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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

& Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools

Bc. Ondřej Harnušek

Another Frontier: The Religion of Star Trek Master‘s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph. D.

2015

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

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Author‘s signature

Acknowledgements

There are many people, who would deserve my thanks for this work being completed, but I am bound to omit someone unintentionally, for which I deeply apologise in advance. My thanks naturally goes to my family, with whom I used to watch Star Trek every day, for their eternal support and understanding; to my friends, namely and especially to Vítězslav Mareš for proofreading and immense help with the historical background, Miroslav Pilař for proofreading, Viktor Dvořák for suggestions, all the classmates and friends for support and/or suggestions, especially

Lenka Pokorná, Kristina Alešová, Petra Grünwaldová, Melanie King, Tereza

Pavlíková and Blanka Šustrová for enthusiasm and cheering. I want to thank to all the creators of ―Memory Alpha‖, a wiki-based web-page, which contains truly encyclopaedic information about Star Trek and from which I drew almost all the quantifiable data like numbers of the episodes and their air dates. I also want to thank to Christina M. Luckings for her page of ST transcripts, which was a great help. A huge, sincere thank you goes to Jeff A. Smith, my supervisor, and an endless source of useful materials, suggestions and ideas, which shaped this thesis, and were the primary cause that it was written at all. A big thank you goes to everybody involved in

Star Trek – creators, actors, the crews and many more – but especially to those, who cannot hear my thanks anymore. These are James Doohan (goodbye, Scotty, now you‘ve hopefully got all the Scotch you can drink!), DeForest Kelley (yes, Bones, I know you are a doctor, not an academic), and to the quite recently deceased Leonard

Nimoy (whom I expect to be searched for, found and revived by William Shatner in a few years, so that he can live long and prosper again). And there is one person I could not omit, even if I tried really hard, and that is Gene Roddenberry, the founder of and the mastermind behind Star Trek. So thanks, Gene, even if it is also in memoriam; you

believed in a better future for humanity, may your faith not be misinterpreted or forgotten, and may your dreams come true one day.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ...... 3 1. Introduction ...... 6 1.1 Referencing to the Episodes ...... 9 1.2 The Story of Star Trek, a Brief Summary ...... 9 2. Cultural-historical Background ...... 15 2.1 The 1960s ...... 15 2.2 The 1980s and The Next Generation ...... 19 2.3 The 1990s and Onwards – Deep Space Nine and Voyager ...... 20 2.4 Star Trek as a Religion ...... 22 3. Exploration of the Episodes ...... 25 3.1 Apotheosis of Humankind ...... 28 3.1.1 Demiurges and Creators ...... 28 3.1.2 Genetic Manipulation ...... 32 3.1.3 The Prime Directive – Law and Order in Starfleet ...... 35 3.2 The ―New‖ Religion ...... 36 3.3 Human Rituals ...... 49 3.4 False Gods ...... 52 3.4.1 Old Earth Mythology ...... 53 3.4.2 Self-Proclaimed Gods ...... 60 3.4.3 Q ...... 70 4. Conclusion ...... 79

1. Introduction

6 serials counting 715 episodes – not taking the pilot ―The Cage‖ into consideration – in 30 series, 12 films, dozens of books, comic books, plethora of fan art and fan fiction, millions of official and unofficial merchandise items, video games, all the material ―artefacts‖ and much, much more together constitutes the widespread phenomenon called Star Trek that

– without any hyperbole – became the meaning of life to not an insignificant group of people.

According to Dwayne A. Day, many astronauts pursued their careers in NASA because they watched Star Trek, and that in today‘s world of various global media, there ―never will again be, a single powerful entertainment or event that will positively inspire the young in large numbers‖ (Day). Originally a single TV show created by the late Gene Roddenberry, it has grown into a gargantuan genre of its own, which inspired many people. Its main focus and perpetual, continuous idea and theme is the basic, relentless human need to explore, discover, and gain new knowledge. Since its birth, viewers could follow every week the space voyages of the starship Enterprise, and accompany it on its mission ―to explore strange new worlds,

[…] to seek out new life and new civilisations‖ as could be heard in the opening credits of every episode of the first three series (TOS, TAS, and TNG). But far from being an obscure

TV serial to fit only the tastes of impractical geeks, lazy lowbrow lowlifes and other outsiders and weirdoes, it provides a multifaceted range of themes and problems that allegorically mirror real problems of our everyday lives, and address political, cultural, and legal issues which, stripped off of the sci-fi universe camouflage, are serious and topical dilemmas that are anything but simple. ST‘s appeal is not, therefore, exclusively for the weak-minded and desperate geeks and sci-fi fans, just because it is a vast fantasy, which takes place in outer space, because the setting is not the point of the serials.

The aim of this thesis is to explore how Star Trek deals with the question of religion, and to trace a singular, particular religious message that would weave all the series and films

together. It would be an overstatement to claim that this thesis boldly goes where no work has gone before, but even though it does not deal with an entirely new topic, it wishes to offer a different perspective and ask the question whether the cultural phenomenon known as Star

Trek projects a single (or multiple) religious message(s) and what the message(s) is(are). Star

Trek is teeming with religions and religious themes, but not always are they the central topics of various episodes; they are usually a part of the background of various Star Trek races or they work as the defining features of the races – the Vulcan Logic, the Klingon belief in the ancient warrior qeyliS (Kahless), the Ferengi devotion to acquisition of wealth and the afterlife in the presence of the Divine Treasury, and the like. However, humans do not seem to subscribe to any particular religion and their viewpoint can be seen when looking at their reactions towards other religions and their practitioners. What the religion of Star Trek can be defined as, is not an inclusive definition – saying what it is – as it is rather an exclusive definition – making sure everybody sees what it is not by showing what views it rejects. The approach itself is an analysis of various episodes of all of Star Trek‘s series and exploring how religion is portrayed there, what reaction the main protagonists have to religions and all the various self-proclaimed ―gods‖, and looking for a religion, which humans in Star Trek do follow. Some of the individual episodes are sometimes extreme in their polar-opposite comments on religion which makes it particularly difficult to decipher any unified ―belief‖

Star Trek manages to project and give to the viewers. It is also that some series seem to project slightly different religious views than others, or that some deal with religion more than others, but this is to be expected – the differences in when the individual series were made, the cultural background and the then current state of affairs had significant impact on this, as well as the fact that various series and episodes were written and directed by various people.

Kraemer accounts for the inconsistency explaining it as a result of different people writing different episodes and series:

After Roddenberry‘s death in 1991, the producers and writers began to

offer richer and more complex representations of religious practices,

beliefs, and worldviews, most extensively in the cosmic religious drama

that Deep Space Nine became. Whereas Roddenberry and the Original

Series writers envisioned the United Federation of Planets as largely devoid

of religion—religion being an attribute of primitive, prescientific

―others‖—the writers and producers of Deep Space Nine and Voyager seem

to kindle a kind of religious revival. In the twenty-fourth century of the

latter two series, religion can still be the province of the ―Other,‖ but they

have begun to encroach much more upon the ―us‖ of Starfleet. Yet even the

later shows never stray too far from Roddenberry‘s humanistic faith in

human free will and the salvific nature of dispassionate scientific inquiry

(11).

Although this seems to explain why the rift in the takes on religion exists, it does not at all justify it when one strives to take a holistic look on Star Trek. The thesis then takes all these factors into consideration and embed all the series also in the cultural and historical contexts of the times when they were created.

The subsequent chapters first deal with the cultural-historical background underlying the time when the various series were created, and it is shown how Star Trek as a phenomenon can be seen as a religion in its own right. Then the various religious topics addressed in Star Trek are explored and discussed through ST‘s episodes with these questions in mind: Does the story endorse, accept, or wishes to indoctrinate the viewers with the religious views presented? What is the message and is there an intention to spread a religious belief or a vision? What religious, moral and ideological views does it reject or show in a bad light? Each of the films and episodes usually has its own moral and its own ideas it explores

in isolation – within the narrative of the given episode/film. However, this does not mean that the morals are not connected, and this thesis provides with making the links visible and the overall messages apparent.

1.1 Referencing to the Episodes

The following is a uniting key to understanding the referring to ST series and episodes in this thesis. If Star Trek as a whole of the TV and cinematic production is talked about, it is called either Star Trek (not to be confused with Star Trek (1979), the film), ―ST‖, ―the show‖, or ―the phenomenon‖. The serial The Original Series (1966–1969) will from now onwards be written as ―TOS‖, The Animated Series (1973–1974) as ―TAS‖, The Next Generation (1987–

1994) as ―TNG‖, Deep Space Nine (1993–1999) as ―DS9‖, Voyager (1995–2001) as ―VOY‖, and Enterprise (2001–2005) as ―ENT‖. Any of the 12 films will be referred to by its respective name with the year of its release. If an episode is introduced, it is always in the following pattern: X YxZ: ―Q‖, where ―X‖ stands for one of the above mentioned names of the series (TOS, TAS, VOY…), ―Y‖ for the number of the season where the episode was aired, ―Z‖ for the number of the episode in the season, and ―Q‖ for the actual name of the episode given in quotation marks, for example: TNG 02x12: ―The Royale‖ means ―the twelfth episode of the second season of ‗The Next Generation‘ series called ‗The Royale‘‖.

1.2 The Story of Star Trek, a Brief Summary

Here follows the briefest possible summary of the whole of ST, which also includes information about the cast of the main protagonists, the dates when each of the shows ran, and notable producers of the serials. The dates of each of the shows‘ runs are taken from the

―Memory Alpha‖ database.

Star Trek‘s fictional universe is based on the real one. History of humankind in ST is identical with the history we know today until the 1960‘s. Towards the end of the 20th century, the Earth found itself in World War III and the ripples of the conflict continued to the

year 2063, when Zefram Cochrane built the first spaceship with warp drive, the technology allowing a ship to travel ―faster than light‖. His first flight was noticed by an advanced, peaceful extra-terrestrial race called the Vulcans, 1 who helped to raise humanity from the wreckage of their after-war existence (Star Trek: First Contact (1996)).

In the light of those events, humans of the Earth finally united into one nation and the exploration of the outer space began. This was the setting for ENT, which, although produced the last, chronologically takes place before all the other ST serials. The first famous Captain,

Jonathan Archer (played by Scott Bakula), commanded the starship Enterprise NX-01. He and his companions, the Vulcan Science Officer T‘Pol (Jolene Blalock), Chief Engineer

Charles ―Trip‖ Tucker III (Connor Trinneer), Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating),

Hoshi Sato, the xenolinguist and Communications Officer (Linda Park), Ensign Travis

Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery), and the extra-terrestrial Doctor Phlox (John Billingsley) were the first to go on their five-year mission to explore the galaxy around them. They and their spaceworthy2 Enterprise were drawn into a ―Temporal War‖, which was waged by humans from a distant future and many races with feuds with the said future humans. The last episode of ENT depicts the founding of the United Federation of Planets, a union consisting of the Earth, Vulcan, Andoria and many other planets. ENT‘s run was significantly shorter than the rest since it spanned only 4 series instead of the usual 7. It ran from 26th September

2001 to 13th May 2005 and its executive producers were Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and

Manny Coto.

About a hundred years later began the voyages of USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), the first one to make appearance on television – in TOS. The Federation was already a well- established and working union spanning many worlds. The exploration of the outer space was handled by Starfleet, which in almost every aspect resembles the US Navy, only this time the

1 Vulcans achieved their advanced society by supressing their emotions, thus becoming purely logical beings. 2 Capable of travelling through space. 10

ships float in space, and it is both science and military oriented – although all of the Starfleet missions are primarily peaceful, the ships are equipped with weapons and shields to defend themselves.

Apart from making great discoveries, the Enterprise also engages in battles and diplomatic missions. The arch enemies are Klingons, a belligerent race of deceitful humanoids, and also Romulans, who are evolutionally related to Vulcans and who live beyond the Neutral Zone – an area in space, which is to be avoided by the Federation; entering the Neutral Zone would mean a declaration of war.

The Enterprise was commanded by Captain James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner), piloted by Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) and Pavel Andreievich Chekov (Walter Koenig). The half-Vulcan Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy) always offered the logical solution to various situations and led endless arguments with the cynical Doctor Leonard ―Bones‖ McCoy

(DeForest Kelley). Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) was in charge of communications and Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) made the best Chief Engineer in the galaxy by fulfilling the Captain‘s most impossible wishes, sometimes involving changing the laws of physics. TOS was the creation of Gene Roddenberry, who was also its executive producer. It ran from 8th September 1966 to 3rd June 1969. The continuation of the Enterprise‘s missions can be found in TAS, which was also created and produced by Roddenberry. It ran from 8th

September 1973 to 12th October 1974.

The years after the Enterprise‘s first missions were captured in the first six classical films where the original and gradually aging crew underwent more dangers. Mr Spock died

(Wrath of Khan (1982)), was revived again, but during the rescue Klingons killed Kirk‘s son,

(The Search for Spock (1984)) for which he never really found the capacity to forgive them.

However, after a few years, the Federation finally opened diplomatic negotiations with the

Klingon Empire, which led to better understanding and cooperation (Undiscovered Country

(1991)). A few years later after that, the crew finally retired and Kirk was believed to have died in the engineering section of the ship Enterprise-B, killed by an energetic anomaly in space.

Almost a hundred years afterwards, the Enterprise-D commanded by Captain Jean-

Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) goes for another mission of exploration. His First Officer, the capable Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and the ship‘s empathic half-human, half-Betazoid Counsellor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) spent years of trying to understand their relationship until they finally got married (Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)). The crew had two unusual officers, Lieutenant-Commander Data (Brent Spiner), who was an android – a humanoid robot doing his best to understand humans and to become as human as possible – and Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn), who was a Klingon. He took the post of the Security

Officer after the former one, Natasha Yar (Denise Crosby) was killed. The ship‘s Doctor,

Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), took care both of the health of the crew, and of her son,

Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), a Starfleet Cadet. The Chief Engineer was the sight-impaired

Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), who wore a visor, which helped him see even more bands of wavelengths than humans can.

This time period was captured in TNG, which showed political and social status quo in the galaxy at large and often deliberately dealt with controversial social topics. The crew did not only explore the universe, but also their personal relationships were brought more to the front – their individuality was stressed. Klingons were not exactly the Federation‘s allies, but their relations were less hostile and more diplomatic than before. Romulans were still a lurking threat and the Neutral Zone was still where it had been. The Enterprise encountered a race of mighty cyborgs calling themselves the Borg. They assimilated (transformed into a cyborg) every lifeform they found and they were able to adapt to any weapon, which made them formidable enemies, who almost destroyed all of humanity during a long war against the

Federation. During this event, Picard was briefly assimilated and carried the experience with him till the rest of his life. The executive producer of TNG was initially Roddenberry, but after his death, Rick Berman and Michael Piller took the charge. It ran from 28th September

1987 to 23rd May 1994.

During the Enterprise‘s continuing mission, the station Deep Space Nine around the planet Bajor was secured and run by the Starfleet Commander, later Captain, Benjamin Sisko

(Avery Brooks) and his second in command, the Bajoran Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor). The station was situated near a stable wormhole leading to a different and very distant part of the galaxy, the Gamma Quadrant. Bajor‘s inhabitants saw the wormhole as the Celestial Temple of their gods, the Prophets – beings which actually did exist inside the wormhole. Sisko was believed by the Bajorans to be the Emissary of the Prophets, because, exactly according to their prophecy, he was the one who discovered the wormhole. However, on the other side of it reigned the Dominion, a great interstellar empire ruled by the Founders, a race of ruthless changelings.

The Federation found itself waging war against the Dominion, and other planets also understood the danger of Dominion winning – that is why Klingons came to help the

Federation in its fight. The galactic politics came to the front with more superpowers gaining weight and scheming against one another – the Cardassians, former occupants of Bajor, had their agendas as well as the Romulans, who wove their plots to gain more power.

Meanwhile on Bajor, the old prophecies were being fulfilled, the enemies of the

Prophets, the Pah-wraiths, appeared after thousands of years in an attempt to take over the wormhole. However all ended well both on the front of the religious battle of good and evil, and in the war against the Dominion, thanks to the bravery and actions of Sisko, Kira, Doctor

Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), Miles O‘Brian (Colm Meaney) Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), the changeling and Security Officer Odo (René Auberjonois), Jake Sisko, Benjamin‘s son

(Cirroc Lofton), and even Quark (Armin Shimerman), the Ferengi businessman and bar- owner on the station. DS9‘s executive producers were Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Ira

Steven Behr, and it ran from 3rd January 1993 to 2nd June 1999.

During the events on Deep Space Nine, the energetic anomaly, which supposedly killed Kirk, appeared again and Picard, having been drawn inside it, met Kirk there. The two of them saved millions of lives, during which operation Kirk was finally killed (Star Trek VII:

Generations (1994)).

A few years afterwards, a different anomaly sent the starship Voyager across the galaxy into the Delta Quadrant where it was stranded. This happened during their fight with the Maquis, a terrorist organisation including the Native American Commander Chakotay

(Robert Beltran) and the half-Klingon B‘Elanna Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson), who later became the members of the Voyager‘s crew. VOY is Odyssey in outer space3 where the crew has to struggle with dozens of hardships lying in their long way home. Even at the highest speed, the voyage is estimated to take approximately seventy years. They encountered many antagonistic races and even had to fight the Borg. They saved one of them and incorporated her into their crew – Seven of Nine, formerly Annika Hansen (Jeri Ryan).

