Changes

'''Star Trek: a Tarnished Jubilee'''

'''Star Trek: a Tarnished Jubilee'''

[[File:The Shuttle Enterprise - GPN-2000-001363.jpg|thumb|350px|right|The space shuttle ''Enterprise'', with the then administrator of [[NASA]], the creator of ''[[Star Trek]]'', and the original cast posing before it.]]Fifty years ago this fall (8 September 1966), a new kind of [[science fiction]] [[television]] show had its premiere. Mr. Gene Roddenberry, who created it, did not rely on dazzling but absurd effects. He left that to his competitor, Irwin Allen. Instead, Roddenberry relied on character development. His show had characters people could not only believe, but love. That single element of the writer’s craft guaranteed the success of ''[[Star Trek]].'' No other dramatic franchise in science fiction comes close. Four successor series, a fifth in development, and now thirteen [[motion picture]]s, attest to that success.

[[File:The Shuttle Enterprise - GPN-2000-001363.jpg|thumb|350px|right|The space shuttle ''Enterprise'', with the then administrator of [[NASA]], the creator of ''[[Star Trek]]'', and the original cast posing before it.]]Fifty years ago this fall (8 September 1966), a new kind of [[science fiction]] [[television]] show had its premiere. Mr. Gene Roddenberry, who created it, did not rely on dazzling but absurd effects. He left that to his competitor, Irwin Allen. Instead, Roddenberry relied on character development. His show had characters people could not only believe, but love. That single element of the writer’s craft guaranteed the success of ''[[Star Trek franchise|Star Trek]].'' No other dramatic franchise in science fiction comes close. Four successor series, a fifth in development, and now thirteen [[motion picture]]s, attest to that success.

This fall, ''Star Trek'' celebrates its Golden Jubilee. Or does it? In fact, though a viewer can believe the ''characters'', he cannot believe the ''setting''. More than the particular setting of a ship of explorers, or a floating fortress, matters here. The ''world that supports these things'' should have some grounding in reality. And in many telling ways, the world of Star Trek departs from reality. And it pretends to work, in ways it never could.

This fall, ''Star Trek'' celebrates its Golden Jubilee. Or does it? In fact, though a viewer can believe the ''characters'', he cannot believe the ''setting''. More than the particular setting of a ship of explorers, or a floating fortress, matters here. The ''world that supports these things'' should have some grounding in reality. And in many telling ways, the world of Star Trek departs from reality. And it pretends to work, in ways it never could.