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TheGreatBambino (207)
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I grew up on TOS. I've seen every episode so many times that I lost count back in the nineties. I am a TOS fan first and foremost, almost a TOS purist. It is the only real Trek to me. I only watch TOS in its true form with the original special effects; I detest the "remastered" CGI-inserted hogwash from 2006. I barely consider TNG to be worthy of the name "Star Trek." Or any of the movies after The Wrath of Khan, for that matter. And sometimes even TWOK is questionable to me. That's how devoted I am to TOS. But thanks for being presumptuous and attempting to gatekeep.
I simply acknowledge that TOS was not nearly as groundbreaking as certain fans like to believe. Especially in terms of science fiction, as it was way behind the literary SF world in so many respects. And I certainly don't drink the Roddenberry Kool-Aid. The best ideas in Trek came from others on the staff, especially Gene L. Coon, not Roddenberry. Try taking a gander at Solow and Justman's book "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story" sometime.
Here is an excellent fact-checking article that cuts through the self-aggrandizing Roddenberry mythology and shows how the original Trek actually fit into the television market in terms of diversity: https://www.facttrek.com/blog/nbcblackamerica
Yes TOS got a little too heavy-handed and clumsy with social commentary at times. But that was NOT the original intent of the show. Read the 1967 writers guide which came from Roddenberry himself: https://www.bu.edu/clarion/guides/Star_Trek_Writers_Guide.pdf
If an episode's "message" was detracting from the entertainment value, then it wasn't a good episode. "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," anyone? Or "The Omega Glory?" The best and most entertaining episodes told good stories about the characters, without bonking the viewer on the head with an overbearing message.
Roddenberry was not some kind of radical trailblazer. That's just the image he liked to portray in later years, and unfortunately a lot of Trek fans have just accepted that notion at face value.
Other TV shows already had racial diversity well before TOS. "I, Spy" which ran from 1965 to 1968 had a black protagonist as the actual *costar*, not just as a secretary answering the phones which is what Uhura amounted to. And the Man from U.N.C.L.E. which ran from 1964 to 1968 had a Russian character as costar, showing cooperation between an American and Russian spies. And not at some imaginary time in the far future, but in the actual then-contemporary time period of the Cold War itself. And the whole business about money not existing wasn't a thing in TOS. That came later. There were plenty of references to currency in TOS.
Roddenberry's intent was to make money. Yes the writers guide for the original series told writers that it was great if they had a message they wanted to get across, but it made it clear that the message/commentary should not be the main point of the episode they wrote. Entertainment value was the priority. All this business about Roddenberry being some kind of social visionary came about on the convention circuit in the seventies.
Roddenberry kept repeating that story that test audiences and the executives didn't like having a woman as second in command in The Cage. That's typical Roddenberry grandstanding. They were actually just fine with having a woman in a leadership role. What they did not like was the actress, because of her wooden acting skills. She was only there because she was Roddenberry's girlfriend and he was doing her a favor. Also there is no racial diversity to speak of in The Cage. The only racial minority character appears for about three seconds in the transporter room and just pushes a couple buttons and has no lines at all. NBC was actually pushing for more racial diversity in their shows at the time, and The Cage didn't cut it.
No f-bombs in older Trek, but they did use profanity. They threw around the term "son of a b*!^$" quite a bit in Enterprise, and McCoy even called Spock that in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. And remember Data's line when the ship was going to crash in Star Trek: Generations.
Thanks
In the 24th century there was a very prominent human Starfleet captain who had male pattern baldness. So at that point in future history, it had not been cured yet.
Good point.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Also echoes of Luke's line in ROTJ, "Then my father is truly dead."
That's unfortunate.
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