MeinMMO editor Nikolas Hernes has never seen Star Trek; to him, it always looked a bit trash
. He also had no interest in the series, but a friend forced him to watch a specific episode.
Although my father is a big Star Trek fan, the franchise has always been uninteresting to me. Even though the series have little in common, I long thought that Star Trek was just the cheap version of Star Wars. It didn’t look as good, I found the tight-fitting costumes a bit silly, and there are countless series and films, which made researching them turn me off.
However, a good friend insisted that I check it out. The series is humanistic and has a positive tone. For months he bugged me about a specific episode. I should just watch The Measure of a Man (in German Who Owns Data?
), and after that, I would understand why Star Trek is so fascinating.
What is the episode about? The episode belongs to Starship Enterprise: The Next Generation and is the 9th episode of the 2nd season. Even the author of Game of Thrones helped in the creation of the episode.
The android Data is to be disassembled and examined by a scientist, but he refuses. The question arises whether and what decision-making power Data has over his own body.
At first, I thought it was going in the direction of What can AI do? What is its purpose?
But it was quite different. I was fascinated and excited.
An optimistic view in not-so-optimistic times
How was the episode? Although the set design and the somewhat theater-like acting did not quite meet my taste, I quickly found the basic premise quite interesting. Although Data is artificial intelligence, it is much more about his freedom as an individual in a large construct.
He is different from other crew members and does not understand some human traits, but throughout the episode, it is repeatedly clarified that he does indeed develop emotions. He does not show them like a normal human, but within him lie memories and connections to other people.
Even though I did not know the characters, I was invested in the trial concerning Data. This trial quickly shifted from his function as an android to the question: What qualifies a human to be a thinking being?
This is still a relevant topic today, and the execution worked for me without problems.
What I liked most was the overall atmosphere. The theme is treated in a deeply human way; there is always a certain optimism involved, and even the slightly exaggerated dialogues fit well. Amid the seemingly only bad news these days, it was a great and pleasant change.
My friend described the core idea of Star Trek as: The tomorrow can be better
and just after one episode, I can completely understand it.
What is your favorite and which Star Trek movies and series can you recommend? Feel free to write it in the comments. Also, MeinMMO author Linda ventured into the world of Star Trek in 2023, but with a comedy series: I have never watched Star Trek, but I found ‘Lower Decks’ amazing
Even the villain of the episode is not fundamentally demonized. Data shakes his hand and wants to help him with research in the future.
I was a fool: Star Trek and Star Wars have hardly any similarities
I can only speak for the one episode, but Star Trek is something completely different. In Star Wars, one can argue that it is not really a science fiction film, but the philosophical approaches of this episode fit the genre.
Sci-fi works often pose philosophical questions and deal with what it means to be human. Star Wars has many adventure elements, with political ones in the prequels, but the concept of Human
is not questioned or analyzed.
Both have a completely different approach, but both simply have a Star
in their name. Star Wars depicts a conflict between two parties that never ends, but Measure of a Man
is not only a human story; it is deeply optimistic and made me think.
My friend described the core idea of Star Trek as: The tomorrow can be better
and just after one episode, I can completely understand it.
What is your favorite and which Star Trek movies and series can you recommend? Feel free to write it in the comments. Also, MeinMMO author Linda ventured into the world of Star Trek in 2023, but with a comedy series: I have never watched Star Trek, but I found ‘Lower Decks’ amazing
