Star Trek featured the first kiss between a white and a black person (no, it’s not african-american) on US-TV. But they were actually forced to do it by some alien overlord … actually that’s a pretty good excuse.
Are there any taboos left for Star Trek to break? We had a woman captain, a black captain, an Asian captain, we had lesbian encounters … can’t remember any Gays on any Star Sip so far?
Consumerism and marketing is a funny thing. Producers want you to buy more stuff than you actually. The essence of consumerism is buying NEW stuff before the old really needs to be replaced.
But to do this companies needed a new sales pitch, because throwing away perfectly good stuff makes no sense at all.
Edward Bernays - Sigmund Freuds nephew - told manufacturers to appeal to our lower and irrational instincts (based on his uncles discoveries). So the idea was to make you feel good about wasting stuff - to make you enjoy a certain brand or good, because it made you a better person.
So people would buy a car endorsed by Mr Spock - because they want to be like him - although it is highly illogical.
The last Star Trek show ‘Enterprise’ was pretty much a fiasco. It had bad scripts, bad actors, bad everything. Now a new movie is in the making and I already hate it. It’s about young Kirk, young Spock and young McCoy …
Instead of trying to come up with really good ideas, Hollywood just circles the drain and recycles the same idea over and over again.
Gene Roddenberry was a brave men and tried to break old taboos and limits with his wacky little show. He succeeded and that is why the show was so beloved. But today it’s only about the franchise and milking some more dollars out of plastic figures and re-released DVDs.
Why are they afraid to go where no one has gone before?
Two down. Sad but true. But they will live on - on DVD, computer games, chewing gums, t-shirts, action figures … what a great way to be remembered!
