What if the Soviets *Did* Make a "Star Trek"
- Thread starter Emperor Norton
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The People's Ship of Betterment through Knowledge would show up at the planet of the week and lecture them for being ignorant, selfish, and regressive. Then it would break down, and they'd blame the imperialist Ferengis or something, who managed to be both (1) a sweeping conspiracy who could destroy or sabotage anything in Soviet Space Society and (2) a backwards place of desperately poor people.
Also, instead of Redshirts dying every week, they'd be denounced for violating Article 58 of the Criminal Code and just disappear. Ocasionally other character would disappear and no one would ever mention them again, and if a backstory had to be mentioned that they were in, some new previously-unheard of character would have assumed their role.
Also, instead of Redshirts dying every week, they'd be denounced for violating Article 58 of the Criminal Code and just disappear. Ocasionally other character would disappear and no one would ever mention them again, and if a backstory had to be mentioned that they were in, some new previously-unheard of character would have assumed their role.
The locals would then be gathered at phaser point a safe distance away and be forced to watch as our heroes blew up all the churches.
The ship would have a political officer (representative of the state) who would have to be consulted prior to the Captain making any important decisions, like using the ship's weapons. Fully telepathic Betazeds would be preferred in this position.
There would be "movie night," but the movies would be indoctrination and propaganda media. Attendance would be mandatory.
The heroic Captain would be strong ... like tractor.
Jones can be replaced by Smith, and we can keep the lines:
CAPTAIN: Jones...
SMITH: The name's Smith, sir.
CAPTAIN: Jones...
SMITH: The name's Smith, sir.
I really don't get where people get the idea that Soviet Science Fiction is bad, Honestly Soviet Science fiction was generally far better written (and far more high concept), than the stuff coming out of American cinema and television.
I guess that's American Education for ya.
Seriously, Sci-Fi fans should all watch Solaris. It's probably my favourite Science Fiction film and it's VERY Star Trek-ish. (though also very dark)
I guess that's American Education for ya.
Seriously, Sci-Fi fans should all watch Solaris. It's probably my favourite Science Fiction film and it's VERY Star Trek-ish. (though also very dark)
"The Doomed City" by the Strugatsky brothers is a great read.
I really don't get where people get the idea that Soviet Science Fiction is bad, Honestly Soviet Science fiction was generally far better written (and far more high concept), than the stuff coming out of American cinema and television.
I guess that's American Education for ya.
Seriously, Sci-Fi fans should all watch Solaris. It's probably my favourite Science Fiction film and it's VERY Star Trek-ish. (though also very dark)
I would recommend every single film Tarkovsky made, but this isn't exactly Soviet cinema, his work was criticized by the government for not adhering to the official cinematic style of the country and he ended up making his last two movies in France and Italy.
But if you're going to use someone like Tarkovsky as a shining example of Russian cinema being better than American cinema the people you have to compare him against are the people like Welles, Cassavettes, Hitchcock, Coppola, Scorcese, Malick, Polanski, etc.
Soviet Star Trek would have a similar economy as ours, but it would focus less on the top commanders and more on the crew as a group. There wouldn't be individual heroes, there'd be the whole crew working together as the hero.
I have the mental image of charismatic Captain Chekhov and his silly American ensign Kirk.
Generally, I can see 2 possibilities.
1) The series is heavily interfered with, and as a result infested with communist propaganda, and hence stereotypes of evil capitalists abound.
2) The production team and writers are given more latitude, and compared to the series we actually got, we end up with a series that may be slightly inferior in special effects and execution, but substantially superior in terms of writing, as I believe the soviets had some top-notch writers and scenarists. Unfortunately, such an outstanding series would become little known in the west, except perhaps in cult circles.
1) The series is heavily interfered with, and as a result infested with communist propaganda, and hence stereotypes of evil capitalists abound.
2) The production team and writers are given more latitude, and compared to the series we actually got, we end up with a series that may be slightly inferior in special effects and execution, but substantially superior in terms of writing, as I believe the soviets had some top-notch writers and scenarists. Unfortunately, such an outstanding series would become little known in the west, except perhaps in cult circles.
And they are just as likely to lay an expensive turd as their American counterparts.
^True, of course it wouldn't be a guarantee for a superb series. Just describing a possibility.
East German (!!!) Star Trek from 1959.
International crew (Chinese, Indian, American, Japanese girl, etc). No Communist propaganda. No political officers on board. Very cool special effects for the time period. By the way, American version was heavy censored.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Spaceship_on_Venus
watch for free:
https://archive.org/details/the_first_spaceship_on_venus
or
International crew (Chinese, Indian, American, Japanese girl, etc). No Communist propaganda. No political officers on board. Very cool special effects for the time period. By the way, American version was heavy censored.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Spaceship_on_Venus
watch for free:
https://archive.org/details/the_first_spaceship_on_venus
or
The Union of Cytherian Socialist Republics.
I really don't get where people get the idea that Soviet Science Fiction is bad, Honestly Soviet Science fiction was generally far better written (and far more high concept), than the stuff coming out of American cinema and television.
I guess that's American Education for ya.
Seriously, Sci-Fi fans should all watch Solaris. It's probably my favourite Science Fiction film and it's VERY Star Trek-ish. (though also very dark)
Since written science fiction tends to be on average much superior intellectually than movie and television science fiction the correct comparison should be between Soviet written science fiction and American written science fiction, and between Soviet science fiction movies and American science fiction movies. And preferably between stories and movies from the same eras.
And don't forget Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety percent of science fiction is crap. Ninety percent of everything is crap."
So a proper comparison would be between 90 percent grade American science fiction of one era and ninety percent grade Soviet Science fiction of that same era, or between ten percent grade American science fiction of one era and ten percent rade soviet Soviet science fiction of that same era.
Tarkovsky's science fiction film(s) would be an example of ten percent grade Soviet science fiction film making and thus should be compared with ten percent grade American science fiction films.
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Everyone on Soviet Trek would be out of their tits on Wodka, and they wouldn't give a shit about it.
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