After seven years, the Voyager finally got home thanks to Captain Janeway‘s (Kate

Mulgrew) future self, who came back in time to get Voyager home sooner. She did so mainly because she wanted to alter the past to destroy the Borg, to save the lives of some of the crew members who did not survive the trip, and the sanity of her Vulcan Science Officer Tuvok

(Tim Russ). The ship was steered by Lieutenant Tom Paris (Robert Duncan MacNeill),

B‘Elanna‘s later lover, other bridge duties were done by a friend of his, Ensign Harry Kim

(Garrett Wang). Voyager did not have only one unusual crew member; in their own term, it had four of them – Seven, the ever-nameless4 holographic Doctor (Robert Picardo), and two

3 Pun not intended. 4 After 33 years of trying to find one, he actually did pick a name: Joe. 14

Delta Quadrant natives, Neelix (Ethan Phillips), who became the ship‘s chef, and Kes

(Jennifer Lien). The show ran from 16th January 1995 to 23rd May 2001 and was created by

Berman and Piller, but also by Jeri Taylor and Brannon Braga – all these people and Kenneth

Biller had, at one point, the title of executive producer of the serial.

The last canonical events of ST include Romulans finally being inclined to become the Federation‘s allies, and the death of Data, who sacrificed himself to save the crew of the

Enterprise, and ultimately the rest of the galaxy from a dangerous biogenic weapon and its wielders (Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)). 2. Cultural-historical Background

It is good to think about ST as a product of the time and place when and where it was created. Therefore, exploring the status quo of the historical periods when each of the serials were created (TOS in 1960s, TNG in 1980s, and DS9 and VOY in 1990s) can explain quite a bit about the serials‘ general view of certain matters. The specific historical data, if not indicated otherwise, were taken from Alan Brinkley‘s The Unfinished Nation, A Concise

History of the American People.

2.1 The 1960s

In 1966, the first episodes of ST were aired with the, now legendary, introductory speech: ―Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five- year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man5 has gone before.‖ During the 60‘s, the Berlin Wall – which certainly bears some resemblance with the Neutral Zone between the Federation and Romulans – was erected and the Vietnam War started. But the USA was also a place of positive changes brought about by several civil rights movements, namely the one of Martin Luther King Jr.,

5 The word ―man‖ was gradually changed over the Star Trek films into ―one‖, and since TNG the final, now gender-neutral line reads: ―where no one has gone before.‖ 15

and government programmes like ―New Frontier‖ of J. F. Kennedy‘s administration and

―Great society‖ of Lyndon Johnson‘s administration. At the time when ST was on television,

Americans did not yet realise how excited they would feel after having sent human beings –

Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‗Buzz‘ Aldrin, and Michael Collins – to the Earth‘s only natural satellite after Star Trek predicted that space travel would become commonplace. It would almost seem as a confirmation of this message of progress and hope. The viewers could follow the Enterprise‘s fantastic voyages, and admire the heroism of the crew – these six brave people roamed the galaxy with dozens of soldiers in red shirts6, doing their best to accomplish their mission, spreading their ideals and trying to learn as much about the universe as possible.

The show came in a time when there were many tensions in the American society, and offered a vision of better days to come. It did so not only by showing the bright future, but by making allegorical allusions to the contemporary problems. But even if one does not strive to look for metaphors and allegories in ST, the message of a better future, where there is peace on Earth and where everyone is equal, is clear: the Captain is from Iowa, McCoy is American,

Uhura is African (and a woman), Sulu is Japanese American, Chekov is Russian, Scotty is a

Scott and Spock is a half-extra-terrestrial. The only thing, which stratifies the crew, is the military rank of every one of them, but nobody in Starfleet gives weight to the race, skin colour or sex of a Starfleet officer; they approach these individuals according to their rank and position. There is a famous breakthrough scene in TOS 3x12: ―Plato‘s Stepchildren‖, where

Kirk (played by William Shatner) kisses Uhura (played by Nichelle Nichols), and it is famous because it is believed to be the first scene ever to appear on television where two people

(humans) of different races kissed. The initial plan, which would not have such an impact,

6 Today, the word ―redshirt‖ is widely recognised and refers to a member of the army of dispensable soldiers, which Enterprise hosted in great numbers. When a landing party, consisting of four main protagonists and one nameless or never-before-seen ensign in red uniform, was beaming down to a planet, it was quite obvious who was not going to survive the episode. And needless to say, the death of the soldier was usually accompanied by a medical examination of doctor McCoy, who then uttered another well-known phrase: ―He‘s dead, Jim!‖ 16

was that it would be Leonard Nimoy (the actor playing Spock), who would kiss Uhura

(Bernardi 216), making it an ―interracial kiss‖ between a human and an alien, not between and black women and a white man, as it happened. This was possible, because a race of evil aliens made them kiss against their will.

At the time of ST‘s emergence, the creators of the show had to be very careful about what topics they were addressing, but they managed to get through many of them. As one of

TOS‘s producers, John Meredyth Lucas, quoted by Daniel Bernardi, said:

We could do anti-Vietnam stories, or civil rights stories…. Set the story in

outer space, in the future, and all of a sudden you can get away with just about

anything, because you‘re protected by the argument that, ‗Hey, we‘re not

talking about the problems of today, we‘re dealing with a mythical time and

place in the future. (Bernardi 216).

To put it simply, Star Trek often comments on and deals with problems that are not sci-fi, but parts of our everyday lives one can relate to. It ceased to be necessary to sneak its way into television by the time TNG came, but in the 1960‘s, this was probably the only possible way.

Star Trek of the 60‘s could really go where no one has gone before at that time.

The message of a better future did not just lie with the fact that in the future people would not fight among themselves, that they would go into space or that the crews would be of mixed races, where the only transnational ―conflicts‖ would include arguing if scotch or vodka was the better of the two drinks (TOS 2x13:―The Trouble with Tribbles‖). The future society had unlimited access to food and medical care and in the 60‘s, this was gradually becoming a reality. As the statistics show: ―In 1959, according to the most widely accepted estimates, 21 percent of the American people lived below the officially established poverty line. By 1969, only 12 percent remained below that line‖ (Brinkley 764). Consequently, many different factors combined to give credibility to the ST‘s message, even if some in retrospect:

poverty was slowly but surely being reduced, people have shown great technological and mental prowess by landing on the Moon and Star Trek showed that these events would lead to a future, where even the Berlin Wall would be lifted, the Cold War gone, and international cooperation unlimited to the point of total and ultimate equality of races and sexes.

But at the time, some of those ideas were dangerous and Roddenberry had to be careful about what he was putting on television and had to improvise. Kraemer argues that, based on what Gene Roddenberry related, these anomalies in otherwise consistent strain of thoughts were the result of the aforementioned façade he had to keep up for the viewers and the television directors: ―the occasional and seemingly inconsistent religious observance or idea in Star Trek was largely arbitrary and more of a sop to his audiences than anything else‖

(Kraemer 8). One can see that Roddenberry had to make numerous concessions in the 60‘s so that the show could go on and project the message he wanted to put forward at the same time.

In other words, if Roddenberry wanted to have his cake and eat it too, he needed to accept the fact that sometimes the icing was not his favourite flavour. And since the ―[c]ultural disruption‖ of the time and its discussion ―was no longer the exclusive province of‖ small, secluded communities, and since ―it was broadcast into American living rooms everyday on the nightly news‖ (Snyder), it is certain that his messages reached a wide audience.

Although there are visible differences between TOS and TNG onwards, as far as religion is concerned, there are no perceivable ones between TOS and TAS, which can, in this respect, be taken as one serial. And although TAS was created in the 1970s, the general outlook of the show, its messages, and subject matters remained the same as in TOS. To illustrate this point, Apollo in TOS 2x04: ―Who Mourns for Adonais?‖ and Kukulkan in TAS

2x05: ―How Sharper than a Serpent‘s Tooth‖, two of the false gods described in the following chapters, work very similarly in the episodes and the show‘s attitude towards each of them is virtually identical. This is why the discussion now moves on to the 1980s.

2.2 The 1980s and The Next Generation

As it was mentioned, Star Trek was a peculiar phenomenon of the 60‘s, building on the civil rights movements and other changes in the society, and creating a picture of a future to which these events would hopefully eventually lead. But as much as TOS advocated atheism7, since religion was one of the dividing features of the society, the later serials slowly began embracing the topic of religion and exploring it in a more depth. One of the reasons could be the echoes of the religious revivalism of the 70‘s with its ―rise of various cults and unorthodox faiths‖ as well as well-established religions like ―evangelical Christianity‖

(Brinkley 831). Although Roddenberry was still in charge during the early episodes of TNG, which, strangely enough, include the first appearance of Q (see ―3.4.3 Q‖), it seems as if the heightened interest of the general public in religion found its reflection in the subject matters and themes of the new ST serial.

The religion of the many different races were examined and became one of the most important defining features of these races. Spirituality was gradually getting more attention and the answer to the question if God exists was gradually changing from ―no!‖ to ―maybe?‖, which could also be seen in Star Trek V: Final Frontier from 1989. Nonetheless, it is fair to say that TNG honoured the ideas of TOS, and although it contains such profound anti- religious features like Picard‘s angry soliloquy in TNG 3x04: ―Who Watches the Watchers‖

(see part ―3.4 The ‗New‘ Religion‖), it was also sympathetic towards various spiritual, almost

New Age ideas and some religious traditions like the ones of Native Americans.

Since ST was ―the creation of literally thousands of people, both working together and separately‖ and by the time of TNG even more so than before, it was ―a far more massive and

7 In ST, namely later on, atheism – a fervent disbelief in God‘s existence – intertwines with agnosticism. ―Being agnostic does not necessarily mean that a person is not deeply religious‖, but the term implies the rejection of solving the problem if god exists or not, because such speculation cannot be ―empirically validated‖ (Olson 23). An agnostic then does not believe in god not because they are certain a god does not exist, but because they can never verify a god‘s existence. 19

varied mythologically polysemic construct‖. It incorporated many – now even religious – themes and dealt with them more extensively, and so, ―because of this tremendous variety of sources in the creative process, the mythos that is Star Trek is open to a wider variety of interpretations‖ (Kapell 2), thanks to exactly this richness of ideas of various origins.

2.3 The 1990s and Onwards – Deep Space Nine and Voyager

The demolition of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 80‘s paved the way for a new world order without the Iron Curtain. New political bodies and bonds were emerging as the former parts of the Soviet Union gained independence and the barrier between the East and the West collapsed. However, the changes also meant uncertainty and the question of what the future would look like without the Iron Curtain, which dictated most of the global politics before, was to be answered. This relative confusion and space for change was an important topic the powers that be had to deal with at the time.

DS9 begins on an alien space station, which had been up until recently run by

Cardassians, who occupied and terrorised the planet of Bajor. New diplomatic ties formed on the station between the Federation, Bajor, Cardassians, the Ferengi, and later even Klingons and Romulans. DS9 became a multiracial and multicultural place where new alliances were forged, and the serial itself is full of politics and seems to reflect the status quo to an extent.

While in TOS, the main premise of exploration was in the focus, and while relationships and individuality also got into the spotlight in TNG, in DS9 politics and religion gained a loud voice. One could understand such a profound treatment of religion in DS9 – and later in VOY

– as the result of the absence of a deeper focus on it during the previous serials. The virtual religious vacuum of TOS, TAS, and TNG might not have been the main reason, but there is no doubt that by the avoidance of a deeper engagement with the topic, there was a great mass of potentially good but unexplored material, which got into focus in the later serials.8

8 Although ENT was created the last, topic- and spirit-wise, it was faithful to its earlier predecessors. 20

A parallel of the political situation of the world in the 90‘s can also be seen in VOY, although this time it is purely metaphorical. VOY, as was indicated earlier, is an Odyssey where the ship and its crew are trying to find their way home, travelling through an unknown and, for the most part, hostile part of the galaxy (which could, with a bit of imagination, be seen as a metaphor of the confusing situation). The Delta Quadrant is a great undiscovered area for them, and the thing propelling them forward is their desire to arrive back home.

―Home‖ for them becomes the ultimate fulfilment of their wishes, and the more they wait to get there, the more it becomes more of a vision of the distant, unreachable home than a tangible goal of their voyage.

Religion in VOY got less attention than in DS9, but the incorporation of spirituality was clearly much more profound there than in the other serials. Chakotay was a Native

American who actively pursued his faith, meditating in his room, invoking his ancestors and communicating with spirits. He got also other crewmembers interested and they tried his meditation – one can easily imagine that in TOS, this would be unthinkable, unless the practice would be of an immense interest to the individual, or unless it constituted unravelling of the plot of an episode. Faith is also important in VOY 3x07: ―Sacred Ground‖, where captain Janeway could properly activate a dangerous alien device only if she genuinely believed it would work without a doubt on her mind. This was preceded by a long and painful spiritual preparation on her part, and when the mechanism was later explained in terms of biology by the Doctor, Janeway seemed disappointed that the spell of the whole spiritual experience of hers was gone.

So, although ST is on the whole not very fond of religion, and although the earlier serials were almost completely devoid of any justification of it, the later serials, reflecting the emerging society and the new shape of the world, showed more sympathy towards it and even

sought to incorporate it and advocate its existence and its, not always inherently negative, purpose.

2.4 Star Trek as a Religion

Given the scope of Star Trek as a phenomenon, one might ask the question whether ST is a religion in itself. There are several ways to approach this question. According to Professor

Andrea Diem-Lane in her When Scholars Study the Sacred, for a religion to be viable to be called a religion, it has to encompass all of the following seven dimensions: it has to have myths, rituals, experiences, doctrines, ethics, social aspect, and material forms (8). Arguably,

Star Trek does have all this. One can take the 715 episodes and 12 films as a considerable bulk of mythical material, which speaks to the viewer in a manner to inform them of the ST‘s envisioning of the possible, ideal future for humans – as Brannon Braga, one of the creators of the serial, said at an Atheist conference in Iceland:

Atheists need to codify their non-belief and what that could mean for humanity

if fully realized. We need a story. And it‘s gotta be a pretty damned good one,

packed with lots of different kind of fables and morality tales. It‘s gotta be

something rich and fairly long-lived with a somewhat fanatical following.

Fortunately, this mythology already exists[,] (Braga) and by this mythology, he means Star Trek; a follower of this religion can almost ritually participate in sci-fi conventions, where blocks of the programme are dedicated to ST, they can congregate with their fellow followers, and very possibly meet some of their ―patron saints‖, the actors, actresses, producers, writers, directors and so on from the serial; while watching

ST for the first time, and even later, the viewers might have been taken by the serial, experiencing a kind of epiphany and religious ecstasy, which made them become the followers of this religion, which gives their lives style and purpose – they can even share their experience with others and spread the good word of ST –; while there are in-the-universe

rules like what a starship according to Gene Roddenberry should look like, some doctrines have a very practical aspect, like the fact that if one wants to have a fitting Starfleet uniform, they need to have it tailored specifically for their own body, because otherwise it will never fit, and of course, ST projects some doctrines of its own, even if they are things like: ―be tolerant, treasure individuality, treasure life and freedom above all, evolve, try becoming better than you are, and never let anyone control you‖; a viewer of ST can see that Starfleet stands for freedom, life and prosperity, that it tries upholding the highest ethical standards possible – if they are possible –, and in times of ethical dilemmas, ―the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few‖ (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)); the followers of this religion form social communities, meeting regularly in person, on-line or otherwise, and they share their experience and understanding of ST and maybe do something productive like learning Klingon and speak in it together; and last, but not least, there are certainly material artefacts the followers can ―worship‖, that is the original props from the series and the films, but it can also be the media, on which the video recordings are stored, merchandising products like various replicas, T-shirts, signed photographs or bought or home-made Starfleet uniforms. The above described ―followers‖ are called Trekkies (which term might already carry a derogative meaning today as well), and the above given was just a sample of examples to show that in a sense, Star Trek can be seen as a religion. One might call it a philosophy, because there is no supernatural aspect to it, but as long as the followers are aware that the phenomenon itself and they following it are more than just a sum of all its constituents, that it is not just a serial, but a way of life, that it is worth studying and that at least some of the envisioned advancement in the serial is a foreseen technological future of the human race, the devotion given to Star Trek can definitely be labelled ―religious‖.

