Multiculturalism, gender and eugenics: social themes in Star Trek

Abstract

From its earliest days, Star Trek has been informed by a multi-culturalist vision in which Martin Luther King’s famous ‘dream’ of complete racial integration has become a reality. In his original outline for the series, Gene Roddenberry insisted that, by the twenty-third century, racial discrimination would be seen as a regrettable relic of the past. The presence of Uhura, Sulu and Chekov on the bridge, as well as a number of black actors who appeared as senior Starfleet officials in the original series, clearly established Star Trek’s anti-racist standpoint, even if all these characters played relatively minor roles. Roddenberry regarded the presence of a leading alien character on the deck of the Enterprise as essential, and fought hard against initial network resistance to keep Spock in the series. Such a presence was for him crucial in demonstrating that the Federation was a multicultural organisation. But the Vulcans were only the first of the many different alien races to be created, each with their own cultural and ethical viewpoints. With racial prejudice extinct on its ‘future-Earth’, Star Trek has always used conflict between the various alien races to present stories that reflect on contemporary racial conflicts.

I say to you my friends … even though we face difficulties of today and tomorrow … I STILL have a dream … Free at last … Great God Almighty we are free at last … I’ve got some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn’t matter to me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.

(Martin Luther King, speech made to the Civil Rights march on Washington, 28 August 1963)