I personally believe that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" should be compulsory viewing in all middle schools. Yup, right along there with the compulsory Philosophy classes that I believe should follow a child up, age-appropriately of course, right from the age of 5 through to when they first rub their nooby little eyes in the harsh sunshine of adulthood.
Will making every future citizen spend an hour a week gawping at Picard and his crew arguing, solving problems and relaxing in holodecks create an earthly utopia in a single generation? No. But it sure as hell can't hurt.
I will be honest with you from the start, my friends. I am a dedicated fan of sci fi. For some people, the vehicle for imagining alternative ways of being, of living, and of organizing society is what is generally known as "Fantasy". Elves. Orcs. Warring kingdoms and arcane magic. That's fine too. It's just not my bag. No, for me, science-fiction is the door that allows us to see things differently, the safe space to kick about ideas that would seem too radical in Real Life (TM).
Now, the original series of Star Trek (from now on, TOS) was revolutionary for its time. Gene Roddenberry was forced by the cash-wielding Powers That Be to make compromises, but he didn't give it all away. He agreed to drop the female First Officer, and the darkly haunted Captain, but he kept the black, female Communications Offier, and refused to part with the off-puttingly rational jewboy alien. We had the infamous Interracial Kiss, we had Spock's constant "outsider" viewpoint, we had the beginnings of some sort of moral examination of cultural relativism in the form of the Prime Directive, and Kirk's semi-regular and semi-heroic disregard for it.
But I'm not a huge fan of TOS. Kirk was annoying. If he couldn't shoot it or shag it, he really didn't know what to do with it. The doctor's signature racism towards Spock got old fast, especially as it seemed to be more about some sort of Gay Love Triangle (TM) than about genuine ideological differences. The number of times that some kind of "trouble" was 2 days away, and in the next shot you saw the feisty crew arrive to deal with said "trouble" without any sort of analysis or discussion or, you know, actual PLANNING in between was legion. I'm happy to accept that this was the absolute shiznit in 1964, but I don't see myself sitting down to watch every episode right through with my kids, and then trying to gode them into philosophical debate.
Then, in 1987, along came Star Trek: The Next Generation (from now on, TNG). New crew, new Captain, new Enterprise. 1964 shiznit reinvented for the nephews and nieces of power-suited, filofax-wielding career cunts.
Gene Roddenberry was still alive at this point, and so this was the last show in the franchise that was truly "his baby". And boy, does it show. A couple of episodes of "Voyager", and you wonder if you're watching Star Trek at all, or some kind of Lord-of-The-Flies-In-Space. Unfortunately, he died quite early on in the whole shebang, so we never got our promised gay characters and whatever else his cheese-eating liberal mind would have given us.
But still, how fucking COOL is Star Trek TNG?
We have a crew we can actually BELIEVE in. As in, if you were facing a crunch moment with these guys, you'd actually trust them to help you live through it. And then to give you counselling afterwards so you didn't turn into a gibbering wreck, or have to shovel even more shite underneath your granite macho facade. They work well together. Yes, actually together. As in, they are not just window-dressing for an egotistical overgrown adolescent of a Captain who's just looking to seem like a hero and get his hole. And talking of captains, please don't respond with how Captain Kirk would "kick Picard's faggot-ass behind" or whatever. If you think that an intelligent, cerebral, thoughtful, experienced Captain who functions as the genuine leader of a team of capable crew-members is "gay", then you should just slither back to your trash-strewn refuge of a basement and wank off to the underwear catalogue like you always do.
When these guys are two days away from trouble, the next shot you see is not of their Captain facing down a gnarly-faced foe on a viewscreen. The next shot you see is of all the crew members with relevant expertise actually sitting around a table and discussing options and scenarios. Looking through schematics, arguing about tactics and ethics, and giving their advice to the Captain. You know, like an actual team. Whole episodes can revolve around just one character, or one relationship, and involve no life-and-death peril to ship or crew. There are civilians on this ship. Children. Schools. Sure, they get into some good old-fashioned scraps at times, but they are also a vessel of exploration, of research, of diplomacy.
Situations are not always resolved to my satisfaction, nor to every member of the crew's, and I feel the show sometimes comes down on the wrong side of an ethical quandary. But that's par for the course, and it is, of course, part of the point. What is the nature of being "human"? What criteria need to be fulfilled for an entity to be considered "sentient"? To have rights? What is the proper balance to be struck between respect for "groups" and respect for individuals? When is violence necessary? What really constitutes "honour"? These are important questions, and they are all explored.
And they are explored in a context where equality and respect are taken as a de facto baseline, and where difference is not seen as being automatically threatening.
Also, the universe that is created feels real, and solid. And it's just a nice place to be. A nice place to spend 45 minutes of your time now and again. A decent bunch of people (in the broad sense) to find as your friends when you next have time to park your ass in front of Tivo and hit "play". They have their strengths. They have their faults. Sometimes they fuck up. They're on a journey, and they're not ashamed of it.
So sit back, hit "play", and enjoy...
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