"Politicians, prostitutes and ugly buildings become respectable if they last long enough," says John Huston in the film Chinatown Roman Polanski, and that's how even the most unphotogenic members of the spaceship USS Enterprise became today, exerting a constant media influence on our culture from September 8, 1966, when the first episode of this TV series was shown, until today, when the premiere of the 11th film about static , but with the deep-thinking adventures of the crew of this ship which they use to explore space, the last barrier boldly going where no one has been before.
The 79-episode "Star Trek" television series, which was created under the working title "Chariot to the Stars" by former pilot and police sergeant Gene Roddenberry (1921โ1991), as an allegorically updated version of the Swifts Gulliver's Travels, was the first to show on TV a kiss between a white man and a black woman - crew members of this 22rd century ship - Captain James T. Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura. He also predicted a global thaw in Soviet-American relations during the Cold War when he included a Russian member - Chekhov - among the daring crew. At the time of the escalation of the war in Vietnam, the highly respected Asian Sulu was on board the Enterprise. In this series, mobile phones appeared for the first time as a marvel of futuristic technology with which the captain addresses his crew during the exploration of a nearby planet. In addition to Captain Kirk, who was portrayed by the Canadian William Shatner (born March 1931, 26 in Montreal), the central place at the command desk of this series was occupied by a character with pointed ears like a pan, who represented the neo-Conandoyle ideal of extraterrestrial intelligence - mr. Spock from the planet Vulcan. Spock was portrayed by Leonard Nimoy, who came from a family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Nimoy (born in Boston on March 1931, XNUMX) in keeping with his origins created the famous Vulcan salute: the raised fist with the middle and ring finger separated, basing it on the traditional kohanic blessing that is also performed with only two hands with the thumbs joined to represent the Hebrew letter shin (ืฉ). This letter is often used as a symbol of God in Judaism and is an abbreviation for one of God's names - El Shaddai. From the same kabbalistic source is Spock's accompanying phrase "Live long and prosperously", which is actually a fragment of the blessing about the peace of God.
ON THE BIG SCREEN: After a glorious three-year run on television (1966โ1969), the "Star Trek" series died. A continuation in the form of an animated series with the voices of well-known protagonists from 1973 failed to seriously start the franchise from a standstill. Still, glimmers of "Star Trek" flare could be seen in John Carpenter in the film Halloween, in which the main villain wore a Captain Kirk mask. Carpentner even stated that for the success of his film, he should primarily thank William Shatner, whose character he used to promote his work. After the worldwide success of Lucas's revitalization of the SF genre through postmodern cinema teen mita Star Wars, the older intergalactic cousin of "Star Trek" was converted in 1979 from television to a lucrative movie series. The first film in this series signed by Robert Wise, the director of the most watched musical of all time My songs my dreams, became the second most viewed film of that year (right behind Kramer vs. Kramer).
The film series that followed took the entire Enterprise television crew out of mothballs again, and it all looked like a nostalgic 20-year graduation celebration that no one wanted to leave for the next decade and a half. Even minor characters from the TV series began to prominently return to the big screen, such as the evil Khan portrayed by Ricardo Montalban (the key role holder in the film series as well Planet of the Apes). To the unfailing delight of the audience, these experienced explorers of the cosmic depths traveled again through the karmic vortices of space and time, steadfastly encountering various adversities from crazy probes to false deities. In the middle of the cosmic depth, the flying wagon glided idyllically down the rails of stardust, and the protagonists did not think of getting off the moving stage. The helm was handed over to a new crew only in the seventh film sequel (Generations, 1994), but the adventures of the new crew led by the bald Frenchman Jean-Luc Picard from the eighth to the tenth film only led to an inexorable decline in viewership because this show was and remains the story of a pointy-eared alien who, with the movement of his fingers apart, conveys to earthlings sublime Kabbalistic learning.
FOR SPOCK: The writers of the NBC television series were once taken aback when, in 1966, the newsroom began to be flooded with piles of fan letters stating - "For Spock". The audience fought for this long-eared character to be equally represented as the Earth Captain, even though it was not originally intended at all. Nimoj remained privately imprisoned in this role, which despite all his attempts at singing, photography and directing (most successfully with the hit Three men and a baby) could not free himself, as the titles of his two autobiographies tell us: I'm not Spock from 1977 and I am Spock from 1995. This was understood by the producers of the latest film, who decided to have Spock, played by the 78-year-old Nimoy, magically appear in this prequel film, traveling through time to inform the young Tiberius Kirk of the phantom danger that is stalking him. So Nimoy remained in the role of space Sherlock Holmes for more than four decades. In addition to the standard geronto team, many later female stars, such as Joan Collins, who we all know as Alexis from "Dynasty" - in the episode "City On The Edge Of Forever", and Kim Cattrall, who we all know as Samantha from "Sex and the City" in the role of Spock's countrywoman in the sixth film. David Bowie's wife Iman and Whoopi Goldberg also appeared in star trek movies, Kirstie Alley has adorned her head with pointy ears, and Winona Ryder will play Spock's mother from her younger days in the latest film. Yet for all those space cadet miniskirts in the depths of space, Spock's relationship with women (after the canceled wedding in the episode "Amok Time" in which an excessive influx of emotions and pan-satirical energy drove him into temporary madness) remained strictly platonic because his highly logical mind (as well as Sherlock Holmes) did not allow himself to indulge in petty, all-too-human, seemingly completely irrational pleasures. It is therefore interesting that this intergalactic monk appears today as one of the most persistent achievements of media culture in the past half century, while, in contrast to him, the pansexual "shameless" Catherine Tremmel, played by Sharon Stone, succumbed already after the second sequel Low passions, losing the attention of the audience whose overexalted promiscuity it was supposed to symbolize. In the age of info-aesthetics, when everyone communicates with everyone via the Internet and mobile phones as if from the command bridge of the Enterprise, it seems that we have all become Spocks more than ever. The hyperlogical Vulcan has become an adequate image of the era that first thinks and then only feels, because all the essential life juices have been poured out in the electronic labyrinth. Let's hope, therefore, that this man who replaced his scepter of passion with the golden key of logic must have his fairy Zvonฤica somewhere, which is hinted at by the final words of the sixth star trek movie: "Which course shall we take captains?" "Second star to the right and straight on till morning," was the final command to the crew of the Enterprise's captain - a reference to the words of the pointy-eyed Peter Pan. The circle between the imaginary Nedoji plan and the volcanic plan is thus closed in our imagination very skillfully and, of course, we have no doubt that in the new film with Spock's extraterrestrial help, as in Peter Pan, everything will end happily. And everyone will live long and richly.
