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Justin Lin is directing Star Trek XIII

Teleporters, warp speed, and utopian futures are fantasy. Cell phones were an inevitability.

Star Trek will only be remembered as long as the current breed of visual entertainment media exists. One thing Trek did get right is TV (and probably film too) does have a limited life span. Who knows when it will end, but it will be overtaken by something else eventually. Heck, it's only a matter of years before videogames completely overtake them as the dominant pop culture media.

Once they go away, Trek will fade from peoples' memory. The thing about those other "big boys" is they're literature. And reading is timeless.

Space based video games will probably be around and as long as there are video games, and Trek has already put it's stamp on that media. For instance without Star Trek there would be no Mass Effect. There are already some great Star Wars video games out there. Players in the future are bound to be introduced to Trek through them even if has gone away by then.
 
As far as Shakespeare goes you're probably right about modern language as far as vocabulary.
No "probably" about it: there is a great deal of scholarship which places that beyond reasonable doubt.

Makarov said:
However people take ideas and motivations influenced from Star Trek for granted just the same. From stuff like datapads and teleporters to warp speed, the idea of a utopian future. Not to mention the communicator / cell phone. It has inspired people as well as other TV shows. Not just obsessed fans, but the general public.
I won't dispute that some individuals have said that they were inspired by Trek to pursue X field of study or go into Y line of work. However, I think that the degree to which Trek has been an influence on technological development is too often exaggerated.

Makarov said:
And Trek didn't invent those things, many are common to lots of sci fi but when people think science fiction the first things remembered are either Star Trek or Star Wars.
An important factor to consider for Star Trek and Star Wars is that they're both relatively recent developments. Conversely, The King James translation of the Bible was completed in 1611 and the latest of Shakespeare's plays are believed to date from 1613-1614. Indeed, the influence of Shakespeare's works at the time of his death in 1616 might be a more appropriate thing against which to gauge the influence of Star Trek today.

We look back 100 years from now and I'm betting they will be remembered along with the big boys as far as influence goes.
See how influential it still is four hundred years from now, and you may have something. Speaking only for myself, I'm not so sure that I'd want to bet too much.
 
Jesus Christ!

That is all.

Even He wasn't bigger than The Beatles. ;)

Now the question is: Is "Star Trek" bigger than The Beatles?

WWJTKD?

Oh, and let's not forget Aesop's Fables or Grimm's Fairytales. Or Greek myth. Probably ninety percent of the themes and stories in TV shows (and everywhere else) are derivative of themes or stories in one of those three, including in "Star Trek".

I'm more than willing to give credit to "Star Trek" for having an effect on popular culture, but that's as far as I'll go and it's still not as big as some other things.
 
Ask the average person to recite some Shakespeare, maybe they'll give you some "to be or not to be" at best. Start quoting some other line and they aren't going to know what you're talking about.
And you think that the average person will be able to recite some Star Trek, i.e., quote lines of dialog from it? Compare apples to apples. What is probably one of the most recognizable phrases, "Beam me up, Scotty," isn't even a proper line of dialog!

I didn't say people are going to be quoting more Trek lines. My point was in regards to his comment on recognizing lines and how people aren't going to remember everything even from the most influential things.

But your criterion for Shakespeare having influence was that they had to recite/quote Shakespeare. Compare apples to apples.
 
And you think that the average person will be able to recite some Star Trek, i.e., quote lines of dialog from it? Compare apples to apples. What is probably one of the most recognizable phrases, "Beam me up, Scotty," isn't even a proper line of dialog!

I didn't say people are going to be quoting more Trek lines. My point was in regards to his comment on recognizing lines and how people aren't going to remember everything even from the most influential things.

But your criterion for Shakespeare having influence was that they had to recite/quote Shakespeare. Compare apples to apples.

According to "Star Trek", people in the 23rd and 24th centuries are still reading and quoting Shakespeare. But how many people in the 23rd and 24th centuries are still quoting "Star Trek"? :vulcan:
 
Heck, Star Trek quotes Shakespeare constantly: "Dagger of the Mind," "All Our Yesterdays," "By Any Other Name," "The Conscience of the King," "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth," The Undiscovered Country, and probably half of General Chang's dialogue.

Even Klingons know their Shakespeare! :)

(Dare I mention that my latest Trek novel is titled Foul Deeds Will Rise, which is a quote from Hamlet?)

And, of course, Star Trek was inspired by Forbidden Planet, which was inspired by The Tempest . . . .
 
Makarov is debating very well, and taking a lot of heat for this mess I started, and I thank him.

There is a lot I did NOT mean with my very poorly worded premis for my contribution to this Thread, and to rehash and try to correct and clarify would make it worse, I think. Suffice to say, I will make greater efforts to watch my words and posts more carefully in the future. Thank you all for your responses and continued examples to me. I truly appreciate it.
 
^^Hmmm...another entry.

Thanks, BK613

That is one beeeeeeeautiful vehicle. And, a much better moniker than a "Rosencrantz" or a "Guildenstern"

:)
 
Makarov is debating very well, and taking a lot of heat for this mess I started, and I thank him.

Don't worry about it. It's not a mess, just your usual internet debate. Pretty much standard operating procedure around here. :)
 
Makarov is debating very well

Well, the thing is, it's not really a debate. It's like thinking the world is flat because all you've seen is your hometown, ignoring or even dismissing the much larger and older round world out there, and then covering your ears when the rest of your hometown tells you that there's so more out there ... like the wheat and the roads from the next town over that your home is clearly benefiting from.
 
That's the thing though, isn't it? The Bible, Shakespeare (who invented his own full words in his works), even the Illiad has influenced so much of everyday modern English that we take those words for granted without being aware of their etymologies, and thus the influences of those sources. Even with its widespread media presence, Trek isn't anywhere near that point. THAT's what makes the original point of Trek competing with the Bible and Shakespeare so mind-boggling and such an exaggeration. There's passion and love, and then there's delusion and hyperbole.

Heck, I imagine The Simpsons will have a larger and more long-term impact on the general culture than Star Trek has had when everything is said and done.

I think that's a perfectly cromulent idea!

Simpsons? Bah, give me a Family Guy reference in Star Trek and I'll be eternally happy.
 
Heck, I imagine The Simpsons will have a larger and more long-term impact on the general culture than Star Trek has had when everything is said and done.

If you feel Trek is such a trifle, why do you dedicate so much of your time to hang out and post on a fan-forum like this?
 
"Given the universe he's in" ? What does that even mean ?

The Star Wars universe? Seems pretty self-explanatory to me.

Ok so you're saying that that universe makes no sense in terms of motivations, then ?

Now that I understand what you're refereing to, the scene of Anakin's fall was changed after a 2004 screening of the film where pople didn't understand Anakin's motivation for his turning to the dark side. This is from The Secret History Of Star Wars.


http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/theturn.html
 
Heck, I imagine The Simpsons will have a larger and more long-term impact on the general culture than Star Trek has had when everything is said and done.

If you feel Trek is such a trifle, why do you dedicate so much of your time to hang out and post on a fan-forum like this?

That doesn't even make any sense. Am I suppose to automatically elevate Trek to some mythical status because I like it? It is a mostly entertaining TV and movie franchise.

I'm still of the opinion that some people watch Star Trek because they think it makes them look smart or cultured. It does neither.
 
If you feel Trek is such a trifle, why do you dedicate so much of your time to hang out and post on a fan-forum like this?
If you feel nuTrek is such a trifle, why do you dedicate so much of your time to hang out and post on a fan-forum like this?
 
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