Cape Town - The year 1966 was a tumultuous period in the history of the US and, as a result, for much of the world, too.
The US had recently begun deploying combat forces in Vietnam. The first SR-71 Blackbird spy plane took to the skies. Fidel Castro declared martial law in Cuba. The civil rights movement under Dr Martin Luther King spread north, sparking race riots in Cleveland, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, and Lansing, Michigan. Tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators gathered outside the White House.
Against this backdrop, the debut of the TV series Star Trek on September 8 was anachronistic. Set roughly 300 years in the future in the 2260s, the series documented the adventures of the crew of USS Enterprise led by Captain James T Kirk (William Shatner), first officer and science officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and chief medical officer Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley).
Although equipped with formidable weaponry, their mission was one of peace as Captain Kirk would recount over the opening credits: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
It’s unsurprising that a science fiction series focusing on space travel was created at that time.
Smarting from the fact that the USSR had taken the lead in the race to manned spaceflight, president John F Kennedy had made it a point of national pride that the US should become the first country to put a man on the moon.
Just three weeks before Star Trek’s debut, Lunar Orbiter 1 successfully reached the moon, sending back the first picture of our planet taken from another world.
What was surprising was that Star Trek managed to ride rough-shod over many of the social issues of the period: the Cold War, American nationalism, sexism, racism, and religious fervour. An anti-war humanist agenda dominated the storytelling. The cast reflected a universe where race or nationality did not matter.
Communications officer Nyota Uhura, effectively fourth in command, was played by Nichelle Nichols – a black woman. It was a first for TV in the US in that it was unheard of for black and white characters to be portrayed as social equals on the small screen.
“It didn’t hit me at the time,” Nichols told The Huffington Post in 2012. “I splashed on to the TV screen at a propitious historical moment. Black people were marching all over the South. Dr King was leading people to freedom, and I was, in the 23rd century, fourth in command of the Enterprise.”
Although treated as an equal by her fellow cast members, Nichols still had to grapple with the underlying racism of the studios at the time, such as separate entrances for black and white actors.
She said: “Oh, man, there were parts of the South that wouldn’t show Star Trek because this was an African American woman in a powerful position, and she wasn’t a maid or tap dancer.”
As a result, she considered leaving Star Trek at the time, but was persuaded not to do so by Dr King. In her words: “He said, ‘Don’t you realise how important your presence, your character, is? This is not a black role or a female role. You have the first non-stereotypical role on television. You have broken ground. We look on that screen and we know where we’re going.’ It was like he was saying, ‘Free at last, free at last!’”
The helmsman, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), is of Japanese heritage. Again, his was one of the first portrayals of Asian actors in a positive role.
A Star Trek producer described the role as “the antithesis of the so-called expressionless, unemotional, inscrutable Asian”.
The Russians, too, were portrayed in a positive light. The character bio of Ensign Pavel Andreievich Chekov (Walter Koenig) was that of “an extraordinarily capable young man”.
We can reflect now on how many of the depictions of future technology portrayed in Star Trek are part of our modern everyday existence. Our smartphones now encapsulate the functionality of the Star Trek communicators and tricorders.
Touch screen computer technology, universal translators, personal navigation devices, 3D printers, CAT scans, biometric access control; all of these debuted during the TV series.
But all of these played second fiddle to the social impact of Star Trek.
The first inter-racial kiss on TV happened in the third and final season of the show. Under the telekinetic control of an alien species, Kirk and Uhura are “forced” to kiss.
NBC executives were reluctant to screen the shot and asked for alternative takes. Shatner and Nichols deliberately flubbed the alternative takes, so the kiss stayed.
Nichols was surprised that the flood of mail after the episode was aired was all positive.
A letter from a Southern viewer said: “I am totally opposed to the mixing of the races. However, any time a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he ain’t gonna fight it.”
But the defining character was undoubtedly that of Spock.
Born of a human mother with an alien father from the fictitious planet Vulcan, Spock has green blood (from a copper base), distinctive pointed ears, and is mildly telepathic when in physical contact with others.
The conflict between his cold calculating Vulcan heritage and his human emotions became a conduit for many of the humanist lessons woven by the show creators.
His trademark Vulcan salute (an open palm with fingers extended in the shape of a “V”) along with a greeting (“Live long and prosper”) has over the past almost 50 years become a rallying point for thousands of Trekkies.
Nimoy is no more.
He is not the first of the original cast to die, but through his appearances in two recent Star Trek movies as an ageing version of himself who has travelled back in time to meet his younger self, he provided a bridge between generations.
I have no doubt Star Trek will find fertile ground in future generations, not because of its technology but because of its dreams and values.
The world is a poorer place without him in it.
Nimoy summarised it perfectly in his final message on Twitter at 9.36pm on February 23: “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP”.
* Pillay is MD of the Yired group of companies and chief executive of 99.2 Yfm. He writes in his personal capacity.
Weekend Argus