Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future in Star Trek (then and now)

Just a rant about New Trek

The creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, had a very different idea about what Star Trek is than what we see today. In some way his vision of the future matches that of TZM. There will be no hunger in the future, due to the proper use of science and technology. Replicators and matter-antimatter reactors made sustainable abundance possible. A new economy build around self improvement made infinite wants disappear. And because we discovered we’re not alone in the universe we eliminated also prejudice. What Gene made was a vision of a positive future where humanity finally found its footing.

His series were meant to reflect upon our current problems. Where a more advanced civilization would have a different point of view on what we face today. This external perspective was very clever. Because it was now possible to see our present day problems through a more evolved lens. Every episode more or less was build around that principle, especially in TNG.

New Trek on the other hand is basically written as people from today in star ships. Where they open up a new bottle of alcohol or smoke every other scene. They all have a trauma to process and struggle with financial issues. On top of that they use colorful language and emotional outbursts to attract more attention, instead of really saying something more meaningful. It’s sad to see how this positive series turned into one of the darkest series. Beheading people (even a (Klingon) baby in STD), sinister lighting onboard the ships instead of the bright earthly colored interiors, resorting to violence more easily all together… It’s like they wanted to make Game of Thrones in space.

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