Star Trek: The New Voyages

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drnewel
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Star Trek: The New Voyages

Post by drnewel » 04-15-2006 10:33 PM

Dr Newel
Semiological Analysis of a TV Show
7 March 2006


Star Trek: The Continuing Voyages

I downloaded over the internet a television series that is essentially a continuation from the 1960s. In the 1960s a television show was broadcasted that would later transcend anything that had been in broadcasting or popular myth before. Star Trek: A ubiquitous icon of the American culture has now been continued in the 1 hour format broken up in to four slices, and the introduction segment - for internet broadcast. The genre is Science Fiction, that can be clearly stated but what can not be clearly stated is the media of internet broadcast.

In the 1960s a risky television show produced by G. Rodenberry was aired over network television in prime time called Star Trek. The costumes were of a futuristic time that was portrayed as if it took place on the flight operations control center of a space ship as believed by the former Air Force Crew Officer Gene Rodenberry. The actual controls when analyzed by an engineer such as myself appear to be generic non labeled symbols. Why would an Air Force Officer build a space ship and then not label the control panel with titles or labels such as “Generator Panel?”

I have looked at the control panels for the original series and the control panels of the internet broadcasted series available for download (they are continuous of content and form) and have discovered that the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise is a non functioning prop, or is an unfinished work-in-progress with no one really sure what each button on each panel does. What is really going on is that each button represents what a future control would be, perhaps a button that has many purposes, or perhaps like a medieval play a costume for a button - a symbol for a button with no specific purpose other that to convey that apparently we are to suspend disbelief In the Science Fiction genre of a play that ‘that’ was a futuristic button. The buttons are signs that symbolize technology of an unclear future and the connotation is that since these buttons are unlabeled they must be intelligent buttons or self aware of the nature of the operation that they represent. I have seen different buttons being used for the same function and the same buttons used for different functions. On one occasion I saw an engineer touching the buttons while not making physical contact at all with the button, although that action in itself was a dramatic representation of pushing a button. I have analyzed the buttons on the Bridge of The U.S.S. Enterprise and they look like old tape recorder buttons placed in strategic places with no apparent usability other than to catch the lighting of the set but symbolize a flying nuclear generator of the future in space however: the Star Trek buttons themselves are of a symbolic nature of themselves to propel the television show in to not just a genre, or even a classification of it’s own genre, but the buttons on the set of the U.S.S. Enterprise have propelled themselves in to symbols of a cultural myth itself.

They wear “High Water Pants.” How can any one take any one seriously in High Waters? These future people of the space ship U.S.S. Enterprises wear High Waters that any one can identify as classic Star Trek. When someone in High Waters presses these unlabeled buttons we are to interpret the scene as futuristic, especially when at the time the entire popular culture seemed to be wearing Bell Bottoms. High Waters were a symbol of a future time because it was not of the fashion at the time. When we download the continuing series of that the pilot has just been made available the show is embellished with the NBC logo derived from the 1960s yet compared to the original show airing we are more than about 40 years ahead of the original series in time watching the still out of place High Water Pants. The High Water Pants strike the viewer as something out of place - perhaps something in the future.

In the pilot episode of the internet remake they travel back in time from the setting of the 21st century to the present day of the date of the first downloading for the pilot. Time Travel is a popular topic for the Science Fiction Genre. Technology is central to these time travel voyages and dilemmas central to the episode - how to resolve a time crisis started from unleashed technology of a doomsday device. The protagonists use technology that is of a lesser sophistication to eliminate a higher technology by using human intellect - also an aspect of science fiction is: the human intellect can triumph over a Man vs. Machine crisis. In the end of the pilot, of course, the key members of the 21st century space ship U.S.S. Enterprise return to their time from the past in time for the next episode much like an episode of the continuing drama of a Soap Opera Genre, by using the very same scary technology that brought about the Doomsday automation space ship from yet another possible future.

Star Trek as available for download over the internet contain symbols that propel the show already in a cult following and already in mythological status in to myth status is continuing on the use of symbol present in the set design containing buttons of an ambiguous nature. The buttons are not just an art form and we are left to interpret them from a post modernistic view of deconstructing a button but a symbol of what a button would be in the future and what it could be in the future as evidenced by the non labeling nature of the generic button itself and by the seemingly untrained personnel never knowing what button does what but somehow always pressing the right button – never a typographical error in the mythology of the future. We see a button as a symbol of the future and a genre and a myth in Star Trek. The actual second order of a time warping nature of the concept itself (a remake of a 1960s television show) in the pilot episode using the time travel narrative with the use of technology is a classic science fiction genre. Star Trek the New Voyages is a fun show in the category of Science Fiction genre and also a great myth for us I today’s world.
Dr. Newel

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