In your opinion why has Star Trek endured for 50 years; while other science fiction shows have not?
why star trek endored for 50 years
- Thread starter david hambrick
- Start date
I think it's because it gives hope that we'll still be around in the future and our best days are still ahead, not behind us.
Plus stuff gets blowed up real good...
Plus stuff gets blowed up real good...
Quality stories and morality plays never go out of style. Plus the stories were targeted toward thinking adults. They were not designed for mass consumption by people who don't want to think to hard about what they're watching or children. They weren't fluff stories.
Other shows of the time, such as "Lost in Space" have a certain cult following today, but only Star Trek seems to have really endured.
Other shows of the time, such as "Lost in Space" have a certain cult following today, but only Star Trek seems to have really endured.
It creates a universe where all the problems of modern society have been solved and tells cool adventure stories driven from a moral core which criticizes the human condition.
When you watched the Enterprise on it's mission it was not just one ship and that one crew, but they were part of something much bigger.
It gave us a rich universe where the problem of the week was not always resolved by confrontation but with understanding.
It gave us a rich universe where the problem of the week was not always resolved by confrontation but with understanding.
Well aside from a show which is even older than ST, DW. But perhaps ST is better suited to telling a continuing story than other shows from the era, i.e. Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, BSG each of those later stories have a clear end point, finding home, finding Earth.
Star Trek doesn't discriminate, and it allows and excepts everyone. You could have a deformity to some but in Star Trek it's the normal. It is the most progressive franchise, and with the right people handling it, it will continue to be around for another 50 years.
I love Star Trek.
I love Star Trek.
TOS is highly sexist and has some really cringeworthy moments on other issues too from a modern perspective. However, what is true, and unusual for the time (as well as now) is how often talking, mutual understanding and intelligence is presented as the best way to solve conflict, rather than fighting and blowing things up. That, to me, is the core of the great future that Star Trek envisaged. The best Starfleet officer is brave and stands up for what is right, and approaches problems with diplomacy and moral fortitude. It's one of the reasons I liked the plot of I, Borg that is so controversial. The idea that our heroes would make a tactically stupid decision in terms of their own interests in order to do what seemed right by an individual, and an enemy individual at that, perfectly encapsulates what I think Star Trek is and stands for. It is that, for me, that separates it from the other shows I enjoy.
My take on it is STAR TREK is nostalgia that adults can re-engage in and find relevant. So many people started out watching STAR TREK as kids, which is a fact that's kind of downplayed, actually. Most of the marketing and stuff seems more directed at those in High School, or at the college level.
It's odd now, because traditional television's changing so much, but ... you know ... you've got these people who happen to catch some of STAR TREK, and they're all like, "OMG! I was 8 years old, when I watched this! Leave it on ...". And, to their surprise, they're not saying to themselves, "... how could I have liked that stupidity, as a kid?" They recognise it as having something to 'say,' or, at the very least, that it's hopeful and makes some effort at being credible, with the ideas that are presented.
It's like the Jesuits say: Give us the first seven years and we've got them for Life. And it's very comforting when you rediscover it and you find out that there's so much of it that's out there. It's one of those rare things from our childhood that we can keep and use, exactly as we first discovered it ... forever.
It's odd now, because traditional television's changing so much, but ... you know ... you've got these people who happen to catch some of STAR TREK, and they're all like, "OMG! I was 8 years old, when I watched this! Leave it on ...". And, to their surprise, they're not saying to themselves, "... how could I have liked that stupidity, as a kid?" They recognise it as having something to 'say,' or, at the very least, that it's hopeful and makes some effort at being credible, with the ideas that are presented.
It's like the Jesuits say: Give us the first seven years and we've got them for Life. And it's very comforting when you rediscover it and you find out that there's so much of it that's out there. It's one of those rare things from our childhood that we can keep and use, exactly as we first discovered it ... forever.
Because it's a cool show.
Fun space adventure with likeable characters.
Agree, utopian future, not dystopian.
All good reasons posted so far. I was thinking with the additions of the movies,TNG,DS9,Voyager and Enterprise it was the first to have an expanded universe that allowed the franchise to explore new territory and reach new generations which allowed it to stay fesh and never age.
Writers.
Star Wars is generally considered to be the pioneer of the "expanded universe" concept, although Star Trek probably helped lay the groundwork for the "transmedia" idea which is so in vogue these days. Just look at the heyday back in the 1990s, two TV shows in production, a movie every two years plus tie-in novels and comics out every month, and a few video games per year.
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