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ARTS & IDEAS - STAR TREK (320kbs-m4a/101mb/44mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 25th November 2022
The first interracial kiss on American TV, a decidedly internationalist cast of characters: Star Trek has always been a deeply political programme but what are those politics? How did they arise in the Cold War America in which the show was initially developed? And where does the vision of an international (or even intergalactic) Federation developed in the series fit into the politics of today?
Matthew Sweet is joined by George Takei, who played Lieutenant Sulu in the original Star Trek series, novelist and screenwriter Naomi Alderman, screenwriter and academic Una McCormack, and academic José-Antonio Orosco, author of Star Trek's Philosophy of Peace and Justice: A Global, Anti-Racist Approach.
George Takei's Allegiance is at the Charing Cross Theatre in London from 7th January - 8th April
Producer: Luke Mulhall
SOUND OF CINEMA - 354. STAR TREKKIN'... (320kbs-m4a/135mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 18th June 2022
Matthew Sweet marks the 40th anniversary re-release of 'Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan' with music for the film franchise by Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and Michael Giacchino.
The programme includes music from the movies 'Star Trek: Into Darkness', 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn' and 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'. And the Classic Score of the week is music by Fred Steiner from an early Star Trek TV episode 'Charlie X'.
Alexander Courage - Star Trek (1966) - Main Theme [Silva Screen]
Michael Giacchino - Star Trek (2009) - Main Title/End Credits [Varèse Sarabande]
Michael Giacchino - Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) - Suite [Varèse Sarabande]
Jerry Goldsmith - Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) - Overture/Klingon Battle [La-La Land]
Jerry Goldsmith - Star Trek: First Contact (1996) - Main Title/Locutus [GNP Crescendo]
James Horner - Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984) - Genesis Destroyed [Retrograde]
Fred Steiner - Star Trek Series 1: Charlie X (1962) - Uhura's Song [Varèse Sarabande]
Fred Steiner - Star Trek Series 1: Charlie X (1962) - Suite [Varèse Sarabande]
James Horner - Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982) - Main Title [GNP Crescendo]
James Horner - Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982) - Spock/Khan's Pets [GNP Crescendo]
Leonard Rosenman - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - The Whaler [Geffen]
Nami Melumad - Star Trek: Prodigy (2021) - Fly Me Hover [Viacom International Inc]
DISCOVERY - LIFECHANGERS: GEORGE TAKEI (96kbs-m4a/19mb/27mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 11th April 2017
In the start of a new series of Lifechangers, Kevin Fong talks to three people about their lives in science.
His first conversation is with a man better known for his life in science fiction, George Takei, the Japanese American actor who played Sulu in the TV series, Star Trek. They discuss the voyages of the Starship Enterprise and the ideas of other worlds featured in Star Trek. He talks about his own epic life journey – how his family was imprisoned when the US joined the Second World War and his campaigning against social injustice.
Photo: George Takei making the Live Long and Prosper symbol, © Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 3rd September 2016
The first episode of Star Trek aired half a century ago, on 8th September 1966. Space medic and broadcaster Kevin Fong asks what happened to the progressive and optimistic vision of future that the iconic television series promised him?
In 1964, Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry repeatedly failed to convince US television studios and networks to buy his idea for a new kind of science fiction series. Eventually he sold NBC the concept of a sci-fi story in which the human race explored space, united in racial harmony and with benign global purpose.
This was the era of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the western world: mutual nuclear annihilation had almost happened in 1963. The US and USSR were engaged in the Space race.
Yet in Star Trek, American captain James Kirk had a Russian, Pavel Chekov, in charge of the Enterprise's weapon systems.
The battle for civil rights in the United States was also coming to ahead. Gene Roddenberry cast a black woman as fourth in command of the Enterprise - Lieutenant Uhura, the ship's communications officer.
The Vietnam war was ramping up and relations between Mao's China and the United States were at a low. Yet another senior figure on the Enterprise's bridge was Mr Sulu, who Roddenberry wanted as a representative of Asia.
How far have we voyaged towards Star Trek's vision of the future and what of it is likely to be fulfilled or remain undiscovered in the next 50 years?
Kevin Fong presents archive material of the likes of Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura) talking about the inception and filming of the original Star Trek series, and their thoughts about Roddenberry's vision of the future and its impact in the United States at the time.
For example, Nichols relates how she had a chance encounter with Martin Luther King the day after she had told Roddenberry that she intended to leave Star Trek after the first series. King told her he was her number fan and almost demanded that she didn't give up the role of Uhura, because she was an uniquely empowering role model on American television at the time.
For a perspective from today, Kevin also talks to George Takei who played Mr Sulu. Takei laments the ethnically divisive politics of the United States in 2016.
He meets Charles Bolden - the first African American to both command a shuttle mission and lead NASA as its chief administrator. In the age of the International Space Station, he compares himself to the 'Admiral of Star Fleet'. But the former astronaut also talks about the anger he first felt in 1994 when he was asked to fly the first Russian cosmonaut ever to board an American space shuttle.
Kevin also talk to cultural broadcaster and Star Trek fan Samira Ahmed about the sexual and racial politics of the Original series.
Rod Roddenberry, the television producer son of Gene Roddenberry, tells Kevin about his father, his father's politics and creative vision, and why Star Trek still endures, even though its future remains unattained.
Producers: Andrew Luck-Baker and Jennifer Whyntie.