Yes, these are things I think about.
To be sure, there was a very successful "gritty reboot" of the original series in film form that featured a very good cast with a decent director (J.J. Abrams) at the helm, but Star Trek in bite-sized, one hour form hasn't seen the light of day for some time and probably won't for the foreseeable future. The next feature length film isn't slated until 2013, although it is expected to end up as a trilogy.
I think there's a few reasons for this, not least of which is the abyssmal writing of the last series, "Enterprise."
But there's probably a lot more to it, and it might be summed up best by Scott Ramsoomair's Vg Cats . Even though I find Aeris' monologue a little bit pessimistic, it does capture the spirit of the current generation. I know, deep down, that if they ever tried to bring Star Trek back, the characters would no longer be the idealized paragons of humanity we saw in Next Generation or even the Original Series. No, these characters - and god help us all if they ever are brought into existance - would be annoying, prattling, lying, underhanded, secretive sociopaths. You know, like the characters from Lost. IN SPACE.
If the Island was actually floating in deep orbit and John Locke
was an alien messiah, that would be less ridiculous than the real ending.
Photo by Tom Francis licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
was an alien messiah, that would be less ridiculous than the real ending.
Photo by Tom Francis licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
The fact is that we are a very cynical generation, but we've been given plenty of reason for arriving at this sad state. With the information age in full swing, more than ever we're a society that is privy to the dirty dealings of government, to the crises facing the world, and to the brutal truth of human nature. It's unfortunate, because very little good news seems to filter through the mainstream media. But it's out there.
For instance, about Vgcats' "flying car" point...it's here. It's real. God knows they cost a fortune, they're still in testing and they're about as safe as Walmart on Black Friday, but they exist. In fact, a lot of the sci-fi technology we see in Star Trek has come true. Ever heard of a little thing called the iPad?
Even teleporters are no longer a matter of speculation. About a year ago, scientists at the University of Tokyo made an incredible breakthrough in matter transportation when they successfully disassembled a packet of light and made it reappear somewhere else. Today, in the Metro, I read an article about lab-grown meat, cultured from stem cells. This Magic Meat (which will hopefully not violate any sex toy trademarks) could conceivably help ease the climate change problem by significantly reducing the energy required to produce a pound of protein.
Now of course these advancements come with their own controversies (the moment I typed the words "stem cell" a thousand and one Christian groups twitched like gopher colonies). Nevertheless, the point is that society is advancing. Were moving forward.
I think it's difficult to imagine such an idealized version of society as Star Trek right now, because A) we're in a depression B) society is going through some MAJOR growing pains and C) we're seeing neo-conservative movements pop up all over the world, and nothing kills progress like neo-conservatism.
I think what we should take away is this. There's lots of wonder, benefits, and progress to be proud of, even in a society like ours. There are problems, but that's why we shouldn't be giving in to them. We should be bringing them out into the open, working to solve them, devoting time and research to solutions.
Right now, in Toronto, you can see Venus and Jupiter in the night sky performing a tremendous ballet of intricate movement, incredibly bright and visible even from the downtown core. Every time I look up and see the awesome power of those planets, I'm equally amazed that humanity not only has gained the knowledge to understand these events, but even to appreciate them for their fantastic beauty.
We've come far. We can go further.
The future has already happened, is happening.
Will happen.
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