What are your favorite TV shows, movies, or other works that remind you of Star Trek and may even be inspired by it, but isn't Star Trek? Some of them are parodies, and some are interesting deconstructions of those elements, the shows themselves, or the fans who watch.
Space Battleship Yamato/Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (a.k.a. Star Blazers/Star Blazers 2199)
A classic of Japanese anime, some of Trek's most recognizable elements are apparent (e.g., a unified humanity in color-coded uniforms aboard a starship named after a famous World War II naval vessel). It also hit on similar themes of duty, loyalty, and the family we find in those we build relationships with. However, what make Yamato different is how it filters those similar themes through a Japanese perspective. Although, the basic setup will seem familiar to anyone who watched Enterprise season 3.
Set in the year 2199, the surface of Earth is a radioactive wasteland. Under near-constant bombardment from an alien race, humanity has fled underground. However, just before everything seems lost, a message from a planet called Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud offers help. Providing the technology for an FTL drive, Iscandar promises that it can restore Earth's biosphere if humanity can make it there to retrieve a device that capable of doing it. Humanity uses the wreckage of the battleship IJN Yamato and converts it into a starship, while also using the knowledge provided by Iscandar to create a terrible weapon. The Yamato must make it to Iscandar in one year and return, if not the damage to Earth will be too great to reverse.
Where the Enterprise in TOS Trek represents American expansionism in space (i.e., "wagon train to the stars") and the US optimism of the 1960s, the Yamato feels like the fantasy of a culture that suffered scars and gets a future where those scars get to be corrected. The Yamato gets to be the super-weapon it was designed to be. The people in Space Battleship Yamato get to reverse the radiation and bombing that they've endured.
"USS Callister" from Black Mirror
The most interesting thing I've noticed about the episode is when people debate whether what Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) did "was really that bad?" The original review for the episode at TrekMovie.com called it "a cruel parody and even a misandrous attack on male science-fiction fans."
What Charlie Brooker and William Bridges script does is both deconstruct a certain segment of Trek fans, who warp the values of the series/franchise, while at the same time also producing what would fit as a classic Trek story in TOS (i.e., at the end of the day, it's about the crew of the ship coming together to take down a false god).
The Orville
What does Seth MacFarlane's homage to Star Trek (specifically TNG and Voyager arguably) want to say? The series is basically Berman-era Trek while not being Trek. During interviews for the show's third season, MacFarlane was asked what differentiates The Orville from Star Trek, and he implied that The Orville's lane was optimistic and uplifting science-fiction compared to series that have become "grim" and "cautionary." For many of the critics of Discovery's early seasons, which featured very flawed and sometimes asshole-ish characters (e.g., Lorca is intentionally left mysterious and somewhat off-kilter, and Stamets early-on is not that likeable) and a more gritty depiction of the Federation and Starfleet that's a bit more willing to be ruthless, the common refrain on a lot of websites was that The Orville was "real" Star Trek.
But when you get down to it, does The Orville make any statement beyond being Star Trek without being Star Trek? I don't think the show really says anything about or deconstructs the pieces of Trek it uses. To me, it just repurposes them to make TNG/VOY episodes with Seth MacFarlane's characters and tone. And that's watchable and sometimes very enjoyable and great, but it doesn't really say anything new either as its own thing or as a reflection of Trek.
Galaxy Quest
Considered by some to be an unofficial Trek movie, the essential heart of the film is summed up in the scene where Jason (Tim Allen) has to explain that "we lied" to the Thermians. When he tries to convince him there's no ship, Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni) points to the "historical documents" and says: "But, there it is!" At its core, Galaxy Quest is about the power of belief. That even things that aren't real, and may never will be real, have the power to inspire and give a group of people something to value and hold onto that they can hope to be real.
From a paper published in the journal Sociology of Religion:
Space Battleship Yamato/Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (a.k.a. Star Blazers/Star Blazers 2199)
A classic of Japanese anime, some of Trek's most recognizable elements are apparent (e.g., a unified humanity in color-coded uniforms aboard a starship named after a famous World War II naval vessel). It also hit on similar themes of duty, loyalty, and the family we find in those we build relationships with. However, what make Yamato different is how it filters those similar themes through a Japanese perspective. Although, the basic setup will seem familiar to anyone who watched Enterprise season 3.
Set in the year 2199, the surface of Earth is a radioactive wasteland. Under near-constant bombardment from an alien race, humanity has fled underground. However, just before everything seems lost, a message from a planet called Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud offers help. Providing the technology for an FTL drive, Iscandar promises that it can restore Earth's biosphere if humanity can make it there to retrieve a device that capable of doing it. Humanity uses the wreckage of the battleship IJN Yamato and converts it into a starship, while also using the knowledge provided by Iscandar to create a terrible weapon. The Yamato must make it to Iscandar in one year and return, if not the damage to Earth will be too great to reverse.
Where the Enterprise in TOS Trek represents American expansionism in space (i.e., "wagon train to the stars") and the US optimism of the 1960s, the Yamato feels like the fantasy of a culture that suffered scars and gets a future where those scars get to be corrected. The Yamato gets to be the super-weapon it was designed to be. The people in Space Battleship Yamato get to reverse the radiation and bombing that they've endured.
"USS Callister" from Black Mirror
The most interesting thing I've noticed about the episode is when people debate whether what Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) did "was really that bad?" The original review for the episode at TrekMovie.com called it "a cruel parody and even a misandrous attack on male science-fiction fans."
What Charlie Brooker and William Bridges script does is both deconstruct a certain segment of Trek fans, who warp the values of the series/franchise, while at the same time also producing what would fit as a classic Trek story in TOS (i.e., at the end of the day, it's about the crew of the ship coming together to take down a false god).
The Orville
What does Seth MacFarlane's homage to Star Trek (specifically TNG and Voyager arguably) want to say? The series is basically Berman-era Trek while not being Trek. During interviews for the show's third season, MacFarlane was asked what differentiates The Orville from Star Trek, and he implied that The Orville's lane was optimistic and uplifting science-fiction compared to series that have become "grim" and "cautionary." For many of the critics of Discovery's early seasons, which featured very flawed and sometimes asshole-ish characters (e.g., Lorca is intentionally left mysterious and somewhat off-kilter, and Stamets early-on is not that likeable) and a more gritty depiction of the Federation and Starfleet that's a bit more willing to be ruthless, the common refrain on a lot of websites was that The Orville was "real" Star Trek.
But when you get down to it, does The Orville make any statement beyond being Star Trek without being Star Trek? I don't think the show really says anything about or deconstructs the pieces of Trek it uses. To me, it just repurposes them to make TNG/VOY episodes with Seth MacFarlane's characters and tone. And that's watchable and sometimes very enjoyable and great, but it doesn't really say anything new either as its own thing or as a reflection of Trek.
Galaxy Quest
Considered by some to be an unofficial Trek movie, the essential heart of the film is summed up in the scene where Jason (Tim Allen) has to explain that "we lied" to the Thermians. When he tries to convince him there's no ship, Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni) points to the "historical documents" and says: "But, there it is!" At its core, Galaxy Quest is about the power of belief. That even things that aren't real, and may never will be real, have the power to inspire and give a group of people something to value and hold onto that they can hope to be real.
From a paper published in the journal Sociology of Religion:
The appeal of Star Trek is not for a kind of personal salvation, but for the future of the Star Trek collective … "I" will not live until the twenty-fourth century, but "we" certainly will, according to the "Star Trek" future. It is hope for ourselves as a society, a myth about where we have come and where we are going. Fans want to be part of forming that destiny.
