HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/anarchy/essays/schoolsucks/stchrn11.txt

Text File | 1996-04-27 | 19KB | 274 lines

       "Star Trek": A Chronicle

       Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship
       "Enterprise." Its continuing mission: to explore strange new
       worlds... to seek out new life and new civilizations... to boldly
       go where no one has gone before...
       The above blurb has been used to introduce the television show
       Star Trek: The Next Generation. The show's run has elapsed that of
       it's predecessor, the original Star Trek. The original spawned six
       movies and endless conventions, and both have given way to action
       figures for children, national clubs, and other various
       paraphernalia. This is the chronicle to end all chronicles: the
       full analysis and timeline of one of the most popular television
       programs in contemporary American history.
       Americans are fascinated with the possibility of intelligent life
       somewhere else in the universe; this has been displayed in books
       and plays and movies too numerous to mention, not to mention the
       accounts of "everyday people" who say that they have encountered
       aliens and unidentified flying objects (UFOs). This fascination
       became so great that in the late 1970s, President Carter decided
       to launch an investigation within NASA (the National Aeronautics
       and Space Administration) to uncover the mystery of UFOs and
       intelligent life in the universe.
       Science fiction plays upon this obsession. The great science
       fiction writers have sent our imaginations into overload with
       scores of stories to tell. The two most popular futuristic science
       fiction stories, Star Trek and Star Wars, both have similar
       characteristics. Both involve many different species of life (our
       nearest equivalent would be "races"). The Ferengi, Vulcans,
       humans, Betazoids, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, androids, and
       Bjorans are in the Star Trek series (which includes the original
       television series, the six movies, the NextGeneration television
       series, and the television series Deep Space Nine), while the Star
       Wars movie trilogy includes humans, Wookies, Jawas, Ewoks, droids,
       Tusken Raiders, and a host of various other strange and exotic
       looking lifeforms. Each species has its own heritage, customs,
       beliefs, and socioeconomic status. I am sure that each science
       fiction storyline has it's own unusual breed of lifeform, but this
       paper will examine only a particular science fiction storyline
       which has mushroomed into a cultural obsession. I choose not to
       focus on the works of Ray Bradbury and the like; I'm sure that
       they are superb writers. (A fantastic example is Bradbury's "A
       Sound of Thunder," which is the probable predecessor to all of
       today's hype surrounding the film Jurassic Park and the children's
       character Barney the dinosaur.) However, I've never heard of a Ray
       Bradbury convention, or action figures based on characters he's
       created.
       Star Trek appeared in the right place at the right time. It was
       the middle of the 1960s, an extremely vibrant decade which
       primarily transformed America from a quiet-yet-strong idealism
       with do-or-die patriotism to a wild and eccentric liberal age,
       exhibiting imaginations let loose from the taboos and inhibitions
       of the era of World War II and the 1950s. The 1960s are difficult
       to describe briefly; I'd do a better job in another whole paper.
       However, major contributing factors that made the 1960s what they
       were included Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, assassinations of
       President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King (among
       others), the music revolution (which was symbolized and brought to
       a head at Woodstock), the Vietnam war, and the space program. Not
       to mention (to quote Dave Barry) 42 hillion jillion other things.
       But it was the space program (which was President Kennedy's
       dream), along with American curiosity of UFOs, that gave Star Trek
       a nearly guaranteed fan base.
       Having completed the Mercury 7 shift, NASA was in full gear with
       the Gemini spaceproject when Star Trek premiered on television
       sets across the country. It told the tale of a time (nobody knew
       if it was the future, the present, or the past -- nobody knew
       exactly when the stories took place in reference to our time here
       on Earth, because the time sequences were given in a
       mysterious-sounding five-digit "stardate") in space with a
       governing body called Starfleet, and the vessel of focus was an
       exploratory starship named the Enterprise. The characters of the
       show were the ship's main personnel: Captain James Tiberius Kirk
       and his crew.
       All of the signifiers that these characters displayed in the
       original series have been distorted to such a degree in certain
       circles that sometimes they have completely lost the original
       characterization of the fictional person. An illustration is that
       of slashzines, which are pseudo-condescending fanzines (which is a
       magazine focused solely on a cultural obsession), which usually
       includes fictional homoeroticism. The term "slashzines" comes from
       the way the stories are classified. For example, K/S (read: "Kirk
       slash Spock") stories deal with stories of Captain Kirk and Mr.
       Spock engaging in homosexual sex.
       The original television series lasted for about three years, then
       fizzled out. Until the early 1980s. Star Trek: The Movie came out
       at this time, right at the peak of the Star Wars fame (the second
       movie of the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, was released in
       1980, and the final film of the saga, The Return of the Jedi, came
       out in 1983.) Any hint of competition between these two
       thrillingly entertaining science fiction storylines would occur at
       this juncture in time. The sequel to the movie, Star Trek II: The
       Wrath of Khan, enjoyed the same level of success that the first
