Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) to NBC by painting the show as "a western in space." Instead of riding horses, however, the main characters of Star Trek rode the U.S.S. Enterprise, galloping amongst the cosmos instead of the tumbleweeds, hopping solar systems instead of mountains, and reaching the end of the universe instead of the Pacific. The new frontier of the wild west having already been explored, Star Trek promised to take viewers on adventures of the final frontier: outer space. The show introduced countless alien races, made thousands of new discoveries, and surpassed flight-speeds never thought possible. In reality, though, the frontier Star Trek explored had nothing to do with space. Instead, in episode after episode, series after series, movie after movie, it showed its audience the frontier of humanity's future. The future of humanity in space, yes, but also the future to a society with an advanced sensibility and the common goal to work for the good of all.

     Star Trek brought this future to television sets across the United States as one of the first science fiction shows ever aired. The science-fiction genre, also called speculative fiction, typically depicts humanity in the near or far future, 300 years in the future in the case of Star Trek. The show looked forward, but this type of progressive expression came before its time. As a result, Star Trek came all too close to not coming at all.

NBC ordered the first pilot, called "The Cage," which depicts a race of people, the Taloasians, who want to use their incredible ability to create a menagerie for the USS Enterprise's Captain Christopher Pike. NBC rejected the pilot. They said the show required too much intellect for common television audiences to enjoy. With the rejection came a rare request from the network. Scott Tipton, writer and editor of Star Trek Vault, observed "the NBC executives must have been impressed," because they asked Roddenberry to write a second pilot. NBC realized, as Roddenberry knew, that Star Trek offered something special, something other television shows could not. It offered an alternative setting in which humanity could observe itself in the multitudes of "what if."

     Star Trek could take stock of the present, with all its problems, and draw on the imagination to depict a brighter future. What if a man from Iowa could lead a crew with a Scottish chief engineer, a Russian weapon's officer, an African-American woman at the communication's station, a man of Japanese descent piloting the ship, and an alien half-breed serving as science and first officer across the uncharted reaches of space? The "what-if" served as a goal for the human condition. At the time the show aired, The Civil Rights Act had just been passed, and the United States and Soviet Union stared across the sea at each other in the darkest days of the Cold War. The beginnings of the Vietnam War thwarted peace, and more women worked outside the home. The 1960s required people think forward, of what could be and what should be. Star Trek helped people see "what-if" play out in a way which led not to death and destruction, but instead, to a fundamental evolution to the human condition.

     Star Trek imagines the future as a time when we have made many kinds of progress, but not all science fiction does this. Recent science fiction plays on our fears more often than on our hopes. As a society, pessimism and cynicism from the news people hear, the literature people read, and the violence people see poisons humanity's ability to understand the future as a time not written. The "dystopia," a popular genre today, is based on this pessimistic view of what's yet to come. Authors have released countless dystopias, from Winston Smith's world of thought-crimes and doublespeak in Orwell's 1984 to The Hunger Games' Panem, built on the lands of the once United States of America. Movies and television shows portray this fear, too. The Matrix suggests humanity lives, at present, in a computer simulation controlled by artificial intelligence humans once controlled themselves. Even fare for the whole family, such as Wall-e, the Disney-Pixar film, predicts humanity will so pollute the Earth that humans will have to evacuate and recolonize the planet after it has centuries to recover. The dystopian media gives justification to people's grim view of humanity's own future. 

     Often, the creators of these bleak visions exacerbate the problems of the present day to found their worlds in truth. The author of Ready Player One, Ernest Cline, predicted a future in which humanity runs out of fossil fuels:

We used up most of this fuel before you got here, and now it's pretty much all gone. This means that we no longer have enough energy to keep our civilization running like it was before. So we've had to cut back. Big-time. We call this the Global Energy Crisis, and it's been going on for a while now (17).

In a book called Golden State by Ben H. Winters, published in January 2019, a new society built on the grounds of California lives apart from the United States, which has been destroyed by nuclear radiation, the effects of which "were compounded by the inability/unwillingness of survivors to communicate [i.e. a severe distrust toward fellow survivors, refusal to accept or solicit assistance, presumption of "enemy intent"] (313). In these future worlds of humanity, the problem of fossil fuel dependence turns into a crisis, and both the wielding of nuclear bombs and the general suspicion of one another destroy society and keep people apart. This inability to trust one another forces the society Winters creates to adopt laws against lying—laws punishable by death. The beginnings of what could be humanity's undoing serve as the premise for the dystopian futures people read and watch, and audiences take in these dystopias because they, too, look at the human condition of the present and aggravate it in their predictions of the future.

     Star Trek defies dystopia. It looks at humanity's future and says it will become wiser and more just than it is now. It provides a now rarely-seen view of the landscape in front of humanity. Rather than an ashen ground stretched for miles ahead, Star Trek sees the grass grow greener and healthier with each passing mile. All of its optimism stems, like the pessimism of the dystopias, from the foundations of present realities. Unlike the dystopias, however, Star Trek sees the realities of the present as challenges humanity will be able to meet rather than as a fate it cannot escape. Not every episode weighed morality and ethics, but every one of them showed the exploration that awaits humanity.


