Star Trek is the worst.

[toobfreak]

Star Trek was one of the first programs on TV with an openly LGBTQ character, Mr. Sulu.

Mr. Sulu was never openly gay. It was never even implied. In fact, in episode #75, he was ogling the girls. Mr. Takei's sexual preferences were never generally known until many years later.

 

[toobfreak]

Edward Lorenz's "Butterfly Effect."

Star Trek was the first show I saw where they grasped that space is a vacuum and a craft will continue to move infinitely if no contra-force is applied.

What I find really fascinating is how much of the 1963 series has come to pass. The tablets everyone carried, communicators (cell phones) flat displays, etc.

Warp is a real theory for traveling faster than light. Will it work? Probably not.

Matter transfer is well under way and will be in use for moving goods within 20 years. Probably be a long time after that until we start beaming people around.

That's because Star Trek was thoroughly researched by the Rand Corporation in every detail and others as well at NASA, and even the Enterprise inside and out was designed by an actual Naval engineer. Though science fiction, the aim was scientific PLAUSIBILITY--- read: believably. Roddenberry wanted people to feel they really were in space. That is probably why TOS's main audience were all college graduates or students.

 

[toobfreak]

Much differerent story for Jonathan Harris who played dr smith,you watch him perform on Lost in space and he is transparent as hell thst he was gay.

You know, it's funny, I have the first season on DVD and still watch LIS every Saturday night here on TV (they air Star Trek a couple hours before it!), but it never occurred to me that Jonathan Harris was actually gay or that he was intending Dr. Smith to be gay, but you might be right! That sure explains a lot even though Smith was never implied gay in the actual series.

 

[toobfreak]

Harris wasn't gay. He was married to his childhood sweetheart, Gertrude Bregman, from 1938 until his death in 2002.

In the beginning, Smith was a typically villainous character as the character was expected to be killed off in the first season. He adopted the useless, effeminate fop characterization (and faggy voice) to stand out against the standard happy-go-lucky optimism of the Robinsons. It worked, and he kept his job through the run of the series.

Dig around for his radio interviews. I recall him on the Don & Mike Show in the late 90s, funny as hell and blue as all get out. He even called June Lockhart a c***.

Funny you mention that Billy, when Harris interviewed for the job, he said that Irwin Allen was a total ass full of himself, a tyrant, and he fought with him to make the Smith character the way he did, as well as making him a "special guest star." Allen hated it and him, but Harris was right and it made the show the success it was. Otherwise, Smith would have been a typical 2-dimensional villain and hated, and the show would have quickly become stale, predictable and boring.

Because of Harris' vamped up Dr. Smith character, LIS not only was a big hit, but really, the only real hit Allen had out of several series including Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which wasn't bad the first year).

I actually still remember being over at a friend of my mothers as a little kid and watching the premier of LIS the night it first aired on their TV.

 

[toobfreak]

Maybe I'm thinking of the first interracial kiss on a TV drama.

No, you are right. Kirk and Uhura were the first TV interracial kiss. Lucy kissing Desi (if she ever did in the show) doesn't count. Desi was just a "white guy with a funny accent" and Lucy didn't french. If anything, she might have pecked his cheek on the show. Babaloo.

 

[lg325]

I wonder if Harry Fenton Mudd ever met Quark? I was always a big fan of the original show. It's interesting how some of the ideas created for the show are now reality. I have been told that warp speed maybe coming to reality soon.

 

[fncceo]

Star Trek was one of the only SciFi shows that did follow the science - actual physics. Rodenberry demanded that everything on the show be plausible according to actual physicists.

Even as kids, 10-year-olds, when TOS came out, we knew "Star Trek" physics was wrong. The idea that starships slow down when the engines are turned off, or that phasers (which are seen invisible light) travel faster than ships going faster than the speed of light. Or, the idea that starships go "whoosh" when they pass you. These were the most obvious gaffes.

Of course, the show would have been less dramatic without those effects, but it was terrible physics.

 

[lg325]

When I was a schoolboy the phones lit up with us kids talking about Kirk kissing Uhura.

 

[fncceo]

While the utopian plan for the "Star Trek" universe didn't really stand up to scrutiny... The Culture, from Iain M. Banks' "Culture Series" actually does come up with a workable utopian universe.

In the eight or so Culture books, Banks describes a society of pan humans that truly have achieved a utopian society.

Set many millennia later than the "Star Trek" universe, humans (and other humanoid species) no longer live on planets. They are spread across the galaxy on artificial habitats and gigantic ships. Their society is truly post-scarcity. Everything is artificially produced and anything you could want is your just for the asking.

