Star Trek is consistent but often childish science fiction, engaging but often belabored drama. (p. 711)

Star Trek never had high ratings; it did have in science fiction an intriguing format. By inventing a believable world, Star Trek provided the viewer with material for his own imagination. He could elaborate upon the sets and equipment, bandy arcane knowledge, even write his own scripts. That the format had the potential to involve the viewer beyond one hour each week is the initial basis for the phenomenon. Star Trek's format created a world alive, turning viewers into fans.

Gene Roddenberry, creator of the series, referred to it, if only in jest, as "'Wagon Train' to the stars," and the similarity between groups journeying toward the unknown is evident. Movement is a prominent motif of both Western and Star Trek where it is made visual in the flyby of the gliding starship. But the similarity goes deeper. The Western story is the only indigenous mythic narrative of the white American…. Since the publication in 1893 of Frederick J. Turner's essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," the dominant symbol of the Western myth has been the frontier. Star Trek views space as "the final frontier." Despite its format Star Trek is not speculative fiction in the way of written science fiction or even of Space 1999 in its first season. It is American myths clothed in the garb of science fiction. "Space—the final frontier" is conceptualized through the same motifs and themes as the Western frontier. (pp. 711-12)

During the 60's American myths and the values they supported, after a brief sojourn in Camelot, began coming apart, not to be replaced by those of the counter culture. Star Trek revitalizes American myths by displacing them into a futuristic, quasi-scientific setting. In effect, Star Trek takes our roots and disguises them as branches for some of us to cling to…. Things on Star Trek look right. The family of the Enterprise is closely knit, appealing and calmly efficient. The men are men, and the women are endowed. (Though set in the 23rd century, sexual roles are those of the 50's.) Kirk … projects emotion, strength and unthreatening paternalism…. Spock surpasses him by striving not to emote at all. The result was that Star Trek's message of revitalized mythic narratives, brought directly to the emotional needs of the viewer, engendered the feeling that the shows were more than escapist entertainment. They had meaning. (p. 712)

Star Trek is a product of the dreams and nightmares of the 60's. It came to those who needed the confidence and triumph of the American past while fearing a present that foreboded the disappearance of the American way. The need has become stronger in the diffident 70's. Star Trek's vision, as Roddenberry and the authors of Star Trek Lives! maintain, is "of a brighter future of man, of a world characterized by hope, achievement and understanding." But Star Trek's impact transcends simple optimism for a tomorrow we may never see. Star Trek creates a future world where the glories of the past are pristine and the failures and doubts of the present have been overcome. It gives us our past as our future, while making our present the past which, like any historical event for the future-oriented American, is safely over and forgotten…. Star Trek, by disguising our past as our future, puts us in it—not the historical past but the mythic past of our first beginnings. There ensues a feeling of permanence, stability and renewed confidence. (pp. 712-13)

I wish now to illustrate this view by looking at one mythic theme of Star Trek—that of paradise, whose role in mythizing America began before the Puritans touched its shores.

Paradise is a fundamental theme of the series, the subject of at least 13 of 79 episodes. It is imagined as the lost Eden of Genesis or as the garden of the New World that lies just beyond the Western frontier. Paradise is destroyed, the victim of Star Trek's unquestioned identification of tranquility with stagnation. (p. 713)

For the men of Star Trek as for the pioneers paradise is to be exploited. Open land beckons the plow, way to the new beginning that brings rebirth. It is the dream our ancestors followed westward; it launches our descendants into space. Inseparable with rebirth is death: natives of paradise too contented to appreciate the virtues of progress and advancement are reeducated…. Despite the nagging of its conscience Spock, the series subscribes to McCoy's benevolent imperialism…. Star Trek assures us of [the validity of the belief in America as world peacemaker] by showing it as the unquestioned truth of the 23rd century. Near propagandizing, to be sure, but Star Trek gives out the message to those who want to believe in a way that they can believe.

In one episode the theme of paradise is treated quite differently. The tensions inherent in the myth are relieved, not by the dogmatic destruction of one pole, but by the device of the mediator. Although not typical of the paradise-theme, This Side of Paradise is a microcosm for the way the series generates its impact. (p. 714)

The authors intend for us to see the story [of This Side of Paradise] in the context of the drug culture of the 60's…. But the meaning coming from the story's structure is very different: friendship and the self-sacrifice and responsibility it demands offer a middle way between the dropping out of the Flower Children and the rat race of their parents. The episode ends … with the three friends reunited in the common mission of the Enterprise. This mission, stated after the teaser of every show, is never questioned (or questioned in order to be reaffirmed) in this or any episode. The bitter conflict over lifestyles of the 60's, as worked out through the mediator Spock, is relieved by a third: being with friends on a mission whose undoubted worth confers upon existence ready-made meaning and purpose.

In a similar fashion the series itself mediates the tension between the past and the present by establishing a third time, that of first beginnings. It is a time with the anticipation and wonder of the future without the anxieties of the present, with the glory and security of the past without its remoteness. By transcending in an ultimately inexplicable way the sum of message and medium Star Trek puts the fan-become-believer in that time….

For the believer "Star Trek Lives" is more than the slogan of a TV show that would not die. It is the ritual cry to a world where he belongs, where he has it all together. Star Trek offers the comfort of religion. (p. 717)