Post Modernism & Star Trek

Postmodernism has done some crazy junk to Star Trek. I watched the 2009 prequel movie for the first time last night (I know, I'm way behind on flicks) and I liked it. But I could barely tell it was Star Trek.

The concept of Star Trek was born in the height of what we call "Modernism," which, as my good friend Willie Zimmers says, is a stupid name for a generation. Generations are hard to name anyways, but giving it a title that has the potential to change by definition quite possibly defeats the purpose. It's like calling something "contemporary." In order for something to be modern it needs to be current and up-to-date, which eventually eludes generations as they fade out of being hip or cool, and make way for newer versions of what is modern.

The "Modernist" is concerned with what they consider provable science. The concept of absolutes runs strong, and anything that is too "emotional" and not "logical" is suspect. Running somewhat contrary would be "Post-Modern," which is to say the generation that came after the modernists. Postmodernism allows for more than one opinion to be correct, and basically involves a great deal of emotion in its interpretation of reality. There is less concern about science for the postmodernist and more concern for the overall story and individual perspective.

The original Star Trek--the one with Captain Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Uhura, Bones & Chekov-- was written for a very "modern" audience. It is full of observations, explorations, and basic logic. There is relatively little action, aside from that whole crazy Vulcan mating thing, and the only thing that was "out there" was the concept of other worlds and spaceships. But these things all have very "scientific" explanations.

Last night's Star Trek movie was a prequel to the original. Postmodernists love prequels, because it somehow sheds light to why things are the way they are without giving an exact, scientific reason. It's personal, relational logic that's being used en lieu of science. There is plenty of action, great graphics, and the basic story line is quite consistent with what you might expect Starfleet to produce. At the same time it feels kind of funny. The characters are the same, and the producers have gone out of their way to find actors that look similar enough to the originals to be believable (Scotty totally could have been like that when he was younger). But because of the Modern/Postmodern divide, the movies feels weird. I kept thinking my folks would hate it, cuz it's decidedly Postmodern.

I liked it, but I also recognize other people's viewpoints in the matter :0)