Will the Stones Still Rock In the 24th Century?


First off, I have to admit that I enjoy Star Trek. I've seen most of the 79 episodes of The Original Series (TOS), about 2/3 of The Next Generation (TNG). Due to not owning a television, I have seen very little of Deep Space Nine (DS9) or Voyager (VOY). I find the novels to be light "bathtub" reading and have enjoyed many of them. Having said that, I still have the feeling that something is missing.

Where are the Stones? Some musical styles and artists are represented but not "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Riker likes Jazz. Picard listens to Classical (and the occasional Mambo). Dr. Crusher has a thing for Gilbert and Sullivan. Even Worf likes Opera. Where is the Rock and Roll? To be fair, I did read one novel where a little girl was crazy about Elvis Presley, but really! Was Elvis the epitome of 20th Century Rock? I don't think so!

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the absence of Rock from the Star Trek universe. TOS didn't seem to think much of the 20th Century. In one episode, Spock was amazed that humans ever made it past the violence of their 20th Century. When accused of barbarianism, various starfleet officers have explained how humans were able to pull themselves back from the brink of self-destruction. And on to a better world and a better human race, of course. It seems that nothing good every happened in the time period that I live in.

Of course, this is a product of the show's creator and the decade TOS was filmed in. For many people, especially middle aged Americans, the world did seem to be going to hell in a hand basket in the late 60s. Dealing with the "Atomic Age", hippies, the sexual revolution and Vietnam all at the same time probably wasn't any fun for those trying to hold onto the status quo.

For all the good TOS did in bringing important issues like racism and the horrors of war to television, the writers looked at things from a certain point of view. This meant that they left out a lot of pop culture that they weren't part of or didn't understand. The show tended to focus on what was bad about the 20th Century (Vietnam, racism, Hitler) while forgetting that there were some good things too. All forms of 20th Century art seem to have been left out.

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