I know I'm a little behind here, but Clark Lindsey has some thoughts on Star Trek and real space, based on Dwayne Day's essay in The Space Review.

The comments about how sci-fi trends come and go was interesting. I don't particularly enjoy sci-fi that predicts a bleak future, we humans will strive to prevent the dark scenarios from happening.
The future will usually be a combination of good and bad scenarios that play out, hopefully there will be a bias towards the good scenarios winning out, anyone that believes in a positive future will work to make it happen.
That's sort of what this blog is about, isn't it?

We need to bring Tom Corbett, Space Cadet back. Re-make it with modern production values, modern F/X, and *good* scripts (maybe steal ideas from Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories and adapt 'em).

STL, a colonized Solar System, realistic problems...could be quite good.

There are two kinds of "good" science fiction, those that predict and those that hope to make a point using an allegory (how stupid is he, the guy is black on the left side of his face, ha, ha).

I should think the majority of bleak future science fiction stories fall into the allegory slot. Not predictions so much as a way to slip a point in without the audience being obvious of it.

I sometimes wonder if one bad effect of science fiction is that it makes space travel look too easy and therefore uninteresting. Compared to interstellar voyages, a trip to the moon or to Mars seems rather tame.

However, the reality of the situation is that we're still trying to develop a reliable and economical way to get people to and from low Earth orbit, much less going to the moon, establishing colonies on Mars or building warp drives. While it's good to dream of the future, can we try to achieve first things first?

However, the reality of the situation is that we're still trying to develop a reliable and economical way to get people to and from low Earth orbit, much less going to the moon, establishing colonies on Mars or building warp drives. While it's good to dream of the future, can we try to achieve first things first?

There's only so many people who can work on those things, and they are doing just that. Making and sharing dreams is a good way to get everyone else to support what's going on without getting in the way.

There was a special on a few months ago called "How William Shatner Changed the World." It was actually pretty good. Shantner spent a good deal of time making fun of himself, but did a good job as the host.

I was surprised at how many scientists and inventors said they got into their field because of TOS. One of the guys who was at the forefront of cell phone development said he thought it would be cool if everyone really had a "communicator", so he went into telecommunications.

Maybe he wasn't a good example of good new technology. The jury is still out, of course, as to whether cell phones are good or are the absolute spawn of hell.

"This triumvirate, representing Reason, Compassion, and Action, respectively, was Roddenberry's greatest creation."

It wasn't his creation. It was swiped from "Forbidden Planet" and likely goes back further than that. Roddenberry's
big contribution was a TV sci fi show with a multiracial/species crew.For that he diserves to be honored. He also deserves to be dis-honored for making TSNG his personal political hobbyhorse with a "slap in the face moral" every couple of episodes.

K,
sometimes that Picard crowd did get preachy. But that was Roddenberry's vision for TOS. But the execs at CBS were so afraid of giving the audience a hint of which way they voted they held him back. To bad that thinking is gone from the networks.

Think of all the political "shots" he took in the original pilot, the one that became parts of "The Menagerie". It was very political. The show with Lou Antonio and Frank Gorshin as two aliens in a galaxy wide race war. Kirk and Uhuru kissing, the first inter-racial kiss on TV.

There are plenty of other examples I could turn up, but the main one was always there. A totalitarian government, (Klingons) trying to wipe the freedom loving all inclusive government, (The Federation), out of the universe. Not to mention the seldom seen but never far off other enemy, those warlike secretive guys, just sitting and waiting to pick up the pieces (Romulans). But they were always pushing the Federation and the Klingons at each other. Several instances of Romulan espionage.

K, that's the Cold War. It's all analogies of what our world was then. It was the U.S.S.R, The U.S. and China, every week struggling to win the Cold War, but in outer space. TOS may not have been preachy, but it was certainly political.

And the women were better looking.

K,

Many people have observed that "Forbidden Planet" owes much to Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

There's only so many people who can work on those things, and they are doing just that. Making and sharing dreams is a good way to get everyone else to support what's going on without getting in the way.

Yeah, where's the glamor of actually doing things that build the foundation for all future space activities when we can dream instead.