{"id":683492,"date":"2016-09-01T10:49:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T14:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=683492"},"modified":"2025-11-27T10:48:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:48:26","slug":"review-sept-oct-2016-star-trek-half-century-voyage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/review-sept-oct-2016-star-trek-half-century-voyage\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ shaped Star Trek on and off the screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Star Trek\u2019s Half-Century Voyage\u00a0<\/span>Rochester faculty and alumni have composed its theme, written episodes, and reflected deeply on why Star Trek resonates.<\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s a voyage that began 50 years ago, on Thursday evening, September 8, 1966. The television series\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>, a western for Cold War America, introduced us to Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and the starship\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>, inviting us \u201cto boldly go where no man has gone before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show attracted a small but passionate following in its three-season run. That fan base would grow exponentially in size and influence in the 1970s, as a generation of latchkey kids tuned in to\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0reruns, a staple of after-school broadcast lineups. From that decade forward,\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0grew as a franchise. Including the television series\u00a0Star Trek: Discovery<\/em>, slated for a January 2017 release, the franchise consists of six television series and 13 films, as well as books, magazines, comic books, action figures, games, and other memorabilia.<\/p>\n

Rochester faculty and alumni have made important contributions to the show, starting with its iconic theme, the work of composer Alexander Courage \u201941E.<\/p>\n

Reginald Barclay, the awkward, brilliant\u00a0Next Generation<\/em>\u00a0lieutenant whom cohorts derisively nickname \u201cBroccoli\u201d\u2014before he ends up saving the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>\u2014is the creation of Rochester English professor Sarah Higley.<\/p>\n

From the beginning,\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0has attracted a cerebral sort. It had geek appeal long before geekdom became the badge of honor it is today. We shouldn\u2019t be surprised, then, to find an abundance of steadfast fans among Rochester faculty and alumni.<\/p>\n

Many work in science and technology. The series and films may not always depict scientific principles accurately, but they invite us to imagine what a high-tech future might look like.<\/p>\n

Humanists who love\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0say it stimulates the social imagination, inspiring us to think about a society liberated from constraints we often don\u2019t question.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one reason for this crossdisciplinary appeal can be found in creator Gene Roddenberry\u2019s account of his own inspiration for the show. Looking to explore the changes and conflicts of the 1960s, Roddenberry found television executives wary.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really couldn\u2019t talk about anything you cared to talk about,\u201d he said in an oral history conducted by Edward Gross and Mark Altman, and published earlier this year. \u201cIt seemed to me that perhaps if I wanted to talk about sex, religion, politics, make some comments against Vietnam, and so on, that if I had similar situations involving these subjects happening on other planets to little green people, indeed it might get by, and it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image
A MEMORABLE SCORE: A reproduction of the original Alexander Courage \u201941E score of the Star Trek theme is part of the Alexander Courage Collection at Eastman\u2019s Sibley Music Library. The collection includes many of Courage\u2019s original scores, scripts, sketches, notes, and recordings for films and television productions; arranged scores for pops orchestras and awards broadcasts; and sheet music, personal papers, and professional as well as personal photographs. (Alexander Courage Collection\/Sibley Music Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Story of a Theme<\/h2>\n

Alexander Courage \u201941E
\nComposer<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to confess to the world,\u201d said the late Alexander Courage \u201941E in 2000, \u201cthat I am not a science fiction fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, the irony.<\/p>\n

From its eerie first notes, to its arresting fanfare, to its soaring climax, the theme that Courage composed for Star Trek in 1966 is among the most iconic in all of film or television.<\/p>\n

Over his career, Courage was a prominent film and television composer with credits on films such as\u00a0Funny Face<\/em>,\u00a0Guys and Dolls<\/em>,\u00a0Showboat<\/em>, and\u00a0Doctor Dolittle<\/em>; and television series\u00a0Wagon Train<\/em>,\u00a0Peyton Place<\/em>,\u00a0Daniel Boone<\/em>, and\u00a0The Waltons<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But it was his work on\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0that led to greatest acclaim.<\/p>\n

