I’m no longer holding Star Trek or Star Wars “accountable” for their clunky-looking sixties-and-seventies future technology.
Why?
Because the Enterprise is off on a years-long voyage through space. There’s no Verizon store, no Radio Shack, no Geek Squad out there. If the Klingons fire photon torpedoes and the bridge shakes and Spock’s head bangs against the fancy iPad72 touchscreen and cracks the glass, the ship’s toast. If Han Solo’s fingerprints get all over the starchart and the touch-calibration is off by half a centimeter, the Falcon is going right into a star. But if Mister Worf accidentally twists the command knob too hard and pops it off, he can just screw that thing right back on and it will keep working. Dust gets in there? Take it apart and clean it out. All the plugs are big and universal, all the power cells are functional and have a decent battery life, and nothing is built to expire in the next six months so you have to buy a new one.
That tech isn’t anachronistic or suffering a bad case of Zeerust–it’s practical, effective, and it works. Apple tried launching its own space exploration craft, it had to come back for full repairs within three months, and then it had to be upgraded over the next two.
But this? This is just good, long-lasting, fully-functional, and reliable craftsmanship.
The actual real-life space shuttles’ electronics looked pretty much like that for their entire lifespan and this is exactly why.
roddenberry straight up said that if the morals of the 23rd century allowed for it then spock and kirk’s relationship would have been romantic.
time for some gay math:
if sulu = gay
then spirk = real
Can I just…
“if the morals of the 23rd century allowed for it”
As if he’s assuming homosexuality will still be one of the most controversial issues in the year 2233 when there are aliens and shit all over the place? Like absolutely no progress will have been made..??? Like news flash, 21st century morals allow for it, you’re just a shitty person bye
I agree that Roddenberry was most definitely NOT a saint, but he had no way of knowing what progress would have been made and by what time. The morals of the 21st century also aren’t the same everywhere, Mozambique only JUST decriminalised homosexuality, gay men are being slaughtered in Chechnya, my Australian girlfriend got chucked out of home only two years ago. Change doesn’t happen overnight, we don’t know how long it will take.
I think if we look at what he said in the context of when he said it we can come to a different conclusion. It’s not necessarily a question of whether or not we will be a more accepting and loving species in the 23rd century, but instead it is one of whether or not we were in the 20th.
Newsflash! We weren’t, and Roddenberry knew this. What we see even in progressive media is still limited by our regressive society. If star trek was unbound by our own societal limitations I have no doubt in my mind that we would have a blatantly canon spirk in a heartbeat. We also wouldn’t have to wait 50+ years for a canon gay Sulu.
For a show that gave us a powerful interracial cast, complete with women in high command, a proud Russian man during the height of the Cold War, a black woman during one of the most violent chapters of the Civil Rights Movement, and the first on screen interracial kiss in television history, for the producers and the censors at the time to also approve a blatantly gay couple would have the show laughed out of Hollywood at best. The Lavender Scare was at its height during this time, too, and although I hate the message of being happy with what you’ve got and accepting stagnation, for the time we got the best we possibly could. All we can do is demand better now from the reboot.
Leaving tungle.hell like rats on the Titanic 