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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Movies and TV Shows
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This is an incredibly pessimistic outlook and one I’m glad that, for instance, the makers of Star Trek The Next Generation didn’t share.
When TNG was coming out, the world was reeling from the stagflation of the 1970s and the economic shocks of Reaganomics and Thatcherism.
And still TNG is a very optimistic show, that still managed to touch on the issues of its day in a realistic and non-naive manner.
The brilliance of TNG's utopia is that it is built on the premise that we had to go through a literal hell and near rural self-destruction to get to it. I don't recall if TOS established WW3 first or not, but TNG really leans heavily into the notion that we came within inches of destroying everything.
But the moment we learned we weren't alone in the universe, we turned it around and started building the future we could have had all along.
TOS introduced the Eugenics Wars, a global conflict which took place in the far-flung future of the 1990s. It was never really clear in that series whether or not it was synonymous with WW3, but they did talk about tens of millions dead.
I think the difference is, Star Trek has always been very detached from our own lives. It's not placing the average day in modern times into a futuristic setting, like The Jetsons is.