In a tribute to Courage that appeared in\u00a0Rochester Review<\/em>\u00a0following Courage\u2019s death in 2008, television and film composer Jeff Beal \u201985E wrote that theme music is \u201coften at its most resonant when the use of an unforgettable melody somehow captures the feeling and essence of a dramatic world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courage \u201cunderstood this well,\u201d wrote Beal, whose credits include the theme for the Netflix series\u00a0House of Cards<\/em>. \u201cHow could we ever separate the strains of his\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0theme from the triumphant French horns and the theremin-like female vocal?\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was hired to compose for\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>, he saw it as just another job for \u201cjust another show,\u201d Courage recalled in that same 2000 interview, conducted by film and music journalist John Burlingame for Emmytvlegends.org.<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle did I know when I wrote that first A flat for the flute that it was going to go down in history somehow,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a very strange feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

My father watched\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>. He was a big fan. When I was a kid, the show was in reruns, and I watched those with him. I don\u2019t know that I really got the concepts. I think I watched it because it was colorful, and it was a bonding experience with Dad, who read a lot of science fiction. And that\u2019s sort of where my interest in the genre came from.<\/p>\n

\"image
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER: Mr. Spock figurine from the 2009 film Star Trek. (Photo: J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hope in a Fractious Age<\/h2>\n

Jeffrey Tucker
\nAssociate Professor of English<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a kind of utopian vision that the show offered,\u201d says Jeffrey Tucker, a science fiction expert who teaches a course on utopian literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cA key aspect of utopian philosophy is the notion of hope. Hope is a forward-looking psychological process, and just the notion that the status quo can be revised and improved\u2014 and even, I think my father said, that the species will survive and exist into the 22nd or 23rd century\u2014in the mid-to-late 1960s that idea probably had a lot of weight. It was during the Cold War. It was the Vietnam era.\u201d And the species does more than survive in Star Trek, Tucker adds. It \u201cexpands its scope and explores the final frontier, and engages with other civilizations in a mostly constructive way, as opposed to destructive. Certainly there are conflicts, and wars and battles represented, but the whole idea is about exploration and sharing, cultural and economic exchange as opposed to domination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tucker notes there are opposing interpretations, namely one that sees the starship\u2019s exploration as a form of colonialism. \u201cTo what extent are the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>\u00a0and the Federation of Planets instruments of economic and military dominance, and to what extent are they vehicles for cultural and economic exchange? I think the creators intended the latter,\u201d he says, \u201cbut if we\u2019re to be responsible audiences, we have to be open to that other way of responding to the story, or at least be aware of how the history of colonialism and expansionism at least shadow, if not shape, the stories in the classic series.\u201d As for the later series, \u201cI think\u00a0Next Generation<\/em>\u00a0and the subsequent series worked harder to get out of that mind-set,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\"image
MARKUP: Showrunners were keen on the basic elements of Higley\u2019s script, but wanted substantial changes to highlighted sections. (Photo: J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Introducing Holodiction<\/h2>\n

Sarah Higley
\nProfessor of English<\/em><\/p>\n

Sarah Higley was in her third year of teaching medieval English literature at Rochester when she drafted a script for\u00a0Star Trek: Next Generation<\/em>. Having grown up on\u00a0The Original Series<\/em>, she started watching\u00a0The Next Generation<\/em>\u00a0and quickly found herself both intrigued and skeptical.<\/p>\n

Higley was fascinated by the holodeck, which had become a major feature of the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>\u00a0starting early in the first season. The holodeck was an enclosed room programmed to simulate any environment and create any holographic characters its users chose. \u201cIt was a rich source of role play for those who entered it,\u201d Higley says. But she found its portrayal \u201ctoo wholesome. Crew members engaged in all sorts of adventures in the holodeck without psychological repercussions. Here we were, addicted to television. Where was the addiction to something like the holodeck?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI started writing this story about Reginald Endicott Barclay III,\u201d she says, \u201cwho was not well-adjusted, but who was a genius, and was admitted into the academy, and got on the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>, but gradually started slipping, because of his unhappiness and his cynicism, into the holodeck.\u201d Her intention was to introduce a more three-dimensional character, and one more flawed and less heroic than characters such as Picard, La Forge, or Riker.<\/p>\n

