09/08/2021
Happy Anniversary Star Trek & Happy Star Trek Day 2021 as well. 55 looks great on you, I must say! I realize that you don't hit PLATINUM until your 70th Anniversary but I'm just gonna go ahead & call it for those fine folks of the USS Enterprise / United Federation of Planets - StarFleet. What can be said about this remarkable franchise that hasn't already been said? Inarguably, (one of) the most influential sci-fi franchises in the entirety of pop-culture history. While there are some that may feel a disturbance due to that statement, I'll stand by that opinion until the day I die.
Laying the groundwork for just about EVERY spacefaring science-fiction property since its debut in 1966 (Even an unmentioned one far, far away), after a certain funny lady, Lucielle Ball's greenlit the ostensible 'space western' at her production company Desilu. Wonder what there was about a TV show front-loading a fully multiracial & multi-cultural cast that appeared to her?? Incidentally, in well over a dozen U.S States in 1966, Ball's own marriage to then-husband and 'I Love Lucy' co-star, Ricky Ricardo, of Latino descent, would have been 100% illegal due to miscegenation laws.
HOWEVER, Context is King, after all, so lemme lie out a few tidbits and see for yourself if the claim holds water.
• 55 years ago, Black Americans still living under Jim Crow laws in the Deep South would have been unable to go to White schools, drink out of 'unsanctioned' water fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, etc. Much less work along as a male, White boss as an equal.
• Nichelle Nichols was the first Black actor to hold commensurate status as a high-ranking bridge, Lt. Uhura. In short, the first Black actor, particularly Black female when she wasn't 'The Help.'
• When she shared her thoughts on quitting the show to a certain stranger, that person passionately tried to talk her out of it. The patient stranger, Dr. Martin Luther King Luther, Jr.
• The cast of Star Trek: The Original Series presented an Asian helmsman, Mr. Sulu as well as a Russian one at a time when the United States was stringently at odds with both nations. Not to mention, a straight-up alien in the form of 1st Officer, Mr. Spock.
• The very FIRST in*******al kiss also appeared on the show between Capt. Kirk & Lt. Uhura during the run of the original series.
• Became a watershed series that single-handled changed the landscape of how capital 'R' race was portrayed in the genre of Science-Fiction in books, TV & films.
• Inspired several Black actors of its generation to consider a career in acting; including but not limited to: Whoopi Goldberg, Louis Gossett, Jr, Levar Burton, and many others, including the first Black-female NASA astronaut, Mae C. Jemison.
Fifty-five years later, creator Gene Roddenberry's legacy is still going strong. Currently, former Walking Dead actor, Sonequa Martin-Green, stars as the franchises' first Black-female pilot, Michael Burnham on Star Trek: Discovery (CBS). I've been a staunch Star Trek fan for over 30 years now and I don't see that changing anytime soon. And while on the surface, the show seems to be about little more than ray gun, little green men (or gals), and spaceships, that's true that it is. It's also the most sincere message-in-a-bottle I've ever encountered.
Great science-fiction creates more questions than answers. The question that I always felt that Gene Roddenberry asked 1960's culture is the same as it asks of it today, over half a century and nearly a dozen iterations later, is simply this -- 'What If?" While I may not still be around for the franchises' centennial, I wonder what the answer will be then. Until then, "Live Long & Prosper."
For more information on Star Trek Day, visit: http://startrek.com/day. Join Paramount+ and fans from around the world for a free live-streamed celebration of...
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