STAR TREK

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek series. Star Trek is the most representative SF drama series in the US. Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry. On September 8, 1966, it was broadcasted on NBC for the first time. The background of this series is the twenty-third century. It contains the story of the adventures of USS Enterprise and its crew led by Captain Kirk.

The first series, Star Trek: The Original Series (1966~1969) was not popular at the time of the airing and it came to the crisis of discontinuation twice. But after that, there were 78 episodes for 3 years until 1969 with increasing popularity. It became the most popular series in the Star Trek.

Also, supported by a number of many fans, it was made into a movie in 1979. Thus, there are five TV series including Star Trek TOS and 13 movie series, including Star Trek Beyond that has recently been released in 2016 for the 50th anniversary.

Star Trek and Science

There are some non-scientific aspects of popular culture, but the scientific evidence of Star Trek is based on persuasive facts. Actually Star Trek has greatly influenced the development of modern science and technology.

① Hypo

In Star Trek, It is a spray type hypodermic syringe that injects drugs without a needle. In modern times, scientists have developed a syringe that injects drugs under the skin using gas, air pressure, and magnetic field without pain. Lately, scientists are developing injection patch technology using micro-needles.

② Medical Tricorder

A Tricorder is a multi-functional hand-held device used for sensor scanning, data analysis, and recording data. There are many types of tricorders. Above all, a medical tricorder is a handheld portable scanning device used by consumers to self-diagnose their medical conditions within seconds and take basic vital measurements. Recently the tricorder development contest was held. The latest tricorder machine has the ability to measure blood flow, heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and body temperature for 10 seconds on the forehead.

③ Communicator

The communicator is a fictional device used for voice communication to the crews. The communicator allows direct contact between individuals or via a ship's communication system. It became the basis of the first mobile phone developed by Motorola.

Apart from these, the way to listen to music in file type data instead of physical storage media such as LP or CD, and the commercialization of MP3 was introduced by Star Trek TNG a long time ago. The tablet PC and screen calls were developed just a few years ago. You can find such evidences in the Star Trek series, too

Theme and Political View of Star Trek

The initial Star Trek is based on the frontier spirit of the Americans with an adventure facing various races and civilizations against the backdrop of a vast universe. Especially, it puts a great deal of weight on conflicts and understandings between characters by aliens who show various forms of races in spacecraft and people with different thoughts and behaviors. The reason is to emphasize the message of unity of race and immigrant cultural and ideological confrontation which was serious in American society at the time of the Star Trek.

Producer, Gene Roddenberry emphasized his “Utopian vision” of humanity’s future. This “Utopian vision” includes overcoming greed, hate, jealousy, as well as ethnic and national rivalries. Moreover, this vision is illustrated by the use a Russian man and a black woman as regular minor characters (Chekov and Uhura).

Also there is another negative viewpoint. Negative characteristics are generally found only in alien races. In a typical episode, one alien race is trying to enslave another, and the Enterprise intervenes to restore balance. In these episodes, the Federation stands in for the United States, while the villain species stands in for Communists.

There are negative aspects in Star Trek, but there are positive ones, too. In Star Trek TOS, Black women and Asian men appeared. This was the first case in which Black women and Asian men appeared on the US television. A kiss scene between Kirk and Uhura was aired in 1968. This is considered the first interracial kiss on the US television.

As a result, the essence of the Star Trek series was a sharp satire of human ethical and social issues. Also, peace and unity are the main values.

What Star Trek Has Left

Star Trek has become one of the largest SF franchises in American pop culture content. For a long time, the fandom was expanded into a cultural phenomenon, producing ‘Trekkies.’ When the first space shuttle was built in the United States, there was a flood of letters asking to change NASA's spaceship name from Constitution to Enterprise. NASA eventually changed the name of the spaceship. Although it is less popular in Korea than in the USA, the fandom is getting larger through the recent rebooted movie series. As mentioned earlier, Star Trek is not offering just fun. It has had a great impact on today's science and technology.