We live in a world influenced by Trek. I find that to be a more compelling description.

Really.

Remember how he got his seat in the senate? Incumbent Senator Jack Ryan's rather scandalous divorce records got leaked to the press. EVERYBODY printed them, mostly because it was an excuse to print a picture of his soon-to-be-ex-wife Jeri Ryan and her gravity-defying body in her skin-tight costume as Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager. As press found more and more scandal Ryan stepped aside. Carpetbagging clown Alan Keyes ran in his place. Naturally Obama won. The new senator got a speaking role at the next convention, impressed the shit out of everybody and ran for president.

This was the only good thing that came out of Star Trek: Voyager.

Besides Ms. Ryan's outfit.


It did have the first female captain starring on that series. All the female characters were empowered. More so (in my opinion) than any other Star Trek series.


I liked the retro sci-fi stuff in the Holo-Decks too. It was really funny the way they presented that.

The new shuttlecrafts / runabouts were cool.

The design of the ship itself was cool. I liked the variable shape Necells (sp?) Similar to the variable wing fighter aircraft of the same time period.


I enjoyed the series. It went back to the roots of exploring unknown space, the way the original series did.

Plus plenty of new aliens to meet and technology to discover.


Tikki

Janeway was the worst.

Every star trek captain knew *something* and played to that strength... except Janeway, she knew everything better than anyone on the ship, and was surrounded by squabbling mutinous incompetents. Just like real life, amirite?

Science fiction has plenty of examples of good female leaders. My favorite is the character played by Tori Higginson on SG Atlantis. She was written and portrayed in a way that showed that she was the domain expert at what she knew but allowed the other characters to fill their roles while still being the boss.

DS9 was the best.

Janeway was always the smartest person in the room, but she was also the only character qualified for the position she held.


The premise of the show was that most of the original crew was killed at the very beginning of the series. This forced the Voyager crew to be composed of people who were not qualified.


There are also plenty of examples where someone like Paris, Kim or Torres came up with something on his/her own to save the day.



I could get into Higginson's character on SGA, but she was really just a diplomat. Yes, she let everyone else play to their strengths because she really had no strengths other than the ability to form compromises that make everyone happy.

Not that I don't like her character, or that series, I do. I just like Janeway more. Also I liked Amanda Tapping more in both SG incarnations that she was on.

Her husband ran for governor several years ago. Tim Hagan I believe was his name.

And she's freakin' AWESOME in it! Kate Mulgrew is her name.

And, yeah, I've known that story about Jeri Ryan's ex-husband for awhile. He was running as a "Family Values" Repug all moral fibre and nauseating et al. But somehow, their sealed divorce files were opened in the middle of his campaign and they revealed his propensity for dragging her to sex clubs and making her perform S & M acts against her better judgment.

I would LOVE to know how those records got unsealed and how it was so perfectly timed!

They never went anywhere

when Shatner kissed Nichele Nichols. At the time Nichols was the only black female role model on a TV series not playing a servant.

According to an anecdote told by Nichelle Nichols in the documentary film Trekkies (1997), a young Goldberg was watching Star Trek, and upon seeing Nichols' character Uhura, exclaimed, "Momma! There's a black lady on TV and she ain't no maid!" (Nichols, Nichelle (1997). Trekkies (DVD). Neo Motion Pictures.)

Years later that caused Whoopi Goldberg to request that Roddenberry create a role for her on Star Trek Next Generation, which he did.

Good speculative fiction has helped frame the social future as much or even more so than the tech future.

Ms. NICHOLS: I went in to tell Gene Roddenberry that I was leaving after the first season, and he was very upset about it. And he said, take the weekend and think about what I am trying to achieve here in this show. You're an integral part and very important to it. And so I said, yes, I would. And that - on Saturday night, I went to an NAACP fund raiser, I believe it was, in Beverly Hills. And one of the promoters came over to me and said, Ms. Nichols, there's someone who would like to meet you. He says he is your greatest fan.

And I'm thinking a Trekker, you know. And I turn, and before I could get up, I looked across the way and there was the face of Dr. Martin Luther King smiling at me and walking toward me. And he started laughing. By the time he reached me, he said, yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan. I am that Trekkie.

(laughter)

Ms. NICHOLS: And I was speechless. He complimented me on the manner in which I'd created the character. I thanked him, and I think I said something like, Dr. King, I wish I could be out there marching with you. He said, no, no, no. No, you don't understand. We don't need you on the - to march. You are marching. You are reflecting what we are fighting for. So, I said to him, thank you so much. And I'm going to miss my co-stars.

And his face got very, very serious. And he said, what are you talking about? And I said, well, I told Gene just yesterday that I'm going to leave the show after the first year because I've been offered - and he stopped me and said: You cannot do that. And I was stunned. He said, don't you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen. He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch. I was speechless.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942461/Star-Treks-Uhura-Reflects-On-MLK-Encounter

Course nobody but teabaggers care now.

There were more than a few interracial kisses on TV prior to Star Trek. Gunsmoke as an example had an asian and a caucasian kissing. Sammy Davis Jr also kissed a white woman on a variety show.

That particular story about ST being the first is just plain not true and trekkies need to drop it.

I should have clarified with "first black-white interracial kiss in a US TV series..."

Maybe Voyager's tie with DS9 but it's really hard to get stronger female characters that Kira and Dax. Both shows are miles ahead of the original and TNG in that regard, although TNG might've been closer if they'd kept Tasha Yar throughout the show.

But since Dax had spent previous lives as a male, that character being an empowered female is somewhat vague. She also had the rank of Lieutenant Not exactly in command of anything.

