How internationally appealing is/was star trek ?

[Darren Mooney]

In terms of international fandom, my small Irish town on the Weat Coast had a fan club where we'd watch VHS recordings of US broadcasts.

 

[Kilana2]

Some Non-American fans look upon ST by taking contempory national laws and regulations as basis and compare it. At least, I do that. For instance, Kira´s surrogacy. Like in Germany it is prohibited in many countries, but I like how the topic was handled in DS9: saving Kirayoshi by transfering him to Kira with her consent. The medical progress allowed for it. So this case shows me, that surrogacy can work, at least in the future, despite the inherent problems. Nowadays there are sometimes financial motivations involved, when women receive money for carrying a child to full term for mostly strangers.

 

[MacLeod]

Some Non-American fans look upon ST by taking contempory national laws and regulations as basis and compare it. At least, I do that. For instance, Kira´s surrogacy. Like in Germany it is prohibited in many countries, but I like how the topic was handled in DS9: saving Kirayoshi by transfering him to Kira with her consent. The medical progress allowed for it. So this case shows me, that surrogacy can work, at least in the future, despite the inherent problems. Nowadays there are sometimes financial motivations involved, when women receive money for carrying a child to full term for mostly strangers.

But Surrogacy laws vary from country to country for example in the UK it is illegal to enter into a commercial surrogacy agreement the only payments that are allowed to be made are for expenses directly relating to surrogacy. So no carrying babies for profit.

 

[Kilana2]

Some Non-American fans look upon ST by taking contempory national laws and regulations as basis and compare it. At least, I do that. For instance, Kira´s surrogacy. Like in Germany it is prohibited in many countries, but I like how the topic was handled in DS9: saving Kirayoshi by transfering him to Kira with her consent. The medical progress allowed for it. So this case shows me, that surrogacy can work, at least in the future, despite the inherent problems. Nowadays there are sometimes financial motivations involved, when women receive money for carrying a child to full term for mostly strangers.

But Surrogacy laws vary from country to country for example in the UK it is illegal to enter into a commercial surrogacy agreement the only payments that are allowed to be made are for expenses directly relating to surrogacy. So no carrying babies for profit.

True, but I refered to the future, and ST is about future. There are always pros and cons involved.

 

[alpha_leonis]

Here's another example/question for the thread.

A couple of times in early TNG, there are a couple of oblique references that suggest French is a dead language by the 24th Century. True, Picard can speak it (per his conversation with Minuet in the Bynar episode), but I got the sense that his character (at least as written during season 1) was kind of a "French revivalist". He might have studied French for the same reasons people today study Latin -- as an appreciation of ancient culture that was written down in that language, not to participate in the (non-existent) modern culture.

Anyway, back to the point: I've always wondered what French Trek fans think about those references? Or are the episodes "creatively rewritten" in translation to obscure the "French is dead" comments and turn them into something else?

 

[MacLeod]

I believe Data used the phrasing obscure. So it is enitely possible that French is still wildy spoken in several places on Earth, but it never really gained much traction outside of Earth. With Alien languages being taught as second or third languages after say English/local language on Earth.

 

[BillJ]

I believe Data used the phrasing obscure. So it is enitely possible that French is still wildy spoken in several places on Earth, but it never really gained much traction outside of Earth. With Alien languages being taught as second or third languages after say English/local language on Earth.

Or most of the nukes were aimed at France. They pissed off the whole world!

 

[MacLeod]

Q: Q, I'm bored. What play thing can you offer me today?
Q2: An obscure body on the planet Earth, Q. The inhabitants refer to it as the France
Q: How peaceful it looks.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0943936/Q2: Most effective, Q. Will you destroy this France?
Q: Later. I like to play with thing a while before annihilation.

 

[Mudd]

The whole "manifest destiny" of Starfleet which made the original series work, as well as the storytelling tropes and even plots lifted from TV westerns makes Trek fundamentally American. Fortunately for the producers there remains a huge market for American films and tv shows all around the world.

 

[Mosalim]

Saudi Trekkie here. Iv'e been visiting this forum from time to time. This thread made me want to to post so I registered.
I have not met any person in my life who knows what is Star Trek. When I tell people about Star Trek, They immediately think about Star Wars.
Star Trek came to my life in good time. I left my religion before watching ST, so that made me open to all the ideas and opinions expressed in ST.
Saudis here do watch a lot of American movies and TV shows. But sadly Sci-Fi in general is is not popular. Most prefer action movies that has nothing to do with "Imagination".
I strongly believe if more people here watch ST. They will change for the better. All the racism and taboos will be far less than what we have now. However, ST can be a little bit cheesy for some people and I can understand that. That's why I always recommend people to watch Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Long story short. There is no fan base for ST in Saudi Arabia which is not a surprise.

