First impression: I haven't seen such short skirts since, well. . . never mind 
That may seem like a funny thing to focus on, but it really was quite striking to me. I, perhaps naively, think of the mid 20th century as a time of Christian majority, when modesty reigned supreme. This not only contradicts that, but makes current day pop-culture feel puritanical by comparison. You wouldn't see this in, say, The Mandalorian.
That may seem like a funny thing to focus on, but it really was quite striking to me. I, perhaps naively, think of the mid 20th century as a time of Christian majority, when modesty reigned supreme. This not only contradicts that, but makes current day pop-culture feel puritanical by comparison. You wouldn't see this in, say, The Mandalorian.
The Enterprise is in Star Fleet, which is essentially the Navy of the United Federation of Planets. While it is on a deep space exploration mission, it is a warship - a heavy cruiser of the Constellation class, one of about a dozen in the fleet, and heavily armed. Starships like the Enterprise represented the might of the Federation in addition to its scientific expertise. With only 12 for the whole galaxy, each one was incredibly valuable and the crew of the highest caliber. Naturally the crew has a military demeanor. But the 60s culture shows through with the racially integrated crew, women serving alongside the men, and those wonderful Steph-length outfits.
There is an episode, The Way to Eden, where the crew comes into contact with a civilian hippie group, with interesting results.
It occurs to me that I have no reason to think you are a science fiction fan. I am so used to almost everyone I know being one, from friends to coworkers to people on forums, that it's hard to imagine. But if you aren't - there is a big difference between a spaceship and a starship. The space shuttle was a spaceship, it could travel in local space, at normal speeds. The Enterprise is a starship, capable of interstellar travel, at speeds vastly faster than light. Such vessels are rare indeed throughout the galaxy. You may hear them say "Warp Factor" or "Time Warp Factor" for speed. The warp factor is the exponent, cubed, of c. So a ship going Warp 2 is going 8 times the speed of light, Warp 3 is 27 times the speed of light, etc. The usual travel speed between stars is Warp 6, 216 times the speed of light. A system 10 light years away would take 17 days to reach.
Well I would not call wanting to protect and raise your young to be "human-like". I think it would have to be universal in anything higher up the scale than a fish or reptile - and even then alligators fiercely protect their young. You will see what I mean about human-like aliens if you watch the Next Generation or later shows, where they are haggling, making puns and double entendres, having gambling or other vice-related problems, and generally acting exactly like humans but with rubber bumps on their heads. The Horta is....pretty alien.
The key word is "since". Star Trek was responsible for a lot of firsts. For example, at the time that show aired, whaling was still legal in the United States. The concept that an alien monster might actually be an intelligent, sensitive being deserving of fair treatment was also unknown in TV and film media, I believe. The 1950's were dominated by creature-features and flying saucers, Martians and blobs. When you watch Star Trek you are, in a very real sense, watching history. Its influence is hard to overstate. You would really have to have some familiarity with what came before as well as after to really appreciate that.
I like old sci fi movies like Forbidden Planet, This Island Earth, Fiend Without A Face, War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, First Men in the Moon etc and have seen quite a few of them. Star Trek was really groundbreaking and I think it remains very entertaining now, but obviously I have a long sentimental attachment to it.
Ok, a little background: the original pilot for the show, which is available now as The Cage on video but was never aired, is the footage you are seeing in the flashbacks there. They didn't want to waste all that expensive footage so they made it the basis of a real episode, as flashbacks. What you are seeing there in those flashbacks is Spock 1.0 (what I like to call The Shouting Spock), Number One (the first officer, who is played by the same woman who plays Nurse Chapel - Majel Barrett - in the actual show, who married Gene Roddenberry, the show's creator) and the original Captain, Christopher Pike, who of course is replaced with James T. Kirk in the actual show with a different actor.
That isn't Kirk, it's Pike.
Pike....
I was referring to the Talosians.
PIKE: Did they ever live on the surface of this planet? Why did they go underground?
VINA: War, thousands of centuries ago.
PIKE: That's why it's so barren up there?
VINA: The planet's only now beginning to support life again. So the Talosians who came underground found life limited here and concentrated on developing their mental power. But they found it's a trap...like a narcotic, because when dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating. You even forget how to repair the machines left behind by your ancestors. You just sit, living and reliving other lives left behind in the thought record.
....
TALOSIAN: Your unsuitability has condemned the Talosian race to eventual death. Is this not sufficient? No other specimen has shown your adaptability. You were our last hope.
PIKE: But wouldn't some form of trade...mutual cooperation...
TALOSIAN: Your race would learn our power of illusion and destroy itself, too.โ
Well I'm glad you enjoyed it, I do wonder what you'd think if you watched it again, this time knowing the captain in the flashbacks is Pike, not Kirk. Kirk knew nothing about Talos IV until he is shown during the trial. And Spock was not just rescuing some random guy, Pike was his old captain before Kirk, as shown in the ep.
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