Kira was second in command (to a male) and had all sorts of anger issues. It seemed to portray her as an emotionally unstable woman.


I will admit they were both strong characters who were extremely capable at their jobs but I think Captain Janeway, Chief Engineer Torres and 7 of 9 have them beat.

Voyager had continuity. Good acting.

DS9. Really love both shows!

He was supposed to be the next big thing in the GOP, and he was running for a senate seat that was being vacated by Republican Pete Fitzgerald, who was retiring.

And I'd googled the whole thing to get Jack Ryan's name right, so it's a worse mistake than if I'd dredged the whole thing up from the mists of memory.

. . .Obama was ahead in the statewide polls at the time, so Ryan's departure didn't gain the seat for the Dems, but it did assure it. (I was part of the campaign that year for the far south parts of Chicagoland.) And Keyes entry to replace Ryan assured a landslide., which it was.
GAC

Kerry might've still given him the speaking slot (they gave Elizabeth Warren one while she was in the midst of a tough Senate race) and that's what really propelled him to a viable 2008 contender. Ryan's implosion still didn't hurt, though, because Obama was able to spend the fall campaigning for other Democrats since his race was a done deal.

I had a "StarTac" flip phone ~1996 and I thought that was among the first ones (I paid over $500.00 for the damn thing).


Also, you forgot the wrist communicator thing that looks a lot like the wrist "bluetooth" that Samsung now has out. It was in one of the first Star Trek movies.



Edit to add: (no flip phones in 1973)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_phones


^snip^


The first hand-held cell phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell[1][2] and Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 2.2 pounds (1 kg).[3] In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. From 1990 to 2011, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 6 billion, penetrating about 87% of the global population and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.[4][5][6][7]



The first handheld mobile cell phone was demonstrated by Motorola in 1973. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.[8] Several other countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first generatiion ("1G&quot systems could support far more simultaneous calls, but still used analog technology.

In 1991, the second generation (2G) digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard, which sparked competition in the sector, as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators.

I know, because my Dad help design it. He was a CAD/CAM engineer for GTE.

Fuck the long lines and the TSA at the airport!

Scotty, beam me to Aruba...NOW!!

They're not really transporting your molecules. They're reconstructing you from local atoms at point B after disintegrating you at point A.

Then reconvert it back to matter

But they aren't transmitting the energy.

Beaming someone up would actually cause a massive explosion, roughly equal to 1,000 thermonuclear weapons.

and "transport" the energy which is then converted back to a replica of the original.


It is more like a replicator. Once they have the pattern, and enough energy, they could create as many of whatever/whoever is being transported as they want.


It is a cute idea, and is a great tool to help move the story along. Unfortunately, it is the least likely thing in a series that includes faster than light travel (and a giant space amoeba).

Otherwise how could we have wound up with the two Kirks in "Enemy Within" or the two Rikers in "Second Chances?"



Oh, sure, it may seem unlikely now but remember by the 23rd century they've invented the Heisenberg compensator which removes the uncertainty from subatomic measurements, making transporter travel feasible. When asked "How does the Heisenberg compensator work?" by Time magazine, Star Trek technical adviser Michael Okuda responded: "It works very well, thank you."

But how often do I get a chance to discuss Heisenberg compensators?


Not often, that is for damn sure.


I had to voice that opinion while I had the chance.

It started off as just a plot device to save on the screen time and production expense of using a landing craft move people around all the time. Once established, it started being used in various ways, some of which were inconsistent. People have speculated on ways it might work in real life, but the writers of the various series have never limited themselves to any particular interpretation.

My son who is a big time tech just took a look at it and laughed. He is one of those 19 year olds who can fix, software or hardware, all of the electronic devices and games.
We are also waiting for the transporter and the food synthesizer.

I wouldn't need to be afraid to go on planes anymore.

But you realize of course that we are talking about technology which does not exist, so discussion about how it would work specifically are bound to be inaccurate. The energy problem you put forth is a real one but it isn't a brick wall. Can such energy be released in such a way as to not be so disruptive to the immediate area? I can think of a few ways to approach that problem which really aren't any more fantastical than the basic idea of a mass>energy>mass transporter in the first place.

Oh, and more generally at this thread: Star Trek didn't originate ANY of these ideas. They borrowed them from existing and common science fiction. Since they were on TV it may be the first time some people were exposed to them, but were they far from new.

"You are assimilated"

to be sure.

They reject everything not like themselves in a constant struggle for anti-perfection.

Heinlein
Dr. Asimov
Bradbury

and all the children of John Wood Campbell who began printing their good speculative fiction in the 1940's.

Gene Roddenberry had an amazing vision of a better future (including No Smoking on the original Star Trek bridge while the majority of TV advertisers were tobacco companies), but the very best of his plots were taken from the heroes of the golden age of speculative fiction.

he wrote 2 episodes.



I don't think Asimov wrote any, but I could be wrong.

It's just taking us a bit of a while catching up.

and one of the best moments in TV history starting at 2:20

...before my food replicator, my transporter, my medical tricorder, and my holodeck are going to be delivered? I want them now!

All are in the first stages that will almost certainly lead to the final version listed above.
I remember reading about all of these in the past year or two.

Bio bed: The US Army has developed the first step toward the bio bed

Replicator: The new 3-d printers are the first step toward a replicator

Holodeck: The virtual reality glasses/goggles are the first step toward the holodeck

Transporter: There was a science experiment were they made a molecule/atom/element move from one place to another without physically traveling the intervening distance.

Mine doesn't look like this model though.