Star Trek

Some of you might have already realized that I am a bit of a movie-freak and in order to do justice to that cliché I am going to tell you about another movie (or actually a whole franchise) that I really love. So if you need to take your mind off things for a little while, this is the perfect time and place to do it. And now: Welcome….
….. to the world of STAR TREK.

First of all I am going to take you back to the beginnings of this immensely huge movie franchise. In 1966 „Star Trek: The original Series“ was first broadcasted in the United States. Gene Roddenberry, its creator, probably didn’t know how successful his brainchild would still be today in 2013. But there we are, 47 years later, and the science fiction franchise  still hasn’t lost its appeal.

For all the “Non-Trekkies” out there, I am briefly going to tell you what Star Trek is actually about. The Original Star Trek Series is centred in a futuristic world, where things like consumerism or money don’t exist anymore. Technology has been advanced a great deal and Earth is not the only planet inhabited anymore. There are different species like Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, Humans,..ecc that all live on different planets. In this very futuristic world “Starfleet” is a very important organization maintained by the “Federation of planets”. All the people working for Starfleet and Starfleet itself operate in order to research and explore space and other planets but it is also a military and peacekeeping service. The main characters of the series are the Captain of the star ship “USS Enterprise” James T. Kirk (William Shatner), his first officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the chief medical officer Leonard “Bones” Mccoy. In this series the audience follows the different adventures and challenges the star ship’s crew go through during their first 5-year mission.

After the success of “Star Trek: the original series” five more television series followed. Altogether, they consist of 726 episodes. But Star Trek did also hit the big screen multiple times. There are twelve Star Trek movies around of which the last one called “Star Trek: Into Darkness” was released in May this year. This new film was directed by J.J. Abrams and it is the second movie of his planned trilogy. The two phenomenal actors Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto slip into the roles of Captain Kirk and Spock in these two movie adaptions of 2009 and 2013.  The new cast and J.J. Abrams created two movies so thrilling and breath-taking which simply enthralled me from the first moment on. The effort J.J. put into the film  is unbelievable . It is simply amazing, not only because of the brilliant actors and the message that it sends but also because of the damn exciting action sequences. :-)

But now you might me wondering "What is so special about this whole franchise"?? Well, for me that question can be answered easily. To my mind, the most special thing about "Star Trek" is the message it sends to all the people that watch it. Start Trek takes place in a time, where equality is a given: A world in which people from different planets, races, skin colours and religions work together and have the same rights. And to come up with and broadcast a series that displays such open-minded viewpoints already in the 60s (when most people where still very narrow-minded and conservative and equality was not a given) is remarkable and admirable. Also, one of the first interracial kisses ever happened in one of the episodes of "Star Trek: The original series". Altogehter, Roddenberry’s ideas and also different egalitarian principles are clearly visible  in all of his work relating Star Trek. And for me personally, such a forward and liberal way of thinking, and the courage to adhere to it is simply remarkable.