From: 4224_5201@uwovax.uwo.ca (Dark Lord of the Sith)
Subject: Re: STAR WARS vs, vs the evilness in nazism 
Organization: University of Western Ont, London
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 16:16:07 GMT

In article <BxC93n.J47@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v115maec@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Michael L. Kohan) writes:
> In article <1920@lysator.liu.se>, redin@lysator.liu.se (Magnus Redin) writes

> Star Wars, my father the MEGA sf fan pointed out to me as a kid, was
> inherently a story about WWII. Witness: The rebel alliance (Resistance could
> be used just as well) the space dogfights, which were versions of dogfights
> over the Pacific or Europe, an evil empire (Third Reich, Japan, cynics:
> Russia), throw in a "Force", some funky swords and you've got the outline for
> Star Wars. There were other things he told me, such as the good kids in grade
> school being like Luke Skywalkers, and warning me not to fall in with the
> Darth Vaders. He was one of the guys who wrote to the studios when Star Trek
> went off the air. Yep, this guy knew his stuff. There were SF books that were
> lying around the house (gone now, of course) that I now kick myself for
> never picking up. He also was the dude who explained to me how almost every
> Star Trek episode was actually a metaphor for a social issue in the sixties.
> Well, this is leaving Star Wars, so I'll end the post. But just a little
> nugget for the guy who said Star Trek wasn't thinking man's SF.
> -Mike

     Thanks Mike for pointing these things out to me. Star Trek has had many
metaphors for issues that raised themselves up in the 60's, but there was also
that element of "federation" racism, where their values were superior to
those of their enemies. Klingons and Romulans, once you take off the make up,
are very crude stereotypes of America's animosity to the Russian and Chinese
blocs. The Vietnam episode, by the way, was excellent. As for the new show,
a few of them have been enlightening. For instance, Who Watches the Watchers,
where Picard beams himself down to the proto-Vulcan planet to tell them he
is not God, is the best argument in favour of atheism I have ever seen on the
boob tube. Darmok was pretty good (directed by Baltar's Escape's Richard 
Kolbe.)

     Much of Star Trek has been enlightening, thinking man's SF, but a good
many of the episodes are just well written soap opera with cool FX. The old
show is saved by the personality of its crew members (love that Spock/McCoy
rivalry). Too bad the new show's characters aren't as endearing. I am a fan
who likes Star Trek but despises the religion Trekkies have made out of it.
Especially fans of Star Trek the Next Generation. 

     While on the same subject of metaphors, isn't Galactica just a big 
metaphor for the Red Menace/Nazis. I find it amusing that 30's hunk Lew
Ayres, who was admired by women everywhere but had his career destroyed
when he opposed World War II, played the dupe president Adar who negotiated
peace with the treacherous Cylons. Throw in all that biblical stuff (the
40 year voyage of the 13th tribe to earth, origins of man on Egytian style
Kobol, 12 original tribes et al.) and you have a show with lots of neat 
ideas that went unexplored as space battles and soap opera became the
main element of the series. But I do love that commander Cain episode.

May the force be with you ... always.

-- 

John P. LaRocque
J.LaRocque@uwo.ca

"Farm chores sure could be dull, and Luke Skywalker was bored beyond belief. He
yearned for adventures out among the stars - adventures that would take him
beyond the furthest galaxies to distant and alien worlds.

"But Luke got more than he bargained for..."
                            from Star Wars the paperback (1976, first edition)

"Urk... urk..."
"Apologies accepted." Darth Vader
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars