Tuesday, August 30, 2011

What's the story about?

I've been watching some of the original Star Trek series with my kids lately. My sons love it and my daughter enjoys some aspects as well. For example, she likes that girls can run starships too.
Anyway, I think one of the great things about The Original Series (TOS) was how each story was metaphorical or based on some social commentary. Some of these themes were even timeless, but we loved seeing Kirk, Spock and McCoy tackle them each week.
What are some good themes to base stories on?
  • Racism is bad and dangerous.
  • Unregulated Medical experimentation is bad
  • There is no shortcut to beauty
  • Beauty is only skin deep
  • Bad guys are often misunderstood
  • Power corrupts
  • Even a luxurious prison is still a prison
  • Lands can be conquered by force, but ideas cannot
  • People need other people
  • Even a well-intentioned corrupt government is not a good thing
  • Immortality is unachievable and sometimes dangerous to chase
  • Exploration and travel is a good way to learn how to accept others
  • People should be given a second chance, but sometimes not a third
  • Sometimes people change
  • Sometimes people give the appearance of change, but are still just as rotten
  • Vengeance is not healthy
  • Sometimes we define ourselves by who our enemies are and we'll do anything to make sure they stay enemies
Just some ideas to start a story. Most of the great ones, if you boiled them down to "what is it about" can be summarized in a quick sentence like this.

4 comments:

  1. great post, its funny you are having a star trek family moment... i just took part in a trek-blog-a-thon, that you might find interesting... here is the link to those involved.

    http://elliegarratt.blogspot.com/2011/07/star-trek-as-we-know-it-blogfest-august.html

    i recently went to the chicago comic con and got bumped into by patrick stewart as he was being ushered to the stage..

    good times!
    jeremy

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  2. That is awesome about Patrick Stewart. I am checking out the link right now!

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  3. I love all five of your "top five" moments. I loved Star Trek (2009). I might not have thought to make it into the top 5, but it will be now. Had I done the list, I am not sure what I would have done differently. I loved Best of Both Worlds. I also lived "Wrath of Khan" (bringing back events from the show...too cool) and I loved "First Contact". There were some episodes of DS9 I enjoyed, especially once the Dominion War started. I was so thrilled when the show "Enterprise" came out as well. I wish it had done better.
    ...and Jeri Ryan...Va Va Voom!

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  4. true there are so many great moments in the star trek world, it is tough to pick just a couple... always teaching us about how we should be, not how were are... never got into ds9 until they left the station and traveled away. enterprise was something i started and stopped watching. it just didn't pull me in. the movies in their own right were good, even the first one. i agree the stronger ones like khan and first contact among them.

    i had a thought which made the show enterprise and the star trek [2009] possible from the way first contact happened. as soon as they landed and interacted with the past it changed the level of progress in the ships and technology... they saw how it was and let their minds think beyond what they were thinking without limitations. now this would have changed all of the ideas of the shows to fit the upgrade, but we only see it in the few shows and movies.

    jeremy

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