Star Trek: 40 Years of Inspiring Young Minds

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the cultural impact of Star Trek over the past forty years, particularly its influence on science and technology, as well as the naming of the space shuttle Enterprise. Participants share personal experiences, opinions on various Star Trek series, and engage in debates about the origins of names and the significance of the franchise in relation to other science fiction works.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express admiration for Star Trek's role in inspiring generations of scientists and engineers, viewing it as a cultural phenomenon.
  • Others question the attribution of the name Enterprise to Star Trek, noting that earlier ships bore the name and suggesting that Star Trek adapted a historic name.
  • There are differing opinions on the quality of various Star Trek series, with some participants favoring The Next Generation (TNG) while others express dissatisfaction with later series.
  • A participant mentions that the shuttle was almost named Constitution, but a fan campaign led to it being named Enterprise, although Gene Roddenberry reportedly had reservations about the name.
  • Some participants discuss the significance of the shuttle's rollout to the Star Trek theme and the cultural implications of naming conventions in science fiction.
  • There are references to other science fiction series, such as Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica, with participants sharing their preferences and thoughts on character development and storytelling.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a mix of agreement and disagreement regarding the cultural significance of Star Trek, the origins of the name Enterprise, and the quality of different series within the franchise. The discussion remains unresolved on several points, particularly concerning the historical context of the name and the subjective enjoyment of various series.

Contextual Notes

Some claims about the historical naming of ships and the influence of fan campaigns are presented without consensus on their accuracy. The discussion includes personal anecdotes and opinions that reflect individual experiences with the franchise.

Who May Find This Useful

Fans of Star Trek, those interested in the cultural impact of science fiction, and individuals exploring the relationship between popular media and technological inspiration may find this discussion engaging.

  • #61
Silicon based life
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=110427

...and even worse!
http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/randall.html

In one interview, she suggested that there might be life in higher dimensions based on laws of chemistry completely foreign to our known, 3+1 dimensional part of the universe. As a physicist who specializes in higher dimensions, she thinks this might be possible -life unique to other dimensions - in the most speculative sense of course.

Or course, this is old stuff for a trekker. :biggrin:
 
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  • #62
Oh yes, got to mention the several episodes toying with the Many Worlds Theory, with two that I can think of from TOS.
 
  • #63
This is interesting, though now a bit behind the times.

The Science of Star Trek
http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/just_for_fun/startrek.html
 
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  • #64
I had to laugh when I read this.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A rare, 184-year-old copy of the Declaration of Independence found by a bargain hunter...

The opening bid is $125,000 and appraisers have estimated it could sell for nearly twice that. [continued]
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=65357

Hmmmm, shall I buy a copy of the Declaration of Independence - an "official copy" and one of 200 commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820 - or a plastic model of a pretend spaceship from a 1960s TV series. Tough call...
 
  • #65
BIG NEWS: Paramount Pictures announced that the next Trek movie is going to be coming Christmas Day 2008! Woohooo :)

After the Enterprise series, I though trek had died, but if this movie turns out to be up to the par of the Original Series (or even TNG) then it will be great!

Also according to wide-spread rumors, MATT DAMON is going to be playing Cap'n Kirk in this movie [1]. I think having Damon would help the movie's appeal to non-trekkies and I think it's a great move (yeah, yeh, I know ;) ). But Adrien Brody, and Gary Sinise as Spock and McCoy? I don't know... I'll have to see it to believe it.

[1] http://www.trektoday.com/news/270207_01.shtml
 
  • #66
A new Trek movie has been anounced and de-annouced so often that Paramount annoucning an official release date is good news to those of us who wanted another trek movie :)
 
  • #67
Newbie says Hi said:
BIG NEWS: Paramount Pictures announced that the next Trek movie is going to be coming Christmas Day 2008! Woohooo :)

After the Enterprise series, I though trek had died, but if this movie turns out to be up to the par of the Original Series (or even TNG) then it will be great!