Even in the Czech Republic, where the situation is not as extreme as it is in the homeland of Star Trek, the USA, the ―Festival Fantazie‖ (Fantasy festival) convention in

2009 in Chotěboř (27th October – 1st November) hosted a panel of speakers from the ST fandom, whose presentations were at times slightly disturbed by their roughly one-year-old children, whom they promenaded in baby-sized Starfleet uniforms. One of the lecture given was on how to raise a child as a ST fan. The speakers in question showed pictures of ST- influenced room decorations for their children and spoke about nursery rhymes they taught them; these were regular English nursery rhymes, but augmented to include various ST references. This takes a lot of dedication indeed. If, for example, one‘s favourite book is

Catch 22, they do not usually call their firstborn son ―Yossarian‖ after the main protagonist, and they do not train him to become (or dissuade him from becoming) a bomber pilot, as well as one would not call their daughters after the Bennet sisters from Pride and Prejudice and buy them Victorian clothing to be worn at home, even if it was their favourite book. However, such behaviour would be perfectly understandable in a deeply religious Christian family, where children are named after the characters from the Bible, are led to live a decent life and to love and trust Jesus. What this extrapolation shows, is that ST fandom does act very much like a religious community and treat Star Trek as a religion of sorts, with all its myths, rituals, doctrines and social implications.

ST has also been parodied many times. In the parodies, its features were, of course, exaggerated, but by this, some of its aspects were brought forward and highlighted. The view of ST as a religion can be, for example, found in the TV show Futurama in the episode

―Where No Fan Has Gone Before‖, which shows how ST literally became a religion with built churches and cathedrals where the story transcripts were preached. Galaxy Quest offers a more realistic picture of a sci-fi convention, where the fans of the show called Galaxy Quest

(an allegory standing for Star Trek) hold a social gathering, many of them showing how

important the show is to their life – they wear the uniforms of the crew or costumes of various aliens and many of them built their lives on the TV serial.9

ST has the right to be called a religion if one considers two important things. Firstly, no one expects ST fans to actually bow to or bring offerings to their ST DVD‘s and their phaser replicas, but it is not entirely deranged to consider the way of life of a ST fan as a result of their almost religious zeal and devotion to the serial and what it stands for. And secondly, the term ―religion‖ itself should not mislead one, as ―Sam Gill, a scholar of Native

American Indian religion‖ put it simply, ―religion [is] an academic creation and those studying it [have] to be aware of its multi-cultural nature.‖ John Hinnels sang from the same sheet with Gill and argued that ―although religion [is] a misleading term, it possesse[s] usefulness, if the scholar use[s] it acknowledging that all labels or categories [have] their limitations‖ (Olson 9). Religion has also been described as a ―cohesive social force‖, and it was said that it ―represented the ultimate goals of the society‖ by Émile Durkheim (Olson 5).

In case of Star Trek, this description can be applied, because in the midst of the ST fandom,

ST has an important social aspect, which binds the fans together, and it does ―represent the ultimate goals‖ of a community of people – a better future for humanity shown in the serial. 3. Exploration of the Episodes

To begin from the very end, the first ten minutes of the latest addition to the Star Trek canon – the film Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) – manages to embody three of the main aspects of how religion is treated in and by ST – religion is respected, but seen as inferior; humans can play god, if they believe it is right and if there are no other moral dilemmas to consider; and human life is valued above cultural/religious tradition. The Enterprise‘s crew is trying to save a primitive race of indigenous people of the planet Nibiru, whose lives are

9 Not taking into consideration the fact that a real alien race built their society and interstellar technology seen in the serial, believing the show to be ―historical documents‖. 25

threatened by a volcano, under which their city lies. The Enterprise itself is hidden inside an ocean near the coast, and a small group flies secretly into the volcano in a shuttlecraft, striving to ―freeze‖ the eruptions taking place inside it. Since the Prime Directive, the first and the most important rule of Starfleet, states that there must never be any influence on the less evolved species – no contact, no cultural or technological contamination – Kirk needs a diversion, which he boldly manages by coming into the city in disguise and stealing the sacred texts of the people. That results in them being fully concentrated on following the thief, and not noticing the shuttle. However, the mission inside the volcano does not go well and

Kirk has to choose between letting Spock die, and violating the Prime Directive by revealing

Enterprise in order to save him. He decides to disregard the effect violating the Directive might have and saves Spock‘s life. After the Enterprise leaves, the indigenous people completely forget the sacred scroll they were worshipping right until that moment, throw it away, scratch a silhouette of the starship in the dirt and start bowing to the carving.

This amusing anecdote shows the aforementioned three aspects. Firstly, the religion of the people, as well as they themselves, covered in paint and a few orange rags, is seen as something accepted, but childish, from the past, and ridiculous – the moment they see the

Enterprise, they forsake the sacred object they all so devotedly worshipped moments ago, and immediately switch to honouring the huge metal ship. Secondly, as long as the Prime

Directive is not violated, and because they have the technology, the crew of the Enterprise feels entitled to change the otherwise inevitable destiny of the people and fight the forces of

Nature to save their lives. Their mission was just to observe, but when they discover they can save the people from doom, they decide to do so. They believe in freedom and if they can help the people without being discovered, there is nothing that could stop them from what might otherwise be called ―playing god‖ (as this action is literally described in the film by

Captain Pike). And thirdly, although Kirk violates the Prime Directive, a kind of a ―divine

law‖ of Starfleet (see ―3.1.3 The Prime Directive – Law and Order in Starfleet‖), his taking action saves Spock‘s life. He does so despite the certainty of altering the indigenous people‘s culture significantly – their culture and their faith are allowed to go only so far, as long as the

Enterprise‘s crew is out of harm‘s way. This is possible thanks to Kirk‘s valuing life and his personal freedom to make the decision and putting these two above the ―inferior‖ culture of the people and the Prime Directive, which, at that moment, is just a concept, an external and almost supernatural force, which in itself cannot dictate anything, because it does not physically block Kirk‘s decisions. Of course, the consequences of his transgression are very real – he loses his command of the Enterprise – but Kirk only did what he believed to be right. In one sense, one might say that he was partly doing his duty – taking care of a member of his crew. But in a wider sense, his action was done via a serious misdemeanour, which, in fact, is a violation of a moral and legal code of a higher institution, a covenant of races, whose rules and regulations he swore to uphold and obey.

In this section, the proper examination of the religious undertones and themes takes place. The analysis is done very similarly to how it is dealt with in the previous paragraph; as shown above, although Into Darkness does not deal with religion, one only has to watch literally the first ten minutes to discover a comment on religion. The subsequent subchapters deal respectively with the fact that humans have become gods themselves, and therefore they do not need any other one; with the ―new‖ religion, which humans in ST follow instead of the old belief systems; with almost tribal rituals humans still practice in the 22nd – 24th centuries; and with various creatures, beings and entities, who have some claims to be called gods, but always fall short of achieving that status, for which they are, nonetheless, not eligible.

3.1 Apotheosis of Humankind

One of the most important and striking aspects of Star Trek‘s depiction and understanding of religion, is that it sees it as the Other10, a different way of looking at the world but somewhat inherently inferior, because this approach is unscientific and illogical and it can easily mislead one. The gods of religious aliens seem to be supernatural, but always turn out not to be – their ―miracles‖ and other extraordinary deeds can always be explained away scientifically, which gives many of the episodes dealing with this a profound ―Scooby-

Doo moment‖11 once the protagonists find out what it is that gives such power to the ―gods‖.

But by this definition, humans have become gods themselves a long time ago without even realising it. What might not be apparent initially, is the fact that humans have literally became

―gods‖, the ―creators‖.

3.1.1 Demiurges and Creators

Straight from the beginning in TOS, the Enterprise has the technology of transporters, which is their means of instant travelling from one place to another. The device dematerialises a group of people and rebuilds these people somewhere else in exactly the same manner with everything organic and inorganic they carried or wore. It disassembles the transported cargo

(be it human beings or crates with scientific equipment) into unspecified, miniature particles that, at that scale be taken for ―energy‖, which it then shapes into the original forms somewhere else.

Later on, from TNG onwards, anybody on-board the Enterprise can use the revolutionary devices of food replicators and holodecks. Just to give a brief overview, these devices share the same technological basis with the transporters, because they work with the

10 However, as William Cassidy argues, what works as a positive force in ST is not excluding the Other or detaching from it completely, but ―understanding of otherness‖ (Kraemer 79), which then gives the advantage of not only knowing one‘s enemy well, but also paving the way for possible coexistence and mutual help now, or in the days to come. 11 One can imagine something like: ―If it wasn‘t for you, puny humans, and your garbage of a ship, I would have ruled the world as a god!‖ 28

same concept: they use seemingly unlimited amounts of this ―primal matter‖ or ―energy‖ and turn it molecularly into anything the given user wishes. Food and drink at desired temperatures materialise from the thin air in the food replicators, they are edible and sustain one as any usual, non-replicated food would. The same applies to holodecks, which are rooms, where an artificial environment is created, so that anyone can experience almost anything they wish – they can be a part of a detective story, they can go hiking to various places from around the galaxy, they can fight in wars, or go skydiving. This technology is, again, the same as in transporters – although the personalities of the characters created by the holodeck are artificial, their representations are flesh and blood, undistinguishable from any real human being. And although the Enterprise‘s crew occasionally has to look for a spare part they are short of, or has to find something they need, it is arguably just the story-writers‘ need to create a plot for an episode, because if the crew does not need something volatile, like highly radioactive material (which should probably not be handled by transportation or replication technology), there is logically no need to ―make‖ things or ―look for‖ things elsewhere.

A similar technology has been emerging for some time now and it has already been quite refined: ―The ability to ‗print‘ everything from human body parts to works of art to rocket engines is rapidly changing the world of manufacturing. NASA has been involved in additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, since the 1990s when it was still an emerging technology‖ (McGuinn). The implication of such technology is unprecedented and awe- inspiring if one just imagines what access to this technology might enable one. The point is that even now we have technology, thanks to which astronauts would not need to carry all the various parts with them to their space missions, because they could just print whatever they would need ―up there‖. And since from TNG onwards the humankind has a technology,

which can create virtually anything, the need to go to dockyards to get spare parts is simply ridiculous.

But to put all this into religious perspective, this technology, created by humans, makes them so called demiurges, beings capable of creating and shaping something out of unorganised chaos. According to Olson:

The Egyptians envision original creation as a shaping of a formless material –

chaos – into an ordered world. Prior to creation, there is a boundless ocean

called Nun, a dark, watery abyss, which represents the primordial substance out

of which the world would be formed by a demiurge, who is submerged within

the chaos and preceded any gods. If the original chaos is an undifferentiated,

unitary state, it is the demiurge that embodies the process of differentiation (45,

bold in the original text).

In ST, this primordial ―chaos‖ is represented by the unidentified and unspecified matter, which they logically have to carry, or which needs to be generated by the ship‘s own power plant. Humans do not have to manually or directly be ―submerged‖ into the energetic chaos, but by using their devices and tools they did build by their own hands they change the world around them, shape the ―chaos‖ into what they need and work as demiurges in the proper sense of the word. The holodecks and food replicators work with this disorganised resource and exert their technological (demiurgic) power(s) to affect (shape) it according to the programmed input (human will) and rearrange (mould) it, so that a desired object is materialised (created). If this is not enough, there are also hints throughout the serials that humans do envision themselves as potential gods, for example when Captain Picard argues with Q, exchanging lines from Shakespeare:

Picard: What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason. How infinite in

faculty. In form, in moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an

angel. In apprehension, how like a god.

Q: Surely you don't really see your species like that, do you?

Picard: I see us one day becoming that, Q. (TNG 1x10: ―Hide and Q‖)

Apart from shaping matter, there are other means of ―creation‖, and some memorable creators worth mentioning. These are Dr. Noonien Soong and Zefram Cochrane. The former created an android called Data, a robot closely resembling a human being with all the bodily functions of a human, but made of superior materials, with a positronic brain, giving Data the speed of thought of a computer, but with the potential to learn and become much more than a machine. When Data imagines his creator, Dr. Soong looks exactly like him, only as an older human, which makes an amusing parallel with the Bible: Soong obviously created Data – and his ―brothers‖ B4 and Lore – in his own image. On one hand, Soong is a brilliant creator, but on the other hand, he is not infallible; although he exerts his will and uses both his rich life experience in his field of science, and his superior intellect, he fails to become a perfect ―god, the father‖ with good results, but dies as an imperfect ―father‖ with good intentions. The latter of the two men is the person, who was the first to have discovered the warp drive, the technology, which allows all the starships to travel ―faster than light‖12 and to explore strange new worlds and to seek out new life and new civilisations. He is seen as the milestone person, thanks to whom humankind made a huge 180° turn from its barbaric nature and started growing for a better future for everybody. Although Cochrane is revered after his death and becomes an almost supernatural hero to many of the characters in Star Trek, in First Contact

(1996), the crew of the Enterprise gets to meet their idol and are very much surprised about what they find. This particular case again reflects ST‘s overall approach to religion and why it does not trust it. A part of the religious scepticism comes from the fact that the past events and figures can easily become a dreamt-up history, legends and finally myths. First Contact nicely

12 The warp drive bends space, so that one can travel to many distant places much faster than they usually would, but ST still believes in Einstein – nothing can actually travel ―faster than light‖, warping is a form of cheating or going around the laws of physics. 31

illustrates it when the Enterprise‘s crew visits the past and meets Cochrane. They all know him as an important historical figure, they somewhat worship him and are awe-struck by his presence. In reality, Cochrane is an alcoholic, whose only motivation is money, and the only pleasures in life are literally sex, drugs and rock ‘n‘ roll. He is not building the warp drive for advancement of the human race and for a better future, he builds it for economic success. As

Cochrane put it himself:

‗You wanna know what my vision is? Dollar signs! Money! I didn't build this

ship to usher in a new era for humanity. You think I wanna go to the stars? I

don't even like to fly. I take trains. I built this ship so that I could retire to some

tropical island filled with naked women. That's Zefram Cochrane. That's his

vision. This other guy you keep talking about – this historical figure – I never

met him. I can't imagine I ever will‘ (First Contact).

It only takes some two hundred years for the real personality of Zefram Cochrane to be completely forgotten and supplanted only by this ideal persona of an ―usher‖ of ―a new era‖, standing on the threshold between the savage, belligerent, primitive past of humans driven by

―acquisition of wealth‖, and utopian future, where there is no famine, no wars, no racial or other discrimination, and the only motivation is to ―work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity‖, as Picard states (First Contact). Along with Soong, they are both the examples of the ST‘s general idea that in order to achieve greatness and to be capable of doing remarkable things, one does not have to be an almighty, immortal, flawless god, but can simply be a regular, ―faulty‖, imperfect human being with ingenuity.

3.1.2 Genetic Manipulation

So far, the humans have been shown in no need of gods, since they became ones. This apotheosis arises from the fact that humans in ST can create basically anything out of the thin air, they have the technology to bring them almost anywhere they want, and that they are free

to do so whenever they please. But the fact that humans as gods are not infallible has to be considered, because not all of their creations are good. Genetic manipulation, for example, is shown as something very likely dangerous and attitudes towards it are not very positive – eugenics has been outlawed. In any case, one can distinguish between three groups of augmented human beings. Firstly, people like Julian Bashir – the Chief Medical Officer from

DS9 – and Sarina Douglas – also from DS9 – are the examples of genetically modified (GM) people, who turned out to be fine in the end; Julian, in his childhood, was secretly subjected to the therapy without his knowledge, when his parents found out his intelligence was crushingly low (DS9 5x16: ―Doctor Bashir, I Presume‖). For the rest of his life, he was a genius with an unfair advantage over others, of which he was not himself aware, however. Sarina went through a very similar operation, but for a considerable part of her life, she was mute and appeared to be catatonic. However, after a special treatment from Bashir, she was finally capable to exist as a regular human being with a decent life (DS9 7x05: ―Chrysalis‖).

Secondly, there are examples of GM people, who are also extremely intelligent, but they have to be looked after, because they are mentally unstable and incapable of living a normal life. These are Sarina‘s former co-patients, Lauren, Jack, and Patrick, who, on one hand, are not dangerous and, on the contrary, can be very resourceful and beneficial thanks to their intelligence and capacity for creativity.

And thirdly, the product of the early eugenics13 created characters like Khan Noonien

Singh (not to be confused with Dr. Noonien Soong) and his crew, a dangerous group of GM criminals14, who are superior to regular human beings in strength, agility, intelligence,

13 In TOS, the ―eugenics‖ is slightly vaguely described as ―selective breeding‖ and ―controlled genetics‖ (TOS 1x24: ―Space Seed‖), and in Into Darkness (2013) the products of eugenics are described as ―genetically engineered‖. 14 One could theorise about morality and the perception of who is the villain and who the hero, therefore the word ―criminal‖ might not be the best of expressions. In TOS, Khan is a ruthless tyrant from the past, who wishes to gain power again, in The Wrath of Khan (1982) he does have a fairly good reason to be angry and ruthless, and in Into Darkness (2013), he has even more of a human dimension to him. In any case, there is sadly not enough room in this thesis for a discussion on such a scale, but suffice it to say that it would necessarily involve looking at Khan and his lot from the perspective of Nietze and his Übermensch theory – from this point 33

resourcefulness, constitution, and every other aspect one can think of. He and his group travelled to the outer space in 1990‘s during the Eugenics Wars (described as the Third World

War in TOS 1x24: ―Space Seed‖) on a relatively primitive, but a spaceworthy vessel ominously called the ―Botany Bay‖. Only shortly after being revived from suspended animation, Khan starts gathering strategic information and creates an ingenious plan, which helps him to take over the Enterprise. His intention is to go to a habitable planet and colonise it, ―[a] world to win, an empire to build‖ (TOS 1x24: ―Space Seed). What makes the fact that

Khan and his fellows are genetically enhanced so threatening, frightening and deplorable, is not the augmentation itself, because that cannot be inherently ―bad‖, but that if the intentions of those people are to destroy, to conquer, and to rule with iron fist, it would be much more difficult to stop them from doing so, than it would be to stop a group of non-augmented people. It other words, threatening of one‘s freedom is extremely deplorable in ST‘s point of view, and if there is a group of people who threaten the freedom of others, are better equipped to do so, and feel entitled to do so by the providence of their genetic superiority, such advantage has to be, quite logically, forbidden.

