The STAR TREK Legacy

On this very day 45 years ago a television programme broadcasted its first episode to the world little knowing the impact it would have nearly half a century on. As STAR TREK celebrates its 45th anniversary I want to take a look at what it has left for us not just as enjoyable 50 minute teleplays but how it has shaped our world, and believe me it really has!

       Not a moment of modern day goes by when your life isn’t touched by this often ridiculed but much revered piece of science fiction, in fact I challenge you to look around the very room you are sitting in and not recognise something that has been directly influenced by someone sitting down of an evening and watching STAR TREK! The fact of the matter is that modern computing itself has a direct link back to STAR TREK with computing giants such as Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates citing STAR TREK as part of the reason that they got in to building and programming computers in the first place. Don’t believe me? We have to look no further than the current trend in Apple’s armoury, the ipad.

 Touch screen technology seems like an obvious leap forward in computing but would we have got to it as quickly as we have without being influenced by STAR TREK the next generation’s every present prop called the PADD (Personal Access Display Device)? This hand held tablet computer could be seen every week on T.V. 20 years ago (yes TWENTY YEARS ago!) and now you can see similar devices being used in coffee shops up and down the country, hell, you can even buy one if you pop in to Tesco. It’s not just computers though; it’s also the way we communicate with each other on a daily basis that STAR TREK has transformed. Consider the mobile phone, the little box in your pocket that beeps now and again informing you that you have a message on Twitter or that your loved one really needs to talk you about what’s for dinner. Modern mobile phone design started, quite simply, with Kirk and Spock’s communicators.  If you show me a man that has owned a flip phone and says he hasn’t flipped it open Captain Kirk style (yeah, you know what I mean!), then I’ll show you a liar. Every facet of technological life has been shaped in some way by STAR TREK, from household to hospital, from laptops to microwave ovens, from flat screen T.V.s to medical scanning equipment, most of our daily living owes something to Gene Roddenberry’s creation. I could continue with a long and boring list of equipment to further prove my point but I’d like to look at what I consider the most important part of the STAR TREK legacy, the ideals and morality.

       I have been an unashamed STAR TREK fan for as long as I can remember. So long, in fact, that I cannot pinpoint where my love for this show started no matter how hard I try. In many ways, when I look back at my childhood I get a sense that this show raised me, it molded my philosophies and my morality. Yes I learned right from wrong from my parents, but I have always felt that it was the many ethical questions that the original series and later the next generation threw at me that really shaped my view on certain things, especially things like how to treat those around us that are considered different and what it means to be human, but most of all it taught me that green chicks with big tits are awesome. 

You see STAR TREK has changed our world and there are many people who take it all way too seriously, but when it comes down to it STAR TREK is a great work of fiction from a man who had a bold vision of a future where the human race put its stupid differences aside and decided to explore the universe together. Where some have allowed themselves to go after watching these stories, that’s the impressive thing. I’ll continue to enjoy these stories until I die, and I do hope that it continues to touch our lives and influence us forever.

 

Live Long and Prosper

That is all.