Also according to wide-spread rumors, MATT DAMON is going to be playing Cap'n Kirk in this movie [1]. I think having Damon would help the movie's appeal to non-trekkies and I think it's a great move (yeah, yeh, I know ;) ). But Adrien Brody, and Gary Sinise as Spock and McCoy? I don't know... I'll have to see it to believe it.

[1] http://www.trektoday.com/news/270207_01.shtml

I can easily see Sinise playing McCoy, But it's a bit ironic to have an actor playing a younger version of a character who is older than the original actor was when he started the roll. (Sinise is 50, and Kelley was 46 when Star Trek debuted.

I also wonder how they are going to come up with a plausible story line that explains how all these characters happen to come together when they were younger. For instance, we know that Spock served under a different captain (Pike) before Kirk became captain of the Enterprise, McCoy is quite a bit older than Kirk etc.
 
  • #68
Janus said:
I can easily see Sinise playing McCoy, But it's a bit ironic to have an actor playing a younger version of a character who is older than the original actor was when he started the roll. (Sinise is 50, and Kelley was 46 when Star Trek debuted.

I also wonder how they are going to come up with a plausible story line that explains how all these characters happen to come together when they were younger. For instance, we know that Spock served under a different captain (Pike) before Kirk became captain of the Enterprise, McCoy is quite a bit older than Kirk etc.

Which as I said above was my problem with the whole Enterprise thing. Now don't get me wrong I am a Huge trek fan, but the history of star trek I'd built up from watching the four original series was totally destroyed and I was left disallusioned by the whole thing. If they have to go back they need to be very very careful.
 
  • #69
It will be interesting to see what they come up with, but I expect it to be a sell-out on the trek universe.
 
  • #70
Check this out. From about about the 12 to 26 minute mark, they play all sorts of out-takes - "saved from the cutting room floor" - from the original series.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1645890546093125435&q=Night+Gallery&hl=en
 
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  • #71
Ivan Seeking said:
Check this out. From about about the 12 to 26 minute mark, they play all sorts of out-takes - "saved from the cutting room floor" - from the original series.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1645890546093125435&q=Night+Gallery&hl=en

Ah, the famous (or is that infamous?) "Blooper Reel" (actually there were three, one for each season. ) They used to show these at conventions. I've got them on video tape. I particularly like the shot of the crewman shovleing coal into the Warp engines.
 
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  • #72
Janus said:
I particularly like the shot of the crewman shovleing coal into the Warp engines.

Yes, that was good!

I figured that you hard-cores already knew about this. :rolleyes: :biggrin:
 
  • #73
Ivan Seeking said:
Yes, that was good!

I figured that you hard-cores already knew about this. :rolleyes: :biggrin:

One point that I want to make is that the claim made by the video that these were shots "saved from the cutting room floor" isn't accurate. Most of these went straight from shooting to the gag or "Goodie" reel. A lot of them were shot on purpose and were stuck into the "daily's" as a joke. (The daily's were when the production crew viewed the film shot the previous day.) At the end of each season the goodie reel was edited, some extra footage added with some voice-overs and sound effects, and then shown at the season wrap party.


That is not to say that "lost" footage has not shown up. The original pilot, The Cage was cut up and parts of it used to make the twp part episode The Managerie. The parts not used were discarded, and for years, those scenes were thought lost. Then in the 80's, while clearing out some storage at Paramount they came across a complete B/W copy of the pilot. They spliced together the color footage they still had with the "missing" footage and issued The Cage on videotape. For the first time, the fans were able to see the original pilot. Later, they went back and colorized the B/W footage.
 
  • #74
ZapperZ had his disney thread, now Janus is going to have a star trek thread.

(Thanks Ivan!:rolleyes:) :smile:

Bet you $5 bucks this thread goes to page 100.

zapperz : Disney :: Janus : Star Trek
 
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