“To boldly go where no-one has gone before”: a discussion on the Star Trek franchise and the future of intergalactic travel…

Warning! Warning! This following discussion discusses extensively my thoughts on the concept of intergalactic travel and so contains spoilers for all Star Trek related media such as Television and films. Read ahead at your own risk…

Star date: 72312.1, it’s week 3 of my warp-jump into blogging to bring you weekly nerdy goodness from the depths of the Speculative Fiction. Today, my mission to talk about Star Trek and our future of galactic travel powered on nothing but coffee, my own knowledge, YouTube videos and Star Trek memes. 

You’ve probably heard what is similar to those words, even if you’re not an avid watcher of any of the Star Trek or big into sci-fi for that matter; it’s iconic with it’s slow captain’s log speech and adventurous music: 

It may even be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of travelling past the Earth’s O-zone layer. The Vulcans such as Spock, the Federation, the USS Enterprise (well, the several versions after been blown up in the TOS crew in Star trek The Search for Spock) and the war-race of the  Klingons…never mind the International Space-station, Black-holes, the planned mission to Mars or the recent research into Jupiter’s moon Europa to see if it is suitable for supporting human-life. 

Created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek presents an idealistic future of human equality, technological, medical and Scientific advancement. It was an idea where you could your best person without being uprightly persecuted, no matter what career field you are taking, (with more then a few Fascist ideals).

Usually centering around the crew of an enterprise ship travelling across the universe to discover different planets , species and to solve any problems they might encounter usually with civility and discussion before even thinking of using violence in such Starships as the USS Enterprise, (unless it’s  JJ Abram’s reboot of  franchise or the Next Generation movies, acting more as action movies in space rather then traditional Sci-fi).

 What really ties me to the franchise, however, is the how humanity’s position in the universe is presented from spreading throughout the universe, joining with other intergalactic species as one unit of individuals, to solving feuds and problems across the seemingly infinite galaxies and to building a knowledge, understanding and respect of all cultures unless it passes the point of needless destruction. 

Sure, Star Trek can be rather silly and low-budget at times (watch video below) and at times rather contrived but some of the original ideas it presented in the shows (especially The Original Series, The Next Generation and Voyager), the movies (especially the TOS movies) and books that followed presenting a great world even universe that we should strive to create and improve for the future. Especially in harsh times like this where hate and mass death more and more frequent and the world seems more and more divided by the day. Star Trek is something I believe we can greatly learn from to “Live long and Prosper” (sorry, I couldn’t make a post on Star trek and not use that line at least once). 

 To look into the beyond, a society no longer divided amongst difference in culture or personality but joining together in aid to provide each with knowledge and skill to travel the universe and encounter different galaxies across the universe, meet new cultures and build relationships between worlds and civilizations. The show is a testament to what Earth and the universe could become in the mere future if we put past our grunges and work together. This is even more important now due to recent statements Stephen Hawking himself had made the prediction, before his untimely death, where he stated that the Earth only has a matter of 100 years before it become uninhabitable. It seems like if we don’t patch up our ways and go off into the stars to find a new home, we may fall the ways of the dinosaurs.

Star Trek and it’s other shows show us as a better way that we can eventually follow although recent shows like Star Trek Discovery show us a much more violent and alternative future of war and chaos. Where we let our anger get ahead of us and kill without reason, even leading to an unjust war between two different civilizations much like the war in Syria and Iran of the recent era or Vietnam and Korea in the 1950-70s. Today we are more aggressive towards each other over just small things, we are split down the middle on many topics and that’s not going to get us anywhere anytime soon. Hell, we definitely won’t be travelling through space anytime soon even as Space X starts preparations for a trip to Mars. The runner of the company, Elon Musk (although seemingly a great man, is over worked and a bit of an egotist). Maybe we need to take a calm look at ourselves and judge really if we and our leaders deserve to rule the Earth or are we just dooming it for the other species that live on it from which we’ve evolved from. 

But that’s enough from me for one week, I love talking about Star Trek, Intergalactic travel and I would love to know your personal thoughts on and whether you would like to glance your eyes over another post of mine about the franchise, fellow Future thinkers and Intergalactic travellers down in the comments below…

Next Week, get your time machines and giant bunny suit as we will be doing a double Time Travel feature on the Predestination paradox with two of my favourite Sci-Fi films Donnie Darko and (the aptly titled) Predestination. Hope you join us fellow future thinkers as we’re in for a mind-warping ride.

Michael McGrady, Signing off.