What this shows is, that although humans, the almost almighty gods by the time of

TNG, they are still bound by their own laws, which paradoxically protect this same freedom.

Because these little, mortal, flesh and blood demiurges are many, and because their ideals

―must apply to everyone, or they mean nothing‖ (TOS 2x25: ―The Omega Glory‖), they all have to share their demiurgic powers. There is no ―one‖ demiurge with both the access to the power and the right to choose what to do with it alone, and so there has to be a consensus. A viewer watching the series can see that humans can become gods in most of the senses of the word, but retain their humanity, their individuality and freedom, and that their godlike powers

of view one would almost certainly arrive at the conclusion that Khan is the tragic hero of the story, who did his best to rise from mediocrity and fulfil his full potential. 34

do not have to be used on their whim, but with responsibility fitting a likeable and admirable god.

3.1.3 The Prime Directive – Law and Order in Starfleet

The most important of these laws is something humans call The Prime Directive.

Starfleet regulations are the (more than) Ten Commandments of any Starfleet officer, and the

Prime Directive is the first and most important one. Its spirit could be for example transcribed thus: ―Less developed civilisations shall only be observed. Thou shalt not interfere with them!

Thou shalt not influence them! Thou shalt not colonise them! Thou shalt not ―help‖ any emerging civilisation, unless they are spaceworthy and unless thou deemst them worthy of joining the Starfleet covenant! Thou shalt not kill, steal from, or fornicate with the emerging races.‖ Although the last part has somehow never worked for captain Kirk (TOS 1x29: ―The

City on the Edge of Forever‖, TOS 3x03: ―The Paradise Syndrome‖), the rule is so steadfast, that if the crew of a starship would have to choose between dying and contaminating a civilisation‘s culture, the Prime Directive dictates that they surrender their lives to this ideal15

(TOS 2x23: ―The Omega Glory‖). Other races do not have this problem, unless they are from

Starfleet. Starfleet officers are not physically bound by these rules, and so if they are powerful enough and do not respect the rules, they might become mighty oppressors, who take what they want, when they want it – and it did happen at occasions in ST. That is the point when they become the hated false gods of Star Trek, the not supernatural beings, who sometimes have good intentions, but enforce their will and employ their power in such a way that it bars freedom, personal development and takes away the right of an individual to grow and to tackle with their life themselves, without the supposedly supernatural help from all the keepers, preservers, protectors and whatnot.

15 And it is easy to see that the decision is extremely difficult and is not always followed, as was shown at the beginning of Into Darkness (2013). As has been said, some people, like Kirk, value their decisions higher even than the Prime Directive, which does not undermine this point, but only underlines the individual‘s right to execute their will, provided they believe they are right – a god can be a sovereign ruler of themselves without taking anyone or anything else into consideration. 35

One of the greatest examples of such beings is in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

(1989). After a sea of troubles and adversity, the Enterprise reaches the centre of our galaxy, shielded by an allegedly impenetrable barrier. They arrive at the planet called Sha Ka Ree, where, supposedly, the Creator lives. They meet an incredibly powerful being, who strikes everyone, who doubts he is the God, with lightning. This entity ―is hardly God but simply another powerful, arrogant, and malevolent being who lies in wait for perhaps equally arrogant, but certainly less powerful and definitely foolish, beings through whom to wreak havoc on the rest of the universe‖ (Kraemer 42). When all ends well and the crew leaves this cosmic power-hungry tyrant – not God the Creator they were initially seeking – McCoy poses this universal question: ―Is God really out there?‖ To which Kirk responds: ―Maybe He's not out there, Bones. Maybe He's right here… in the human heart‖ (Star Trek V: The Final

Frontier (1989)). Considering that soon afterwards TNG was launched, the series where godlike technology was finally available, one can realise that the demiurges‘ days have come: with god in the heart, power to create and destroy anything in their hands, humanity in mind, and freedom to inspire and guide them, the self-made gods responsibly took their destinies in their own hands and went to explore the galaxy with their cherished agnosticism.

3.2 The ―New‖ Religion

There is a simple way of summarising the beliefs of humans in ST by quoting a part of the theme song of ENT, the only theme song of ST with lyrics:

It‘s been a long road

Getting from there to here

It‘s been a long time

But my time is finally near

And I can see my dreams come alive at night

I will touch the sky

And they‘re not gonna hold me down no more

No they‘re not gonna hold me down

Cause I‘ve got faith of the heart

I‗m going where my heart will take me

I‘ve got faith to believe

I can do anything

I‘ve got strength of the soul

And no one‘s gonna bend or break me

I can reach any star

I‘ve got faith

Faith of the heart

The lyrics are obviously a manifesto of the greatness of human dreams and of the fact that if one‘s will is strong enough, they will come true. No other will is going to interfere with the will of the dreamer, who will ―reach any star‖, and that excludes both natural and supernatural intrusion. Humans in Star Trek represent an advanced civilisation, which rejected religion as illogical and unscientific (TNG 3x04: ―Who Watches the Watchers‖), because, as Chakotay said, it is something that ―can‘t be scanned with a tricorder‖ (VOY 6x03: ―Barge of the

Dead‖). But all the same, rejecting religion never rendered humans faithless; they believe in science, freedom (TOS 2x25: ―Omega Glory‖), and humanity (TOS 2x04: ―Who Mourns for

Adonais?‖). And it is these things that humans trust; their technology, scientific inquiry and reason are their tools and methods they carry with them and employ anywhere they go. The following paragraphs deal with (not only) the abovementioned episodes in more detail to show the religious undercurrents and opinions foreshadowed above.

In ―Who Watches the Watchers‖ (TNG 3x04), the Enterprise travels to a planet, where a new, promising civilisation is thriving. There already are observers from Starfleet, but thanks to a malfunction in their observatory, the holographic projection, which shielded and disguised it, is gone, and one of its crew, Palmer, is lost. The natives, Mintakans, unfortunately discover the observatory and one of them sustains lethal wounds. He is brought aboard the Enterprise, where he is heavily sedated and healed. However, he wakes up briefly and beholds what he should not have. When brought back to the planet, he speaks about gods and supernatural creatures, who gave him back his life. Others do not believe him, because they rejected the superstitious beliefs of their ancestors a long time ago. However, they find

Palmer, and since they cannot explain the presence of the aliens (humans) on their planet otherwise, they turn back to believing in gods, and call their lord ―The Picard‖. When he learns about it, he is certainly not happy. But it is already too late; ―The Mintakans are beginning to believe in a god‖, as Riker says. The situation gets out of control – the

Mintakans find out that Deanna Troi (currently on the planet in disguise) is one of the aliens, and they want to sacrifice her to ―The Picard‖ to forgive them their sins. One of the observatory crew, Barron, tells Picard that the only reasonable thing to do now, since what happened cannot be taken back, is to steer the new religion and shape it into the least harmful way possible, lest it resolve in ―inquisitions, holy wars, chaos.‖ After this, Picard delivers one of the most bitter and most harsh soliloquys against religion there is in Star Trek:

‗Horrifying. Doctor Barron, your report describes how rational these people

are. Millennia ago, they abandoned their belief in the supernatural. Now you

are asking me to sabotage that achievement, to send them back into the Dark

Ages of superstition and ignorance and fear? No! We will find some way to

undo the damage we've caused.‘16

16 Although these words seem milder on the paper, Sir Steward delivered it with such a disgust and profound anger, that it sounded like a fiery manifesto. And it is not just the textual analysis, which is important here – the 38

He first has to prove that he is not invincible and that he can be harmed and killed like anybody else, and only then can he finally approach the Mintakans as an equal, not as a supernatural being with magic powers beyond imagination. Only then do they return back to their ways of reason, which is portrayed as the correct, and enlightened approach.

Mintakans have a counterpart in ―Thine Own Self‖ (TNG 7x16), where Data – the android – crash lands on a planet, carrying dangerous radioactive material. The crash makes him lose his memory, and he is, of course, the odd one out when he encounters the near- humanoid inhabitants of the planet – his snow-white skin, unknown clothes and yellow retinas clearly show he is not one of their kin. However, they do not approach him with superstition and they actually try to help him, because he seems lost and hurt. A scientist, Talur, takes him into her custody to help him and find out what happened to him. She wants to prove to him how enlightened she is:

Talur: I'm sure my grandmother would have called our friend here a demon or

spirit or some kind of monster. But current scientific methodology allows us to

dismiss such ridiculous superstitions and concentrate on scientific reality.

Data: Then what do you believe I am?

Talur: You are an ice man.

Science and the scientific approaches are seen here in a stage of transformation – science on the planet is a new religion with its unquestionable dogmata. On one hand, the fervent scientist, physician and teacher Talur boasts to Data about her immaculate scientific methodology, but on the other hand, she dismisses any, though rational, logical and scientific oppositions from Data to her theories and results of her faulty reasoning, because to her, her own scientific truth is simply the correct one. Talur‘s self-confident and almost arrogant

episode shows that this topic really enrages Picard, the authoritative figure his crew follows and admires. The weight his statement carries is profound not only for what the content was, but also for who said it and in what manner. And there can be no doubt about how strongly Picard believes in what he almost shouts at Barron.

identity as a rational scientist is slightly ridiculed by the narrative, but it also shows that science is not always black and white – various people have various opinions and they have to learn to approach problems purely scientifically and objectively to be able to accept that, sometimes, they are wrong. This simply implies that one usually evolves gradually, and that there are intermediate stages which one may go through before their reasoning truly matures.

One has to be scientific through and through in their analyses, and be ready to question any conclusion in the light of other possibilities and new discoveries; approaching science as a religion is not healthy and only stalls any further advancement.

―Barge of the Dead‖ (VOY 6x03) deals with personal religious experience of

B‘Elanna Torres, Voyager‘s half-Klingon Chief Engineer, the right to pursue one‘s religious freedom and the value of one‘s life. B‘Elanna dies for a brief moment, during which she experiences a peculiar sensation; she appears on the Barge of the Dead, a ship on which all the dishonourable Klingons are sailed to Gre‘thor, the Klingon hell17. She is told it is not her time yet, but before she is revived back to life by the Voyger‘s doctor, she sees that her mother is brought onto the Barge as well. B‘Elanna is extremely dismayed by this experience and seeks counsel with a few people aboard the ship. Chakotay, first admits that he believes in

―things that can‘t be scanned with a tricorder‖, but when he takes a more enlightened approach and starts talking about symbolism, she retorts: ―What if there is no symbolism to interpret? What if the afterlife is real? I‘m an engineer. My whole life, I‘ve immersed myself in science and schematics. But what if it‘s time to start looking beyond that?‖ She studies sacred Klingon texts and finds out that her mother is going to Gre‘thor because of her

(B‘Elanna) leading a dishonourable life, turning her back on anything Klingon. She decides she has to ―go back‖, meaning to die again, to rescue her mother from the Barge of the Dead.

Until that moment, everyone accepts what B‘Elanna is experiencing and wants to help her,

17 Throughout the episode, it is disputable whether she is only dreaming, or if what she is going through is really happening to her. 40

but when she makes this decision, she immediately gets negative feedback. Tom Paris, the

Voyager‘s helmsman and her lover, says: ―B‘Elanna. I respect what you believe in but…

You‘re starting to scare me.‖ But B‘Elanna is no insane half-Klingon, she is a woman of science, who affirms that: ―I‘m scaring myself.‖ Captain Janeway is also against the procedure, because she refuses to let the life of a valuable member of her crew be threatened due to an obscure religious experience18, but B‘Elanna convinces her and has her way. In an artificially induced state of near death, she saves her mother from Gre‘thor by taking her place. However, when she enters it, everything stops making sense to her and quite clearly the religious hell turns into her accusing unconscious mind. She is confused, because she expected fiery torture, and instead she finds herself back on Voyager, where everybody mocks her and offends her. Her mother appears again and although the now profoundly confused

B‘Elanna wants to understand the situation and is willing to ask her, ―Kahless. The tooth fairy. Anybody who will tell me what I am supposed to do‖, the result still is that she is talking to herself and has to help herself – no divine guidance is there to offer her a helping hand. She finds out that she merely kept fighting herself and everything around her for far too long, and that this religious experience worked as a catalyst for her to finally come to terms with herself and to realise who she is – just her, not what she thinks others want her to be. The episode shows the importance of her individuality, and although the ending more or less suggests that her experience was a dream/hallucination, the fact that she perceived it as reality and that it did matter to her makes it clear that it was not ―just‖ a dream, and that although there is probably no real Gre‘thor or a real Barge, the ones in B‘Elanna‘s head were real enough and equally important to her as a real afterlife would be. In this case, traditional science could not help her, because the problem was psychological and only B‘Elanna herself could help herself via this spiritual experience.

18 One can already see repeating scenarios – B‘Elanna is dissuaded from pursuing her illogical, imaginary faith, because her life is at risk. In Into Darkness (2013), Spock‘s life is more valuable than the religious freedom and cultural purity of the natives. This topic finds its repercussions further in this thesis. 41

As much as religion and cultural differences are usually accepted in others by humans, there are situations where these factors cannot be taken into consideration. In TNG 1x01:

―The Encounter at Farpoint‖, Captain Picard orders the Enterprise to separate its dish (full of civilians) from the rest of the ship and wants Worf to command the part of the ship that is being detached – to command the escaping vessel, not the second part, which stays to fight.

Worf protests: ―I‘m a Klingon, sir. For me to seek escape when my Captain goes into battle…‖ But he is interrupted by Picard: ―You are a Starfleet officer, Lieutenant‖, to which

Worf replies only: ―Aye, sir.‖ What this shows is, that whoever wishes to is free to pursue their career anywhere, even if they are Klingon and even in Starfleet, but that orders have to be followed, and no racial or cultural issues can meddle into what these people do. Picard is an atheistic, rational Captain, who needs his crew to follow his orders, in order that he can keep them safe. He can have no rebelling Lieutenant disobeying him just because he is a

Klingon, just as he would disregard any religious protests. One can easily imagine a variation of this situation: ―Fire at that ship, Lieutenant.‖ ―I can‘t, I am a Buddhist, sir.‖ ―You are

Starfleet officer, Lieutenant.‖ If the officer‘s answer would be anything different than ―Aye, sir‖, it would mean that this officer does not belong to Starfleet. The Captain would maybe heed Worf‘s complaint, if it were a reasonable remark, something like: ―My expertise can do much more good here than in the escaping section.‖ But pleas that have at their core just cultural differences cannot be heard in a situation of crisis. And that is why the crew has to depend on its Captain and the Captain on their crew. They all have to depend on their common effort and their own strength. There is no room for cultural differences or religion on a starship.

Although various fraudulent gods are analysed elsewhere, it is fitting to introduce now one of them from TOS, Apollo from ―Who Mourns for Adonais?‖ (2x04). The Enterprise travels to a planet, where the landing party finds a powerful being, who claims to be Apollo,

the actual god from Greek mythology himself. He is glad he sees people, his children, again and wants them to stay. When they refuse, he uses his immense power to make them stay. He is the last one and he does not want to be left alone, because a ―God cannot survive as a memory. They need love, admiration, worship, as you need food‖ as Apollo says. He picks

Lieutenant Carolyn, who is a part of the landing party, to be his companion. But the sturdy crew does not give in and rebels. Faced with this hardship, Kirk explains to Carolyn, that she cannot give in to Apollo‘s spell and power of personality, because he is not the important one there. To fight Apollo, to fight for her own race, she needs to betray him:

‗Man or woman makes no difference. We are human. We couldn‘t escape from

each other even if we wanted to. That‘s how you do it, Lieutenant. By

remembering who and what you are. A bit of flesh and blood afloat in a

universe without end. The only thing that‘s truly yours is the rest of humanity.

That‘s where our duty lies.‘

And betray Apollo she does, understanding what she has to do and why. In the meantime, the rest of the crew finds out where Apollo is drawing power from. Almost all the ST‘s abusive gods have some sort of advanced power-plant – Q and God from Final Frotnier are the exceptions –, which they use to work their miracles, or from which they draw power to work them, and so does Apollo. After the Enterprise destroys the power generator with its phasers, even Apollo finally accepts the truth: ―The time has passed. There is no room for gods.‖

Needless to say, this episode is the epitome of people surpassing and defeating gods. Instead of submitting to another being just because he is more powerful than them, they insist on keeping their liberty intact and are willing to experience some hardships to stay free. And, of course, their belief in science, which dictates that Apollo cannot be supernatural, gives them the freedom of mind and leads them to looking for and finding the natural, explainable cause for Apollo being so powerful. If they accepted Apollo as a supernatural god, they would never

even begin searching for a power generator, since it would never occur to them that there might be such a thing.