And Barclay modified them in the holodeck, creating caricatures of them. She submitted her script, which she titled \u201cHollow Pursuits,\u201d and it was accepted\u2014provided she rewrite it. The show\u2019s coproducer Michael Piller \u201cwanted all of the episodes to have a certain quality to them. He wanted them to be upbeat,\u201d she says. The producers loved the concept that Higley coined as holodiction, but were lukewarm about Barclay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me, \u2018we like the premise, we like the whole idea of holodiction, but you have to have something that this character, Reginald Barclay, will solve, so that he stops being a Walter Mitty character and becomes the hero of the day.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

She responded to the producers\u2019 wishes, and when she viewed the finished episode, discovered something startling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw the episode, I realized how much of it was an analogy of me writing an episode for\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>,\u201d she says. Barclay was \u201can alien element\u201d who repurposes the holodeck, refashioning his crew members to serve his psychological needs. But he\u2019s forced, in the end, to abandon the holodeck. He saves the starship from a technical malfunction that threatened to destroy it. At the end of the episode, he bids goodbye to his simulated versions of the crew members to take his place among the real ones. \u201cAnd I thought, \u2018My god, that is me!\u2019 \u201d Higley says. \u201cI was told umpteen times how I could and couldn\u2019t portray the characters. I was projecting that onto Reginald Barclay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higley has mixed feelings about her experience working with\u00a0The Next Generation<\/em>\u2019s showrunners. As a scholar, she retains control over her published work to an extent not possible in the world of television and film. But even with the compromises she had to make, the episode crystallized a basic truth about virtual reality. It\u2019s a wondrous technology, with the capacity to enhance our lives in this world\u2014or, very often, and at least for some of us, to lead us away from it.<\/p>\n

\"photo
WARP SPEED: Figurine and control panel from the 2009 film Star Trek. (Photo: J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Detail and Heart<\/h2>\n

Thomas Perry \u201974 (PhD)
\nNovelist and screenwriter<\/em><\/p>\n

Thomas Perry and his wife, Jo Perry, are both trained as scholars of literature, and both turned to novel and screenwriting as their profession. They\u2019d been writing steadily for the CBS prime-time television series\u00a0Simon & Simon\u00a0<\/em>in 1990 when they cowrote \u201cReunion,\u201d episode 80 of\u00a0Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJo and I liked\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>, and Mike Piller, who had been a producer and head writer for a couple of seasons when we were coproducers of\u00a0Simon & Simon<\/em>, was working as a writer and coproducer on\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>,\u201d Thomas Perry says. \u201cMike called us and asked if we wanted to write an episode. Because we liked and respected Mike, we were happy to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReunion\u201d tells the story of an ambassador who makes a visit to the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>\u00a0to alert Captain Picard that the leader of the Klingon Empire has been poisoned. Picard is to choose the successor, a competition between two rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne reason for the show\u2019s success,\u201d Perry says, \u201cis that the stories were all about human emotions, and not about futuristic hardware. We were already used to Mike Piller asking for stories with heart, and on that show, his bosses seemed to support that policy. This gave the show a timelessness, which contributed to its longevity. Human nature doesn\u2019t go out of date.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that the show\u2019s creators didn\u2019t put great effort into the depiction of \u201cfuturistic hardware.\u201d Says Perry:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing a freelance writer doing an episode noticed was how meticulously the show was run. Every television show had what was called a bible. It contained a description of every previous episode, so the staff didn\u2019t have to listen to pitches for episodes they\u2019d already done, or turn out an episode that contradicted an earlier one. At\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>, the bible was seven booklets, if I recall correctly. There was one about the physics of the fictional universe, another about the starship\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>\u00a0and its gadgets, another about the anthropology of\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>. Everything on that show seemed to be run with similar precision and attention to detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image
SERVER SIDE: Rochester\u2019s early computer servers were named after Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) (left), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), and other characters. (Photo: United Archives GmBh\/Alamy (Uhura); 12\/Alamy (La Forge))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s Your Server?<\/h2>\n

