Spoilers Let’s talk about the destruction of Trek utopia…

"Future, here I come! Flying cars, hoverboards and cures for most diseases!"

[*Twenty minutes later*]

"Still using ground cars, Donald Trump is President and a flu virus might infect 70% of the world's population? I'M OUT."

 

That would be optimistic.

 

Ouch.

 

I get what you're saying, but let us note that more is not always better.

"You know, that dash of tabasco sauce really adds something to this dish. So next time let's positively drown it in tabasco sauce until you can't taste anything else. And insist that it must always be served with super-duper-amounts of tabasco sauce from now on."

 

Wow. Made it one whole page before this topic shows up.

 

The Effect of Gamma Rays On Man In the Moon Marigolds

 

Again, perspective. TOS would have been a utopia to Benny Russell.

 

Doesn't make Star Trek utopian.

 

Uhura was forced to kiss Kirk. That wasn't an example of advancement, it was assault.

 

Who said anything about drowning?

Obviously. But that wasn’t the controversial part, historically, was it? It was the fact that this tv showed dared to play at having them kiss.

 

Utopia: ideas so good they have to be forced.

 

Heck, 2020 would probably be utopia to somebody from 1720.

 

There is an argument that could be made, based upon life expectancy, access to potable water, medicine among other factors.

I don't think utopia would be how I would describe it but what do I know?

 

That's the first thing I thought of. "People today live past 75 and water is generally clean and safe to drink? THIS IS UTOPIA!!"

 

I took the Star Trek Utopia outside, defecated all over it, beat it with a toffee hammer, lit it on fire and laughed like a raving lunatic while it burned.

It was fun.

I hope the next Star Trek series depicts the galaxy filled with post-apocalyptic warlords using humans as slaves and hoarding dilithium in fortified strongholds where the innocent are tortured for sport and only the brutal survive.

That's my kinda party, yo.

 

...but how about in the Federation?

 

Maybe even 1920 !

 

Or 2010...



oh.

 

Perhaps there is some argument to be made that there are usages of "utopia" and "utopian" that reflect simply improvement. However, they are weakening the meaning significantly, such as using "fantastic" is "great" rather than "imaginative" or "of fantasy." The more it is used this way, the weakerthe word becomes to the point that anything better is utopian.

BTW, I'm certain that none of the African American characters (nor the actors who played them) would consider gaining equal rights under the law nothing other than justice, not utopia.

 

I don’t think of utopian merely to be some progress. By that metric, the latest iPhone is from utopia compared to the last one, or first one. But I do think that it makes sense that when you’re talking about three or four centuries hence, with a people that maybe have made a thousand years of at least technological progress in some ways in that time, then similar levels of social progress might seem utopian to us. I get the sense that we see a sliver of future society in our episodes and the future can be as freaky and out there as future writers dare do go, or need to. I.e. the use of holograms in an age where everyone’s iPhone seems way more sophisticated than a lot of Trek tech.

I would hope that the progress these people make is more than just technological. Certainly it’s that interpretation that has inspired a lot of people.

All I’m saying. A “better” future the radical idea in sci-fi. And elsewhere.