The episode, which stresses the importance of liberty, is ―Omega Glory‖ from TOS

(2x25). Although the episode is a kitschy pro-American propaganda at the first sight, if one moves beyond the ridiculous façade, there are very valuable comments to be found. A

Starfleet Captain, Tracey, moves to a planet, whose inhabitants can live for an extraordinary long time. The planet‘s inhabitants are divided into two nations, Yangs (Yankees) and Kohms

(Communists), and they are both technologically well below the level of Starfleet. Tracey violates the Prime Directive and Kohms see him as a god, not having the capacity or experience to understand his power otherwise. He uses his power, tries to find out why the planet‘s inhabitants can live for such a long time and wants to exploit this trait of theirs for himself as well19. He accepts the people‘s view of himself as a god, but when Kirk confronts him, he, of course, rejects it. Tracey is then defeated, because he wanted to play god in search of immortality, which he does not achieve. And although the twist at the end, when Kirk finds out that Yangs are not barbarians, as they were otherwise presented, but very civilised people

– bringing forth the flag of the USA, and finding out that Yangs have created their own

Constitution, which copies the document of the USA word by word – is comical at best, it stresses what Kirk and the rest of his crew feel is most important. It is not the meaningless reciting the holy words, but the meaning of the holy scripture of Yangs. As captain Kirk says,

―[n]o words have said this thing of importance in quite this way. Look at these three words written larger than the rest. With a special pride never written before or since. Tall words proudly saying: ‗We the People‘!‖ 20 Those words have not been written just to be revered and

19 A very similar plot can be found in the penultimate of the Next Generation crew films, Insurrection (1998). Starfleet consents with a controversial extraction of inhabitants of a planet, which gives everyone eternal youth, to exploit its features for not much more than selfish reasons. 20 Still, it is paradoxical and amusing to realise that Kirk, upholding the American tradition, is played by William Shatner, who is Canadian. Or maybe it just shows how important and powerful the values are, because they also bind together and impress people who are not Americans. 44

spoken at various religious ceremonies, the words need to be followed and ―must apply to everyone, or they mean nothing‖ as Kirk also teaches Yangs.

The key to understanding ―Omega Glory‖ lies in the way one approaches it. The episode is in accord with what Matthew Wilhelm Kapell wrote in the introduction to Star Trek as Myth: ―within the narrative of Star Trek are found significant mythological traits of both the self-image of American people and the specific attitudes of its creator, Gene

Roddenberry‖ (1). His subsequent argument is that Star Trek works as a myth, which embodies the values of its creators, Americans. When taking this approach into consideration, one can either reject it, be bitter and take ―Omega Glory‖ to be a piece of awkward American propaganda (which, to some extent, it is), or one can consider it and really take it from the mythological perspective and see it as a symbol, as metaphor for what the creators of the show believed was important – one can understand it not as a realistic episode, but as a kind of parable. The aim of this episode might not be to tell a realistic account of what happened to the Enterprise, but instead, it could be to present a symbolical story of two peoples locked in conflict, of an evil mastermind who needs to be brought down, and of the importance of

American values and their correct understanding. For Yangs, freedom is just a ―worship word‖, they honour it, but they do not apply it to their lives. However, Kirk shows them the way when he stresses the importance of putting the worship word into action, realising it and spreading it to encompass not just Yangs, but also Khoms. It is not important, then, to weigh the possibilities of this scenario actually happening, because the metaphors are so striking, open, and straightforward. ―Omega Glory‖ is quite openly a comment on the then current situation, on Iron Curtain and the importance of clinging to the American values. What Kirk advocates is that words like ―liberty‖, ―justice for all‖, or ―inalienable rights‖ should not just be empty brainwashing phrases, but that they should be universally applied and understood by those who claim to believe in them. As such, ―Omega Glory‖ can then be seen as partly a

celebration of American values, partly as a critique of those, who forgot what the values are really about, and partly a manifesto of what Star Trek stands for and what its creators believe in.

So what is this ―new‖ religion, the thought system of Starfleet and universal faith of humans? The first step to refining and finding this faith is obviously to reject the beliefs and myths, which do not lead anywhere. The Mintakans made this step a long time ago, and their falling back on erroneous interpretation of the world around them is seen as a tragedy, which needs to be averted. Apollo is a personification of a remnant of days long past for humans, because he represents absolute dependence on a superior being and giving up of individual freedom to submit to wishes of a supernatural god. Humans have moved past this way of thinking and living – as was discussed earlier – and refuse to act as toys to amuse the alien, who is in fact only as powerful as his power supply is. If faith in the supernatural is gone, where should humans turn for answers and where to find the meaning of their existence? They discovered a magnificent tool called science, which uses many different razors, which lead them to logical and correct explanations, as long as they interpret their measurements correctly. Science is what helped them to go to the stars, not gods. Science is what brings them closer to understanding the universe and all the various races, which inhabit it. It is ―free will and the salvific nature of dispassionate scientific inquiry‖, which shows them the way

(Kraemer 11). In the episode ―The City on the Edge of Forever‖ (TOS 1x28), this idea of science being the proper religion of the future is presented in a peculiar way. Putting the plot of the episode aside, Kirk and Spock are transported into the past. They appear in the USA in the time of the Great Depression. They harbour themselves in a mission led by an affluent woman, Edith Keeler, who offers menial jobs to the unemployed and some free food for the homeless. There is a scene where she, while the homeless are eating, ascends a small stage

situated in the dining room, and the viewer expects a sermon to be given, a sermon about

God, that is. However, she gets up and starts talking about something completely different:

‗Now I don't pretend to tell you how to find happiness and love when every

day is just a struggle to survive, but I do insist that you do survive because the

days and the years ahead are worth living for. One day soon man is going to be

able to harness incredible energies, maybe even the atom. Energies that could

ultimately hurl us to other worlds in some sort of spaceship. And the men that

reach out into space will be able to find ways to feed the hungry millions of the

world and to cure their diseases. They will be able to find a way to give each

man hope and a common future, and those are the days worth living for. Our

deserts will bloom.‘

Until that moment, one might have expected the mission to be a Christian one, but instead of the word of Christ, science and the greatness of human thought are preached. Here, science is given its actual pulpit and its dedicated priest. This is the moment when Star Trek truly becomes, through self-fashioning, a sermon on science and spreading the good word of a better future in the light of it. Still, ―Thine Own Self‖ shows that it might be a long way before the correct approach is refined enough to bring such a future.

This all being said, the 22nd—24th century humans do believe in science and reject religion, however, they understand and accept it when someone else needs religion to understand what is going on around them, they accept religion as the Other, which they do not internalise, but which they respect in others and try to understand them via it. When B‘Elanna in ―Barge of the Dead‖ talks about her strange post-mortem experience, nobody tells her she is insane and that it was just her brain acting up and being too creative. Her shipmates are supportive and wish to help her understand her religious experience. This is all well until

B‘Elanna decides to threaten her own life to get the answers she seeks. At this point, tolerance

gets out of the way and the only thing that remains is, again, a realistic view, which leads

Captain Janeway to forbid her to take the step; she respects B‘Elanna and her freedom, but once her life is at the stake, she refuses to let her do it, because to her the religious ramble about Gre‘thor and Sto-vo-kor (Klingon heaven) makes no sense: ―I appreciate what you're trying to say, B‘Elanna, but whatever you experienced, it wasn't real,‖ the Captain says.

B‘Elanna answers: ―It doesn't matter if you think it was real. It was real to me.‖ B‘Elanna understands on one hand, that the whole experience was probably not a proof that the Klingon heaven and hell exist, but on the other hand, she needs to understand why it happened and if she can do anything about her mother supposedly going to hell because of her. Here, science cannot be of service, B‘Elanna can only help herself through psychology, which she filters through her religious/spiritual Klingon background. Religion is not the tool per se, which helps her, but it is the point of reference, the catalyst she uses to start healing her confused psyche. To the outside world, her problem was psychological, therefore, humans and their belief in science were correct again. But they are also aware that B‘Elanna herself could not have it any other way – religion was an important element to be used by her, although it worked equally as well as psychology would work on somebody else.

But what else is there to trust and to believe in, when religion is not good enough for humans anymore, and when science is, though valuable and more reliable, just another tool for understanding? What are the values worth living for? It is certainly freedom, be it personal freedom or universal liberty for all; it is the belief in humanity and in being in accord with the rest of the human race; these are the principles, which move humans forward and which are more valuable than one‘s life. Humans in ST would rather fight for their freedom or die trying, than to simply submit to the will of someone else,21 who simply happens to hold more power and can hurt or kill them if they refuse to accept them as their ruler.

21 Which is probably the reason why Kirk so often disobeys his authorities – his own freedom is more valuable to him than Starfleet regulations. 48

To sum up what has been said so far, on one hand, the viewer is presented with a group of enlightened people/demigods, who rejected religion, do not believe in the supernatural and apply their reason every step of the way, when they need to resolve a difficult situation. But they are also human, and they cannot give up their emotions as easily as Vulcans, therefore, they sometimes make mistakes; but that is a necessary part of life. On the other hand, these people did not reject believing in something, and their faith lies in humanity, liberty and science. And it is this faith that propels them forward.22 They trust themselves and they believe they can achieve great things, but honourably, while keeping to what they believe to be true – that freedom is for everyone and that everyone should work together to create a better future and ―to boldly go where no one has gone before‖ (from the opening credits of TNG).

3.3 Human Rituals

Although humans in ST are very rational and modern, as it was said, they do have their own semi-religious beliefs in liberty and humanity they follow. However, they also have their rituals, and not taking into consideration all the official rituals of Starfleet and the omnipresent matrimony and funeral services, they have a coming of age ritual called the

―Kobayashi Maru‖. It is a Starfleet test everyone aspiring to be a Starfleet Captain has to take.

Although not presented as such, it is a test, which represents a no-win scenario, an unsolvable situation resulting in everybody‘s death. It is designed to make every future Captain face fear, death and the unsolvable situations, which are a reality for which a Captain has to be

22 There is one race in the ST universe, which also strives for perfection and a great future, and it is the Borg. However, their approach to becoming better is amoral at best – they assimilate any form of life into their own hive-like society, where everybody shares one consciousness. They simply murder anyone with impunity and assimilate lifeforms all over the galaxy, with the intention of one day assimilating every single one – then they will have reached ultimate perfection, where everybody will be one. As much as the Borg treasure their own kind, their unity and ―perfection‖, their belief in a bright future is a twisted parody of the humans‘ desire to grow – although their goal is very similar, their means to achieving it and their envisioning of the final stage are polar opposites: individuality vs. oneness, freedom vs. centrality, and natural growth vs. conquering and forced assimilation.

prepared. A group of students are put into a simulation, where a starship called Kobayashi

Maru asks for help and they are to assist it. When the rescuing vessel approaches, three

Klingon battle cruisers appear and destroy everything. This test is a kind of a baptism by fire where an unsuspecting student does their best to both evade or destroy the Klingon ships and save Kobayashi Maru‘s crew. However, they are not aware of the fact that they cannot win.

The test exists for the sole purpose of teaching them about the reality of being a Starfleet officer and not always being able to survive.

Kobayashi Maru works similarly as any rite of passage does. They usually involve three stages: ―separation (preliminal), transition (liminal), and incorporation (postliminal)‖

(Olson 205). While in various cultures the preliminal stage involves a separation from one‘s

―parents or society‖ (Olson 205), in Kobayashi Maru one is symbolically separated from the rest of the world by a training cockpit simulating a starship‘s bridge. It could also be said that the separation begins when the Cadet-Captain begins the test, unsuspecting of their being doomed to fail – they are separated from the usual testing paradigm, where one is directly faced with a problem and expected to solve it. The liminal phase ―represent[s] the movement from one position to another, such as from infancy to childhood, from adolescence to adulthood‖ where the attendant and object of the rite ―becomes a person with knowledge, equality and responsibility.‖ The liminal phase also involves a ―symbolic death‖ (Olson 205).

All these factors can be applied to Kobayashi Maru: a Cadet, who up until now expected that every test can be passed, and that it is their task to do so, are faced with something different, and they have to learn the hidden lesson to transform from an overconfident student to a more realistic and responsible one. The postliminal stage is the Cadet‘s return to the rest of their studies, enriched by this experience, and having a better prospect of one day becoming a successful Captain, who has realistic expectations of their crew and their own abilities.

The only person, who has ever ―won‖ the Kobayashi Maru test, was James T. Kirk. He has done so both in (as implied) The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek (2009) by cheating.

He knew the test could not be passed, so he went past it, deeming it unfair, and cheated his way into winning. His rationalisation of the act was: ―I don‘t believe in a no-win scenario‖

(The Wrath of Khan). In the same film, one of his crew members accuses him: ―Then you never faced that situation: faced death‖ and she is more or less correct. Of course Kirk has seen many of his redshirts die, and even some people that were closer to him – as in TOS

1x28(29) ―The City on the Edge of Forever‖ where he had to let his love, Edith Keeler, die.

But in The Wrath of Khan he has to bear witness to the death of his best friend, Spock, which devastates him; because he failed to pass the real test behind the illusory one, whereby failing the rite of passage, his first real facing death experience came at a very high price.

In ―Thine Own Self‖ (TNG 7x16), Deanna Troi decides to become a Commander, to do which she has to pass a similar test. It is similar to Kobayashi Maru in that she has no idea what she is tested for. She keeps failing the last exam, but Riker, her examiner, refuses to tell her what she is doing wrongly. She asks him: ―Tell me one thing. Is there a solution? Or is this simply a test of my ability to handle a no-win situation?‖ to which he replies: ―There is a solution.‖ It takes her four attempts, hours upon hours of studying, and a subtle hint from

Riker to realise that it is not the technical part, which the test seems to be assessing, nor is it a no-win scenario. The only way she can prevent the destruction of the Enterprise involved in the test, is to send a capable engineer to repair a certain device manually, which, however, means exposing them to a lethal dose of radiation; the test is trying to find out, whether she is capable of making the decision to put the ship‘s safety before the safety of one crew member, and whether she is willing to sacrifice an officer‘s life to insure the ship‘s safety. Despite this test being a solvable situation, it shares all the qualities of a rite of passage with Kobayashi

Maru: simulations run on a holodeck, where she has to deal with them alone (separation), she

has to make the difficult decision and is changed by it (transformation), and afterwards she is given the rank of Commander and is brought back to work on the ship with a new status and new duties (incorporation). Also, both these tests are indirect, one might even call them surreptitious, which gives them a quality of being mysterious, and almost magical in a sense.

They are examples of the fact that not everything can be taken in by logic, deduction and scientific rationality. It would be pointless to tell Starfleet Cadets about how they must sometimes face certain death, because none of them can usually even imagine the weight of such situations. Putting them through the whole drama, letting them feel what it actually feels like, and letting them see for themselves if they are cut out for the job, is the most effective way to prepare them for what they might expect to encounter in their career. A rite of passage, therefore, is not an obsolete technique in Starfleet; this ancient method, in many cultures accompanied by intricate religious rituals and various cultural-specific customs, is still used in the rational, enlightened Starfleet. Although, it has to be said, the reasons for such tests are grounded in psychology, their application is by no means direct, or strictly logical: they are mysterious for the students and they do work as a baptism by fire.

3.4 False Gods

It has already been shown what humans in Star Trek believe and why. Now it is time to look at what they rejected and see their motivations. Every instance when the main protagonists encounter a being claiming to be a god, or someone supernatural, they are only supported in their opinion that no such things exist – the god in question always turns out to be a fraud, one way or the other. It is then fitting to look at a definition of a god: ―A God is often defined as all-powerful, omniscient, eternal, creative, wrathful, moral, and an active judge. Gods can be active in the daily lives of people, or distant and inactive‖ (Olson 99). The subsequent chapters deal with these beings in detail and test if they would pass for gods by this definition. The entities are separated into three groups: beings that either are, pretend to

be, or resemble beings from Earth mythology – Apollo, the Sirens, Quetzalcoatl/Kukulkan, and the Christian God –, beings, who are wrongly revered as ones or have proclaimed themselves to be gods – Founders, The Prophets and Pah Wraiths, Kirk in ―The Paradise

Syndrome‖, Miles O‘Brian in ―The Storyteller‖, and Trelane – and the Q continuum. The members of the first group either reflect the days past, or try to revive them. The members of the second group are either assured by others that they have power, or are self-assured that they have power, which gives them a divine status. The third ―group‖ probably cannot be even called a group, but is the most interesting of the three; the Q continuum is a peculiar phenomenon in the ST universe, which eludes any finite understanding of it. Its members are literally omnipotent and almost omniscient, but the member a viewer sees the most often

(simply called ―Q‖, played by John de Lancie) does not at all fit the description of an old wise man, who shaped the heaven and earth, or of a loving shepherd.

