Frequenting Earth

[Mojochi]

Star Trek. In order for it to have any significant meaning to specifically us, its roots are Earth, from where 1st we began to trek the stars. A Trek is a voyage, & a voyage has a beginning, & that beginning is on Earth

That's why even though Star Wars too has just as many alien species, & worlds & travels, all around them, theirs is not as significant imho, because it is not a tale about us, by name, Earthlings, AKA humans. In fact, I've always preferred it when aliens in Star Trek refer to us as Earthlings. It makes more sense in the context of Vulcans being from Vulcan, & Betazoids being from Betazed, Ferengi from Ferenginar, etc...

Earth's fate IS our fate. That our fiction reflects that is not only important, but kind of comforting... & if I'm being honest, I've always seen Star Trek as sci-fi comfort food. It's not just a fictional universe we enjoy watching. It's a universe we are in

 

[Christopher]

Star Trek. In order for it to have any significant meaning to specifically us, its roots are Earth, from where 1st we began to trek the stars. A Trek is a voyage, & a voyage has a beginning, & that beginning is on Earth

Whaaaaa??? The whole point of a trek is to go somewhere else. It's not about the starting point, it's about the journey and the destination. TOS and TAS managed to produce five seasons without once visiting 23rd-century Earth, because it was a show about "Space, the final frontier." Frontier means far away from your home turf.

In fact, I've always preferred it when aliens in Star Trek refer to us as Earthlings.

That's surprising. "Earthling" was considered a corny term even when Star Trek was new. Indeed, it was used only three times in TOS and twice in TAS, and its later uses were in contexts that specifically used it as a corny, outdated term, in "Little Green Men" and "Bride of Chaotica." Generally, modern science fiction tends to prefer "Terran" as a demonym for a person from Earth. Doctor Who writer Robert Holmes was fond of the more uncommon but more etymologically correct "Tellurian." (Although I'm kind of partial to the Futurama version, "Earthican.")

It makes more sense in the context of Vulcans being from Vulcan, & Betazoids being from Betazed, Ferengi from Ferenginar, etc...

And that's a usage I've always found quite silly. Treating species name, nationality, and place name as interchangeable is simplistic and lazy, a bad habit that too many SF writers fall into. I mean, what if there's more than one intelligent species on the planet? Dolphins are Earthlings too. And I doubt that colonies that have established their own independent national identity would want to be referred to by their ancestral world's name. Alpha Centaurians would be as offended to be called Earthlings or Earthers as Americans would be to be called British. It's also simply confusing to refer to someone who isn't an Earth citizen by such a term.

Also, it's just linguistically questionable. I can buy outsiders referring to a species by its planet name, but what are the odds that they'd refer to themselves that way? After all, their languages would most likely have developed before they had a planetary or interplanetary view of things. (Although, on the other hand, the word "human" is related to the Latin humus, meaning earth or soil, in the sense of earthly beings as opposed to gods. So it's not out of the question, I suppose. But it is far too ubiquitous a trope in SF.)

Earth's fate IS our fate.

The whole reason for colonizing other planets is to change that -- to ensure that humanity will survive no matter what extinction-level events befall Earth.

& if I'm being honest, I've always seen Star Trek as sci-fi comfort food.

I don't think I'd agree, not in the sense you appear to be using it. "Comfort food" implies something inoffensive and insubstantial. Star Trek was a show that tried to break new ground, challenge its audience, and embrace controversy. At its best, it's continued to do so.

 

[gottacook]

Comfort food is very substantial (according to what I learned in 2+ years writing abstracts of nationwide newspaper food section articles at the old, independent, pre-1990 Pillsbury Co.).

As to saving present-day Earth from certain destruction (repeatedly) in the theatrical movies, I wish that TMP hadn't set that pattern, although I have trouble imagining how a ~10-years-later crew would be (re)introduced without doing so.

 

[Tenacity]

And Star Trek's portrayal of a truly interstellar civilization is an area where there is enormous room for improvement.

That's assuming that what is being depicted in Star Trek is in fact a "truly interstellar civilization."

Instead the Federation is a collection of separate and distinct civilizations, who co-operate for defense, exploration and a few other activities. Members of the Federation could have some (but maybe not much) interaction outside of that, some diplomacy, cultural exchanges, tourism and trade, but largely are not any kind of a collective melting pot civilization.

When we see the species of the Federation interacting outside of Starfleet, it does seem like a great deal of it (not all) are ambassadors engaging in diplomatic activities.

In fact, I've always preferred it when aliens in Star Trek refer to us as Earthlings. It makes more sense in the context of Vulcans being from Vulcan, & Betazoids being from Betazed, Ferengi from Ferenginar, etc...

Ferengi: "Hoo-mon."
Human: "Wow, that slur really hurt, you know coming from a Fungus-en-gii."

