Author Topic: I Can’t Stand Gene Roddenberry  (Read 1280 times)

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Offline Machiavelli

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I Can’t Stand Gene Roddenberry
« on: August 19, 2012, 11:34:38 pm »
Gene Roddenberry was born 91 years ago today.

Jonathan David Baird
The Freehold
August 19, 2012

Quote
Sorry to all you Star Trek fans out there. I may be the only science fiction fan in the universe that really hates his guts. He stands in the annals of history with Karl Marx as one of the most vile perpetrators of socialism and communism this planet has ever known. I call him the used philosophy salesman…. and he was good at that job, one of the best.

Today is the anniversary of his birth and I have been constantly reminded of this all morning. Tributes everywhere I look to the man who turned the brains of a generation of science fiction fans to utter mush. If only he had passed on ten years earlier. We would never have had to put up with the inane techno-babble ramblings and neo-communist preaching of the Next Generation.
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The Economics of Star Trek

Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: I Can’t Stand Gene Roddenberry
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2012, 12:35:25 am »
Actually, the Borg were based on the communists.

The economy of Star Trek is always left vague on purpose and dialogue about it is often contradictory.  In one sentence someone says money doesn't exist, and yet in another episode, they clearly mention a pay grade based on rank.  Gene Roddenberry had visualized a world where though various means (usually technology) people had solved problems such a hunger, disease, etc.  However, it was never a perfect world, far from it.  There were still evil people, numerous diseases still killed people, violence and crime were still common, and bad things happened on a regular basis.

In Deep Space Nine, it is clear that money still exists in numerous forms.

Other races which were introduced in TNG represent various types of governments that exist or have existed on Earth at one time or another, often overemphasizing their good or bad points.  An example are the Ferengi who represent capitalism without any moral restraints, but quickly evolved into the show's comic relief.  The Cardassians are the militarists that we saw in the early 20th Century until the end of WWII.  The Romulans and Klingons existed before TNG so they do not have a specific counterpart in Earth history.

I've watched Star Trek since I was a kid, and never once saw it as some secret method to convert people to socialism.  It's a TV show.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline Lipstick on a Hillary

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Re: I Can’t Stand Gene Roddenberry
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2012, 01:29:10 am »
Was Roddenberry still involved with Star Trek when The Borg storyline was introduced?

Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: I Can’t Stand Gene Roddenberry
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2012, 01:42:31 am »
Was Roddenberry still involved with Star Trek when The Borg storyline was introduced?

Yes

The Borg were introduced in the second season episode "Q Who" which first aired in 1989. Roddenberry died in 1991.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2012, 01:44:07 am by Atomic Cow »
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton