A world without Star Trek

[spoonunseptium]

This is a Writer's Block prompt from Livejournal:

Imagine a world without Star Trek

. Is it a world you'd be very happy to live in, or a dark and terrible place?


My slightly-joking response:

Oh, it'd be terrible. Hundreds of pop culture references that result in hilarity would not exist, and science fiction would suck on account of a severe vacuum in greatness. There would be 50% less astronomers and scientists, and we wouldn't have cell phones, cloning, or pre-sliced cheese. Thousands of nerds would have no outlet and would be more likely to become villainous despots.

What's yours?

 

[collins1707]

I've been a fan for so long I don't think I'd actually be the same person. Trek's been a catalyst for me finding a bunch of other new things.
Not for me, thanks.

 

[Marie1]

Trek is fun, engaging, has a huge following (what would we do otherwise? Watch SW??) and has lots of nice moral messages lest we forget. And some nice looking people for everyone!!

Then again... I'd spend a lot less time on front of the computer and TV... which would be good.

 

[Finn]

Nah. Something else would have come up in its place. Cell phones would have been eventually invented without Star Trek in existence.

 

[RandyS]

Well, the world is a dark and terrible place even with Star Trek, so I doubt that would be much different. But the one thing that would be is that we'd all be Star Wars fans excuslively.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Interesting point.

Most of the history of science fiction on television (and maybe also science fiction on film) could have been completely different. Star Trek was just too damn influential.

Just think of it... I guess even people like George Lucas or J. Michael Straczynski aimed to make something different than Star Trek. But if there's no Star Trek how could they try to make something that's different from it? Not to mention of Star Trek rip-offs (second season of Space: 1999) or homages (Galaxy Quest).

I guess at some point in the 60ies, 70ies or 80ies someone could have made a TV or movie series which would have been a huge success as well. This series could have been similar to our Star Trek or something entirely different. In any event it should have been something that managed to hit a nerve and catched the spirit of the times. That's how such "legendary franchises" like Star Trek or Star Wars are born.

 

[Mistral]

I can't help but wonder-would the Internet operate the way it does if not for Trek? The "save the show" campaign contained the first conceptual germination of what later became online blogging and influencing of the Powers that Be. I tell a friend, who tells a friend, etc. The creators of DarpaNet were fans of the show and either knew of or were a part of the campaign to save it-the structure used to do so bears a striking similarity to how the WWWeb was built. Linking from one to the other server to build the power and capability is a parallel of the letter-writing campaign. How much of our Internet is ST-influenced?

 

[TheGodBen]

In a world without Star Trek I'd be dumber and having more sex. I'm confused about which is the better reality.

 

[jgdst]

It'd be terrible... providing I knew what Star Trek was. Otherwise, I probably would've grown up to be Normal.

If there was no Star Trek, I probably wouldn't have gone in to do Astrophysicsy kinda stuff, I might have actually been one of the Kool Kidz at school, and I probably wouldn't know as many Latin words or letters of the Greek alphabet. As a result, the world on the whole would be crap.

On a more global scale, as a lot of us are influenced by TV, there wouldn't have been so many barriers broken as early as they were - like Americans and Russians working together, interracial lovin, and stories that just made you take a step back and think about the world on the whole, that kind of stuff. Of course someone else would've done it at some point, but I doubt it would've happened as quickly. And of course, Star Trek didn't single-handedly solve the problems, but it helped people be a bit more aware of it. Every little helps.

Oh and that shuttle never would've been called Enterprise And it could be that not as many people paid attention to various NASA missions over the years.

And finally, this site wouldn't have existed and I wouldn't have found what is frankly a buttload of people who actually have the same interests, opinions, etc as me to let me know I'm not the only Trek geek out there! God bless you crazy guys

Little bit of Christmas mushyness for you there...

 

[RandyS]

In a world without Star Trek I'd be dumber and having more sex. I'm confused about which is the better reality.

Well obviously the former, but in it's absence, the latter.

I guess my point is it could go either way.

But I'd prefer the former.

 

[Mr. B]

...I might actually be a Star Wars fan *shudders*

 

[jamestyler]

On one hand I probably would have dedicated my TV time to soaps... on the other, I'd spend significantly less time with a sketchbook and a notepad creating my own little SF universe and probably be more productive at work.

It is a weird question... it's just become too much a pat of pop culture, science fiction and a part of me to comprehend it not being there.

It was one of the few things my father and I had in common - even now it's pretty much the core of any conversation I have with him - so I would imagine unless there was something else to fill the void there would be even less of a relationship with him.

 

[Darth_Pazuzu]

A world without Star Trek
Is like a world without sun
You can't look up to anyone...

Thank you, Gene Simmons!

 

[Forbin]

My room would certainly look different without all those Trek models!

And there's a very good chance my wife and might not have gotten together. Trek was a common interest.

 

[TheGodBen]

On a political note, Obama is known as being a Trekkie. Star Trek would have been on the air back when he was a kid , so seeing Uhura on the bridge every week might have helped him see that in the future his skin colour wouldn't matter and he could achieve his dreams. Without Star Trek he might not have run for President.

So in four years we'll be able to determine if Star Trek has had a positive or negative impact on the world. If there is nuclear war and nobody has a job, it is all Star Trek's fault and people will lynch us.