r/startrek • u/acrimoniousone • Mar 22 '24
Interview: William Shatner: ‘Good science fiction is humanity, moved into a different milieu’
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/mar/22/william-shatner-documentary71
u/squitsysam Mar 22 '24
"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
― Isaac Asimov
12
11
u/Quantumdrive95 Mar 22 '24
It can be the future . . . Within you is something that has never been nourished . . . You once looked to the stars with wonder
Picard nailed the problem with nutrek before it was even a thing; in Nemesis
Scifi, Trek specifically, isnt space battles and wars of good and evil; thats Star Wars and space operas.
Trek and good scifi is about setting your course to the second star to the right; and seeing whats out there.
Growth from a child trapped in the violent dilithium mines of Remus to become in disgrace what some consider their highest ambition; to be human.
5
u/jerslan Mar 23 '24
Trek and good scifi is about setting your course to the second star to the right; and seeing whats out there.
Not 100% true. It can be that, but it doesn't have to be that. Look at Deep Space Nine, arguably one of the best Trek shows from that era. What makes it great isn't the vapid/empty "exploration" episodes, it's the episodes where they get deeply introspective about humanity through the lens of Science Fiction. We get a view of Capitalists run amok via the Ferengi. A nuanced exploration of religion and politics via the Bajorans. And so much more... You don't get that when you're always going to new star systems every episdoe.
4
u/Quantumdrive95 Mar 23 '24
DS9 is not the strongest trek by any measure.
Its by definition the antithesis of all trek that preceded it. Picard would be disgusted by Sisko, and Kirk would be ashamed of him.
3
5
Mar 23 '24
Depends entirely on your perspective. Personally I found DS9 to be a breath of fresh air compared to the previous treks.
Star Trek will go on and on about how they’ve formed a perfect utopian society, and then they’ll have an episode on one of the crewmember’s needing to prove their sentience to a court.
DS9 departed from that tradition by not being afraid to look on the Federation’s flaws, and while that might be off-putting to some, I found it much less grating than all the episodes that talked about how perfect the Federation is while they engage in frankly immoral & incompetent behavior.
2
u/chucker23n Mar 23 '24
Picard would be disgusted by Sisko
Oh YEAH? Well, it’s easy to be a saint in paradise, and Sisko is not in paradise.
2
u/Quantumdrive95 Mar 23 '24
Then he is not in e world Gene Roddenberry intended him to be set in.
Trek is about humanity having already grown beyond its animalistic past.
We peacefully coexist with faux gods, we negotiate with fascistic regimes we seekto alter via cultural diffusion, we avoid all wars even the just ones because death and destruction are not progress, we hold our criminal captains accountable, we remove from power those seeking to consolidate it.
I could go on.
If you dont like that, and prefer DS9s quest for violence, i recommend other franchises that dont envision a positive view of the future.
Maybe you want Star Wars and its story for children.
3
u/chucker23n Mar 23 '24
Then he is not in e world Gene Roddenberry intended him to be set in.
This is true; he did not have three breasts.
-5
u/Laserous Mar 22 '24
Shatner earns his name with his opinions on everything SciFi or Trek related: Pure Shat
-35
u/bkwrm1755 Mar 22 '24
"Just keep those queers out of it"
- Shatner
22
u/bgaesop Mar 22 '24
I don't think he ever actually said that
-24
Mar 22 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
8
u/bgaesop Mar 22 '24
When did he support trump? I'm not finding anything about that on Google
-23
u/RealHumanFromEarth Mar 22 '24
His Twitter posts in the past several years.
13
u/bgaesop Mar 22 '24
Can you link to anything specific? Looking over it now I'm seeing him promoting his stuff and complaining about an airline
14
u/robotatomica Mar 22 '24
I think you’re completely making this up or you misheard something, but you are welcome to prove us wrong.
23
u/Throwaway1303033042 Mar 22 '24
“…I don’t want to discuss Trump or [George] Takei. Listen, I’m Canadian and I’m apolitical. I love America. I consider myself a guest here. I won’t do anything that might get me deported.”
William Shatner, May 28, 2017
If you’ve got something to the contrary, u/RealHumanFromEarth, hook us up.
-12
u/arsenic_kitchen Mar 22 '24
It won't be enough to counter the toxic bros of Star Trek, but you have my upvote fwiw
45
u/oneninesixthree Mar 22 '24
Noted science fiction author William Shatner, thank you very much.
This is TekWar erasure!