M. Keith Booker - Star Trek: A Cultural History (The Cultural History of Television)

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Booker, M. Keith, author.

Title: Star trek : a cultural history / M. Keith Booker.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2018] | Series: The cultural history of television | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018005381 | ISBN 9781538112755 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781538112762 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Star trek (Television program) | Popular cultureUnited StatesHistory.

Classification: LCC PN1992.77.S73 B66 2018 | DDC 791.45/72dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018005381

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

For Isra Daraiseh, who knows how distant is the sky

• Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), 19661969

• Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS), 19731974

• Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), 19871994

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), 19931999

• Star Trek: Voyager (VOY), 19952001

• Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT), 20012005

• Star Trek: Discovery (DSC), 2017

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (TMP), 1979

• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, 1982

• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, 1984

• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 1986

• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, 1989

• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991

• Star Trek: Generations, 1994

• Star Trek: First Contact, 1996

• Star Trek: Insurrection, 1998

• Star Trek: Nemesis, 2002

• Star Trek, 2009

• Star Trek Into Darkness, 2013

• Star Trek Beyond, 2016

Star TrekPast, Present, and Future

The original StarTrek television series, which ran on NBC for a mere three seasons from 1966 to 1969, would go on to become arguably the single most important work ever produced by American popular culture. This seriesnow often referred to by fans and critics as TOS (for TheOriginalSeries)addressed serious issues and ideas in a way that had seldom been seen on American television, while boldly taking viewers on outer-space adventures in parts of the galaxy where no one had been before. Moving into immediate syndication after its original broadcast run, TOS developed a cult following, becoming more and more popular in the subsequent two decades, until its audience finally began to fade slightly only after the premiere of its own sequel series, Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), in 1987. In fact, the original broadcast run of TOS proved to be just the tip of a multimedia iceberg, spawning a wide range of products that were eagerly consumed by a fan base that continued to grow in both size and enthusiasm over the next half century.

In addition to its own reruns in syndication, TOS and its vision of a high-tech, socially enlightened future inspired the most extensive and impressive sequence of sequel and prequel series in television history, from Star Trek: The Animated Series (19731974, often abbreviated herein as TAS) to Star Trek: Discovery, which premiered on the CBS All Access streaming video service in September 2017. TOS also became the inspiration for one of the most important film franchises in the history of American cinema, at this writing comprising thirteen films, beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (TMP) in 1979 and extending through the three reboot films produced by J. J. Abrams from 2009 to 2016. Along the way, the ideas, events, and characters of TOS became the inspiration for a series of novels and comic books, as well as the center of one of the most important fan cultures in the history of fandom, paving the way for (and continuing to be a crucial part of) todays ubiquitous culture of conventions, cosplay, and merchandising.

No one, given the inauspicious beginnings of the original Star Trek series, could have predicted this ultimate degree of success. Not only did the series, from its beginnings, have trouble drawing enough ratings to stay on the air, but it had significant difficulties getting on the air in the first place. When presented by series creator Gene Roddenberry (via Desilu Productions, with whom Roddenberry had signed a development deal) first to CBS, the idea for the series was turned down altogether. NBC was interested enough to commission a pilot in 1964, scenes from which would later be edited into the first-season two-part episode The Menagerie (November 17 and 24, 1966). The pilot itself was rejected by NBC, but the network was sufficiently intrigued to order a second pilot, with only one character, the now-iconic half-Vulcan Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), carried over from the first pilot to the second. Only Nimoy and Majel Barrett (who would remain a presence through most of the subsequent series and films as the voices of the ships computers) were carried over from the original cast. This second pilot clicked with NBC management, and the new show was ordered by NBC for the 19661967 season, setting in motion a cultural phenomenon whose significance would resonate through the decades.

In retrospect, though, it is easy to see why StarTrek had so much trouble getting on the air. The series was simply unlike anything that had been on television beforeand television executives are notoriously hesitant to air anything genuinely new or unfamiliar for fear of alienating viewers or (more importantly) sponsors. That was probably even more the case when Roddenberry began to try to sell the series back in 1963, a scant two years after Commissioner Newton Minow of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)in a speech delivered at a 1961 meeting of the National Association of Broadcastershad famously declared the content of American commercial television to be a vast wasteland, consisting essentially of a nonstop stream of mindless programming, punctuated by even more mindless commercials.