To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before
I don’t necessarily consider myself to be a “Trekkie” but I have watched all of the movies and the broadcast series. I remain most intensely fond of Star Trek: Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. I have long enjoyed the way that each episode, adhering to Gene Roddenberry’s original vision, uses the trope of a future civilization to comment on and analyze current social and political issues, often long before they reach the point of common consideration in modern culture. Star Trek has tackled everything from gay rights to racism with many other stops along the way. Sometimes, especially when portraying the first inter-racial kiss on television, the controversial action or dialogue was acceptable because it happened in a future timeline or in another civilization such that it wasn’t considered as radical or threatening as it might otherwise have been.