science fiction | “Star Trek” can also do antifa

From the classic period of the 60s: Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy) versus Captain Kirk (William Shatner) - perhaps it's about socialist politics? Photo: imago/Everett Collection These are the endless expanses of production. When the first episode of “Star Trek” flickered across the screen on NBC 60 years ago, hardly anyone would have expected that there would one day be 15 series with more than 900 episodes and 13 feature films. The first episode, "The Man Trap," aired on a Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time in the US and Canada and told the story of a shapeshifter who sucks the salt out of people on a distant planet and also looks like Dr. McCoy (aka Pill). The episode was only shown in Germany on Sat1 21 years later. ZDF did not send it when the series was first broadcast.

What attracts people to the adventures of the “Federation” in the “infinite expanses of space”? This has been discussed by fans, scientists and journalists for decades. For the first season, well-known science fiction authors such as Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon and Robert Bloch (author of “Psycho”) wrote the scripts for the television series. They recognized the potential of television to make the genre accessible to a wider audience.

What was shown on TV back then wasn't one of the usual off-the-shelf TV productions. The first series “Star Trek” (1966 to 69), as it was called in West Germany, had three seasons and 79 episodes. But then the fun became too expensive for NBC. In order to capitalize on seasons that had already been produced, the series was sold comparatively cheaply internationally, which is now considered one of the reasons for the global success of this franchise.

After the cancellation, the actors were given a reprieve and were allowed to do the voices in the following animated series (1973 to 74). It was only a good decade later, when the films produced from 1979 onwards were successful in the wake of the science fiction hype, that the follow-up series, “Star Trek – The Next Generation”, was launched. After that, so many other films and series were added that now only die-hard fans can keep track of what is going on in the pop culture "Star Trek" universe and with what references to earlier narrative snippets.

“Star Trek” is committed to a radical idea of ​​participation, social balance and overcoming speciesist barriers. This clearly stands against the right-wing mobilization from Trump to Le Pen to Islamic fascism.

But “Star Trek” is now in crisis. And all this on the 60th birthday of what is probably the most famous science fiction product line in pop history. After years of gold rush sentiment and one series and feature film derivative after another being launched, Paramount recently pulled the ripcord. Whether this is due to the moderate success of the new Starfleet Academy series and the flop of the film "Section 31" or the costs of the Warner Brothers takeover deal remains to be seen. But all further series projects have been put on hold for the time being.

But “Star Trek” is still a legendary brand. From the whole bouquet of socio- and cultural-political issues addressed in the series, one question that is repeatedly raised is also crucial for the left-wing feature section: Does “Star Trek” tell a socialist future? Is the “federation” even the institutionalized overcoming of capitalism? Actually, a contradiction in itself.

There is no money on the spaceship; people work in order to fulfill themselves, as Captain Picard explains to an astonished woman from the past in the film “First Contact” (1996). But can that really be? Doesn't "Star Trek" tell us more about steep work hierarchies and a lot of pressure within the crew association, which is ultimately organized in an almost military manner? The animated series “Lower Decks” focuses on exactly this and caricatures this central aspect again and again. In an episode of the series "Star Trek: Discovery" (2021), a female villain tries to get a blasé "Star Trek" officer to say that the "Federation" has no problem with capitalist value creation. This is neither denied nor confirmed. So the “Star Trek” universe cannot do without a capitalist outside.

But at least Star Trek is committed to a radical idea of ​​participation, social balance and overcoming speciesist barriers. This of course also clearly stands against the great right-wing authoritarian mobilization from Trump to Le Pen to Islamic fascism. In “Picard,” one of the younger series derivatives that brought the now 86-year-old Patrick Stewart back to the screen as Jean-Luc Picard, the “Star Trek” veteran fights against fascism. This is the dominant ideology of the "Confederacy" (instead of the "Federation") in a changed universe that is being straightened out again. Fascism or the danger of slipping into fascism, as the obvious basic statement goes, is only a stone's throw away. Of course, the crew of the Enterprise solves this brilliantly. Star Trek can also do antifa. At least that. Actually, it's no wonder that Paramount, where Donald Trump's stirrups want to restructure the US media landscape, no longer has any money for "Star Trek". So it's important to keep your (pointy) ears stiff and fight together against the right-wing ghost. Energy!

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