasis on the outer workings of the federation and it explores the ways in which classic Starfleet actually fails to help, and sometimes even hurt, they people they say they'd do anything to protect. The pilot clearly introduces these thematic topics while also maintaining the general hopefulness and aura of progress that Star Trek is known for. This is exactly what viewers were looking for and the episode quickly gained traction and even various accolades.

The Next Generation Pilot, Encounter At Farpoint, has a lot of the same strengths that DS9 had regarding taking advantage of being aired in syndication, however, this episode examines the questions it's asking with a less critical eye than the DS9 pilot, which is why I put it in second.

Where No Man Has Gone Before does a pretty good job appealing to the business model of network television, which was the standard when it aired, especially compared to the series's first pilot, The Cage. It was marketed to a fairly broad audience, was pretty progressive for the time, and even incentivized people to buy color televisions. However, I think that this pilot's themes and ideas are less interesting than those posed in the later series pilots and I think it does a worse job at analyzing those themes, which is why I put it in third.

To what extent did the business model of network television enable Star Trek: The Original Series to appeal to such a wide range of audiences? In ways did that same model constrain it?

In today's world where practically anything anyone could want to watch is just a few clicks away at any possible time (if you've signed off enough of your money to subscriptions that is), it can be easy to forget that it wasn't always that way. Streaming encourages hyper-targeting demographics in a way that was impossible in the network television days of the 1960s when Star Trek: The Original Series first graced the small screen. Despite the fact that the business model used by network television stations when Star Trek aired promoted low production costs and exceptionally high ratings, which eventually caused the series to be canceled, the business model's key objective to make all of their programming easily accessible general audiences and family-friendly, lead what otherwise could have been an extremely niche show to have a broader range of viewers.

The importance of appealing to broad audiences in the business model of network television enabled Star Trek to reach a wide range of viewers because it caused the show to fundamentally change to become appealing to this larger demographic and then was given the platform to do so. The first pilot, The Cage, was deemed to niche and cerebral to be a valuable asset to the network, which caused the show to be reworked. Everything thing from the uniforms to the increase of action-adventure sequences and the recast of the captain caused the show to become more marketable to more people. Another thing worth mentioning is Majel Barrett's role going from second in command to Nurse Christine Chapel. While Star Trek has always been a beacon of progress, things like recasting a woman into a less powerful role to appeal to a larger audience remind us that there are obvious flaws in their progress.

Introduction:

As a nerdy teenager who loves space history, media analysis, and was looking for something interesting to do for the few months I have out of school, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn about one of the greatest sci-fi franchises to grace the screen.