Science Fiction inside the Star Trek universe
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"The Twilight Zone" was mentioned in Enterprise. "The Beginning" was going to have a scene where Vulcans were going to be watching "The Outer Limits" at a party.
I kinda prefer that Trek was some alternate universe that slowly diverged from the 60s onwards so that with Khan and the DY-100s existing and Voyager VI and Millennium Gate, either sci-fi fell out of the public consciousness or they got different sci-fi instead of what we got. I know it's not the party line but it just seems more interesting to me for world building.
I kinda prefer that Trek was some alternate universe that slowly diverged from the 60s onwards so that with Khan and the DY-100s existing and Voyager VI and Millennium Gate, either sci-fi fell out of the public consciousness or they got different sci-fi instead of what we got. I know it's not the party line but it just seems more interesting to me for world building.
Instead of travel to other star systems, Star Trek science fiction can be more about travel to other galaxies, other dimensions, or time travel.
Marauder Mo might be Ferengi Sci for. Or more like Indiana Jones. Who knows?
We needn't limit our view to human science fiction. Super heroes may have fallen out of fashion on Earth because of the eugenics wars, but maybe they are popular on Betazed or Arcturus. Space Ghost could be viewed as a super hero and he's not reliant on other augmented humans.
Steam Punk is a unique sub genre today. Might there be some type of retro futurism popular in the 23rd to 32nd centuries? Anachronistic science fiction stories set somewhere in the 20th to 22nd or 23rd centuries?
Marauder Mo might be Ferengi Sci for. Or more like Indiana Jones. Who knows?
We needn't limit our view to human science fiction. Super heroes may have fallen out of fashion on Earth because of the eugenics wars, but maybe they are popular on Betazed or Arcturus. Space Ghost could be viewed as a super hero and he's not reliant on other augmented humans.
Steam Punk is a unique sub genre today. Might there be some type of retro futurism popular in the 23rd to 32nd centuries? Anachronistic science fiction stories set somewhere in the 20th to 22nd or 23rd centuries?
Superman exists but something I've wondered is whether comics are still made in the "present day" of 23rd/24th century and have their histories modified to account for the new setting. Like even in our world I wonder how Captain America would be approached 100 years from now, but how does 24th Century Ed Brubaker handle Cap's return in the "modern day." Is it all just still a sliding time scale. Does 24th Century Chris Claremont write X-Men comics about the Shi'ar attacking the Klingons or something? Does the Star Trek future have people writing fiction about the equivalent of our world and our future? no warp drive, no aliens and everybody is stuck on a ball hurtling through space.
Well, superhero comics would be well out of copyright by then, so probably there are various approaches. Some are period pieces where Spider-Man lives in 20th/21st century New York, but others might have him operating in Newer York in Alpha Centauri.
EDIT: I do think superhero comics would still exist in some form, because in a post-scarcity society CREATION would be the thing almost all jobs would revolve around. Chefs would be focused on creating new recipes, as the replicator can make all existing foods. Programmers would be designing new code, and a sizable portion of the population would be making new fiction.
EDIT: I do think superhero comics would still exist in some form, because in a post-scarcity society CREATION would be the thing almost all jobs would revolve around. Chefs would be focused on creating new recipes, as the replicator can make all existing foods. Programmers would be designing new code, and a sizable portion of the population would be making new fiction.
You might even have the reverse of sci-fi - a popular genre that focuses on people who are less technologically developed than the real world, but not historical. Although as there are plenty of those societies existing as of 23rd/24th century Trek, that would be closer to reality than fiction, too.
In an alternate time line, I can imagine Captain Proton appearing at about the same time as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
In later centuries, it is easy enough to see people enjoying genres of speculative fiction that don't focus on advanced technology. Steam Punk, Swords and Sorcery fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Horror, etc.
In later centuries, it is easy enough to see people enjoying genres of speculative fiction that don't focus on advanced technology. Steam Punk, Swords and Sorcery fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Horror, etc.
Yes. And what might also seem like science fiction at the time would be a setting-similar to Star Wars-that features many 'droids.
I rather despair for the quality of fiction in the 24th century. After all, look at the dumb holodeck programs Naomi had on Voyager. It's not much better than "Barney" in our universe, or Teletubbies, and holy crap, those were annoying.
