Dystopian Vs. Utopian

One of the most popular explanations for enduring popularity of Star Trek is that it is Utopian rather than Dystopian, and I agree.  Star Trek has a positive heroic vision of the future rather than a pessimistic Road Warrior-Hunger Games point of view.  However, when I was looking at pre Star Wars movies yesterday I was not overwhelmed by all the Dystopian Science Fiction movies preceding the Star Trek television series.  Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman and the Incredible Shrinking Man weren't exactly Dystopian visions of the future.  Like Godzilla and Them! they were examples of a Frankenstein's Monster type of plot line where man's creation destroys the creator.  This is not to say that there weren't any Dystopian movies prior to Star Trek.  The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price was an early zombie-plague movie and before that there was a 1956 version of 1984 (Which I've been trying to get for the Library for years. It's just been reissued.).  However neither of these movies made an especially big impact.  In general 1950's and early 1960's Science Fiction movies tended to be alien invasion or mutant monster type of fun.

So if a Dystopian world view wasn't prominent in Sci-Fi movies before 1967 why would a positive Utopian series like Star Trek have such staying power.  I think the answer is the 60's.  The 1960's were a time of anti war protests, the Cold War, Civil Rights, and the beginning of the Environmental Movement.  That's a lot of pessimism for one decade.  Also Science Fiction Literature was steeped in Dystopian concepts.  Two of the biggest classics of the Science Fiction genre are A Brave New World and 1984  which are both the Dystopian world views all other Dystopian novels are compared to.  They're not really Science Fiction movies but 1960's era produced Doctor Strangelove, Failsafe, On the Beach, and the Bedford Incident which were all cold war, 'if-we're-not-careful-we're-going-to-blow-up-the world' movies.  There was a lot of angst in the 60's.  

All literature, and Science Fiction is no exception, have some degree of social commentary.  H. G. Wells War of the Worlds was an allegory on Victorian Imperialism.  It was a book that asked the question 'How would you feel if some super advance culture came along and stomped you?'  That's one of the reasons I included all three of Charlton Heston's late 60's early 70's science fiction movies in my 'must-see' list from my last post.  They were all Dystopian movies dripping with social commentary.  Planet of the Apes was an allegory on racism, The Omega Man was commentary on the germ warfare and the military industrial complex, and Soylent Green was a commentary on fear of man destroying the environment.  Its not surprising that lots of Dystopian Science Fiction began showing up in the late 60's and 70's.  George Lucas' 1971 film THX 1138 is one of the most frightening visions of the future possible at least until the Matrix franchise.  But the number of Dystopian themed movies began increasing in the late 60's and 70's.  Besides those movies already mentioned there were Fahrenheit 451 (1966,) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Rollerball (1975) a Boy and His Dog (1975) and Mad Max (1979) so I'm not surprised that Star Trek re-runs became popular in the 70's.  I think people want a positive hopeful view of the future.  I think that's why Star Trek made a comeback and Star Wars was such a huge hit.

(All movies mentioned in my articles are available at the Rogers Public Library, well 1984 will be as soon as I order it.)

I Love Science Fiction

As long as I remember I've been a huge fan of Science Fiction.  It didn't matter whether it was movies or books, I loved SciFi.  So when the original Star Trek television series came along in 1966 we watched.  The whole family watched.  We were all Science Fiction fans but before Star Trek, Science Fiction was kind of a guilty pleasure.  It was paperback books, lurid covers on pulp magazines and cheap special effects drive-in movies.  Science Fiction just wasn't really respectable.  There were some classic authors like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells but other than that it was Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Princess of Mars.  It was the same with movies.  There were the occasional good science fiction movies like Metropolis in 1927 and the Things to Come in 1936 but for the most part Science Fiction cinema was Flash Gordon using pie pans on wires with sparklers for engines as special effects.  Sometimes they had iguanas in slow motion for space monsters.  Special effects were just too expensive.  The 1950's was the 'golden age' of Science Fiction movies and there was a ton of cheap low budget science fiction movies.  Some of them were very good.  Them! in 1954, Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956, the Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951, and Thing From Another World in 1951 were all really well written quality movies.  Ray Harryhausen was doing the best special effects in the 50's and both Earth Versus the Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth were state of the art when they were made.  But generally with the exception of some classics made into film (War of the Worlds 1953, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1954, and Journey to the Center of the Earth 1959) the 1950s were not a time of A list major studio release science fiction movies.

Science Fiction changed in the 1960's.  Fantastic Voyage in 1966 was an A list special effects movie starring two of Hollywood's hottest stars, Raquel Welch and Steven Boyd.  1968's Planet of the Apes starred academy award winner Charlton Heston and the greatest of all Science Fiction movies (according to American Film Institute) 2001 a Space Odyssey came out in 1968.  I remember when 2001 was showing.  It was an event that everyone, and I mean everyone, was talking about.  Special effects were still very expensive but Science Fiction was becoming an acceptable plot line for mainstream film. 