 

[eyeresist]

Hi Mosalim, and welcome to the forum. Was ST ever shown on Saudi TV? I imagine it would have to be censored a lot. Did you get all the movies there?

 

[Mosalim]

Hi Mosalim, and welcome to the forum. Was ST ever shown on Saudi TV? I imagine it would have to be censored a lot. Did you get all the movies there?

Thanks.
No. Most if not all Middle Eastern channels shows what doesn't contradict with Islam. Any thing on TV means one thing to most people here, "Censored". People don't watch TV simply because of that.
Any one who is interested in Western Entertainment, weather it's movies, tv shows, or even music, has to have internet access which is the only good thing we have here really.

 

[at Quark's]

Saudi Trekkie here. Iv'e been visiting this forum from time to time. This thread made me want to to post so I registered.

Welcome here It's nice to know that a topic I started 'invited' you to register

I started this topic because, even though this is an international board, most people on it still seem to come from 'western' countries, and I was especially interested in viewpoints coming from countries other than those. Your reaction is one of them, and I thank you for that.

I must say I'm curious though: if it wasn't shown on TV and no-one you've ever met in your life knows about star trek (as you write in your post), how did you learn about its existence ? By browsing the web ?

 

[Mosalim]

Saudi Trekkie here. Iv'e been visiting this forum from time to time. This thread made me want to to post so I registered.

Welcome here It's nice to know that a topic I started 'invited' you to register

I started this topic because, even though this is an international board, most people on it still seem to come from 'western' countries, and I was especially interested in viewpoints coming from countries other than those. Your reaction is one of them, and I thank you for that.

I must say I'm curious though: if it wasn't shown on TV and no-one you've ever met in your life knows about star trek (as you write in your post), how did you learn about its existence ? By browsing the web ?

Sorry it took me so long to reply. You're welcome.

Yes it was through the internet that I learned all about Star Trek.
There is a channel in my country that showed Stargate SG-1. It was a very intriguing show to me but couldn't watch it because it was in the middle of season 5 I think. This is back in 2004-2005.
In my home , we used to have internet access through dial up which was for educational purposes. Very slow but did the job.
We got the DSL speeds in 2006 and immediately began to search about all those shows that I found interesting in the past. I learned all about Stargate, Farscape, and Star Trek.
Stargate and Farscape were very easy to begin with because there is only 1 main show unlike Star Trek.
Every time I wanted to watch Star Trek I was lost because of all the suggested viewing order. Some say Start with TOS and others say TNG. Some people even say skip the bad episodes.
So it took me a while to finally decide how to watch it. Chronologically! It made sense to me.

 

[Kilana2]

Watching it chronologically is indeed logical , especially with regard to DS9. In the course of the later seasons it´s disadvantageous to miss just one single episode in the storyline.

 

[Mosalim]

Watching it chronologically is indeed logical , especially with regard to DS9. In the course of the later seasons it´s disadvantageous to miss just one single episode in the storyline.

That's why DS9 is probably my favorite.
Now i'm in the process of determining which novel of the relaunch series to start with.
The Lives of Dax, A Stitch in time, or Avatar Book One?

 

[Kilana2]

Watching it chronologically is indeed logical , especially with regard to DS9. In the course of the later seasons it´s disadvantageous to miss just one single episode in the storyline.

That's why DS9 is probably my favorite.
Now i'm in the process of determining which novel of the relaunch series to start with.
The Lives of Dax, A Stitch in time, or Avatar Book One?

Avatar I is the beginning of the real important chronological relaunch novels. A Stitch.... and The Lives of Dax you can easily read in between the other novels. Don´t forget The Left Hand of Destiny I and II. They are not officially relaunch, but highly recommended, especially for Martok fans .

 

[Mosalim]

Watching it chronologically is indeed logical , especially with regard to DS9. In the course of the later seasons it´s disadvantageous to miss just one single episode in the storyline.

That's why DS9 is probably my favorite.
Now i'm in the process of determining which novel of the relaunch series to start with.
The Lives of Dax, A Stitch in time, or Avatar Book One?

