In his 1999 essay “Welcome Aboard the Enterprise”, science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer writes, “…the ship’s computers, as seen in ‘The Ultimate Computer’, were designed by a Nobel-prize-winning black cyberneticist, played with equal dignity by William Marshall. During the era of Martin Luther King and the Watts Riots, it was a powerful, important statement to have the white captain of the Enterprise deferring to black people; as Marshall observed thirty years later, the single most significant thing about his guest-starring role was that he, an African-American, was referred to as ‘Sir’ throughout the episode.”
This is the kind of thing I need to refer to anyone who says something about the “wokeness” of Nu-Trek like Star Trek has never been “woke.” (And God do I hate that fucking word; my whole body tensed up just writing it. Twice!)
I guess I feel like that particular trope is not evidence of a lack of creativity. It’s just one of those standards I’ve come to expect from sci-fi TV in general going back decades. It’s like how almost every sci-fi series seems to have to have an episode where everyone switches bodies.
And honestly, I can’t think of any Star Trek show which didn’t have at least one ‘AI goes crazy’ episode, especially if you stretch ‘AI’ to mean ‘holodeck creation that has human intelligence,’ which I would.
Funny you mentioned body switching. I was tempted to do a venn diagram where SNW and Prodigy both had “Freaky Friday” episodes. Too much work to fill out the rest of the chart.
Also, I’m reading the IMDB page on The Ultimate Computer and it looks like the LD episode was intentional with that trope:
The Stars at Night (2022) pays homage to this episode with the plot theme of crewless starships controlled by artificial intelligence, going haywire and firing on friendly forces. Also, images of Admiral Buenamigo’s control console for his Texas-class starships bear a strong resemblance to the M-5’s control console.
That, I understand. Most of what they do is in honor of what came before. Having Shelby, of all people, sign off on the fleet formation is entirely uncharacteristic.
You forgot kind of a big one. There’s a reason why the name Daystrom is used in a lot of Trek…
I should watch that episode for tips on building my next gaming rig… 🤔
One of the best TOS episodes.
Edit: Oh nice, just read this on the IMDB-
This is the kind of thing I need to refer to anyone who says something about the “wokeness” of Nu-Trek like Star Trek has never been “woke.” (And God do I hate that fucking word; my whole body tensed up just writing it. Twice!)
Do you know the origins of the term?
Do you know the origin of the swastika?
Sure, but I was restricting myself to the modern era’s lack of creativity. 2 fleets controlled by AI, multiple androids, etc.
I guess I feel like that particular trope is not evidence of a lack of creativity. It’s just one of those standards I’ve come to expect from sci-fi TV in general going back decades. It’s like how almost every sci-fi series seems to have to have an episode where everyone switches bodies.
And honestly, I can’t think of any Star Trek show which didn’t have at least one ‘AI goes crazy’ episode, especially if you stretch ‘AI’ to mean ‘holodeck creation that has human intelligence,’ which I would.
Funny you mentioned body switching. I was tempted to do a venn diagram where SNW and Prodigy both had “Freaky Friday” episodes. Too much work to fill out the rest of the chart.
Also, I’m reading the IMDB page on The Ultimate Computer and it looks like the LD episode was intentional with that trope:
That, I understand. Most of what they do is in honor of what came before. Having Shelby, of all people, sign off on the fleet formation is entirely uncharacteristic.
There are very few sci-fi shows that don’t do the Freaky Friday thing at least once if they’re on the air long enough.