Humanoid bodies are self healing, and reconfigurable to suit most environmental conditions you might encounter. A person can change sex, back and forth, as desired, and your body can produce any drug you desire internally. A drug to sharpen your concentration or to allow you to relax or even feel intoxicated. Your body can even eliminate the negative effects of anything you eat or drink. Humans in the culture are functionally immortal -- if they choose to be.

All tedious chores are automated and the society as a whole is run by "minds" artificially intelligent drone robots who perform the administrative functions of The Culture. Minds also make up the bulk of members of CONTACT, the agency that manages relationships between Culture and non-Culture species.


There are no laws, no courts, no jails, no police. The only injunction is to not harm another Culture member (human or robot). Punishment for this is exclusion from Culture society. You will simply be ignored by humans and minds of The Culture.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Even as kids, 10-year-olds, when TOS came out, we knew "Star Trek" physics was wrong. The idea that starships slow down when the engines are turned off, or that phasers (which are seen invisible light) travel faster than ships going faster than the speed of light. Or, the idea that starships go "whoosh" when they pass you. These were the most obvious gaffes.

Of course, the show would have been less dramatic without those effects, but it was terrible physics.

Except that the starships in the show DIDN'T slow down, they had to "reverse thrusters Scotty" to slow. The sound in space was stupid, without question. And they never fired weapons while at warp.

 

[fncceo]

And they never fired weapons while at warp.

Untrue ... on TOS they did so in almost all of their space battles fought at warp speed.

In fact, an integral part of a "Star Trek Phase II" plot (the attempt to reboot the series with the original cast that eventually turned into "Next Generation") was a modification to the phasers so they ONLY fired at warp.

 

[toobfreak]

When I was a schoolboy the phones lit up with us kids talking about Kirk kissing Uhura.

You do know that Gene was hitting that for a while.

 

[fncceo]

You do know that Gene was hitting that for a while.

That would have been problematic with his wife always on the set...

 

[Uncensored2008]

You do know that Gene was hitting that for a while.

KIrk?

Dayum.....

 

[toobfreak]

Except that the starships in the show DIDN'T slow down

Yes they did.

, they had to "reverse thrusters Scotty" to slow.

That was one particular episode, I think the one where they were being drawn in by a giant space amoeba and they were applying thust against it.

The sound in space was stupid, without question.

The problem is that too much realism can also work against you when you're trying to sell a TV show and keep it on the air.

And they never fired weapons while at warp.

Yes they did.

 

[lg325]

You do know that Gene was hitting that for a while.

I didn't know that. Just knew she was a Shakesperian actor who played Lady McBeth that got her lot of notice.

 

[toobfreak]

I didn't know that. Just knew she was a Shakesperian actor who played Lady McBeth that got her lot of notice.

Nichelle did some shows for Gene before Star Trek on The Lieutenant. Not sure when they hooked up or where Majel fit in, but Nichelle used to hang out in Gene's office. The door was often locked. I think at one point someone walked in and found her getting dressed still in her bra.

She had one hard hot smokin' bod. Wish they had used her more in the stories.

 

[fncceo]

Wish they had used her more in the stories.

More stories like this ...

 

[22lcidw]

Funny you mention that Billy, when Harris interviewed for the job, he said that Irwin Allen was a total ass full of himself, a tyrant, and he fought with him to make the Smith character the way he did, as well as making him a "special guest star." Allen hated it and him, but Harris was right and it made the show the success it was. Otherwise, Smith would have been a typical 2-dimensional villain and hated, and the show would have quickly become stale, predictable and boring.

Because of Harris' vamped up Dr. Smith character, LIS not only was a big hit, but really, the only real hit Allen had out of several series including Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which wasn't bad the first year).

I actually still remember being over at a friend of my mothers as a little kid and watching the premier of LIS the night it first aired on their TV.

When his character changed the programs really started to be pushed for younger people. And frankly, even if I did watch it, the way the Dr. Smith character put the Robinson Family in peril nearly every week they would have offed him.

 

[toobfreak]

When his character changed the programs really started to be pushed for younger people. And frankly, even if I did watch it, the way the Dr. Smith character put the Robinson Family in peril nearly every week they would have offed him.

I always wanted to see Major West get Smith on the ground and throttle him with his hands around his neck. The 1st season was really good science fiction which is why I bought it on DVD (I liked the B&W, too), but the writing changed starting next season when they went to color and they not only stopped the episodes being sequential, but they turned the show more tongue and cheek.

There was never a red button to blow up the planet that Smith didn't immediately go straight to and want to press with absolute disregard in every episode no matter how stiff the warnings from Will and the robot.