     So, how does Star Trek use the present to inform its future?

     In February 1967, an episode called "A Taste of Armageddon" exemplified Star Trek's extrapolation from current events to inform plots that takes place in a possible future. In the episode, the Enterprise visits Eminiar VII, and as they approach the planet, the ship receives a communication from the planet telling them not to approach. The Enterprise approaches anyway, and when they transport to the planet, they learn the Enterprise has been destroyed in an attack. In actuality, the attack did not damage the Enterprise after all, as Captain Kirk and company understand once they realize that the planet has split into two factions that fight each other with virtual weapons. The two sides fire virtual missiles at each other, and a computer simulation projects impact zones. All of the residents in those zones then go to a center where they report to die as casualties of war. Since the Enterprise has been hit, the leaders of one side claims the Enterprise crew members still aboard must come down to the planet to be executed. This virtual war, which Captain Kirk learns has raged on this planet for 500 years, serves as an analogy for another type of war.

     When the show came out in 1966 and throughout its entire run, the United States and the Soviet Union battled off the battlefield to create the bigger bomb, the better soldier, and the best space program. As the arsenal of weapons continued to stockpile, the war the US never fought grew closer to being the war that ended it. In no other decade did the United States come so close to entering an armed conflict with the Soviet Union than the 1960's. So, amongst this atmosphere of fear, Star Trek comes out with the analogy of a virtual war in place of The Cold War. At the end of the episode, Captain Kirk destroys one of the centers to which people report to die as casualties of war. The leader of one faction says to Kirk, "You realize what you have done?" To which, Kirk responds:

Yes, I do. I've given you back the horrors of war. The Vendikans now assume that you've broken your agreement and that you're preparing to wage real war with real weapons. They'll want do the same. Only the next attack they launch will do a lot more than count up numbers in a computer. They'll destroy cities, devastate your planet. You of course will want to retaliate. If I were you, I'd start making bombs. Yes, Councilman, you have a real war on your hands. You can either wage it with real weapons, or you might consider an alternative. Put an end to it. Make peace.

Later, Spock, Captain Kirk's renowned first officer, says, "Captain, you took a big chance." To which, Kirk responds:

It was a calculated risk. Still, the Eminians keep a very orderly society, and actual war is a very messy business. A very, very messy business. I had a feeling that they would do anything to avoid it, even talk peace.

The obvious Cold War connection to this episode exemplifies a Star Trek-ism—the recurring motif of the crew of the Enterprise coming across a planet or a civilization fighting the same battle humans have fought in the past.

     With an awareness of the events of the present, Star Trek writers looked to the future to offer a commentary on how a human race with advanced sensibility might look at the human condition at the time of the episode's creation. "A Taste of Armageddon" offered the idea of how an enduring cold war would affect America's society. On Eminiar VII, the citizens of the world submitted to the idea of a virtual war, and they would report without fail to the centers in which they died as casualties of war. In a way, America's culture started to accept the enemy. It practiced drills in schools where students would hide under their desks. It practiced launch drills for its arsenal of nuclear weapons. It postulated the idea of Star Wars, the advanced missile defense system which would have stopped Soviet weapons in the atmosphere. The Cold War became part of America's identity for 46 years. Although it did not last 500 years like the virtual war on Eminiar VII, it did last long enough to change the way US society functioned. This Star Trek episode, aired early in the cold war but at its most serious time, predicted what a war of this nature could do.


     By the time the sixth and final movie with the original cast came out in 1991, the tensions of the Cold War had all but vanished as America's long-time political enemy had collapsed. Star Trek chose to symbolize the end of the Soviet Union not as a collapse, however, but as a new alliance. In the original series of the 1960s, Klingons represented the Soviets, the constant aggressor, the constant competition. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991, the Klingons suffer a massive explosion on a satellite of their home planet, Kronos. The explosion will cause the atmosphere of the Klingon home world to disintegrate to the point of uninhabitability. Because of these events, the Klingons have come to the table to discuss peace. Though this peace looks so close to not happening in the movie, it does, and so brings an end to, as Spock says, "nearly 70 years of unrelenting hostility, which the Klingons can no longer afford." Captain Kirk sums up the feeling of the United States and the Soviet Union well when, at the end of the movie, he says to the chancellor of the Klingon Empire, who was anointed upon her father's assassination, "It's about the future, Madam Chancellor. Some people think the future means the end of history. But we haven't run out of history just yet. Your father called the future 'the undiscovered country.' People can be very frightened of change." The fear of change, the fear of the future makes dystopias a best-selling genre. But Star Trek shows humanity that change does not mean the end, but as Captain Kirk says, "we haven't run out of history just yet." And, as Star Trek's timeline goes, it shows its audience how easily once enemies can become friends.