       did, and throughout the next ten years following this film, the
       Star Trek series would be reborn through the countless movies and
       a resurgence of the television series.
       The 1980s also saw a rather unusual phenomenon: the Trekkie
       convention. "Trekkies"are people obsessed with the show and all of
       the paraphernalia associated with it. These people were the true
       and dedicated fan base; they watched every episode loyally,
       memorized whole scripts and show trivia (including personal data
       of the characters which had to be fabricated by the writers
       because of either demand or excess creativity), bought action
       figures and countless books on the Starship Enterprise and the
       crew (one book I recall seeing gave a complete detail of
       everything on the ship, from bathrooms to living quarters to
       engines to loading bays), and attended lectures and formed their
       own regional clubs (also called Starships).
       Part of what makes Star Trek a cultural obsession is its alluring,
       almost mysterious quality. This quality is inherent in one case,
       because the base of the show and the storyline covers a possible
       solution to the contemporary American's wonder of the great
       beyond: is there other intelligent life in the universe? (A bumper
       sticker parodies this as well: "Beam me up Scotty: there's no
       intelligent life down here.") Also, some of the things that the
       show's actors do outside the show are of interest. William
       Shatner, the actor who played Kirk in the original series and all
       of the movies, has been stereotyped as the perennial bad actor,
       overacting every one of his lines. Many people can imitate and do
       an impression of Kirk. Leonard Nimoy, the Mr. Spock on the
       original series and six films, turned to directing, and has done
       quite well; a recent notable achievement was Three Men and a Baby.
       (On a brief sidenote, most of the actors on the original series
       have made brief cameo appearances either on Star Trek: The Next
       Generation as their original characters [an example is James
       Doohan, who played Scotty, the engineer] or in a similar context
       in another show, such as the actress who played Uhura, who
       appeared as herself on Head of the Class, an ABC situation
       comedyset in a high school.) Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain
       Jean-Luc Picard on The Next Generation series of the television
       show, was a Shakespearean actor before auditioning for the part. I
       have seen him play Claudius in Hamlet; he was extraordinarily
       good. Brent Spiner, who plays Audio Animatronic-like android
       Lieutenant Commander Data on the newer series, recently did a
       musical album entitled "Old Yellow Eyes Is Back." The title
       parodies Frank Sinatra ("Old Blue Eyes") and the character Spiner
       plays; he dons yellow contact lenses as part of his android
       costume. One of the songs on the album features his fellow
       co-stars as backup singers. A final note belongs to Wil Wheaton,
       who plays Ensign Wesley Crusher (and son to Dr. Crusher, the
       ship's doctor) on The Next Generation. He had already acquired
       some semblance of fame as the lead in the flick Stand By Me.
       However, Wesley has also been stereotyped as a whining child in a
       teenager's body who sulks in his quarters whenever he doesn't get
       what he wants.
       The show has been so popular and so stereotyped that the parodies
       it has endured run into countless numbers. But most of the Star Trek
       parodies we are familiar with are those on the accessible media:
       radio and television. The NBC late-night comedy show Saturday
       Night Live has done it at least twice; one with the late 1970s
       cast (which had John Belushi at the ship's helm), and another time
       when William Shatner himself hosted the program, where the ship
       had turned into a restaurant of sorts. (I distinctly remember Dana
       Carvey playing some character out to get Kirk by listing sanitary
       problems with his restaurant. I can hear it now... "No
       sneeze-guard on the salad bar!") Furthermore (possibly on the same
       show, because I don;t think he hosted the show more than once), a
       skit about a Star Trek convention was produced, and the convention
       was especially lucky because William Shatner, nearly considered a
       god to these die-hard Trekkies, wouldactually be speaking at the
       convention. In his speech, he says that he is sick and tired of
       all this nonsense and tells all the Trekkies to "get a life."
       (Some say this skit is the origination of that particular phrase.)
       He asks one Trekkie in particular, who looks like the
       stereotypical nerd and wears a T-shirt that says "I Grock Spock"
       (and who knows what that means), after guessing his age to be
       about 30, if he had ever kissed a girl. He shies away and looks
       embarrassed. He does the same to others, lashing out at their
       eccentric fetish, screaming "I mean, it's just a TV show!" Then
       some angry suit whispers something into his ear, and he returns to
       the podium, looking red in the face and apologizes to the crowd,
       saying that was what the evil Captain Kirk would have said, had he
       been here today. He was just pulling your collective leg, ha ha
       ha, now live long and prosper, and he'll see you on the bridge.
       A funny song called "Star Trekkin'" was created by a band called
       The Firm (not to be confused with a rock band of the same name).
       The chorus was: "Star trekkin' across the universe, on the
       Starship Enterprise, with old Captain Kirk... Star trekkin' across
       the universe, boldly going forward 'cause we can't find reverse."
       The song received heavy airplay on "The Dr. Demento Show," a radio
       program which only played really bizarre and funny tunes. All the
       verses of the song were the repetition of classic lines used in
       the original series, such as:

        There's [sic] Klingons on the starboard bound, Jim
        You cannot change the laws of physics, Jim
        Scotty, beam me up!
        It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, Captain
        It's worse than that -- he's dead, Jim!

