The multiverse abhors a vacuum...Trek's Trek

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

What television show became the pop culture phenomenon that Trek was in the Trek multiverse?

Did some other show become a franchise with Trek out of the way, either real or imaginary?

 

[Turtletrekker]

Galaxy quest.

 

[Farscape One]

THE ORVILLE.

 

[somebuddyX]

The actual rise of real and cost effective space travel in the Star Trek universe, like DY-100s, Ares and Charybdis, meant that science-fiction in media after the 60s never really took off. Fantasy took that place. Then contact with actual real space aliens took what was left of science-fiction out back and put it in a shallow grave.

 

[Christopher]

I touched on this a bit in my novel Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock, when Claire Raymond (the 20th-century woman revived from cryogenic stasis in TNG: "The Neutral Zone") reflected on the SFTV of her era. I deduced that without the influence of Star Trek, science fiction would probably never have taken off in popular culture the way it did, and would've remained a disreputable niche genre seen as kids' stuff. Without ST, there might never have been a Star Wars, since Lucas used the success of Trek in syndication to convince studio execs that there was a market for space opera (and he obviously named it as an homage). And without TNG, who knows if the market for first-run syndicated hourlong dramas would ever have opened up?

In the book, I hinted that Quinn Martin's The Invaders was more prominent without the competition from ST, along with The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. While many genre shows would likely not have been made without ST’s influence, the bionic shows were based on a novel and were more along the lines of spy or superhero shows. Beyond that, though, once we get into the '70s or '80s, it's hard to say. It's possible that anime imports would've been more influential, filling the void in American genre TV, but on the other hand, I don't know if Star Blazers (Uchuu Senkan Yamato) or Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman) would ever have been imported to the US if it weren't for the desire to jump on the Star Wars bandwagon.

On the other hand, we might still have gotten the 1980 Flash Gordon, since that was an adaptation of a popular comic strip and movie serial hero. It was Lucas's failure to convince Dino De Laurentiis to let him direct the Flash Gordon movie that led him to create Star Wars instead. So maybe Lucas would've still gotten to make a form of that movie eventually, but whether it would've been as revolutionary is hard to say. Although Steven Spielberg was as important to the 1980s FX-driven blockbuster revolution as Lucas was.

Without Star Trek to offer an optimistic vision of the future, SFTV and film might have remained dominated by dystopias and post-apocalyptic narratives, and the popular culture may have been darker as a result. Who knows? Maybe that pessimism about the future is the reason they had the nigh-apocalyptic Eugenics Wars and then WWIII.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Wormhole X-Treme!

 

[Darth Thanos]

It's not just sci-fi: within Star Trek, holosuites have outdated all forms of non-interactive forms of narration.

I remember that in Voyager the ship was once displaced to present-day Earth, and Janeway instructed Neelix and Kes to watch all TV channels to monitor the reactions to the ship being visible for a moment. They found telenovelas and discovered the benefits of non-interactive narration. In another episode, Paris recreated a twenty-century cinema, and everybody had a hard time figuring out how did the joint work: sitting in a dark hall filled with chairs to see images in a giant screen was a long-forgotten activity.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Serious answer: There can't be a Star Trek expy in Trek's world, because otherwise everything would be, "this is just like an episode of Star Trek!"

It's like The Walking Dead, where zombies were unheard of before it became reality with walkers. Because it being an old zombie flick come real adds a layer of cheese that doesn't fit that show.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

On the other hand, we might still have gotten the 1980 Flash Gordon, since that was an adaptation of a popular comic strip and movie serial hero.

Perhaps Captain Proton got the blockbuster treatment?

Without Star Trek to offer an optimistic vision of the future, SFTV and film might have remained dominated by dystopias and post-apocalyptic narratives, and the popular culture may have been darker as a result.

Perhaps actual westerns remained popular, telling the same sorts of stories, but in the idealized past, rather than the future.

 

[XCV330]

What television show became the pop culture phenomenon that Trek was in the Trek multiverse?

Did some other show become a franchise with Trek out of the way, either real or imaginary?

Doctor Who gets a full color US version. Spider Daleks by the 70s.

Homegrown competition is a spinoff of Forbidden Planet. Leslie Nielson doesn't get the role back, it goes to some unknown named William Shatner after Jeffrey Hunter turns it down.

 

[Christopher]

Perhaps actual westerns remained popular, telling the same sorts of stories, but in the idealized past, rather than the future.

