DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Life after Trek: The Cultural Impact of a Canceled Television Series

 

Fig. 1. Leonard Nimoy (left) and William Shatner (right) posing as Star Trek's intergalactic heroes Mr. Spock and Captain James T. Kirk. Publicity photo, "Star Trek," 1966.

 

Unless you’ve been living under one of the papier-mâché rocks used to adorn the alien landscapes during its production, then you have at least heard of the television series Star Trek. Even if you can’t tell a “Tribble” from a “Gorn,” or if you’ve never watched a single television episode, chances are it’s secretly infiltrated your life. Phrases like “Live long and prosper,” and “Beam me up, Scotty,” have worked their way into popular vernacular (“How Star Trek Became a Global Enterprise”). Likewise, much of the cutting-edge technology that is now in development, like invisibility cloaks, tractor beams, and handheld medical scanners, can trace their inspiration back to the enduring Sci-Fi phenomenon (Cooney). And surely a good number of jokes featured on The Big Bang Theory would not exist without Star Trek.

 

On its surface, Star Trek is a science fiction television program that has achieved almost legendary status throughout the world. Although considered a failure in its original American network run, syndication rescued the show from obscurity where it began to attract a loyal following (“How Star Trek Became a Global Enterprise”). Its enduring popularity likely comes partly from its imaginative premise – Humanity has finally put global issues like war, hunger, and poverty behind them and now, united with benign alien allies in the United Federation of Planets (UFP), sets out into the universe to explore strange new worlds and encounter alien cultures. The weekly adventures, featuring the crew of the Starship Enterprise under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, are filled with interstellar anomalies, space battles, and powerful alien enemies (see fig. 1).

 

What isn’t so clear to the uninitiated, and perhaps even the casual viewer, is the profound impact Star Trek has had on culture around the globe. Born during the age of new electronic media in the 1960’s, Star Trek was both a force of and product of globalization and the social environment that prevailed at the time. An inspection of the cultural text in regards to its origins, the audience it reached, and the social climate that inspired it might just reveal as much about the world we live in as it does about the fictional universe of Star Trek.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.