BY Seth MacFarlane
Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Ensign Rivers.
Even if you’re a huge Star Trek fan, you may not know who that is. He was an assistant engineer on the first starship Enterprise, and although he’s hardly the most memorable character I’ve played, he’s one I’m very proud of. It’s because he allowed me to be a small part of Star Trek, a franchise that has literally changed the world.
No, I’m not exaggerating.
When Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry sold that legendary pilot so many years ago, he was, of course, doing what lots of television writers do: He was creating a series in the hope of a steady paycheck. But that wasn’t all he was doing. Because Gene was also a man of passion. He was angry about the suffering and injustice he saw in the world around him. And like other great television writers, such as Rod Serling and Norman Lear, Gene saw the medium as a powerful tool to comment on those injustices. To him, television was more than just a way to tell stories. He saw it as a platform to address things like politics, bigotry, religion, and sex. To him, such usage did not constitute preachiness. On the contrary, he felt it was his responsibility as a thoughtful writer to make a statement; to express a point of view, rather than simply to crank out filmed pablum with which to entertain the masses.
With Star Trek, Gene conceived a vision of the future that was unashamedly optimistic: effectively a blueprint for what humanity could become should it eventually succeed in evolving beyond its superstitious, xenophobic adolescence. The show celebrated and glorified the virtues of human ingenuity, scientific advancement, and moral progress. It’s a vision that, to me, is sorely lacking in today’s entertainment landscape. In our era of Hunger Games–flavored dystopian science fiction, there is a conspicuous absence of such worthy models for the future. This should be cause for some concern. Carl Sagan once said, “The visions we offer our children shape the future. It matters what those visions are. Often, they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps. I do not think it is irresponsible to portray even the direst futures. If we are to avoid them we must understand that they are possible. But where are the alternatives? The dreams to motivate and inspire?” Indeed, when I watched Star Trek as a child, the moral guidelines it advocated were not lost on me. It meant something that those phasers were almost always set on stun, and that the crew never killed unless they had no other choice. Life was presented as precious. And while I loved the shoot-’em-up action of Star Wars as much as the rest of my generation, it’s Star Trek I thank for the fact that, when I find a spider in my house, I am morally obliged to put it outside rather than dispose of it. All life is precious. Message received, Gene.
So there is no question that Star Trek makes a fine “dream map.” It’s a world we’d all like to live in. And Gene truly believed we’d get there. He felt that the better, more civilized side of human nature was ultimately the stronger side, and would only grow more dominant as our species evolves. In that belief, he shares some philosophical ground with Martin Luther King, who said, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” If this is true, and humanity naturally and inevitably evolves toward ethical maturity (as Michael Shermer powerfully and effectively argues in his book The Moral Arc), then there can be no more ideal vision of the future in popular fiction than Star Trek.
The teams of artists and artisans who’ve brought Star Trek to life over the last five decades (many of whom have shared their stories with Mark and Ed for their amazing book), have given body and voice to that vision, and in doing so have not only captivated audiences, but also inspired people around the globe to pursue careers in science, engineering, and medicine, to explore outer space, and to work toward finding solutions to many of our problems here on Earth.
In that sense, Star Trek has already helped shape our present. When asked about the appeal of the show, Roddenberry said it best in a shining example of his wonderful distaste for mysticism of superstition in favor of respect and regard for human achievement: “Star Trek speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow—it’s not all going to be over with a big flash and a bomb; that the human race is improving; that we have things to be proud of as humans. No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids—human beings built them, because they’re clever and they work hard.”
Unfortunately, I think we still have a ways to go, since there are still plenty of folks who think aliens built the pyramids, and that one of them is Barack Obama (look it up; people really believe that), but we’re moving in the right direction.
In this book, Mark and Ed tell the fascinating story of that rare Hollywood product that actually means something to mankind. And though it can sometimes be difficult to maintain hope for our prospects as a species, I’m optimistic that, by the twenty-third century, things will be better than they are now. Maybe that’s because Star Trek has inspired me so much in my work and in my life. Or maybe it’s because I’m already living there.
Remember, I’m Ensign Rivers.
Seth MacFarlane is an animator, voice actor, screenwriter, producer, and filmmaker. He is the creator of the TV series Family Guy, cocreator of the TV series American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, and writer-director of the films Ted, its sequel Ted 2, and A Million Ways to Die in the West. He is an acclaimed singer and pianist as well.
MacFarlane also served as executive producer of the Emmy Award–winning Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, an update of the Carl Sagan–hosted Cosmos series, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.