I /just/ finished re-watching "Past Tense" last night - a two-episode arc where Sisko, Dax, and Bashir get stuck in 2024 San Francisco.
Everyone poor is isolated into ghettos - those without ID, those with no job, those with mental illness. They aren't allowed to leave, and thugs rob people of their ration cards all the time.
It's hard (but possible) to see this kind of future in the US. What struck me about the arc was the complete lack of mention of the constitution - had it been suspended? why? I mean, this is only set 29 years after it aired.
All communication is semi-internet, but done over channels - like cable tv. The user interface for it looks like the graphics used in "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". The internet wasn't quite commercialized, yet - that would come the year after air. But we already had BBS' and other connectivity. Surely the writers worked on some sort of network at their office.
We also already had user interfaces more interactive than what they showed - giant desk-size consoles, a 5" monochrome screen and a series of menu options. Is this what people thought of computers, even in 1994?
The entire premise seemed to be 24th-century Federation, but regressed ~200 years -- instead of present-day, progressed 30 years.
Keep this in mind too: Star Trek, while originally attempting to portray humanity in the future, inevitably created canon. Thus, there is a world war 3 in the star trek universe that occurs around 1999 (I can't remember the exact time frame). So It makes sense that 20 years after the world "ended", people would be pretty scared and do anything to try to right civilization.
In the end, as the original post implies, Star Trek is no longer a vision of the future, but rather a sandbox to put humanity into and see how they react.
The Eugenics Wars ran from 1996-1999.
World War III was sometime in the mid-2000's with First Contact with Vulcans occurring in 2063.
Personally I don't remember Khan being launched into space, but it is kinda funny when you look back and think that they sort of thought that was going to be possible in the late '60s.
> What struck me about the arc was the complete lack of mention of the constitution - had it been suspended? why?
I don't want to get too far into this, but eh...in 1996, people would look at legislation like SOPA, NDAA, and the Patriot Act and ask the same question. I think "Past Tense" is being borne out rather than repudiated by recent events, especially depending on your level of pessimism about the economy.
Funny enough though, some of the DS9 writers actually went on the internet to communicate with their fans.
I watched the first episode of that arc last week (and the next next week, due to scheduling issues with my watching group).
I was struck by how incredibly plausible it was (here in 2012) that this could happen by 2024. Do I think that things will continue to get worse, economically, for 12 more years? No, not really. But we already have the Occupy camps -- I mean, Sanctuaries, it's just that they're being resisted by the authorities rather than institutionalized, so far. But things being resisted by the government and then institutionalized is what often happens with things like that. It's one of the few ST things that looks more plausible closer to the time than it did when it was written, in my opinion.
Surely the writers worked on some sort of network at their office.
In 1994? I would expect that at least some of them were writing on typewriters.
Everyone poor is isolated into ghettos - those without ID, those with no job, those with mental illness. They aren't allowed to leave, and thugs rob people of their ration cards all the time.
It's hard (but possible) to see this kind of future in the US. What struck me about the arc was the complete lack of mention of the constitution - had it been suspended? why? I mean, this is only set 29 years after it aired.
All communication is semi-internet, but done over channels - like cable tv. The user interface for it looks like the graphics used in "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". The internet wasn't quite commercialized, yet - that would come the year after air. But we already had BBS' and other connectivity. Surely the writers worked on some sort of network at their office.
We also already had user interfaces more interactive than what they showed - giant desk-size consoles, a 5" monochrome screen and a series of menu options. Is this what people thought of computers, even in 1994?
The entire premise seemed to be 24th-century Federation, but regressed ~200 years -- instead of present-day, progressed 30 years.