Whaaaaa??? The whole point of a trek is to go somewhere else. It's not about the starting point, it's about the journey and the destination.

But (for better or for worse) Star Trek focuses on Humans, Human lives, Humans in Starfleet, Humans journeying, Humans fighting, Humans exploring. I can remember a small number of DS9 episodes that had no Human characters in them, but to tell you the truth, if a Star Trek series featured no cluster of Humans in the main group, I probably wouldn't watch it.

As to saving present-day Earth from certain destruction (repeatedly) in the theatrical movies, I wish that TMP hadn't set that pattern,

Some of the movies pretty much had to feature Earth, certainly most of the time travel stories.

TMP. Didn't have to involve Earth, the Enterprise refit (hate that term) could have be going on somewhere else. V'ger could have just as easily been heading for Vulcan, and have been a old Vulcan probe. Would this have engaged the general audience? Maybe, Vulcan's probably the only non-Earth planet that would be recognized.

TWOK. Establish the Starfleet Academy as being somewhere other than Earth, change the view out of Kirk's apartment (or not), reuse the Enterprise departure scene from TMP.

TSFS. The ship isn't returning to Earth at the beginning of the movie, the mushroom is in orbit of another planet than Earth.

TVH. The time in the past would pretty much have to be Earth, although this movie would be a great opportunity to establish that the Federation meets somewhere other than Earth, have the Federation President issue the quarantine from another planet (or have it be a Earth official), have the final meeting room be not on Earth.

TFF. Enterprise leaves from not Earth. Shore leave on some random planet.

TUC. Enterprise leaves from not Earth. Change the view behind the President to something else.

GEN. No Earth as is.

FC. The time in the past has to be Earth.

INS. No Earth as is.

NEM. This ones hard to say, to tell you the truth I wasn't aware for years that the wedding reception scene was on Earth.

ST09. Hard to say about where brat child Kirk on Earth could be otherwise, again have Starfleet Academy be off Earth. Drill into another planet other than Earth.

ID. Have the Earth scenes be a major built up Human colony, one with a starbase.

BEY. No Earth as is.

 

[Christopher]

That's assuming that what is being depicted in Star Trek is in fact a "truly interstellar civilization."

It's supposed to be. Once again, I'm not limiting myself to a mere cataloguing of what's in the existing text. I'm critiquing the decisions that went into the creation of the text, the ways in which it fell short of the original intentions because of the overly limited, Earthbound thinking of too many of its later creators. Granted, TOS originally portrayed the Enterprise as strictly an Earth ship, but by "Journey to Babel" it had settled on the idea of the Federation as an eclectic union of many different species, and that's an idea that could certainly have been explored more fully than it was. For instance, we've seen many alien regulars in Starfleet crews, but for some reason, Starfleet admirals are overwhelmingly human, with the exception of a few Vulcans. And background Starfleet crew in DS9 and VGR were almost always human, even though main Starfleet characters tended to be more diverse. It was just laziness, a failure to question default assumptions.

 

[gottacook]

I've already mentioned Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy (1957) in this thread - I think it's one of his very best, although I suspect it has few new readers these days - and I wonder whether the Terran Hegemony in that novel was something Roddenberry had come across. It's described as a "loose confederation of planets" that's too widespread to police, despite FTL travel, although there is a military (Hegemonic Guard). The Nine Worlds, where the beginning of the novel takes place, are outside the Hegemony, but its inhabitants were originally Earth colonists many centuries ago.

 

[Christopher]

I've already mentioned Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy (1957) in this thread - I think it's one of his very best, although I suspect it has few new readers these days - and I wonder whether the Terran Hegemony in that novel was something Roddenberry had come across. It's described as a "loose confederation of planets" that's too widespread to police, despite FTL travel, although there is a military (Hegemonic Guard). The Nine Worlds, where the beginning of the novel takes place, are outside the Hegemony, but its inhabitants were originally Earth colonists many centuries ago.

Sounds like the sort of thing that's common in SF from writers with libertarian leanings, like Heinlein and Poul Anderson. Anderson's Terran Empire was an empire in little more than name, since its worlds were too numerous and widespread for any individual or group to have full knowledge of all of them, so they pretty much went their own ways as long as they paid token tribute.

 

[johnnybear]

The Enterprise in the original series is clearly an earth ship but as the series progressed it was shown that many of the subject members of the Federation were joining Starfleet and with the later Treks this became more evident!
JB

 

[Kor]

It seems kind of odd that there is only one Starfleet Academy campus for all of Federation space and its many worlds and species, and it is located in San Francisco, CA, USA, Earth.

Kor

 

[Maurice]

It seems kind of odd that there is only one Starfleet Academy campus for all of Federation space and its many worlds and species, and it is located in San Francisco, CA, USA, Earth.

Kor

It's because no one here cares what you are... even a green blooded, pointed eared hobgoblin.