For many dystopian-themed science fiction works that were created some time ago, the time for the future crises they predict for mankind has already arrived. But it stands to reason that most of the horrifying predictions did not come true. Orwell's eternal war did not happen, and Kubrick's interstellar travel in "2001: A Space Odyssey" did not come true - but these did not It will not weaken the eternal charm and practical value of dystopian works.
A recent article by the British BBC illustrates this point using the "Star Trek" spin-off series "Star Outpost" as an example. As the most important IP series among science fiction series, "Star Trek" tells the story of Captain James T. After the official series ended, not only was the corresponding animated series launched, but it also spawned multiple movies and four TV series. The video games and novels of the same name also constitute the most important part of contemporary American pop culture.
"Star Trek" stills.
Among them, "Star Trek: Outpost", which was officially launched in 1993 and lasted for 7 seasons, is a spin-off drama with a unique temperament in the eyes of fans. It uses a space station as the background of the series, and at the same time advances the series in the form of a unit drama, giving the characters a more three-dimensional sense. In the parent series "Star Trek", the screenwriter expressed many concerns about the future of human society through the mouths of the characters. For example, World War III may break out in 2026, and mankind will enter the era of "post-atomic horror" (post-atomic horror) )wait.
Similar to this tone, "Star Outpost" also focuses on a threat to humanity that occurs in the future, and this time the threat is very concrete. In the plot, the protagonist Commander Sisko and his crew unexpectedly return to San Francisco in 2024 from the 24th century. When the crew woke up from their time-travel coma, they found themselves judged as homeless vagrants by the local armed police. At this point in time in San Francisco, sleeping on the streets was prohibited by law, and homeless people needed to be transported to a "sanctuary district" that was socially isolated from the outside world.
Soon after, Sisko realized that people's anger against the refuge area was about to reach its peak in 2024, and one of the most violent riots in American history was about to come. This riot will also completely change the public's perception of such segregated areas and once again force American society to face the issue of social justice. Crew member Bashir is frustrated by this "history lesson from the 21st century" - this discomfort seems to be exactly what the screenwriters hope to create, and Bashir's uneasiness when faced with this fact is exactly how many viewers may react. .
"Star Outpost" producer Ira Steven Behr said in an interview that the fact that the United States has been slow to solve the problem of how to deal with homelessness inspired their creation . “People walked past homeless people as if they were part of the landscape.” This phenomenon, which can be seen everywhere in the contemporary United States, makes them believe that homeless people in the future world may become completely invisible-escaping into "refuge zones."
Stephen Pimpare, a senior fellow at the Casey School of Public Policy, believes that although this is a time-travel drama, the inspiration reflects the U.S. government’s response to homelessness in the 1990s when the show was released. The attitude of the returnable. In the United States in the 1990s, there were real-life refuge areas built voluntarily by homeless people, such as Camp Agnos. In terms of data, affected by the economic situation, the homeless population in the United States in 2023 has also increased a lot compared to the 1990s. Pipare believes that the root cause of this negative trend is policy laziness, where people just want to avoid and cover up problems instead of facing them head-on. It is at this point that the practical significance of dystopian works is fully demonstrated. The
article believes that by creating conflicts, dystopian dramas present a kind of luck in the misfortunes of human development - only by experiencing tragic lessons can we make society more fair and reasonable.In Star Sentinel, Bashir tells a social worker that she shouldn't feel guilty for maintaining the daily routine of the refuge, to which the social worker replies: Just because everyone says that to themselves, nothing will change. . This line is considered by Pipare to be the core message that the series hopes to convey, and can also be understood as a way for people to open a dystopian series-humanity's high-tech future will create more and more huge systems, but we There is still agency, and the willingness of each of us to solve problems instead of passing the blame is the most important factor in avoiding disasters in the future of mankind.
Reference link:
1. star trek: the deep space nine episode that predicted a us crisis
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240109-star-trek-the-deep-space-nine-episode-that- predicted-a-us-crisis
2. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%e6%98%9f%e8%89%a6%e5%a5%87%e8%88%aa%e8%a8%98
3 . the dystopian utopia: star trek: discovery
https://www.radicalartreview.org/post/the-dystopian-utopia-star-trek-discovery
compiled/Liu Yaguang
edited/Zhang Ting
proofread/Liu Baoqing
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