At least Captain Proton was somewhat entertaining, and Dixon Hill was a very sanitized version of 1940s noir novels.
No wonder they only seem to play Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, or Regency-era holonovels. Imagination packed up and left the building a long time before.
And of course nobody would notice that Alfred Bester bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain Pavel Chekov...
Captain Proton, of course. Tom Paris has a fertile imagination that takes 1950s American pop culture and tweaks it, daring his fellow 24th-century peers to ditch their stuffy little lives and use the fun parts of their imaginations again.
Considering that they all seem to be into Shakespeare and Sulu loves the Dumas style of swashbuckler fiction, I have my doubts as to whether science fiction is really that popular in the 23rd/24th centuries.
I found out that one of the people who introduced me to the SCA nearly 40 years ago is now doing live steampunk roleplaying. I must say, it'd be a lot easier to come up with costume ideas when all you need that's unusual is lace, fishnet, and a trip to the hardware store, to go along with leather and satin (or whatever other fabrics they use; I'm not into the live steampunk myself, but I've been slowly learning to appreciate it as an alternative art genre).
Actually, speaking of SCA, I'm reminded of the fact that the SCA is only 2 months older than Star Trek (founded July 1, 1966, by a group of SF/F authors and medieval history buffs including Marion Zimmer Bradley, Gordon Dickson, Poul Anderson, and numerous other well-known writers, plus the cartoonist who created the comic strip Hagar the Horrible (the character of Lucky Eddie is based on a real person in the SCA known as Fast Eddie of the Green Running Shoes). Bjo Trimble and her husband were at an SCA meeting when someone suggested that they join a group of people picketing NBC to save Star Trek. So their group made some signs and joined the protest - in their medieval costumes.
Occurred to me that casting for a future version of The Orville/Galaxy Quest/Andromeda could include real life Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, etc.
To represent planets in, say, the Large Magellanic Cloud, scenes are filmed on various planets in Federation space.
To represent planets in, say, the Large Magellanic Cloud, scenes are filmed on various planets in Federation space.
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I was thinking about my previous answer, and what would DC Comics do after the Eugenic wars and the popular rejection of augments. Perhaps they make a big crisis crossover to relaunch the whole Dc universe... or perhaps just a good ol' reboot, cancel all comics and begin new ones, just like that. They keep Batman, who is popular and has no powers, so there should be no problem. And the other comics would be about Robin, Huntress, Batgirl, Green Arrow, Gotham City Police Department, etc. Thing is, no superpowers. AT ALL. Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, etc; are not just without an ongoing comic, they would not even exist in this new universe. And neither do Batman villains like Bane, Man-Bat, Killer Croc, Clayface, etc. Only heroes and villains with no powers.
This may work, but after a decade or so... can we still call such a genre "Super heroes"?
This may work, but after a decade or so... can we still call such a genre "Super heroes"?
Goddamn I love this! I want to see a bunch of aliens in a Starfleet Academy theatre group putting on plays or some film school making experiment films with like a Vulcan or something.
Yeah I think they'd go hard on scrubbing out references. Maybe they reject and redo everything for a bit and then everything gradually starts coming back in after a few decades, sort of like how Infinite Crisis and Convergences brought back stuff from before Crisis on Infinite Earths and Flashpoint. I wonder about Captain America though as the poster boy of eugenics and body enhancement. Does he get retconned to be something else for a bit, like a mutant or inhuman or something?
I want to know about Kal-El landing in a 24th century cornfield in Kansas. Does Jor-El still think Earth is a bunch of primitives? "These guys don't even have crystal technology yet! I'm sending Kal to the Minbari instead!"
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Perhaps a series about starships that benefit from some revolutionary technological breakthroughs? Ships with consoles that don't explode when damaged, with encryption systems that cannot be broken in 15 seconds and with seats with safety belts?
I watched "Field of Dreams" last night and now I can't stop thinking of it in relation to this thread, imagining a bunch of Vulcans trying to figure out what caused everything with all the knowledge of weird stuff in the Trek universe.
I sometimes wonder if plays were rediscovered, perhaps after a period where Plato’s admonition against theatre was all the rage:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheatricality
Karidian would be a rock star after such a dry spell.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheatricality
Karidian would be a rock star after such a dry spell.
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