Culture Television
Darren Franich
We have ample grounds to consider whether the first Star Trek, rather than any of its derivatives, is actually the worst. The original series is a reliable if eccentric workhorse of cultural critique. But it’s also filled with incredible awkwardness: the redshirt phenomenon; the repetitive “The shields are failing!” battle scenes; Shatner’s incessant prettyboy preening; the indiscriminate one-dimensionality of everyone who isn’t Kirk, Spock, or McCoy. One could argue that such unrealistic silliness is just a result of the primitive nature of science-fiction in general and television in particular in the sixties. But most of these awkward characteristics, though looked back on with nostalgia, are forgivable to the extent that they showed future science-fiction TV, including future Star Trek series, what not to do.
Culture Politics Television
Kevin Hilke
In the world of the Star Trek franchise, Starfleet’s emergency medical hologram (EMH) is designed to supplement or temporarily assume the duties of a starship’s chief medical officer in extraordinary circumstances—such as a shipwide medical emergency or the untimely death of the chief medical officer. The EMH is designed to make diagnoses, perform procedures, and operate; he has self-awareness, a consciousness of a sort, and the medical skill and knowledge of Starfleet’s best doctors. Yet he is still, or at least he is still considered, merely a piece of technology. When he has served his purpose, the EMH is filed away in his ship’s main computer, where he waits, oblivious to the passage of time, until he’s called upon again. He is of the fictional future, but we’re approaching a real future that looks, at least with respect to artificial intelligence, a good deal like it—and far faster than we think. How will we regard our creations?