In the earliest days of email, as we collectively marveled at our newly expanded capacity for instantaneous communication, the staff of Academic Technology Services was inspired to name the University\u2019s servers after\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0characters. Which email server were you on?<\/p>\n

uhura<\/strong>\u00a0(Lieutenant Nyota Uhura)<\/p>\n

troi<\/strong>\u00a0(Deanna Troi)<\/p>\n

riker<\/strong>\u00a0(William Riker)<\/p>\n

laforge<\/strong>\u00a0(Geordi La Forge)<\/p>\n

picard<\/strong>\u00a0(Jean-Luc Picard)<\/p>\n

guinan<\/strong>\u00a0(Guinan)<\/p>\n

ro<\/strong>\u00a0(Ensign Ro)<\/p>\n

\"photo
TWO IDENTITIES: As a young fan, Dove-Viebahn was dranw to the biracial character B\u2019Elanna Torres. (Photo: AF Archive\/Alamy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Next Generation . . . Voyage to Heterotopia<\/h2>\n

Aviva Dove-Viebahn \u201910 (PhD)
\nHonors Faculty Fellow, Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University<\/em><\/p>\n

Science fiction has often been perceived as the province, primarily, of men\u2014fantasy worlds chock full of gadgets and ultrapowerful humanoids. The irony, says Aviva Dove-Viebahn, is that science fiction \u201callows you to really play with social norms and to buck social norms\u201d\u2014including gender roles and stereotypes.<\/p>\n

As a teenager, Dove-Viebahn was captivated by\u00a0Voyager<\/em>\u00a0in large part because of the show\u2019s female lead, Captain Janeway. Janeway \u201cwas a scientist and an explorer,\u201d she says, \u201cand fully invested in this role without being super girly, and without being masculine either.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was also drawn to the character B\u2019Elanna Torres. \u201cI\u2019m biracial,\u201d Dove-Viebahn says. \u201cAnd B\u2019Elanna Torres is half Klingon and half human. She struggles with this idea of being a hybrid. And as a biracial teenager, coming to terms with the two sides of my identity, I was really drawn to her storyline, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a graduate student in visual and cultural studies at Rochester, Dove-Viebahn published an article in\u00a0Women\u2019s Studies<\/em>, a major interdisciplinary journal, entitled \u201cEmbodying Hybridity, (En)gendering Community: Captain Janeway and the Enactment of a Feminist Heterotopia on\u00a0Star Trek: Voyager<\/em>.\u201d A heterotopia \u201cemphasizes diversity rather than consensus,\u201d she says. \u201cHeterotopias offer a place for people to be different, but to still be able to collaborate.<\/p>\n

\u201cA collaborative space in which everyone\u2019s voice is given equal merit\u2014that functions to me as a kind of ideal feminist space. And of course Captain Janeway as leader of that space adds an extra feminist layer to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image
GAME PLAY: Then Rochester students Rick Rashid and Gene Ball used an early Xerox Alto computer to create a Star Trek\u2013themed computer game. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspired by\u00a0Star Trek<\/em><\/h2>\n

Rick Rashid \u201980 (PhD) & Gene Ball \u201982 (PhD)
\nMicrosoft<\/em><\/p>\n

As graduate students in computer science at Rochester, Rick Rashid \u201980 (PhD) and Gene Ball \u201982 (PhD) codeveloped the\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u2013inspired\u00a0Alto Trek<\/em>, one of the earliest networked computer games. Designed for play on the Xerox Alto computer, the game involved play in a universe of 16 star systems and included spaceships (named\u00a0Klingon<\/em>,\u00a0Romulan<\/em>, and\u00a0Terran<\/em>) and weaponry from the show.<\/p>\n

Rashid and Ball went on to long and extraordinarily successful careers at Microsoft\u2014Rashid founded Microsoft Research and is a chief technology officer at the company, and Ball retired from Microsoft as a senior scientist.<\/p>\n

Since 1980, Rashid has regularly treated those who work for him to viewings of the\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0franchise\u2019s movies. At the start of his career, he only had a few fellow computer scientists to pay for. But as his success grew, so did the tradition. \u201cAfter I founded Microsoft Research in 1991 and built out the organization, I eventually had hundreds of employees and their families at my\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0events,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"photo
PHYSICS-ALLY FIT?: While popular among science and technology faculty, the series and its depiction of science are often wrong, say physics professors. (Photo: J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Physicist\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n

