Captain Kirk was definitely one of the best characters. I totally appreciate
William Shatner in this epic role. he really made the alchemy of the
Star Trek l TV serieswork. portraying the noble Captain.
The show, the TV series were, as 'hokey' and low-tech sets and fake costumes could be.. ol.. one of the most important and influential series of lessons and food for thought one could find anyway.
Too bad most people just can't 'dig it'. Its over there heads. they rave about Star Trek and wear costumes go to Treky conventions but IMHO 99% missed the lessons entirely. Most people just want eye-candy and social
I mean even today practically the whole world is confused asking, 'Is there life on other planets anywhere?'.Well of course there is and the whole presentation of the original plot from the show by Gene Roddenberry actually starts out with this hand written pitch presented by Roddenbury.
It starts with the reference to the (non-fictional) mathematical theorem (at the time) estimating the numbers of stars and planets and the equation that proves theoretically that there are tons of planet like earth in the universe that can support life.
(I actually saw the manuscript offered for sale on a TV pawn show awhile ago.)
This is sort of just a background to the pitch.
Of course Star Trek goes way beyond that and entertains that the planet and life-forms do not necessarily have to be based from an earth-like planet and chemistry, but some lifeforms can exists as simple 'energy'.
Then also I could rave on about the other main character
Spock. The Vulcan / half Human. And the planet Vulcan and there logic based civilization and the lessons thereoff. Again most of which is missed by the mass of humanoids of this planet.
Yes I was influenced a ton by William Shatner and I'm grateful for him and there is no way I could disregard him. I had shaken his hand like I did
James Earl Jones another man of stellar character and immense learning and skills.
Yep The man was as genuine as they come and truly he was the noble 'renaissance man'.
Captain 'Jim" Kirk. The american ideal of yankee ingenuity taking on and solving (with Spock and the crew's help of course) the problems of space in a somewhat crowded universe.. and an even more crowded tiny low budget set.
Supposedly it was 'Gunsmoke' in space according to Leonard Nimoy. But that was far from what the lessons of the show has hidden in between the script lines.
Conception and setting
The Starfleet emblem as seen in the franchise
As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would become Star Trek. Although he publicly marketed it as a Western in outer space—a so-called "Wagon Train to the Stars"—he privately told friends that he was modeling it on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale.[10][11][12][13]
Most Star Trek stories depict the adventures of humans and aliens who serve in Starfleet, the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of Planets. The protagonists have altruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas.
Many of the conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek are allegories of contemporary cultural realities. The Original Series addressed issues of the 1960s, just as later spin-offs have tackled issues of their respective decades.[14] Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty, authoritarianism, imperialism, class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism, feminism, and the role of technology.[15]: 57 Roddenberry stated: "[By creating] a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics, and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek: we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network."[15]: 79 "If you talked about purple people on a far off planet, they (the television network) never really caught on. They were more concerned about cleavage. They actually would send a censor down to the set to measure a woman's cleavage to make sure too much of her breast wasn't showing"[16]
Roddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture of the youth movement, though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show what humanity might develop into, if it would learn from the lessons of the past, most specifically by ending violence. An extreme example is the alien species known as the Vulcans, who had a violent past but learned to control their emotions. Roddenberry also gave Star Trek an anti-war message and depicted the United Federation of Planets as an ideal, optimistic version of the United Nations.[17] His efforts were opposed by the network because of concerns over marketability, e.g., they opposed Roddenberry's insistence that Enterprise have a racially diverse crew.[18]
Yes it was quite a lot too handle for the masses. But then again this was the 1960's. Although really I watched the show more from daily reruns in the 1970's when I was a teen. Some like I, could make the quantum leaps while most remained, sadly, Earth-bound and clinging to their dogmas.
Yes its too bad so many missed the purports of the most important era mainly the 1960's. Even more too bad we have to tolerate the same issues and people that refuse to educate themselves from history and logic and thus remain so Earth-bound and stuck in their pre-1960's Vortex
Nics thread, NFB. 