Naturally, none of them are ever considered to be gods by humans. By finding out about their inner natures, their sources of energy, or just by judging them (aptly) at the first sight, they discover that these entities gained their powers by using technology or thanks to evolution, and that they have no truly supernatural nature – it is only that some of them have just enough ego to spread across the entire universe.

3.4.1 Old Earth Mythology

Star Trek had a tendency of suggesting that religion not always came just from the imagination of various peoples, but that it sometimes has a real point of reference in the past in a form of an actual entity or entities from outer space.23 In TOS, the god who makes appearance as the ancient Greek Apollo (2x04: ―Who Mourns for Adonais?‖) famously

23 This tendency was seen not just in the show per se, but also later elsewhere, for example in the computer game called Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, where one can encounter Quetzalcoatl, a god of the ancient Aztecs, who is, again, just a powerful alien who visited Earth millennia ago. 53

embodies exactly this idea24. There are indications that this was a very similar case in ―The

Lorelei Signal‖ (TAS 1x04), where the Enterprise encounters beings comparable to Sirens, again from the Greek mythology, and the case is virtually identical in ―How Sharper Than a

Serpent‘s Tooth‖ in TAS (2x05), where Kukulkan makes appearance and is maybe even more arrogant than Apollo in his turn. Although Q, who is discussed further, might earn his place here as well, two different ―characters‖, which share some common features with the

Christian God, are discussed. One of them is God from Star Trek V: Final Frontier (1989), the second one, whose identity as an ―entity‖ or ―being‖ is quite ambiguous, is the Guardian of Forever from TOS 1x28: ―The City on the Edge of Forever‖. They are analysed to show why neither of them fits the definition of a supernatural god worthy of praise or following.

3.4.1.1 Apollo

Apollo was already discussed above, so only a short reminder follows. In TOS 2x04:

―Who Mourns for Adonais?‖, the Enterprise encountered a mighty, tall, masculine man clad in classical Greek robes with a golden laurel on his head. There was no doubt that what he said was true – he was Apollo, or at least the being whom ancient Greeks on the planet Earth worshipped as such millennia ago. Apollo is blind to the fact that these humans are no longer going to play his game of a perpetual god-servant/worshipper relationship, and his hopes that humans will stay on his planet and let their lives be driven by him are delusional. Maybe that is the reason why he does not discover that he is being betrayed, at one point, by Lieutenant

Carolyn. While he is tyrannising the landing party on the planet, the rest of the ship locates a power plant, from which Apollo drains power to launch his divine powers, and destroys it.

Apollo‘s last words are: ―Time has passed. There is no room for gods.‖ What gives Apollo the right to call himself a god, is his might. Although dependent on his supreme technology to exercise it, his power is formidable. However, he misuses his power to control the lives of the

24 It is no secret that some people take this idea as their own, probably the most fervent of them being Erich von Däniken, whose theories about aliens visiting the Earth in the past are as controversial as they are entertaining. 54

people, who refuse to love and worship him, and they are certainly not the powers of an omnipotent being. Also, he is not immortal; in end the Enterprise commits a successful deicide. If it had not been for his threatening the Enterprise and everyone on it, they might have left him in his divine delusion and gone somewhere else, but be it as it was, he had to be stopped. Apollo is not omnipotent, omnipresent or moral, and neither is he eternal. The final verdict is that Apollo does not deserve the title of a god.

3.4.1.2 The Sirens

The ―Sirens‖ in ST are and never have been considered gods, but they are relevant here thanks to their connection to Greek mythology. In ―The Lorelei Signal‖ (TAS 1x04), the

Enterprise enters a region of space where every 27 years a ship goes missing. They, of course, arrive in time to discover a strange distress signal, which sounds like a singing woman‘s voice, and the male part of the crew starts getting visual hallucinations, the topic of which are breathtakingly beautiful women. Women on the Enterprise are not affected by their attracting signal, but men turn into puppets driven by lust, who are irrevocably drawn towards the planet. Lured and having landed, the men find a group of women of celestial beauty, who, however, slowly but surely start draining the men‘s life energy from them, using special devices to do so – the male part of the crew is incapacitated. Since women are unaffected, they gather aboard the Enterprise to create a mighty all-women strike team, who beam down to the planet to take their men back. The problem is that those men, already having been drained to an extent, are rapidly growing old and weak. But there is a solution involving demiurgic technology – the Enterprise uses the men‘s original transporter signatures to restore their bodies back to their full health and youth.25 Everything is explained afterwards –

25 Although it is made clear that this procedure is extremely difficult and dangerous, because the transporters were simply not manufactured for this particular task, one cannot shake off the implications – if humans really wanted to and worked to perfect this technology, they could easily reach literal immortality, if only they made frequent backups of their own body-structures for transporter databanks. It is true that the show would then become fairly boring, but there is truly no reason why this should not be a logical step forward. Humans would then not only be almost almighty, but also virtually immortal. 55

it is the planet that sucks the energy out of men, and women, unable to reproduce there, devised a way to transfer or reroute that life energy to themselves. It was a necessity for them, then, to lure a group of men every 27 years to their world to sustain themselves. However, this status quo was not ideal and it did not make them happy. Consequently, when offered a transfer to another habitable planet, the women accepted happily, saying: ―Oh, it is a much better future than immortality.‖

Not heeding to mythology this time cost the Enterprise‘s crew a lot of stress, which was unnecessary – had they taken the old myths into consideration, tying Kirk to the mast and filling the ears of all men with beeswax might have done the trick and the crew would not have to suffer through the episode. It is curious that no one of the ship‘s crew suggested the connection with sirens – it is only the title of the episode itself that evokes the sirenesque theme from Hienrich Heine‘s poem ―Lorelei‖, where a young man crushes his boat on rocks, while looking at the charming, singing maiden called Lorelei. The sirens are a direct product of Greek mythology, but it is not certain, if, in the ST universe, the original Greek myth exists because of these particular beings. These very women might have been the origin of the

Greek myth, as it was true with Apollo in ―Who Mourns for Adonais?‖, but since the connection has not been made explicit, this remains a humble speculation. In any case, these sirens were nothing but (im)mortal women stranded on a lonely planet, they were no supernatural creatures, or divine, or even semi-divine beings.

3.4.1.3 Kukulkan

―How Sharper Than a Serpent‘s Tooth‖ (TAS 2x05) features Kukulkan, the old Mayan god – in Earth mythology very likely the same being as Quetzalcoatl, because they are both winged, feathered serpents. He does the same thing Apollo does; he captures the humans aboard the Enterprise and wants to keep them and singlehandedly make them become a peaceful race under his command. However, as much as Apollo is delighted, when he meets

humans again, Kukulkan is angered and offended, because they forgot him – apart from ensign Walking Bear, who saves the day by at least knowing Kukulkan‘s name. Kirk and

Kukulkan lead endless debates about freedom and childhood. ―You still are children to me, to be led and shown how to live‖, Kukulkan says, and he wants to continue being their father and teach them. He, as well as Apollo, does not realise that humans have already grown to be adults themselves and that they do not need his help:

Kirk: Because we have minds, we can't be what you wanted us to be. If we fail

or succeed, it has to be our own doing. Intelligent life is too precious a thing to

be led by the nose.

Kukulkan: But you are my children. I hoped I could teach you, help you.

Kirk: You did, long ago, when it was needed most. Our people were children

then. Kukulkan, we've grown up now. We don't need you anymore.

Kukulkan is wiser than Apollo in that he accepts this truth and lets the Enterprise and its crew go. Apollo left humans no choice but to defend themselves and respond with force, which led to his death. Despite Kukulkan having a more powerful ship, this ―old, lonely being who wanted to help others‖, as Kirk describes him afterwards, had more reason and sanity in him to understand the situation and went away to live for another day. Kukulkan, then, is not a god for the same reasons Apollo is not – he is just an advanced and overprotective alien with superior technology.

3.4.1.4 God

The following entity has already been described in the previous chapter, and it is God from the film Star Trek V: Final Frontier (1989). He resides at the centre of the galaxy, which is shielded from the rest of it by a strong barrier believed to be impenetrable. Since humans already virtually have access to any place in the universe, if only they wanted to get there and had enough time to do so, the Enterprise effectively eradicates the true final frontier and finds

a planet called Sha Ka Ree. God lives there and pretends to be the creator of the universe,

―[o]ne voice, many faces‖ as he says himself. But he very quickly shows his real face, one of a powerful ―malicious galactic bully‖ (Kraemer 43), who is not omnipotent, certainly not omnipresent, because he is tied to the planet somehow, and extremely power hungry. Before he can take over the Enterprise and use it as his vessel to spread his will across the galaxy, he is destroyed by a mere torpedo. He is very similar to Apollo in that he fails to meet any of the prerequisites to earn the title of a ―god‖, except, maybe, his power, because it does not seem to be drained from any device; he seems to be powerful himself, without any advanced machinery to aid him. All the same, he knows little of anything, is effectively trapped where he is, and his arrogance mixed with ignorance blend into a combination, which definitely excludes him from the contest for godhood. As was the case with Apollo, God in Final

Frontier is detestable: he acts like a spoiled brat or a psychotic maniac, he does not want followers, but slaves, and he is ruthless, ready to punish anybody by a bolt of lightning if they resist or deny him.

3.4.1.5 The Guardian

There is a much more likeable ―being‖ in TOS 1x28: ―The City on the Edge of

Forever‖ – the Guardian. Although his (for the voice, which represents him, is undoubtedly male) existence or purpose are never really explained, one can only guess at what he could be capable of, for good or ill. His appearance is of a tall and wide oval of stone with a seemingly empty window in its frame, through which a whole horse could pass. Inside the window, one can see any point in the universe at any time, present, past, or future, and one can even pass through this portal to visit those places and affect history. When the crew encounters him, he says: ―I am the Guardian of Forever.‖

Kirk: ―Are you a machine, or a being?‖

Guardian: ―I am both and neither. I am my own beginning, my own ending.‖

Spock: ―I see no reason for answers to be couched in riddles.‖

Guardian: ―I answer as simply as your level of understanding makes possible.‖

This puts the Guardian in a position very similar to the Christian God‘s: the Guardian is of an apparently complex and ambiguous nature, which cannot be simply understood by humans.

He, after his own words, is his own beginning and his own ending, which resembles the

Christian God being alpha and omega – both the beginning and the end of the universe. He is omniscient, because he can watch any point in time and space, however, nothing hints at him being omnipotent, and neither does he ever suggest it. To begin with, he is unable to present what he is showing with a slower pace, because he can only rewind the past in a speed he was programmed or instructed to: ―I was made to offer the past in this manner. I cannot change.‖

Although the Guardian does not claim to be divine and never says anything to such extent, he is certainly powerful, having the capability to bend time and space and let others alter the past. He is elusive and incomprehensible to the fullest, which gives him both a mystical shroud covering his true, inexplicable nature, and the capability to give others the benefit of doubt – the science-driven humans would probably use the Occam‘s blade to simply accept that the Guardian is more likely a constructed/born being/machine, than a supernatural being, but still he wears an aura of mystery around him. He never does anything to alter history himself, he does not bar the free will of others, he is simply there, offering his power to those, who wish to use it. He seems to be more of a tool than a being with free will. However, who knows what motivations can this being-machine have, when humans are too primitive to understand even his nature? The answer is: no one. Therefore, from the human perspective, even if he was a supernatural god, no one would have problems with it – he would be a powerful god in no need of worshippers, he would help those, who would wish it, and he would never even suggest to restrain someone else‘s free will. So, although the Guardian might not be eligible, he would be the most suitable one. The Guardian is so different from

anything humans have encountered, that it is very difficult to speak about morality in his case, but since he does not visibly exert his will, if he has any, he at least does not tamper with morality of others. Also, he is omniscient and he is, in a sense, eternal. Although he does not meet the other prerequisites – or at least none that one could judge from the short time he was given in the show – and, therefore, also cannot pass for a god, in this category he wins the first prize for getting the closest to godhood.

Of course one would find many more false gods inspired by Earth mythology or vice versa, if one keeps thinking inside the universe of ST, but these should suffice, because they embody the main ideas: a) some Earth religions arose because the Earth was at one point visited by these beings, and b) there are beings ―out there‖, which have powers one would associate with gods, but never are they supernatural in nature and seldom do they have the temper and morality one would expect from a ―proper‖ god. Therefore, in some senses these beings are gods, but not quite. At least not enough for humans to fall on their knees and start worshipping them now that they can think for themselves.

3.4.2 Self-Proclaimed Gods

The second group consists of beings, who are not connected to Earth mythology, but are revered as gods or spiritual leaders by others, or who proclaimed themselves to hold these titles. They certainly include the entities, which are central to the whole seven-season

―religious drama‖ of DS9 (Kraemer 5), Prophets, their ancient adversaries – the Pah-wraiths – and an alien race of shape shifters / changelings called Founders. Also, a few humans have acquired a divine/semi-divine status throughout the ST serials26. Therefore, Kirk in TOS‘s

―The Paradise Syndrome‖ and Chief Miles O‘Brian in DS9‘s ―The Storyteller‖ are discussed.

26 The Picard from ―Who Watches the Watchers‖ (TNG 3x04) would also fit into this category, but it is unnecessary to include him here, since he was already discussed above and since it is clear why he was revered as a god by Mintakans – he was believed to have restored one of them back to life and there was no other logical explanation they could come up with. 60

The last character worthy of mention here is Trelane, the Squire of Gothos (TOS 1x18: ―The

Squire of Gothos‖).

3.4.2.1 Wormhole Entities – The Prophets

One could write a whole thesis based solely on The Prophets and Pah-wraiths, therefore only the key points are given here as to their nature, and why they are not gods, supernatural or other. The Prophets are a race of non-linear beings, who occupy a stable wormhole. For them, time is an unchanging constant, and they live simultaneously in the past, present and future. They are revered by Bajorans, a race of humanoid aliens living on a planet near the wormhole. The Bajoran spiritual leaders tell prophecies of the wormhole entities, which they derive from peculiar crystalline orbs they call the Tears of the Prophets – these crystals apparently fell to the planet from outer space in a distant point in the past. The

Bajoran population is widely extremely religious, and their faith is confirmed when Benjamin

Sisko, a Starfleet Commander (later Captain), discovers the wormhole, as it was foretold. To

Bajorans, the wormhole is a Celestial Temple of the Prophets and they call Sisko the

Emissary of the Prophets. He is a proper Starfleet officer, and only uses his status of a religious authority to gain what he needs – and although it is a bit amoral a practice, his goals are simply making Bajor join the United Federation of Planets. He understands the wormhole entities just as they are, he does not accept their divine or supernatural nature, plus he internally rejects his status as their Emissary. It takes him almost the whole serial to discover that his mother was a Prophet, and literally the whole serial to finally accept the ―divine‖ will of the Prophets and do what they want him to do.27

The Prophets have their natural adversaries called the Pah-wraiths, who are told to have been expelled from the Celestial Temple, but are told to one day try to get their foothold

27 His complex relationship with the Prophets and his half-Prophet nature are nicely described by Jeffrey S. Lamp in his essay ―The Sisko, the Christ: A Comparison of Messiah Figures in the Star Trek Universe and the New Testament‖ (Kapell), where he comprehensibly explains all the details, which are unnecessary here.

back and defeat the Prophets. In the 7th season of DS9, this foretold apocalypse comes and its outcome will not be spoiled here. What is important here is the nature of both Prophets and

Pah-wraiths. They, in essence, are the same creatures; although the Pah-wraiths experienced their fall from grace, they are identical to the Prophets in nature. Bajorans worship the

Prophets as supernatural gods, but Starfleet sees them for what they are – another advanced or different race of powerful and incorporeal entities, not deities. And although the Tears of the

Prophets seem to represent a divine link to the Prophets, there is no reason why they cannot be explained away by technology, psychology, or quantum physics. So again, although the

Prophets and Pah-wraiths seem like supernatural angels and demons, they are a race of entities eluding full comprehension by three-dimensional, linear beings like humans and

Bajorans.

3.4.2.2 The Founders from Gamma Quadrant

The Founders are a very similar case, in that masses of different races see them as gods. They lived in the Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy where they ruled their theocratic empire of fear called the Dominion. They have the ability of shapeshifting – they can easily change their shape into anything they wish – and their technology is very advanced. They managed to subdue the races of the Gamma Quadrant to serve them, turning some into obedient, brainwashed soldiers (the Jem‘Hadar), enhancing some genetically (the Vorta, immune to almost any poison), or just controlling others and having them run errands for them (the Karemma, the traders). A fitting illustration of how the Dominion works, is shown in the episode DS9 4x23: ―To the Death‖. Sisko and his crew assist a Jem‘Hadar team to strike at a rebelling Jem‘Hadar group, which had discovered technology, which would help them to effectively rule the whole galaxy – they would have the capability to teleport anywhere they wished in an instant. The ―friendly‖ Jem‘Hadar group is fanatically loyal to the

Dominion, namely to the Founders, their gods. They stop at nothing, until the traitors are all

punished. The Jem‘Hadar are profoundly brainwashed – or almost ―programmed‖ to obey – and their mentality is of perfect soldiers. For any insubordination, they are punished by death.