By the 1970's Science Fiction was taking off in Hollywood.  George Lucas came out with his THX 1138 in 1971.  Also in 1971 A Clockwork Orange was up for Best Picture.  Soylent Green 1973, The Omega Man 1971, Westworld 1973, The Stepford Wives 1975, Rollerball 1975, and Logan's Run in 1976 were all mainstream movies with major actors.  Then 1977 the blockbuster of all blockbusters Star Wars premiered and Science Fiction broke out.  Mad Max and Star Trek the Motion Picture both came out in 1979 and Science fiction would become a part of every summer's fare.  Now it almost seems as if Science Fiction has replaced the Western as the one of the major genre's of motion pictures.  This year Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Gravity, and Star Trek Into Darkness are all top ten grossing films of 2013, and the Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator, Back to the Future, X-Men, and the Matrix are some of the highest grossing film franchises of all time.  Science Fiction has come a long way from being a guilty pleasure.

Rob's list of must see pre Star Wars Science Fiction.
  Metropolis 1927
  Things to Come 1936
  Day the Earth Stood Still 1951
  Thing From Another World 1951 (A Howard Hawks Film!  It's Alien screwball!)
  Them! 1954
  Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956
  Earth Versus the Flying Saucers 1956 (This is the movie Mars Attacks parodies)
  20 Million Miles to Earth 1957
  War of the Worlds 1953 (Still the best version of Wells classic but Independence Day is close 2nd)
  Fantastic Voyage 1966
  Planet of the Apes 1968 (Ruined by the sequels but the original is a classic)
  Omega Man 1971
  Soylent Green 1973
  Rollerball 1975 (Critics don't like this movie but I think it's highly underrated.)
 

 
 
 

    

Star Trek Marathon

ROGER’S PUBLIC LIBRARY

STAR TREK MARATHON

On Saturday February 1 at 1:30 the Rogers Public Library will kick off a Star Trek Marathon by showing “Space Seed” from the Original Star Trek’s first season. In this episode the Star Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh played by Ricardo Montalban attempts to take over the Starship Enterprise before being foiled by Captain Kirk played by William Shatner. Montalban reprized his role as Kahn in the second and the best of best of all the Star Trek movies, Wrath of Khan, which will be shown at 2:30 on Saturday immediately following “Space Seed”. On Sunday at 1:30, Star Trek into Darkness the most recent motion picture in the Star Trek universe will be shown where once again Khan is the villain.

Star Trek is easily the most successful entertainment franchise in American history. There have been six different Star Trek television series with a staggering 719 Episodes. There were eighty episodes of the Original Series, twenty two episodes of Star Trek the Animated Series, 176 episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation, 173 episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, 170 episodes of Star Trek Voyager, and 98 episodes Star Trek Enterprise. The Star Trek Canon includes twelve different Star Trek movies and hundreds of Star Trek books. Star Trek Conventions have become synonymous with rabid fanatical Geekdom so it is only appropriate that the Rogers Public Library honors Star Trek Fans everywhere by having a Star Trek Marathon leading up the fourth Geek the Library event on February 8. Only James Bond and Star Wars come close to matching the sheer magnitude of Star Trek mania.

Star Trek is an integrated universe. Cast members of the Original Series made guest appearances on subsequent series. Sarek, Mr. Spock’s father in the Original Series was the title character in the Next Generation’s Third Season Episode “Sarek”, while Mr. Spock himself was in a two part episode of the Star Trek the Next Generation called “Unification”. Leonard Nimoy was also a bridge character between Star Trek the Original Series and the new Star Trek reboot with Chris Pine as James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as the new Mr. Spock. Mr. Worf made the transition from Star Trek the next Generation to Deep Space Nine, while both Star Trek the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine spun off plot lines and characters for the Star Trek Voyager series. The alternate “Bad Universe” created in the Original Series with the episode “Mirror Mirror” became a plot devise in Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Enterprise and Tribbles have been showing up everywhere in Star Trek movies and trek television series ever since the "Trouble with Tribbles". So on Saturday February 1 and Sunday February 2 the Rogers Public Library will begin the Marathon with the television episode and two movies that follows the villain Khan through the Star Trek Universe.

On Monday February 3 beginning at 6:30 the Library will have Borg Night beginning with Star Trek the Next Generation’s “Q Who?” which is the episode that introduces best Star Trek villains ever, ‘the Borg’. This is followed by ‘Best of Both Worlds’ Part I and II where Captain Picard is assimilated into the Borg Collective and rescued. Many people consider the ‘Best of Both Worlds” to be one of the very best Star Trek episodes.

Tuesday February 4 is the night for fan favorites. Deep Space Nine’s “In the Pale Moonlight”, the Original series “City on the Edge of Forever”, and the Next Generation’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise” are three Star Trek episodes that are continuously cited as the very best of Star Trek. Since all ‘best of’ lists are subjective and since everyone’s list of the best is different on Wednesday February 5 the Library will show three staff favorites, The Next Generation’s “Inner Light”, the Original Series “Balance of Terror”, and the Next Generation’s “Darmok”. I think it is suggestive that each of the staff favorites are first encounters episodes.  I guess most librarians dream is “to go where no one has gone before.”

Finally on Thursday February 6 the Library will show “The Trouble with Tribbles” followed by the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest. Never let it be said that Librarians do not have a sense of humor. All showing's will be in the Friends of the Library Community Room and are free to the public.