Star Trek

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We've been watching the original series from the 60s on Netflix. And even though the special effects aren't very sophisticated and some of the concepts are idealistic and silly, it's still a great series for other reasons. If you can look past the fact that the female crew members wore the shortest dresses in the galaxy and had hairstyles piled so high they defied gravity, you can start to appreciate the fact that there were women crew members. This was 1966 and women were in space, at least on television. In fact, one woman crew member was in charge of communications and was stationed on the bridge with the commanding crew members. If you can look past the rather childish treatment of such issues as war and the human condition, you will see that these were an attempt to explore and define what it means to be human. The comparisons and contrasts with other alien civilizations only brought humanity into sharper focus. The need for freedom, individualism and self-determination were often strange concepts to the aliens they encountered. But every time the human travelers were tested, these traits only grew stronger. Spock is perhaps the best example of what they were trying to accomplish. Spock as half human and half Vulcan tries to live his life completely logically, but his human side cannot help sometimes allowing his emotions to cloud his decisions. The series is better than it appears. It's clumsy at times, aliens are unconvincing actors in Halloween costumes and there's way too much emphasis on Kirk's dating life, but overall, Star Trek was a brave attempt at self-examination. Have you seen the original Star Trek series? Are you a fan?