The leader of the Jem‘Hadar team in the episode, First Omet‘iklan, gives a motivation speech to his soldiers: ―As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives.

This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember: victory is life‖. Maybe it seems savage, but it makes sense; an already dead soldier need not fear to die. The Jem‘Hadar see no other purpose in living than serving their gods. They do not need to sleep, or eat, or drink, or even mate, because they are artificially created, although organic and sentient beings. The only thing they need to consume is a drug called ketracel-white. It contains everything their body needs to sustain itself, and it is highly addictive. The drug is given to them by the appointed aforementioned Vorta, much more self-assured and mouthy race of beings, who see things more realistically, but are loyal to the Founders nonetheless. Although most of the Jem‘Hadar are perfectly loyal to their gods, some of them have trouble with accepting this position, hence the usage of this drug to control the Jem‘Hadar. In other words, although the majority of the

Jem‘Hadar as the Dominion‘s subjects, and virtually their slaves, are sincerely loyal to their gods and would go to any length to fulfil their wishes, including dying for them unquestioningly, there are some who see through, realise that Founders are not gods and try to take matters in their own hands.

Although their plans are thwarted by their fanatical brothers in joined operation with the Federation, their assessment and general outlook is the one of the villains, which is a paradox. Usually in Star Trek, it is the other way around: those who realise their gods are just oppressive beings, which are in fact no gods at all, have made a huge step forward towards their growth as a race and people. The freedom of these people is usually the desired ideology and it is generally supported by the Federation. Here it is different, because what these

―advanced‖ Jem‘Hadar wish to do with their newly acquired freedom, is to rule the world as

they see fit, threatening the freedom of the Dominion, the Federation, and consequently anyone else in the galaxy. And this is why they need to be stopped, even though they follow the ―right‖ scenario – they follow it for the ―bad‖ reasons. With the powerful technology of instant teleportation anywhere, they would soon become a race, which would be considered and revered by many as gods.

This is how the Dominion works. Founders, the changelings, are a race of masters of genetics, who know how to make loyal servants and how to sustain their status as their gods, because they did create them, or at least made them what they are. They work as their judges, they not only interfere with their subjects‘ lives, they completely control them. But although it is difficult to kill them, they are hardly eternal, they are not omnipotent, and nor are they omniscient. Founders are those, who demand recognition from others and gain their divine status only thanks to their worshippers, but be it as it is, they are exactly as natural and as solid as Apollo or Kukulkan.

3.4.2.3 Notable Divine Humans

There have been numerous humans, who acquired the divine status for themselves for a brief moment, from which Picard and Captain Tracey were mentioned (TNG 3x04: ―Who

Watches the Watchers‖ and TOS 2x23: ―The Omega Glory‖ respectively)28. There is no point in arguing or explaining why they were no gods, because although they might have been seen as such to others, they were still flesh and blood, mortal, imperfect humans29. But it is worth illustrating how and why they were revered as gods or spiritual leaders, and why such perception by others was not very wise.

28 Even Benjamin Sisko would fit here. However, he was a half-Prophet, which excludes him from this full- human subgroup. 29 One has to bear in mind that the aforementioned and discussed apotheosis of humankind was made possible only thanks to technology – humans, in their nature, are still the same beings we know today. 64

3.4.2.3.1 Kirk the Saviour and Native Americans

In ―The Paradise Syndrome‖ (TOS 3x03), Kirk suffers memory loss and is stranded on a planet peculiarly resembling the Earth. He meets the inhabitants, who are a mixture of several Native American nations. They were planted on the planet by a race called The

Preservers, who built a machine capable of deflecting asteroids. These people have a prophecy, which predicts a god to come to save the people. They mistake Kirk for this god, but it is only natural – he emerges from a hidden chamber beneath the deflector itself, he looks differently from the rest of them and he is strangely clothed. When the local medicine man wishes a proof that Kirk is a god, he gets it a minute afterwards, when Kirk revives a boy with lungs full of water. The knowledge of the medicine man told him that a body without any heartbeat is dead, but Kirk gives the boy a mouth to mouth breathing and pumps the water out of his lungs, thus bringing the boy ―back to life‖. This is the proof also to the rest and Kirk is regarded as a god and their saviour.

There is really nothing really mystical about their religion, because the natives can time and again visit the ―temple‖ – the deflector – and see for themselves that it exists, and because their myths are basically true, only comprehended by them in a way they can comprehend them. There seems to be no moral judgement as to the nature of the religion, but for the fact that the people accepted ―‗a bleeding god‘‖, as the medicine man said, who is ―‗no god at all!‘‖ – he discovers this by hurting Kirk and seeing that he can bleed30. But before he, an enraged man, who lost his position as a physician to the new ―god‖, can convince others of this, they realise themselves, when Kirk is unable to save them, because he just does not know how. The people are as ready to believe he is a god, as they are ready to denounce him, when they are faced with the facts. Instead of clinging to the belief he will eventually save them and not confronting him in fear, this episode seems to show and honour their rationality, which

30 Once again, scenarios reappear – it was also not until The Picard was hurt that Mintakans understood he was no god (TNG 3x04: ―Who Watches the Watchers). 65

leads them to try to stone the impostor to death. In other words, ―The Paradise Syndrome‖ presents a religion, which is just a supernatural explanation of a people‘s real condition, and which is strong enough to accept a human as a god, but not radical enough to let itself suffer cognitive dissonance; when faced with the fact that the so-called ―god‖ cannot do what was expected of him, they realise he is not god and decide to punish him accordingly.

3.4.2.3.2 The Sirah

In ―The Storyteller‖ (DS9 1x14), Chief O‘Brian finds himself in the middle of a very unenviable situation – he goes to Bajor as an escort to the space station‘s Medical Officer,

Julian Bashir, who is sent there to treat an old spiritual leader of a particular village. The old man is not a priest of the Prophets, he is the Sirah, the storyteller. Every year, a fearful mythical creature in the form of a giant storm cloud, called Darmok, attacks the village, and it is the Sirah‘s job to tell the story about Darmok and how he fears the unity of the people and their effort. When he does so, Darmok is averted and the village is safe for another year. The current Sirah is ill beyond saving, he dies from old age, but before he does so, he appoints

O‘Brian to be the next Sirah, instead of the current Sirah‘s apprentice, who failed to live up to a storyteller‘s reputation. O‘Brian, an Irish Starfleet officer and engineer, is completely at a loss as to how to behave and what to do. The Bajorans of the village give him gifts, they worship him, bring him women – until he tells them he is married – and even want him to bless their children. The Sirah‘s former apprentice is angry with O‘Brian and tries to kill him.

But soon they come to terms and the apprentice tells O‘Brian how the averting of Darmok works: in the past, there was a lot of spite in the village, and it seemed the Bajorans would destroy one another, so the first Sirah took a fragment of a Tear of the Prophets and used it as a nexus to focus the villagers‘ hatred to create Darmok. Then, he used the stone again to focus their feelings of unity, friendship and brotherhood, which would then repel Darmok. And although O‘Brian understands this on the rational level, he is unable to perform the role of a

spiritual leader. That is why, when Darmok comes, O‘Brian almost dies before the former apprentice takes the stage and saves the day by performing the proper storytelling and drives

Darmok away.

The story shares many similarities with ―The Paradise Syndrome‖: there is an evil

(asteroid, Darmok), which needs to be averted thanks to a mighty spiritual figure (a god, the

Sirah). There was an adept to the position of the saviour (the medicine man, the apprentice of the Sirah), who somehow fell from grace or out of favour of the society (the Native

Americans, the Bajoran villagers). Both stories end well, but while the ending of one of them was greatly pre-arranged – the old Sirah appointed O‘Brian, so that he would fail, and so that his apprentice could take over and prevail, thus restoring the villagers‘ faith in him, without which they could never repel Darmok –, the other one was a fulfilment of a vague prophecy with a close shave – Kirk eventually does save the planet by using the temple‘s power to deflect the deadly asteroid. Despite the similarities, there is an important difference in why they were believed to possess somewhat supernatural traits and what the outcomes of these views were. In Kirk‘s case, the belief in him being a god was more of a matter of taxonomy – as long as he fulfilled his role, it did not matter if he was a ―god‖ or not. In O‘Brian‘s case, however, the only thing that mattered all the time was that the villagers would believe in him being the Sirah unquestioningly. If they did not fall for the trick the former Sirah had set and if his apprentice did not use his window of opportunity, the villagers would quite literally destroy themselves against their own will. And on the whole, even the annual storytelling ritual itself is built on nothing but faith of the villagers, and it would not work without it, which is why this surreptitious sleight-of-hand strategy had to be employed.

3.4.2.4 The Squire of Gothos

The last ―god‖ worthy of exploring here is Trelane. In TOS 1x18: ―The Squire of

Gothos‖, the Enterprise finds a planet, which was not initially indicated on their scans. Sulu

and Kirk mysteriously disappear, and the Enterprise sends a team to find them on the planet‘s surface. They are quickly surprised, because not only is the atmosphere not as deadly, as their sensors had been showing them, but it is perfectly breathable. They go to explore the place and find a manor reminding of an antiquated castle. What they meet inside the mansion are the lost and immobile Kirk and Sulu, and a belligerent, but otherwise cheerful being calling himself Trelane, the Squire of Gothos. He unfreezes the two and greets the newcomers. He says they are his guests, however, he turns out to be a) in no mood to let them go, and b) more powerful than they first imagined. He explains how he managed to erect the structure and create habitable place around it:

Trelane: I […] have, to state the matter briefly, perfected a system, by which

matter can be transferred to energy and back to matter again.

Kirk: Like the transporter system aboard the Enterprise.

Trelane: Oh, a crude example of an infinitely more sophisticated process. You

see, we not only transport matter from place to place, but we can alter its shape

at will.

Kirk wants to leave and is punished by temporarily being sent into the deadly atmosphere, that otherwise exists on the planet – an act of an angry god, who can do what he wills. Trelane is fascinated by the war campaigns of various military leaders of the Earth and has many artefacts from the ancient time periods on display, but he failed to understand this has not been true for quite some time: he was viewing the Earth from the distance of nine hundred light years, which means, that the only thing he saw was the Earth nine hundred years ago.

Also, his fireplace has fire, which does not give any heat. Kirk comments on it saying:

―Whatever we're dealing with, he certainly isn't all knowledgeable. He makes mistakes.‖

Spock later tells Trelane: ―I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose.‖ Kirk‘s theory is, that Trelane has to have a device,

which makes all the wonders they see – a frequent assumption, which works for Apollo as well in ―Who Mourns for Adonais?‖. It is correct, and destroying the mirror, though only temporarily, makes Trelane devoid of power. After more trouble with him, Trelane‘s parents appear, exposing him to be their child. They call Trelane off, apologise to the crew, and let them go. Spock later ponders over what happened:

Spock: For the record, how do we describe him? Pure mentality? Force of

intellect? Embodied energy? Superbeing? He must be classified, sir.

Kirk: God of war, Mister Spock.

Spock: I hardly find that fitting.

Kirk: Then a small boy, and a very naughty one at that.

Trelane then does not deserve to be called a ―god‖ for many of the same reasons for which neither Kukulkan, nor Apollo could be. For all intents and purposes, he seems to be almighty

– although this power is his most probably mainly thanks to his superior technology. He is ready to judge and punish, but he lacks perspective and certainly ―isn‘t all knowledgeable‖.

But worst of all, he is extremely amoral, ―a small boy, and a very naughty one at that‖ is hardly a being worthy of praise and following. It is then mainly his vaingloriousness, recklessness, and self-centredness, which exclude him from the divine ranks, although he exalted himself into that position with his mouth and ostentatious display of power.

Trelane‘s virtual omnipotence is fascinating for two reasons: 1) his technology closely resembles the transporter technology on the Enterprise in TOS, and finds itself being perfected on the Enterprise in TNG and onwards in the form of food replicators and holodecks; and 2) it resembles the abilities of the Q continuum. Trelane is almost exactly as reckless and aggravatingly annoying as Q is – as is shown in the next subchapter – and the power to do about anything they want is virtually identical, but while Trelane draws his energy from a device, Q is omnipotent from his very nature. Q is also nearly omniscient,

while Trelane is definitely not, but this fact could be explained by understanding Trelane as being a child with little experience. It is then only natural that the discussion now turns to Q, the last of the false gods to be analysed here.

3.4.3 Q

The Q Continuum represents a body of beings, which meet almost all the requirements to fit the definition of ―gods‖. They fall short by a few inches of actually doing so, but this time, their deficiencies are not something humans would expose and exploit to serve their will; this time, humans have no means of defending themselves against these false gods – they are entirely at their mercy. The one member of the Q Continuum the crew of the Enterprise

(and later even the one of Deep Space 9 and the Voyager) most frequently meet, is a male called simply Q. He is a reckless, sometimes cruel and erratic megalomaniac, who uses his infinite powers at his own whim. And there is no one to stop him if he does not wish it, because he is almighty in the proper sense of the word – he can do literally anything. Apart from his omnipotence, he is also almost omniscient – he seems to know everything, although he sometimes fails to fully grasp some concepts or understand, for example, the human nature. He is also omnipresent in the sense that he can appear anywhere he wishes to. But despite all his powers, he is not a wise ruler of the universe. On the contrary, his character is very similar to Trelane‘s – he likes playing games, he continually requires amusement, he can get bored easily, he is stubborn and at times extremely childish. Apart from all of these, he acts as a self-appointed judge of the human race, whom he put on a continuous trial, which will go on for as long as he will please. But Q‘s character has a depth in it, and later, one can see that neither is he just a one-dimensional trickster figure, nor is everything he does unchecked by his fellow Q beings in the Continuum. Further paragraphs analyse various episodes where Q made an appearance and try to draw as accurate an image of him as possible, because Q could be the single closest being to deserve the title of god in Star Trek.

Also the interactions of others with Q are analysed, because they further illustrate and strengthen what has been said before about the humans‘ faith in themselves.

3.4.3.1 Q the God

When Q makes his first appearance in TNG 1x01: ―Encounter at Farpoint‖, his approach is quite straightforward and instead of instilling the viewer with the faith that human race is advanced, enlightened and worthy of recognition, he attacks the human inner nature.

He breaks the confidence of the 24th century crew by appearing in several military costumes ranging from 1600s to the 24th century present, showing that throughout history, humans have not shown much progress. When he first appears, dressed as an Elizabethan ship Captain, his first words are: ―Thou are notified that thy kind hath infiltrated the galaxy too far already.

Thou art directed to return to thine own solar system immediately.‖ He then drops the charade, but by showing some more contemporary costumes and reminding the crew of the quite recent wars they waged amongst themselves, he questions their right to exist:

[Y]ou can't deny that you're still a dangerous, savage child race. […] [Y]ou

slaughtered millions in silly arguments about how to divide the resources of

your little world. And four hundred years before that you were murdering each

other in quarrels over tribal god-images. Since there are no indications that

humans will ever change.

Captain Picard is confident that the past is the past and that humans can easily prove they have already surpassed their savage natures. Q disagrees and puts the crew with the rest of humanity on trial. If they prove their worth, they will be allowed to exist. If they do not, they will be terminated. Although most of Q‘s actions have a decorative purpose, he is serious; he does not engage in the trial just for his amusement, he intends to preside over humans, decide the outcome (with the rest of the Continuum), and carry it out. Picard is naturally not comfortable with the fact that some outside force is going to decide about their fate based on

their, most likely biased, decision. But nothing can take his pride away when he says to his crew: ―We do exactly what we‘d do if this Q never existed. If we‘re going to be damned, let‘s be damned for what we really are.‖ The crew eventually succeeds in their task and humans are allowed to exist.

In ―Hide and Q‖ (TNG 1x10), Q appears to tell the crew of the Enterprise that the

Continuum is fascinated with humans and acknowledges that one day, they could become even better than the Q Continuum, because they have the potential and motivation to grow.

He comes to bestow a great gift upon them – the abilities of Q. They are all sceptical as to what Q‘s real intentions are, and he does not disappoint them: instead of just straightforwardly coming to them and giving them the gift he promised, he plays unfair games with them and gives these powers to William Riker, Picard‘s second in command. Picard bets

Q that if Riker resists his temptation, Q has to leave the whole of humanity alone ―forever‖.

Riker initially does not want to use his abilities, then he is gradually becoming accustomed to them, but in the end he realises that having the ability to do anything for free is not fulfilling, because everything is too easy then. He finally rejects the abilities, Q loses the bet and is called off by the rest of the Continuum. Q has the ability to bend time and space, create, recreate and destroy things and beings as he pleases, and yet he lost a wager he made with the

Captain. Data then ponders:

Data: Sir, how is it that the Q can handle time and space so well, and us so

badly?

Picard: Perhaps someday we will discover that space and time are simpler than

the human equation.

In this episode, Q is shown not as much as a god, but as a tempter (the devil), who offers the gift of omnipotence, and as is mentioned by Riker, ―absolute power corrupts absolutely.‖ Q, instead of doing what he said he came to do, turns to childish battling and betting to add some

spice to his visit. However, he knows the human nature so badly, that he overestimates his chances and is actually punished by the rest of the Continuum. Humans are revealed to be much more complex than one might initially think, and that a human, as Picard quoted

Shakespeare here, is ―[i]n apprehension, how like a god.‖ Only future will show if this is indeed true.