Avatar I is the beginning of the real important chronological relaunch novels. A Stitch.... and The Lives of Dax you can easily read in between the other novels. Don´t forget The Left Hand of Destiny I and II. They are not officially relaunch, but highly recommended, especially for Martok fans .

Thank you.
Yeah, after a little bit of research I found that it's better to start with Avatar just like what you said.

 

[inflatabledalek]

The BBC also cut that scene, but then again TNG did air Wed 18:00-18:45. So the scene wasn't really suitable for that time slot. I believe Sky did the same though it aired the uncut version later in the evening. Post watershed.

Though of course, famously, they left that entire scene intact in Shades of Grey.

In the UK TNG was very successful for BBC2 once it started showing after the effort to overcome Jonathan Powell's hatred of science fiction. And I think most of us there at the time can recall the added excitment thrown into the Best of Both Worlds when the rights for season 4 went to Sky and it turned out the Beeb couldn't show it on terrestrial unil after they'd screened not only the fourth year but repeats of the first three years first, it probably wouldn't have been that long in reality but as an 11ish year old it looked like an eternity, and absolutely much, much longer than America had to wait between the two parts.

Thankfully, as part of an unlikely nice gesture on Sky's part, the Beeb were allowed to show BoBWII the week after part 1 as a one time only ignoring of the actual rights issue. And when Family finally came to the BBC it had a newly created "Previously on..." recap at the start (which sadly doesn't seem to be on YouTube, if anyone has it that would be a great thing to upload as it's never going to be seen again otherwise. IIRC the BBC2 continuity announcer was rather excited as well, "It's been a while so for those that don't remember..." was along the lines of the introduction to the recap and the episode itself).

For the later series, DS9 didn't do as well for BBC2 (despite some specially made trailers, though the insanely OTT dramatic one being for A Man Alone- DID HE DO THE CRIME!!!! *WORMHOLE OPENS WITH DRAMATIC MUSIC*- likely didn't help) to the point they tried out Voyager on a Sunday teatime just because Babylon 5 season 3 had done OK for channel 4 so, hey, space stuff should be alright. Amusingly for Enterprise the BBC lost the rights to channel 4, right after they'd don a special Star Trek night that was mainly about promoting the assumed arrival of Enterprise.

Though relatively of course, a lot of those 90's "cult" American shows did far better on the BBC and Channel 4 than they did when they were broadcast in their homeland. Both in terms of the actual number of people watching and the percentage of the overall population. TNG was too big in the States to qualify, but Voyager and B5 definitely were more succesful- at their peak- over hear despite being minor shows on their respective stations.

In terms of the original Trek, it's odd in that the BBC waited until '69 to show it (and it seems they had the rights beforehand), and the order the episodes were shown in seemed like they were creating needless work for themselves- traditionally tapes seem to be provided in production order so someone at the BBC worked out an entirely new sequence as they went along rather than saving time and grabbing whichever film was next in the metaphorical pile- but I have one overriding impression from talking to relatives who were kids in the early 70's:

Tribbles.

I have seen grown men weep over Tribbles and how their Dad helped them make one. For whatever reason- and whilst I know it's always been popular with the American audience I'm not sure if it ever resonated this deeply- British kids loved, loved, loved Tribbles. You have a conversation about, say, if the person in their late 40's has seen the latest Trek film, Tribbles and a misty eye will come up.

 

[IrishNero]

I lived 'overseas' for about 15 years in the military and lived in Korea, Turkiye, Russia, Japan, Moldova, Germany, Australia and the UK. I also learned three languages to a fair degree of proficiency and visited 57 countries in all. I guess you can say that I really love travel. The world's a wondrous place...for the most part.

Although I never bothered to poll anyone while traveling, I would say without hesitation that awareness of Star Trek is nearly universal. I don't think I ever brought the subject up without someone knowing what it is. However, it's a probably a bit more accepted (with a large fan-base) in the primarily English-speaking countries. As a matter of fact, I spent 9 months is Alice Springs in Australia (Look it up: It's pretty much right in the middle of nowhere) and my Aussie drinking buddies all dressed as various ST characters to throw a birthday party for me. So, I wouldn't hesitate to say that you could bring up Kirk/Spock in a conversation in most any corner of the world and find someone who's aware of them. However, I wouldn't necessarily use ST as an ice-breaker to stop a group of Cannibals in the remotest part of the Amazon from eating you. Talk about a no-win scenario.