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Star Trek: American Myth
by John Michlig
(First published in BOOMER COLLECTIBLES, 1996)
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Further Reading
INSIDE STAR TREK is now available in softcover at Amazon.com.
STAR TREK MOVIE MEMORIES, and STAR TREK MEMORIES are excellent for contrast and comparison.
Visit THE STAR TREK CONTINUUM for a healthful dip into Trek geekdom.
Back to THE GILL NET HOMEPAGE
Contact John Michlig
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Stephen E. Whitfield, listed as "co-author" of the highly influencial book THE MAKING OF STAR TREK, was the pen name of author STEPHEN POE. He succumbed after a long battle with leukemia on January 6, 2000. Read a nice remembrance here. |
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Can the voyages of the Starship Enterprise be looked upon as the basis for our generation's folklore? And, more importantly, how does Shatner's toupee work into all of this?
On my shelf is a book called Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth. You may remember a PBS series of the same name hosted by the consummate smart-guy-on-a-quest, Bill Moyers. The main thrust of the program and book was an ongoing conversation between Campbell and Moyers regarding the integral natures of folklore and myth throughout the history of human development. Chief among Campbell's theories was that of the "monomyth," the essence of all prescientific stories boiled down into one "lump of lore," so to speak. It goes like this: The heroic individual, after a period of study under an older, wiser mentor, leaves his environment for a journey where he faces many hardships, wins a battle against a sinister enemy, and, having received a burst of self discovery, emerges to save an ailing community.
Pretty much Star Wars. In fact, Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth. brings up the comparison again and again, making George Lucas appear to be heir to the mantles of Homer, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John-or simply a very tidy example of how pervasive "monomyth" themes are in the storytelling process. And while a generation of children and adults do indeed view the Star Wars trilogy as a sort of cultural myth, I have to doubt seriously that the simple storyline and themes contained therein were the only major contribution to its extraordinary success; if that were the case, countless Westerns would be residents of the top-grossers list. No, I'd have to say startling visuals, hardware and a simple good vs. evil plot made a much bigger impression on the audience-at-large than Campbellian issues like "hero's quest," "virgin birth" (who is Luke Skywalker's mother, anyway?) and "father quest."
So are we devoid of folklore and myth in our day and age? I would have to say CERTAINLY NOT. Further, I assert that we are a generation blessed with a richer myth than any campfire tale-teller or minstrel could have possibly conveyed.
Consider this: Our mythic touchstone and folklore fountain is...
...Star Trek.
While that conclusion is open to coffee house argumentation, I challenge anyone to name another television show, book (outside of the Bible), movie or idea that has entrenched itself so deeply into our society.
Batman? Superman? Not quite. However, DC Comics is currently exploring the concept of superheroes-as-folklore across their entire character palette in their 1996 series of Annuals, titled "LEGENDS OF THE DEAD EARTH" (DC Comics, $2.95 per issue). These stories are "What If"- or "Elseworld"-type tales told from the unifying perspective of the far future, as former residents and civilizations of a now-dead Earth recall-and relate with-their memories of celebrated heroes. This allows for some interesting reinterpretations based on perceptions altered by millennia: one future civilization reveres the Joker as good and noble and relates their legend of a Catwoman-Batman bandit team eventually brought to heel by the "Clown Prince of Justice"; an alien stumbles upon the holographic/telepathic projection of Superman's Kryptonian parents in a worshipped hunk of Earth soil (right where the Man of Steel himself buried the "Kryptonian education device" eons before after it threatened his sanity) and is deluded into believing that he is indeed the last son of Krypton; a wizened old derelict uses fables of the Bat-Man-a winged avenger who, with his sidekick Darkbird, hunts villains like the Mad Jester and Split-Face-to prepare the young people of domed New Gotham for their "passage" into adulthood via fascist City Chaperones. A very intriguing revisitation of classic characters in an era where comic writers are becoming more and more fixated with the concept of heroes as allegory; not "what does Batman do today," but "what does it mean to be Batman today-or tomorrow, or next century."
But I digress from the issue at hand.
My folklore argument on behalf of Star Trek isn't presented here just to accommodate a pretentious allusion to a fairly dull book. (Point in fact, my bookmark got stuck on page 156 of The Power of Myth about six years ago and hasn't budged an inch since.) No, I aim to make a case for the regularity with which Trek pops up in this column.
So I say again: Star Trek has become folklore and myth for our generation.
As a Catholic (lapsed) and child of the television age (still practicing), I know quite a bit about myth-building and folklore. The former and latter require healthy doses of ritual and repetition; just as story-tellers among hunters and gatherers in the African plains kept the flood myth alive for generations through constant re-tellings, syndicated television of the late '60s and early '70s assured daily doses of the Trek gospel for our young impressionable minds. In the third grade I couldn't recite the ten commandments even under threat of nun-perfected punishments, but I could rattle off the Prime Directive and Articles of the Federation with no difficulty. In fifth grade I didn't know who would be the new Chief Executive if the President and Vice President were to simultaneously burst a vital blood vessel in their respective brains; I did know, however, who got to sit in the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise given the exit from the bridge of any combination of Kirk-on-down personnel.
More than a mere television show. More than a marketing juggernaut. More than convention fodder. Tales told and re-told so often that Salt Vampires and Klingons are as mythical as Sirens and Unicorns.
TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO (!) my friends and I ran around the playground with cardboard facsimiles of phasers and communicators. We stood stock-still on sewer grates, made the BBBBBRRRRZZZZ sound, and quickly ran to another location-BBBBBRRRRZZZZ-ing all the way-to finish the beaming down process. A quarter century later, "Beam me up" is still a buzzword and Playmates Toys markets life-size light-and-sound phasers and communicators.
James T. Kirk was our heroic ideal. An attractive woman appears; naturally, you seduce her. NATURALLY. This approach to the fairer sex is sorely dated, but I quote Joseph Campbell from page 134 of The Power of Myth; "The public hero is sensitive to the needs of his time." Other basic tenants are more timeless; We learned that any problem can be overcome by a man with the courage of his convictions and cool black boots. The rights of individuals should be guarded and upheld. Exploring is good. Science is good. Women should wear as little as possible.
A few months back a Star Trek convention came to town. I didn't go to the event (keeping my non-attendance streak alive), but at about the same time William Shatner was checking his watch during the Q & A section of his appearance before the faithful in a hotel meeting room, I found myself picking up a copy of INSIDE STAR TREK: THE REAL STORY (by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman, 458 pgs. Pocket Books, $30).
There have been a rash of books purporting to relate the backstage workings of Trek, but INSIDE STAR TREK gets to the meat of the matter due to the impeccable credentials of its authors. Robert Justman worked as a producer on Trek from the very beginning, and Herb Solow had the unique vantage point of VP of Production for Desilu Studios, meaning he oversaw everything from development through sales and into day-to-day production.
Is this the "real story?" I'd have to say INSIDE STAR TREK is as close as it gets-most certainly miles ahead of Shatner's "Memories" books in terms of straight-ahead facts. Let's face it, most of the entertainment value in reading Shatner's accounts of the Trek years lay in his transparent ego-driven agenda (while remaining charming throughout). Solow and Justman, beholden to no one, leave no stone unturned. Justman relates a particularly stinging encounter with Shatner wherein the actor complains that his costume is shrinking, when, in fact, it's his expanding waistline that's causing his shirt hem to head north while the waistband moves south. Justman goes on to explain matter-of-factly that Shatner's posture suffered as a result of the lifts he wore to "attain his full advertised height of 5'11''."
My gaze shifted to his hairline. Examining bald actors' hairlines was a habit I'd picked up over the years. The "lace" that anchored the front of his toupee glistened. I made a mental note to tell the makeup man about it before we filmed Shatner again.
Call it payback. In Shatner's "Memories" book, he gallingly applies condescending parentheses to the title of Justman's co-author Solow ("....so now Herb Solow, Desilu's 'executive in charge of production,' comes down to the stage, and we sat in my dressing room having this ridiculous conversation..."). This affront is related in an anecdote portraying Shatner fighting the good fight for his co-star Nimoy (describing "the studio's paranoid unwillingness to deal with the growing popularity of Spock and the man who played him.") Unfortunately for the revisionist historian Shatner, Solow and Justman managed to keep copies of memos and letters-many reproduced in INSIDE STAR TREK in their original form-which serve to illuminate the subject under a much more plausible light: Shatner, like many actors before and since him, resented the building hype around his co-star and made that feeling known in no uncertain terms.
And then there's Gene Roddenberry. "The Great Bird of the Galaxy" does not fare well here; co-authors Justman and Solow make it a point to illustrate Roddenberry's halting, mumbling speaking style each time they quote him ("Whenever my...ahhh...wife calls and I'm with...ahh...Majel, tell Eileen I'm...ahhh...not here, that I'm at a meeting at NBC or...ahhh...at a screening or...ahhh...at a business lunch off the lot or something."), produce persuasive documents debunking the "Save Star Trek" campaign myth (including an expense voucher wherein Roddenberry actually BILLED THE STUDIO for $977.12 in bumper stickers, t-shirts, press gifts and air fare for a "Wanda Kendall," all toward saving his own show), amplify a sense of lecherousness that had been hinted at before in other examinations of the man (a pure sexual opportunist who saw each female cast member as an opportunity for casting couch sessions; also, see above under "mumbling speaking style"), and reports his zeal for hemp ("There's...ahhh... nothing wrong with 'grass,' Bob. You ought to try some.")
Roddenberry's horniness and ability to "roll his own" pale next to his loose grip on creative ethics. Having hatched the concept, he felt no compunction at claiming credit for EVERYTHING attached to Star Trek. Particularly shameful was his addition of "lyrics" to Alexander Courage's stirring title music. Adding couplets like "I know he'll find in star clustered reaches/ Love strange, love a star woman teaches" did more than simply further elucidate Roddenberry's women-as-accessory view of the cosmos; it co-opted for him a full HALF of Courage's royalty. It's fitting that, in the end, his astounding  ego (based on ONE success in television) and "grab every nickel" methodology ended a promising plan to resurrect Trek in 1973. (And, yes, Roddenberry's specious "contributor" credit on The Making of Star Trek got him half of the royalties on that book.)
THE REAL STORY isn't all about dishing dirt, though. As seen through Justman and Solow's eyes-by far the most credible viewpoints to date regarding the original Trek production-this examination of the overwhelming logistics, business and art involved in getting a television show on the air makes Trek's current folklore status all the more amazing. The fact that Trek remains so ingrained into our collective consciousness in spite of the frailties of its creators and actors is also a tribute to the strength of the concept and the power of the performances.
As a wise man---NOT William Campbell---once said; trust the art, not the artist. Thanks to that caveat, we'll be merrily debating the value of the Prime Directive well into the next century.
(c) 2001 John Michlig
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