The Social World: The Foundation of Star Trek

Fig. 3. After World War II, Television became a massive communication platform, influencing generations with image and sound. Unknown. Family Watching TV in the 1950's. Filmmaker Magazine, 2013. JPEG.

Star Trek premiered in 1966, just as the modern period of globalization was coming to a close and the contemporary period was set to begin. The modern period, stretching from 1750 until 1970, was characterized by an expansion of world trade, a population explosion, and industrialization (Steger 31-33) It also featured, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the creation of the United Nations which helped, “[revive] global flows and international exchanges” (Steger 35). More specifically, the end of the modern period, in which Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry came of age, was sandwiched between a couple of devastating world wars and the emergence of the Cold War and resulting nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union (Steger 35). It was a period of both optimism at the prospect of nations working together democratically, and the division of the globe between “a liberal-capitalist ‘First World’ dominated by the United States, and an authoritarian-socialist ‘Second World’ controlled by the Soviet Union” (Steger 35). These two prevailing moods would significantly influence the cultural text of Star Trek.

Technology and communication was also changing drastically during the early twentieth century with the emergence of broadcast media. Television, which would be especially influential in the career of Roddeberry, was perhaps the most significant development in twentieth century popular media (see fig. 3). Manuel Castells found that, “[t]he diffusion of television in the three decades following World War II . . . created a new Galaxy of communication” (330). The ability to send messages, however, was in the hands of the powerful elite, making television and the images it delivered highly influential on the masses. In other words, according to Castells, “[a] similar message was simultaneously emitted from a few centralized senders to an audience of millions of receivers” (331). Even by the time Star Trek premiered in 1966, television still reigned as a dominant communication and information delivery system, which made its themes and messages have lasting impact.