Q had been punished by the Continuum, and it is then in TNG 3x13: ―Déjà Q‖, that Q appears on the bridge of the Enterprise, naked and asking for asylum. It is discovered that this time it is not one of his games, but that the Continuum judged him too reckless, and decided to punish him by taking his powers away. Unfortunately for him, he does not find much sympathy on the Enterprise. Given a few chances to make himself useful, he fails to succeed even in the easiest tasks, because of him not being used to being a human. Q at one point tells

Picard that he feels ashamed because of his virtual uselessness, to which Picard replies: ―Q,

I‘m not your father confessor. You will receive no absolution from me.‖ It is ironic that an otherwise almighty being asks a mere mortal for forgiveness or compassion, but it is the case.

Q realises what his situation is and decides he will no longer annoy the crew by his presence.

He manages to help them and then leaves selflessly. However, this act awakens some level of compassion in the Continuum and they give him his abilities back, provided he would behave from then on.

―Qpid‖ (TNG 4x20) shows Q in his own former self, only this time he merely wants to repay Picard‘s help when he was in a human form. But Picard is too well aware that taking help from Q is more like asking favours from the devil than receiving gifts from God. Picard is having some trouble with a woman he loves, Vash, and Q asks him: ―You would have me standing idly by as she led you to your destruction?‖ to which Picard replies: ―Yes!‖ He does not wish any – as much as these adjectives should be avoided here – supernatural or divine assistance. If he is to fail, but while controlling all his actions and applying his, though

inferior and insufficient, power, he will gladly do so. In the end, Picard himself realises she is not the one for him and the episode ends with Q taking Vash out on an extensive date throughout the galaxy.

The divine aspect of the Continuum is also seen in TNG 6x06: ―True Q‖, where the

Enterprise gets a new crew member, Amanda. She believes to have been born to human parents, who tragically died in a tornado. She is discovered to be Q in nature and has to decide, whether she wants to become a full-fledged human, i.e. without her powers, or a full- fledged Q. Her parents were also Q, but they decided to leave the Continuum and settle down on the planet Earth and their deaths were a punishment by the rest of the Continuum – tornados do not frequently happen on Earth, where the weather is controlled. The divine aspect is in the similarities to Christianity here. Amanda is both a human and a Q. Her parents were incarnated Q, but at the same time they were humans in nature by their own choice. So

Amanda, the same as Jesus Christ, is both god and human at the same time, and although her conception was probably not immaculate, she was conceived by gods-humans. Also, like

Jesus, Amanda learns about her powers (or starts using them) only when she comes of age.

But that is probably where the similarities end. Her parents did what they felt was right; however, the rest of the Continuum disagreed. As Q said in ―Déjà Q‖: ―It's difficult working in a group when you're omnipotent‖ (TNG 3x13). The Continuum initially wants to terminate

Amanda as well, but in the end they offer her the choice and she decides to embrace her Q origin.

Q is also present in ―Tapestry‖ (TNG 6x15), but if he really made an appearance or if the whole episode took place in Picard‘s head, lies with the viewer to decide. Picard experiences a heart failure and goes into coma. There, amidst a bright white background a silhouette emerges, and at a closer look, Picard realises it is Q:

Picard: Q, what is going on?

Q: I told you. You're dead. This is the afterlife. And I'm God.

Picard: You are not God!

Q: Blasphemy! You're lucky I don't cast you out or smite you or something.

The bottom line is, your life ended about five minutes ago, under the inept

ministrations of Dr Beverly Crusher.

Picard: No... I am not dead. Because I refuse to believe that the afterlife is run

by you. The universe is not so badly designed.

Q shows Picard his past and the debate of the two of them mainly revolves around missed opportunities in life and regrets. Q lets Picard relive his life, changing things he initially regretted, but once Picard sees what person he would become had he changed his past, he realises that it is not what he wanted. It turns out that anything Picard would change in his past to make him a ―better‖ person, would end up in him being someone completely different.

He tells Q: ―I would rather die as the man I was than live the life I just saw.‖ He comes to terms with his past – his past ―sins‖ or mistakes made him the person he is, and now he can be proud of himself and who and what he is. Again, as in various other instances, Picard is willing to take all the woes that are to happen to him, as long as he can keep his dignity.

Picard comes to terms with himself and wakes up in the Enterprise‘s sickbay, finally revived back to life by Dr Crusher. But it is unclear if his mind played tricks on him and if the visions he had were the result of solely his inner conflict, or if Q had any say in it. In any case, it would fit his behaviour and his usual self-conferred role of a judge over lower forms of life.

One can also see similarities with ―Barge of the Dead‖ (VOY 6x03), where B‘Elanna Torres experiences something similar, but battles her condition on her own, while in ―Tapestry‖, there is a strong possibility that the catalyst of this inner struggle being fought was not Picard and his religious background (because he simply does not have any), but Q himself. As it was said, it would be like him to interfere and enjoy Picard‘s suffering, as he would languish in

what seemed to be his afterlife. But again, the episode does not give a definitive answer to the question if there is any afterlife, it just hints that it might, and leaves the question open.

In the final, double episode of TNG (7x25 and 7x26: ―All Good Things…‖), Q appears again and puts human abilities to another test, or rather guides Picard through an ordeal, whose particularities are not important; suffice to say that Q did not create the ―test‖, but it is Picard who unintentionally causes an anomaly to appear, which threatens to erase the humankind. Q acts only as an overseer and gives Picard hints to steer him in the right direction. The situation is grave, but Picard succeeds again, nonetheless, after which he appears before the tribunal from the serial‘s first episode. He is outraged, because he was convinced that humans have already proved their worth and that the trial has been over for seven years already. However, Q lets Picard know that the trial never has and never will end.

Q shows his ―human face‖ here, for the lack of a better phrase, in that he does not let Picard to be unfairly tested without clues. Throughout the years, he became fond of humans in some way and his attitude had changed from a cold-hearted judge to a more friendly character, but only to a limited extent.

3.4.3.2 Q the Person

Q‘s ―human face‖ is also visible when his wife makes appearance (VOY 3x11: ―Q and the Grey‖), and after a significant help from the Voyager‘s crew, they get together and conceive a child. The boy plays an important role in ―Q2‖ (VOY 7x19), where Captain

Janeway has to take care of him. To put it simply, as time passed, Q and the whole Continuum were much more transparent to humans and shown in a much simpler light. After time, the

Continuum turned from being perceived as a board of all-powerful divine judges to a highly advanced, but now stagnating race of bored beings, who have tried everything there is to try in the universe, and are afraid to do unexpected things to change their passive condition, as shown in ―Death Wish‖ (VOY 2x18). It is an important episode for two reasons: 1) it shows,

for the first time comprehensibly to humans, what the Continuum looks or is like, seriously questioning its powers and position; and 2) it suggests that humans, without Q‘s help in the past, would not exist as they are today (see the next paragraph). A member of the Continuum

(not the Q figure described above) wants to commit suicide and is prevented by the others.

The Continuum is now finally seen as it really is – a dismal place where nothing ever happens, because everything has already happened there. The Q in question asks for asylum on the Voyager and Captain Janeway is to preside over a court case of Q vs. Q – paradoxically, because it happens on her ship, she is given the authority to judge over the superior being and decide whether he can commit suicide or not. The asylum asking Q admits that the Q Continuum is weak, that it is not, in fact, omnipotent. The Continuum is afraid of doing anything that would threaten its existence as it is, thus leaving it inactive and unchanging. So Q, a god, asks to be let to die for two reasons: a) he has lived long enough and has nothing new to do, and b) to show the rest of the Continuum, that they should wake up from the eternal stagnation and start growing again. He eventually takes his life and starts a revolution, which grows into a Q civil war culminating in ―Q and the Grey‖. But after the birth of Q‘s son, the Continuum is at peace again.

During the trial in ―Death Wish‖, the revolutionary Q is shown to have helped at various stages in human history, for example it was he, who made the apple fall onto

Newton‘s head. It then seems to undermine the belief in human greatness, since they did great things, but only after these acts of ―divine intervention‖. It is true that the apple was just an impetus from Q – Newton had to come up with his theory himself – but this Q also saved an ancestor of William Riker – had he not done it, Riker would have never been born. The implication of such interventions is that humans have not really achieved their greatness all by themselves. True, there is nothing wrong with someone helping them, but secretive help

―from above‖ without the humans‘ knowledge leads to questions like: how much more help

have humans been given throughout the ages? How much has actually been achieved by humans alone? And how much can humans grow by themselves, without such nudges? Since this episode can be taken as an anomaly – it is just one in the 715 –, these implications might not be too serious, but still one cannot fend off the ―what if‖ questions once provided this detail about the Q‘s intervention.

To sum this all up, Q (and the Continuum) is a peculiar being with many properties one would usually associate with a god. He does not fear using his abilities to work miracles and at many occasions puts himself in a position of a god and acts like one. He is, however, missing a somewhat human dimension – for which he is grateful – and does not accept human morality. He believes himself to be entitled to decide about the fate of other races just because he has the power to do so, and he is ready to sentence humankind to annihilation on account of ―being inferior‖ (TNG 7x25/26: ―All Good Things…‖). But later, as he gets to know humans better, he grows more sympathetic towards them, and he learns, however little, to have some respect – it is in the situations when he needs help from them in the form of an asylum (TNG 3x13: ―Déjà Q‖), stopping the Q Continuum-wide civil war (VOY 3x11: ―Q and the Grey‖), and looking after his spoiled son (VOY 7x19: ―Q2‖). He frequently shows his deficiencies and almost human aspects, which would be otherwise obfuscated and obscured by his immense powers. Q is then a near-divine being, who, however, finds himself past the peak of his eternal life and realises that his life is boring. In other words, Q seems not to have any meaning of life, and so he either artificially creates some or just lives because he is used to live. Even if he decided he did not want to go on anymore, the rest of the Continuum would not let him, as shown in ―Death Wish‖ (VOY 2x18). Humans both fear him, and distrust and rebel against him, whenever he appears. They realise he has got the power to take away their freedom, pride and self-respect, and that he can and likes to belittle them frequently. He also embodies the god archetype, which humans rejected. But maybe from all the ―gods‖ in ST, he

is the only one, who both uses his godlike position to his ends, but at the same time takes everything over the top and makes a farce out of any of his divine acts. He is very self- confident and decadent, he does not need to urge people into obedience, because if he really wanted to, he could make them do anything he wished – in this sense, his powers are limitless. But as he is often confronted with human behaviour, he finally learns something about their nature and internalises some of those traits in order that the Continuum can awaken from its existential passivity and grow, trying to search for new frontiers – something which is at the core of human behaviour and motivation. If nothing, it is this, which Q learned from the human race, and at that moment, although Q will probably always seek his own agenda, he becomes less of a ―god‖ and more of a ―partner‖ race. 4. Conclusion

Examination of the episodes discussed in the previous sections and their analysis yielded useful data, which led to answering the question of what the religious message of ST is. Episodes and films from different time periods were analysed, as well as films and episodes written and directed by various people, but although there were necessary anomalies, they were explained by the different socio-political situations at the times when the serials were being created, and it was possible to derive a conclusive and plausible answer.

Overall, Star Trek‘s almost religious message or prediction is the one of a better future, if all human beings work to better themselves and to propel their race forward.

Humans are envisioned as their own gods, who neither became ―gods‖ by the virtue of their nature, nor did they become ones solely metaphorically in the sense that they gained personal liberty and the right to decide their own fate – humans, thanks to their ever-advancing technology, have literally become gods the creators (demiurges). They can create artificial environments, food, and even people, who are indistinguishable from real humans, out of thin air.

Star Trek is generally atheistic. Every mythical creature, self-proclaimed god or any other spiritual being humans encounter in Star Trek always turns out to be a natural, although often a much more powerful being than them. These entities are usually considered to be gods only because of their superior technology, superior abilities or knowledge, or because they have followers who accept and worship them as such. Sometimes, the sheer feeling of superiority over humans and other less developed races leads these entities to believe they can act like gods and decide the fates of the inferior beings. And it is usually up to humans, with their power of intellect and clever use of their technology and knowledge, to expose such

―gods‖ as false divinities, thus saving the enslaved worshippers or themselves from the false gods‘ influence.

However, although humans rejected the supernatural and do not answer to any gods, they still believe in qualities and ideals worth dying for if need be. They value personal freedom, but they are well aware that there has to be law, which would protect their liberty and which they have to follow, in order that no one can use their technological advantages to oppress someone else. As much as they value freedom, they also seek to protect life and are reluctant, for example, to let others commit suicide or to take unnecessary risks, which could result in their deaths. And, as indicated, they believe in humanity and are willing to surrender their lives and freedom in order that the majority can live safely and in liberty.

Humans also still practice some of their old rituals, which either survived from the past, or were transformed. The former group contains rituals such as marriages and funerals, the latter includes the rituals of coming of age or ―baptism by fire‖, where the ones being

―baptised‖ have to live through a situation, which will change them and turn them into persons of wisdom and experience – the ―Kobayashi Maru‖ test.

During the almost 50 years of its existence, ST has managed to become a religion, which can fit even a quite demanding definition. With its fanatical fan-base and its all-

pervasive nature in today‘s popular culture – references, parodies, adaptations, and the like – it still keeps attracting followers and gives them a sense of community and purpose in life. ST inspires many people and its messages and ideals are still alive today. And, most importantly, it is timeless. The questions ST asks and the problems it deals with are as topical today as they were in the time of its emergence; and these problems will not cease to be topical anytime soon.

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Summary

The thesis shows how religion is treated by the cultural phenomenon known as Star

Trek. It shows which religious ideas and ideals it either endorses or rejects, and what its general attitude towards religion is. Star Trek is treated here as a single work of art, which should (and does) project singular message on any given topic. The introduction contains a

brief summary of the story of the whole of Star Trek to give a reader, who never heard about it, all the necessary information for the subsequent discussion. Any relevant details, which are not included in the introductory summary, are given throughout the thesis at places where such details are needed for the discussion at hand.

The thesis is divided into two bigger parts. The first of them is a cultural-historical background of the original serial and all its continuations. It tracks the important historical events in the second half of the 20th century and the social changes of those years, which had both potential and real bearing on the outlook and meaning of the television serial. It also goes into some detail to explain why some of the serials seem to slightly differ in their general view of religion. The cultural-historical discussion also shows that Star Trek itself became a religion. Evidence is given by showing that Star Trek matches all the criteria a religion has to fulfil to be viable to be called as such.

The second and the more important part explores various Star Trek episodes and films to show that humans in Star Trek are generally atheists, believe in themselves, their own abilities and reason, and liberty. Star Trek sees religion as an inferior way of looking at the world, and although it is sympathetic to those who need it, it advocates for rationality over superstition. It does so namely by showing how humans react to all the various false deities and spiritual leaders in Star Trek, who are later exposed either as fraudulent impostors and oppressors, or as otherwise powerful beings, who are, however, unworthy the title of a god.

Resumé

Práce se zabývá vztahem náboženství a kulturního fenoménu Star Trek. Práce popisuje, které náboženské myšlenky a ideály Star Trek podporuje či odmítá a jak se obecně dívá na náboženství jako takové. Star Trek je zde brán jako celistvé umělecké dílo, které by mělo mít jednotný názor na jakýkoliv daný problém (což také má). Úvod práce obsahuje 84

krátké shrnutí děje celého Star Treku, aby i čtenář, jenž nikdy seriál neviděl, měl k dispozici veškeré obecné informace potřebné k pochopení následujícího rozboru. Veškeré další informace o seriálu, které se nenacházejí v úvodním shrnutí, se vyskytují uvnitř samotné práce na místech, kde je jich k diskuzi potřeba.

Práce je rozdělena do dvou větších celků. Jedním z nich je kulturně historické pozadí původního seriálu a všech jeho pokračování. Jsou zde zachyceny důležité události druhé poloviny dvacátého století a změny ve společnosti, které měly vliv na podobu a význam seriálu. Je zde také vysvětleno, proč některé ze seriálů přistupují k náboženství lehce odlišně, než jak je tomu obecně. Kulturně historická část také ukazuje, že Star Trek se stal sám o sobě náboženstvím. Důkazy poukazují na to, že tento seriál splňuje všechny podmínky pro to, aby se mohl náboženstvím nazývat.

Druhá a důležitější ze zmíněných částí zkoumá jednotlivé epizody a filmy Star Treku a ukazuje, že lidé v seriálu jsou povětšinou ateisté, že věří v sebe sama, své vlastní schopnosti, rozum a svobodu. Star Trek pohlíží na náboženství jako na něco podřadného, a ačkoliv je solidární k těm, kteří ho potřebují, vyvyšuje racionalitu nad pověrčivost. Dělá tak především poukazováním na to, jak lidé v seriálu reagují na různá falešná božstva, kterým je později buď prokázáno, že si na bohy jen hrála, nebo že se sice jedná o mocné bytosti, které si ovšem nezaslouží být bohy nazývány.