Star Trek is a Univers of Science-fiction created by Gene Roddenberry in the Années 1960 which gathers six televised series, ten Feature-length films (one eleventh will leave to Christmas 2007), of the hundreds of Romans and tens of Video games, of the important “ FanFiction ” (: New S or Romance S written by the Fan S), as well as a Amusement park with topic with Las Vegas, with the the United States. It is also a Franchise from Télévision and Cinéma pertaining to Paramount Pictures, property of the company CBS. The televised series with it alone are regarded as one of the greatest phenomena worship of modern times.
In the universe Star Trek, humanity developed the space voyage with supraluminic Speed following one post-apocalyptic period of the medium of the XIe century. Later, the Homme will be linked with other intelligent species of the galaxy to form the Fédération of plain planets. Following an extraterrestrial intervention and thanks to science, humanity largely overcame its many defects and terrestrial weaknesses with the XXIIIe century. The stories of Star Trek often depict the adventures of human beings and species Alien S which are useful in the Federation of Starfleet.
The protagonists whose ideals are sometimes imperfectly applied to the dilemmas presented in the series, are primarily Altruiste S. the conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek form Allégories for contemporary cultural realities; the televised series Star Trek tackled the questions of the Années 1960, just like later of the derived Série S reflected questions of their respective times. The problems raised in the various series are: the war and peace, the Authoritarianism, the Impérialisme, the Class struggle, the Racism, the Human rights, the Sexism and the Feminism, and the role of the Technology.
Although the first series did not meet a great success during its diffusion, it appeared that the world of Star Trek had many Fan S, the Trekkies or Trekker S. These amateurs unconditional made the success of the repeat broadcasts and created a market for the following series and other films based on the work of Roddenberry. Star Trek remains today one of the most popular entertainments of the science fiction of the Télévision.
The stories of Star Trek make now integral part of the Western Culture, constituting a kind of news Mythologie. It is besides following an operation of lobbying of the fans of the series that NASA agreed to name Enterprise the prototype of the Space shuttle. Enterprise is also the name of many ships of the U.S. Navy, though without bond with the series, the last having been launched in 1960 (but always active today).
Several episodes of the first series (diffused in some areas under the title Patrol of cosmos ) are based on a confrontation with a higher power, generally a advanced extraterrestrial race (often having formidable mental capacities), with a state-of-the-art technology, human having acquired, in particular circumstances, unusual capacities, and in a case, with a god. Often, the goal of the power in question is to control (or to destroy) the vessel and its crew, but both will be saved by the captain James T. Kirk (James R. Kirk in the first episode of the series, Where No Man Has Gone Before ), played by William Shatner. An exceptional case is the famous episode of the Tribble S. Parfois the scenario is reversed, and the “higher” entities “moralisent” the Human ones ( Arena , Errand off Mercy , The Empath ). To note that certain episodes will call upon famous scenario writers (for example Robert Bloch on 3 episodes of which that relating to Jack the eventror).
There is no history being prolonged all along the series, each episode forming a closed structure, separated from the others, the only obvious element of continuity being the distribution and certain recurring enemies as the Klingon S. All the episodes are with the format 52 minutes, except the episode “the Menagerie” ( The Menagery ), in 2 X 52 minutes, because of the re-use of the pilot “ The Cage ”, which refers to a couple (crew, vessel) older.
The utopian company , the Fédération of plain planets (FPU), depicted in Star Trek is based on a economy of abundance authorizing an advance in knowledge and technologies. This abundance also makes it possible each one to almost satisfy all its needs and desires. Work and the trade are not necessary and consequently the money was eliminated. The negative emotions like the Avarice or the Jalousie are almost non-existent there.
Roddenberry was in favor of a levelling policy and frequently used the episodes to present its vision of a utopian company based on these principles. The original series, for example, had a female team member and Afro-American Nyota Uhura, interpreted by Nichelle Nichols, one of the first women Afro-Americans to hold a main role on television American. It also made play a character originating in Russia - Pavel Chekov interpreted by Walter Koenig - at one time when the the United States were engaged in the Cold war with the Soviet Union. The first officer Vulcan Mr. Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, had not had, first of all, the favors of the executives of the chain under the pretext which its vaguely satanic aspect could prove too worrying for the public, but Mr. Spock became, in fact, one of the most popular characters on the original series.
To illustrate this idealistic vision, it is interesting to note that the first pilot of the series, The Cage , was refused because the second in command of the Enterprise was played by a woman (Majel Barrett, alias Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The new generation ), which Paramount considered to be “unrealistic”…
In the same way, to make accept in Paramount the black actress Nichelle Nichols, which was however an artist recognized in England, Rodenberry had to resort to a blackmail become traditional: " She stays gold I leave! (It remains or I leave) ".
The current televiewers of the original series can find far from “the politically correct” current representations of the minorities and the women, but the program was, at its time, progressist and daring. One of the reasons for pride of Star Trek is to have represented the first kiss between a white American and an Afro-American. In episode 65 ( the Descent - Plato' S Stepchildren ) implementing a mental control like pretexts to break this taboo, the captain Kirk and Uhura is forced to share this first to kiss on American television.
Almost ten years were passed between the end of the first series and first film of cinema. In the interval, many novels were published by multiple authors. The universe of Star Trek has more than survived a long audio-visual crossing of the desert thanks to the writing, it also grew rich by the division and collective work. Saved first once by its fans, maintained and developed by an abstract community authors, the Utopia of Star Trek is as much in its birth as in its contents.
In 1987, a new series is launched, Star Trek: The new generation ( Star Trek: The Next Generation or ST: TNG ), comprising a new crew. Contrary to the original series, ST: TNG describes a Univers in which the majority of the races met are equivalent from the technological point of view and a big number of episodes are not based any more on the concept of “first contact” but on new arguments such as the paradoxes of the temporal voyage.
Another characteristic change is the introduction of the Directive First which constrained the Federation not to be interfered in the evolution of the less advanced species. It is the occasion of case of conscience when species threatened of destruction should not be assisted by respect of this directive.
Lastly, this series knows strong historical links between the episodes, with objects or characters who appear during several episodes (and even coming from former seasons), giving to the series a stronger coherence.
Roddenberry continued to be credited as an executive producer with Star Trek: The new generation, even when its influence decreased whereas the series progressed. With the arrival of the producer Rick Berman, it slowly took a nature more based on the masks by integrating more and more scenes of animation and speeches encrypted for certain audiences. This became obvious in last episodes of ST: TNG and even more in the major part of the following series.
a series of animation:
and eleven films:
Enterprise become during the third season Star Trek: Enterprise was stopped after the fourth season because of the lack of audience. There is currently no series TV Star Trek in progress. However, one eleventh film (with the still unknown title, therefore called Star Trek XI east is scheduled for December 2008. It will be about a prelude, presenting a new adventure of Kirk and Spock, when they were young, with new actors to interpret them but with nevertheless the presence of Leonard Nimoy
See also: List of the novels of Star Trek
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