Geek God – Gene Roddenberry

Posted on 21. Dec, 2009 by Jake in Geek God

In the geek realm, your choice of viewing material is a highly contentious issue. There are Star Wars Geeks and Lord of the Rings Geeks, Babylon 5 obsessives and even a few lowly Buffy freaks. But, like them or loathe them, no army of geek fans has as many legions or is as obsessive as the common trekkie – a devotee of the television and film franchise Star Trek. Whether you think this is a good or bad thing depends largely on whether or not you are ‘one of them’. While lacking the, um, star power of George Lucas, Star Trek inventor Gene Roddenberry is pretty much worshipped by most of Star Trek’s greatest devotees. And I would imagine that being worshipped by some of the world’s saddest people (and before you get violent remember, some of my best friends are trekkies) is better than not being worshipped at all.

Even as a non-trekkie I have to admit that the universe Roddenberry created in Star Trek is extremely complex and well-realised. And, while Star Wars has a plot that revolves around bland themes of good vs evil, Star Trek, as fans would tell you, offers complex commentary that has tackled important issues including war and peace, authoritarianism, imperialism, class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism and the role of technology. Roddenberry said that the only way you could comment on controversial issues in 1960s in America was through allegory. “[By creating] a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics, and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek“.

Star Trek was far from an instant success – the original show was constantly threatened with cancellation, and was kept on air only by the dedicated letter-writing of a few fanatical fans before getting cancelled in its third season. But the franchise, already a huge hit among its followers, started to grow. And grow. No other series is responsible for as many spin-offs. Since the original sixties series, Star Trek went on to become an animated series in the seventies, then the Next Generation in the 80s and 90s, before spawning Deep Space Nice, Voyager and Enterprise. There have been 11 feature films – the latest, 2009’s unimaginatively titled Star Trek, was hugely successful and renewed interest in the franchise – and a 12th is on the way. There have also been too many books, games and comics to mention. And, although Star Trek has been doing just fine since Roddenberry’s death in 1991, Roddenberry is missed, and is still a god to his fans, who affectionately call him the ‘Great Bird of the Galaxy’.