       The above phrases are but a few in the vernacular of the show's
       history. A few others are "Onscreen" (which has been used in both
       the original and The Next Generation series),"Make it so" and
       "Engage", used exclusively by Jean-Luc Picard on the newer show,
       and "Thank you, number one," also used exclusively by Picard to
       his right-hand man, William Riker.
       The uses of computers and networking have allowed many people
       (including college students) access to a wealth of information
       about nearly anything -- a worldwide computer library, if you will
       -- and the possibility to hold conversations across the globe. A
       lot of information for this paper was retrieved from the computer
       networks, and a minuscule fraction of it has newsgroups and
       permanent computer discussions which parody Star Trek in every
       imaginable way. For example, a computer news group system exists
       on the network where one can read postings by people across the
       globe on numerous topics, ranging from music to jokes to sports to
       sex to television. There are (at last count) over twelve hundred
       groups. Nine del with Star Trek in one way or another. Some of the
       names of these groups include alt.startrek.creative,
       rec.arts.startrek, rec.arts.startrek.fandom,
       rec.arts.startrek.info, rec.arts.startrek.reviews, and
       rec.arts.startrek.tech. (The computer network is in itself part of
       what Star Trek is all about: the show has the ability to
       communicate nearly anything in its known universe in a matter of
       seconds. Once I sent a piece of electronic mail [a.k.a. e-mail]to
       a student at the University of California at Berkeley; he said he
       received it in under five minutes. Sure beats the postal service,
       and it even beats Federal Express. And all UF students may have a
       computer account free of charge. But [and I know Ms. Glaros
       dislikes it when I use this term, but it is pertinent within the
       context of this paper] I digress.)
       Those who are obsessed with the show and the image it projects
       upon society sometimes like to dress the part; this is the
       marketability (and the subsequent financial success) of the image.
       The show does offer uniforms, insignia, posters, hats, and other
       paraphernalia to the public through mail order catalogs and
       fanzines. My friend James (whose computer account name, by the
       way, is "Enterprise") has a lapel pin which is used on the show
       for intraship communication. He loyally wears it on the vest he
       wears while working.
       Many Star Trek discussions have sprung up in recent times
       comparing Old Generation characters to their Next Generation
       counterparts, leading almost to a shouting match between those who
       hold the original series near and dear to their hearts, and those
       who have jumped on The Next Generation bandwagon in recent years
       (like myself). Comparisons between Kirk and Picard, Spock and
       Data, Scotty and LaForge, and Bones and Crusher are many and
       varied. An example of a main difference between different
       characters in like positions in different television series is
       that of the desires of the resident "brains": Mr. Spock and
       Lieutenant Commander Data. Spock, being half Vulcan, shuns
       emotions and feelings, although his other half is human. Spock is
       caught between two forces. Data, on the other hand, is an android,
       a computer which looks human, who wishes to become human (the
       Pinocchio theory). This comparison is blown wide open when Nimoy
       makes a rare cameo appearance on an episode of Star Trek: The Next
       Generation, and he holds a conversation with Data which covers the
       above.
       A final bit of information about this cultural obsession involves
       actual use of the showin real life. In the movie Star Trek III:
       The Search for Spock, the Klingon language was partially invented
       and used in the film. English subtitles were used when Klingons
       were conversing in their native tongue. A linguist somewhere in
       America got a hold of an idea, and began long talks with the
       people behind the scenes of Star Trek: The Next Generation
       concerning the full invention and implementation of a real Klingon
       language. The Klingon language now does exist, and it holds the
       odd distinction of being the first artificial language created
       solely from the field of entertainment. Glossaries and
       dictionaries are in print, and the language consists of a lot of
       guttural and groaning sounds, along with difficult consonant
       combinations that would cause any American to emit saliva in an
       outward direction while attempting to talk in this truly original
       language. The Klingon language has rules of grammar, spelling, and
       the alphabet looks more like an Oriental language than Cyrillic.
       Therefore, the true die-hard Trekkie can actually use something in
       his quest for Star Trek Nirvana.
       To conclude this paper, I will prove that Star Trek is a cultural
       obsession. Some of the information gathered for this paper came
       from a few friends with their few various thoughts, and the small
       amount of information I got from my computer account. However, the
       bulk of information came from my memory and personal experience.
       And I don't even speak Klingon.