Could Star Trek and other science fiction works be used as a way to address major issues in society?

Proposal:

The last 50 years of human history have been plagued with issues ranging from racism to homophobia, but when media became more mainstream and movies and television became available worldwide, it brings the question could this mainstream media be a tool to address many of these issues. Many works of writing have influenced society, but television and movies give a visual perspective of the story and for many people, it was easier to understand and analyze.

Star Trek has been around since the 1960s and it has come a long way since its original series, but throughout the franchise, they have used episodes to address certain issues or use allegorical references to discuss certain topics. Tv and movies have become the modern outlet for science fiction and Star Trek and like many other works of science fiction, try to incorporate real-life situations and events Into their episodes or movie. For Example, in Star Trek white lead kissing a black woman was unheard of and like many other issues, Star Trek wanted to push the Barriers of race, religion, ethics, and science.

Sources:

Books, Photograph courtesy National Geographic, and Photograph courtesy CBS/National Geographic Books. ‘Star Trek’ Is Right About Almost Everything. 16 June 2016, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/06/star-trek-science-space-astronomy-technology-fazekas/.

Dunbar, Brian. “The Science of Star Trek.” NASA, NASA, 18 July 2016, www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/star_trek.htm

Halter, Casey. “8 Ways Star Trek Helped Change Science and the Future as We Know It.” SYFY WIRE, SYFY WIRE, 2 Jan. 2019, www.syfy.com/syfywire/8-ways-star-trek-helped-change-science-and-the-future-as-we-know-it.

One of the reasons people love space travel is because of the unknown element. While society is still even today at the beginning of space travel, there are still logistics to figure out and in this article, a discussion of the logistics of space travel is heavily talked about. This is important to the research paper because it further discusses how world-building in Star Trek has helped scientists even today create a plan for what to do if Humans were able to travel across the stars.

Howell, Elizabeth. “Star Trek: History & Effect on Space Technology.” Space.com, Space, 12 July 2018, www.space.com/31802-star-trek-space-tech.html.

This article focuses mainly on the first Star Trek series released in 1966, which is focused on space exploration and exploring new worlds. It discusses how much of the original show was also created as allegories to discuss the major issues in the 1960s. This is important to the paper because it goes into the social and cultural effects that this franchise has had on society as well as the need to explore space.

Kassé, Sam. “Worldbuilding in a Novel: 120+ World Building Questions to Get It Right.” Self Publishing School, 12 Nov. 2020, self-publishingschool.com/worldbuilding/.

This article dives into the techniques for world-building and how creating a fictional world is not a simple feat and requires excessive planning, but the harder issue is to expand a created world without creating plot holes or losing the theme of the fictional world. This article is helpful to this topic because it addresses the struggles in world-building and helps show how the Star Trek franchise has expanded successfully and maintained its theme of space exploration and united peace.

Mission. “A Look Into The Future: The Value of Science Fiction.” Medium, Mission.org, 12 Apr. 2019, medium.com/the-mission/a-look-into-the-future-the-value-of-science-fiction-3ac1519de7d9.

In this piece, they talk about the many great sayings of famous science fiction writers. For example, Issac Asimov said “No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is but the world as it will be.” This like much of the article addresses whether science fiction could be a tool to address major issues. This is important to the research paper because like many articles this helps uncover the true nature of science fiction and the relevance it has in everyday life.