Dan Watson
\nProfessor of Physics and Astronomy<\/em><\/p>\n

Among people in science and technology,\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0fans abound. Dan Watson, chair of the physics and astronomy department, is among them.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not because the series or films illuminate much about science. Watson shows\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0films to his introductory astronomy students to show what\u2019s\u00a0wrong<\/em>\u00a0with their depiction of physical science. \u201cAstronomy 102 students learn enough about strong gravity, black holes, and time machines to detect the mistakes, and doing so is a good exercise for them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Watson regrets that the franchise\u2019s film creators in particular didn\u2019t place greater importance on scientific accuracy. They \u201chad many more resources to use to get it right,\u201d he says, compared to the creators of\u00a0The Original Series<\/em>, for example.<\/p>\n

As for\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u2019s technological gadgetry, he says, \u201cWe joke about holodecks, food replicators, and warp drives, but I suspect most of us are attracted to the same sorts of things that draw the humanities folks in.\u201d To the extent that there are films or television shows that inspire the imaginations of budding scientists, Watson says\u00a02001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>\u00a0is probably the best example.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least in part, this is due to Kubrick\u2019s and Clarke\u2019s attention to scientific accuracy in matters that are currently within our grasp,\u201d he says, referring to Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clarke, who wrote the screenplay.<\/p>\n

Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0was the first television show I remember watching. I was about seven when it was first in reruns, and it was my first exposure not only to science fiction but also to serious moral reflection. It posed intriguing and dramatic moral dilemmas that fueled my later interest in moral philosophy. It was much more intellectually challenging than what I was getting in Sunday school.<\/p>\n

\"image
MORAL COMPASS? As Captain Kirk, William Shatner (left)\u2014with Barbara Bouchet in \u201cBy Any Other Name\u201d (1968)\u2014is more of an Aristotelian than a Kantian, when it comes to ethical outlooks, says philosophy professor William FitzPatrick. (Photo: AF Archive\/Alamy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Star Trek\u2019s Moral Universe<\/h2>\n

William FitzPatrick
\nGideon Webster Burbank Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom its very beginning,\u201d says William FitzPatrick,\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0\u201cexplored themes of good and evil, power and moral corruption, peace and inescapable violence, and racism and equality; and in particular, took up issues concerning the moral standing of wildly diverse kinds of beings, from humanoids to intelligent energy clouds to sentient androids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many episodes inspired deep reflection. But one of FitzPatrick\u2019s favorites is \u201cCity on the Edge of Forever,\u201d which originally aired in spring 1967, during the first season.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s his take:<\/p>\n

\u201cKirk, Spock, and McCoy are transported back in time, to 1930s Earth, and Kirk and Spock realize that Edith Keeler, with whom Kirk has fallen madly in love (what else is new?), must be allowed to die in a street accident. If she doesn\u2019t, the course of history will be radically changed, with the Germans winning World War II and everything the\u00a0Enterprise<\/em>\u00a0crew know of their world vanishing in an instant, having never come to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation raises basic moral questions about how to weigh one person\u2019s welfare against the larger good, how to balance special duties to those we love against impartial duties of beneficence, and the potential moral distinctions between letting someone die, preventing someone from being saved, and killing directly (for example, by shooting someone), for the sake of a greater good.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne philosophical view, utilitarianism, tends to downplay such distinctions concerning means, holding that all that really matters is acting in whatever way will maximize the overall, impartially conceived good\u2014the good as conceived \u2018from the point of view of the universe,\u2019 as Sidgwick famously put it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften people hear a utilitarian message in Spock\u2019s famous quote from\u00a0The Wrath of Khan<\/em>: \u2018the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one,\u2019 and they might read it into the Keeler case as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that is a mistake, I think, and an oversimplification . . . The heavy focus throughout the series on the importance of individual dignity, freedom, and rights precludes any simple utilitarian interpretation of its moral sensibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are also plenty of opposing pulls from impartial rationality, personal emotion, and intuition that cannot be codified by any appeal simply to logic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This story appeared in the September\/October 2016 issue of <\/em>Rochester Review<\/a>, the magazine of the\u00a0Ä¢¹½´«Ã½<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Star Trek\u2019s Half-Century Voyage\u00a0Rochester faculty and alumni have composed its theme, written episodes, and reflected deeply on why Star Trek resonates. 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