The Undiscovered Country

I am, as I think I have said before, a creature of hope. I always need it, when I have it I thrive off it and I like to think I am reasonably good at inspiring it within myself and – if given a chance – others.

Without hope I cannot function. I do not enjoy setting about my day knowing that all that I see, all that humanity has achieved, all that erroneous beauty – might soon be lost to the unstoppable forces of nature or that it might soon be torn asunder by the petty interests of men. I find these thoughts incredibly off-putting and not at all conducive to a good working environment. But yet I still have them. And if you any sort of head on your shoulders, so should you.

To counter such apocalyptic daydreams I require hope. And so it is that I enjoy art forms that invoke it.

Which brings me on to my real point. And that is that nothing really comes close to recharging my reserves of optimism than does the world created by Gene Robbenberry - a man from Texas no less. His initial series and the numerous spin offs are all infused with a vision of the future, which, quite frankly makes me giddy with excitement. Just the initial notes of the theme tune are enough (sometimes) to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up - and it was that peculiar phenomenon that actually led to this post. I shall refrain from speculating on the actual philosophies behind the various narratives but it shall suffice to say that what is most inspiring about the whole thing, is that quite simply, it credits us with a future.

A future in which mankind not only survives, but one in which it prospers.

This is why science fiction is so important. It’s not just some hack sub-genre, it is an important artistic expression in its own right and the issues central to it are, I believe, some of the most important issues we, as a society, need to tackle. Arthur C Clarke, the demigod that he is, once said, “politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories”. Why he believes politicians have a particular weakness for westerns and a detective stories is beside the point, the point is that science fiction, perhaps more so than any other genre, provides us with hope for our collective future. And we couldn’t half do with some of that right now.

It’s sleek, it’s sexy and it’s uplifting. It is a gutting shame that the newest spin off series of Robbenberry’s masterpiece met such a grisly end. With any luck it shall not be the end of the franchise. At least two or three generations have now grown up enthused with Robbenberry’s dream. I think the next two or three generations deserve the same privilege.

According to wikipedia we now only have to wait another 151 years before the United Federation of Planets is founded. Yet I think we can do better than that...