10 Times Star Trek Dared To Be Different
Over nearly 60 years, Star Trek has dared to change the world and to change itself.
From inception, Star Trek's radical act of difference was to insist that difference need not be a radical act. "We will find it impossible to fear diversity and to enter the future at the same time," Gene Roddenberry once said. His vision for a truly egalitarian future remains just as daring today as it was in the 1960s.
"The starship Enterprise [is] a metaphor for starship Earth," Roddenberry also told the cast of The Original Series, according to George Takei. The bridge of the original 1701 was proudly multinational, multiracial, and multi-planetary. Though he could have said it a lot more, Captain Kirk was equally clear that there was "no room [for bigotry]" on his watch.
Cut to 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation was doing things differently all over again. "We are not buying stories about the original STAR TREK characters," noted its Series Bible much to the displeasure of some of the fans. Oh, how change quickly becomes the gold standard! Along the way, Star Trek has continued to tell us that you can hardly be timid when the mantra is to boldly go.
10. Star Wars, Star Bores
In 1977, Star Wars blasted into theatres. Two years later, Star Trek opted for its trademark cerebral approach, plodding its way onto the big screen. Star Trek: The Motion Picture earned a list of unflattering nicknames — 'The Motionless Picture' and 'Where Nomad Had Gone Before' amongst them. Star Trek had not dared to be different enough in the new world of lightsabres and high-energy space battles.
"[When Persis Khambatta is not on screen], the film teeters toward being a crashing bore," noted American film critic Gene Siskel at the time, according to The Art of Star Trek. Reviews were generally mixed to bad. The Motion Picture was a box office success, but expensive to produce. Now, things had to change.
Paramount placed the blame on Gene Roddenberry for the perceived failings of the first film. They didn't like his 'stop the Kennedy assassination' idea for the second. Harve Bennett was brought in as executive producer for Star Trek II, and Nicholas Meyer as director (and unofficial script re-writer). Meyer hadn't even seen Star Trek before. The result was what is, for many, the best of the Trek movies… and uniforms!