I don't think Star Trek had much impact on the popularity of Westerns one way or the other, so I don't see that its absence would have either. I mean, practically half the prime time schedule in TOS's day consisted of Westerns. And the trend away from romanticized Westerns to more naturalistic or deconstructive ones was already underway, I believe.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Think it could be Babylon 5 and Crusade, which was allowed to continue and end exactly how JMS planned for, in the Star Trek Universe.

 

[Christopher]

Think it could be Babylon 5 and Crusade, which was allowed to continue and end exactly how JMS planned for, in the Star Trek Universe.

I don't think those would've existed without Star Trek. Not only was B5 very much a spiritual and philosophical descendant of ST (despite the regrettable attempts of factions of both fanbases to manufacture a rivalry), but without TNG, first-run syndicated dramas might never have taken off as a major market.


It occurs to me that I've been overlooking one angle: British sci-fi. Without Star Trek, we'd still have had Doctor Who, Blake's 7, and the like. Those would probably still have shown mainly on public TV in the US, but they might have had a cult following similar to what Trek had. But America might not have become as much of a leading player in genre TV and film as Britain and Japan.

 

[Darth Thanos]

There's no reason to think that Science Fiction wouldn't continue to exist even in the Star Trek Universe. First: sci-fi adventures that do not go beyond what is known and possible are possible to be made. They are called "Hard science fiction". And second, as long as there are things that can't be done or we do not know the answer to, sci-fi will have a niche there. Remember that everything takes place just within a part of the galaxy. As Voyager can prove, there are plenty of new things out there that the Federation knows little or nothing about. Phrases like "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" or "To boldly go where no man has gone before!" would still retain their magic.

 

[Christopher]

And second, as long as there are things that can't be done or we do not know the answer to, sci-fi will have a niche there.

Right. A lot of our everyday life would have been science fiction to an earlier generation. We carry advanced computer/telecommunication devices in our pockets and can use them to connect with a global information network. We've made major advances in genetic engineering and lab-grown meat. We're suffering an ongoing climate catastrophe from global warming. And so on. But there's still room for more undiscovered and unrealized things we can tell speculative stories about. No doubt the same will be true in any era.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Aside from what replaces Trek in their universe's 20th/21st century, what soft sci fi will they be reading in the 22nd onward? (that would be the opposite of "hard" sci fi?)

 

[The Wormhole]

It's not just sci-fi: within Star Trek, holosuites have outdated all forms of non-interactive forms of narration.

I remember that in Voyager the ship was once displaced to present-day Earth, and Janeway instructed Neelix and Kes to watch all TV channels to monitor the reactions to the ship being visible for a moment. They found telenovelas and discovered the benefits of non-interactive narration. In another episode, Paris recreated a twenty-century cinema, and everybody had a hard time figuring out how did the joint work: sitting in a dark hall filled with chairs to see images in a giant screen was a long-forgotten activity.

Honestly, that never made sense to me, that everyone was so confused about how "non-interactive entertainment" works. After all, they still read books in the 24th century, that's non-interactive. And people still perform plays, which are non-interactive for the audience. TV shows and movies shouldn't be such a difficult concept for anyone in the 24th century to figure out.

Thankfully, the current shows have ignored this, showing that 20th century TV shows and movies continue to be watched and understood as far into the future as the 32nd century.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Well, you can forgive Neelix and Kes, not being from Earth, and being too busy getting to know people and doing their work (him, cooking food, her, growing food, plus discovering each other, learning about the Federation, etc)

As for watching movies in a theater, maybe the crew's used to watching things on a small screen alone, if anything. Perhaps the crew of Voyager prefer more (inter)active entertainment, on the whole.

 

[Darth Thanos]

Aside from what replaces Trek in their universe's 20th/21st century, what soft sci fi will they be reading in the 22nd onward? (that would be the opposite of "hard" sci fi?)

What about superhero fiction? there are hardly any "superpowers" in the setting that are not the biological distinctiveness of a given alien species. There's no reason why the whole "random guy faces a weird situation and gets amazing superpowers" should cease to be interesting.

 

[Christopher]

there are hardly any "superpowers" in the setting that are not the biological distinctiveness of a given alien species.

There's Geordi's VISOR. And the telekinesis acquired by various characters from outside influences (e.g. the galactic barrier or kironide).