“My” Star Trek was the original series … in after-school reruns, because it was off prime time schedules by the time I was paying attention (Generation Jones really didn’t experience the Boomer world except in re-runs). But the TV show and its many, many successors have a cultural weight that the original TV show didn’t in its own time. On Substack, Tom Swift calls out the soothing boomer themes of the original show and contrasts it to later — and in his belief, better — science fiction treatments:
For nearly a half-century, Star Trek has been the thinking man’s vision of what society will one day become. This world is one of peace, prosperity, where scarcity is but a distant memory. Yet upon closer investigation, the world and characters depicted therein seem to violate every law of human nature.
Aliens are barely modified versions of ourselves, yet without many of the negative qualities thereof. One must suspend belief in even the rudiments of biology to believe that a human-alien hybrid could exist. Economics is barely mentioned, and there are occasional references to a guaranteed living. How that has not led to sclerosis of institutions and lack of motivation within the Federation is never explained. Little of the world outside the ship is shown. The number of children depicted is not nearly sufficient to explain the spread of mankind across the galaxy. In short, the world of the Starship Enterprise serves as warm pablum to comfort the thinking Boomer; it provides a future with clear technical advances yet enough familiarity to allow him to sleep at night and forget any transitory qualms in the morning.
Science fiction offers unlimited horizons for the imagination, yet the derivative nature of the Hollywood franchise has greatly limited its potential. However, there are a few notable exceptions, which have for the most part originated from independent works of literature. We shall now investigate three science fiction films which may portray the future far more accurately.
