star trek
Television programs provide one of the most popular forms of entertainment today. From The Simpsons to The X-Files, television shows amuse, shock, sadden, and excite us by turns. Television does more, however, than simply entertain. Television shows are cultural products, and as such, they reflect, reinforce, and challenge cultural ideas. It acts as a mirror and a model for society. In examining and understanding those cultural messages and popular appeal of certain television shows, we should understand something about the society that has created and sustained them. Arguably, Star Trek is one of the most popular television shows ever produced. Today Star Trek includes four television series and nine motion pictures . Like some of the other television shows, Star Trek has been subject to the vagaries of producers and writers so it is difficult to generalize about the intent of the authors of Star Trek or the viewpoint of the readers. Yet, it is also clear that Star Trek has at various times been reflective, informative, and critical about the culture -American culture- that produced it. Star Trek has addressed a wide variety of issues, including war, capitalism, individualism, technology, race, gend
Gene Roddenberry was Star Trek's creator and executive producer. In sum, while dismissed in the first series, religion has made a comeback in the later series, full of unanswered questions, speculations, and hints of "something more out there". A newer theme, notably found in episodes from the Deep Space Nine and the Voyager series, explores the potentially positive value of religion. This introductory episode so explicitly involving a spiritual motif set a compelling tone for the exploration of religious themes in this series. An underlying and consistent theme of the Star Trek series is the presentation of rational scientific humanism as an alternative to religious faith. But Spock's heroic actions finally persuade Stiles to trust him. Eventually Soren reveals that she is one of a minority of her race who tend towards a particular sex, but that in her society this must be kept a secret. The list can be extended to many other issues but here I will focus on race, gender, prejudice and religion only. In Balance of Terror Lieutenant Stiles, who has fought the Romulans in the battle, displays a decidedly racist attitude towards Mr. I also tried to mirror the cultural conditions in which those episodes are written. Although no single coherent approach to religion appears in Star Trek, the series is nevertheless variously reflective of, informed by, and critical of societal attitudes toward religion. The Perfect Mate is an episode, which appears to rewrite the story of Elaan of Troyius. Since the viability and popularity of Star Trek have spanned such a long period of time, it is inevitable that the series would begin to diverge from original assumptions in response to changing cultural attitudes. In the example above Riker and Picard were acting from liberal humanist principles but in both situations these principles did not prove adequate. For taking a closer look to those issues, in the continuing parts I will give some examples from a number of Star Trek episodes that had written in different times.
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Acceptance Essays
