I finally put my finger on it. I understand what bothers me in almost all science fiction stories. It lacks human depth and evolution.

Science fiction has been a steady stream of influence on modern technology, affecting our daily lives. Things like the original Star Trek communicator and the advent of flip-top cell phones have been noted. The Star Trek color disks and early PC diskettes, even the oval shape DVD were shown well beyond their inventions in the late 60′s original series. However, all these things are technological. Humans were still portrayed as over-emotional primate, barely able to handle themselves. It’s true that many of us battle our volatile emotions, but I would like to see more evolved humans in science fiction.

I believe one of the things that bogged down the Enterprise series of Star Trek was picturing Cpt. Archer and his team as struggling humans with his consciousness. I think before we can travel light years, we will probably have a pretty well established template on how to interfere, or not with alien races, the famous Prime Directive. On the flip side, without having seen how TV and movies love to portray us, I might not have thought of all this.

I guess I am tired of seeing Hollywood’s way of showing humans as struggling primates. Much like most modern religions insist on showing the weaker aspects of human nature, I am more interested in our qualities. Much as studying holy men’s history, their temptations are a far second priority for me. What made them succeed is what interests me most. I don’t see Armstrong as a struggling man but a confident down to earth person. I would expect the same from the first captains of our first space ships.

I worked with a Doctor who would start his seminars with: “What is wrong with you is besides the point, what is right with you is the point!”. I agree, constantly focusing on our shortcomings bogs us down and degrades us. Watch newspapers and TV and almost all you see are the dark aspect of our human nature. I am here to evolve, not spend my time looking how we used to be. I can only evolve when I focus on my qualities. I only look at my flaws to avoid mistakes.

Anyway, just an epiphany. So my wish list for the next Star Treks would be more evolved human qualities. The Next Generation did a brilliant job. I would like to see more qualities in humans given to others races, logic in Vulcans, humanitarianism in Denobians, etc. After all, this is what Roddenberry wanted to show, a possible future. Yes he invented Spock and Bones as Kirk’s dual mind, heart versus reason, but we now should have gotten the message. Onwards to the next stage of development, and not just technological.