     It showed as much when a Klingon serves aboard the bridge of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG,) which premiered four years before The Undiscovered Country, in 1987. Throughout the second incarnation of Star Trek, the peace between the Federation and Klingons threatens to unravel, but as friends do, the Klingons and Federation keep the peace. In one episode of TNG, "Yesterday's Enterprise," the writers explore the outcome of a scenario in which peace between the Federation and the Klingons never occurred. Lori Maguire, a Professor of British and American Studies at the University of Paris and an interested "Trekkie," writes, "'Yesterday's Enterprise' reflects on what might have happened if the Cold War had become hot, showing the Federation engaged in a long, probably losing war with the Klingons" (76). The episode ends with the proper timeline restored, but it leaves a taste of how a conflict with the Soviet Union could have devastated the United States. Luckily, no such conflict came to be, and the once enemy, the Klingons, became the Federation of Planets' friends.

     Peace with the Klingons meant The Next Generation could explore other pressing political issues, and it did. But in addition to using the present as a lens for the future, Star Trek gave humanity a taste of the moral and ethical superiority towards which we could aspire. The first episode of the new series featured a supposedly omnipotent, omniscient character named Q who puts humanity on trial, saying "Before this gracious court now appear these prisoners to answer for the multiple and grievous savageries of their species." Captain Picard asks for specific charges, and Q provides a list, which the audience does not get to see, presumably listing every time humans acted savagely. Picard recognizes humanity's past, but he asks Q to test whether the charges filed against the human race are still true, to which Q agrees. But the trial does not end at the end of the episode. The trial continues, throughout the entire series, until the last episode, which bookends the first. Captain Picard and Q again appear in the courtroom from the first episode of the series, and when it appears a resolution has been reached, Captain Picard says, "I sincerely hope that this is the last time that I find myself here." To which, Q responds, "You just don't get it, do you, Jean-Luc? The trial never ends." The message here, that though humanity has shown itself to be a "grievously savage race" in its past, humanity evolves as time goes on to better itself and its intentions. Star Trek writers here establish an idea, one which is hard to confirm given events in the news, that humanity learns from its past and improves for the future. The past, according to Star Trek, does not define the race, it helps it grow, morally and ethically as well as technologically.


     Another facet of Star Trek, besides its obvious parallels to the present that resonates with fans and distinguishes it from other science-fiction works, especially dystopias, is how it presents humanity's future as a time of enlightenment. In the future world of Star Trek, humans have surpassed the speed of light, cured cancer, rid society of money and thereby the pursuit of financial gain, and they have united the planet of Earth. As a result, humans travel amongst the stars, because this advancement, this evolution in humanity, means humans spend no time sparring with each other and can focus their joint energies on the greater cause. That is, humans can work towards betterment, constantly and unceasingly. The humans of Star Trek are not infallible, but they can recognize their mistakes and continue to grow from them, not just individually but as a race.

     People have reasons to think humanity can make it out of any dark spot, and Star Trek highlights society's progress. David Deutsch, a professor of physics at Oxford University, writes in his book The Beginning of Infinity, "An optimistic civilization is open and not afraid to innovate, and is based on traditions of criticism. Its institutions keep improving, and the most important knowledge that they embody is knowledge of how to detect and eliminate errors" (quoted in Pinker, 7). Deutsch feels, as Star Trek shows, that society has reached a point of enlightenment it has never reached before, and as time goes on, humanity will continue to improve, realizing its mistakes and growing from them.

    A view of a future such as this should not seem unattainable. It should not look impossible. A view of a future such as this should give hope. In the 1960s, the United States needed an outlet for its fears where it could seek comfort in a positive future. Today, the uncertainties of the world make Star Trek as relevant as it was in the tumult of then. The manifest destiny humans have for space stems not from scientific ambitions; it stems from a hope for humanity's future. In dystopias, the problems of today become the crises of tomorrow. In Star Trek, human ingenuity and ever-evolving sensibility solves the problems of today and continues to solve new problems tomorrow and the next day and the next day, boldly going where no one has gone before. At the end of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the omnipotent, omniscient Q tells Captain Picard, "That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence." Star Trek helps its audience see, while examining the human condition of the present, the unknown possibilities, the multitudes of "what if," that await humanity in the future.


"All Good Things." Star Trek: The Next Generation. Writ. Ronal D. Moore and Brannon Braga. Dir. Winrich Kolbe. Paramount, 1994.

"A Taste of Armageddon." Star Trek: The Original Series. Writ. Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon. Dir. Joseph Pevney. Paramount, 1967.

Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One. New York: Crown Publishers , 2011.

Maguire, Lori. "The Final Reflection?: A Mirror Empire?" Reagin, Nancy R. Star Trek and History. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons , 2013. 71-86.

Pinker, Steven. Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. New York: Penguin Random House, 2018.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Dir. Nicholas Meyer. Perf. William Shatner. Paramount. 1991. DVD.

Winters, Ben H. Golden State. New York: Mullholland Books, 2019.