Documentary Trek Nation, Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry and Scott Colthorp’s philosophical peek into the sci-fi franchise’s enduring cultural appeal, has yet to touch down in theaters. But from its desire to be the anti-Trekkies to its all-star interviewees like George Lucas, J.J. Abrams and Patrick Stewart, the movie is approaching warp factor geek.

In an e-mail interview with Wired.com, Trek Nation director and executive producer Scott Colthorp (pictured above right, with Roddenberry) discusses Gene Roddenberry, J.J. Abrams, terrorism, humanism, Trekkie nerds and more. Set fandom phasers on suspension of cynicism.

Wired.com: So how long have you been a Trekkie?

Scott Colthorp: From what I understand, there are numerous ways for one to have an awakening, from meditation, to near-death experiences and perhaps psychedelic drugs. But for me, it was Star Trek.

Wired.com: I saw that coming.

Colthorp: It was at a gathering of my college roommates every evening to watch reruns of the original series that I found my first satori. My roommates and I ran the gamut of diversity: An Army brat, a fraternity brother, an art student and myself, a struggling philosophy student.

It was the Gene Roddenberry-penned script, “The Menagerie,” which was reformatted from the original pilot, “The Cage,” that grabbed my attention. I suppose my initiation to many philosophical concepts was birthed from multiple viewings of that episode. Of course, it was only during the making of this documentary I have been able to articulate what I discovered intuitively from watching this show as a pimple-faced college student many eons ago.

Wired.com: What do you think of J.J. Abrams’ reboot?

Colthorp: I think J.J. Abrams’ re-envisioning of Star Trek was long overdue. The franchise needed some fresh talent and J.J. brought an action-packed film of the highest order, although it lacked many of Gene’s humanistic themes. But I think it takes an ambitious, action-oriented, and philosophically minded artist to speak deeply about the human condition without boring today’s youthful audience. That’s a tall order.

Wired.com: What did you learn most from those involved with or inspired by Trek during your filming?

Colthorp: That Star Trek was produced as a vehicle to express the worldview and philosophy of one man, Gene Roddenberry. As a result, many of the writers of The Next Generation, the sequel to the original series created 20 years later, spoke at length about the unusual constraints the show’s creator placed on their writing. I suspect there have been very few television shows that have the creator’s value system so entangled in the scripts.

Wired.com: So what are your thoughts on the original series’ persistent optimism?

Colthorp: A great question that is thematically explored in our film. Roddenberry was unabashedly humanistic as we know from his membership in the American Humanist Association. His humanistic optimism was boldly present in the original series, a show which was birthed in the political and social upheaval of the ’60s. It makes sense that Star Trek would emerge from the milieu of this era. It reached through the screen and promised millions of viewers a future where the fear and prejudice they were seeing in the headlines would no longer rule the day. And he did it in an intelligent and entertaining manner. I think the fans will be thanking him well into the 21st century.

Gene's son Rod Roddenberry and director Scott Colthorp gauge the state of Trek Nation later this year. First stop? A distributor. Image courtesy Roddenberry Productions

Wired.com: How do you think that optimism plays in our terrorized 21st century?

Colthorp: Gene Roddenberry was concerned about terrorism in the late ’80s when he created The Next Generation. He talked about it in many interviews. He and other writers explored the subject in various episodes through the years. Even with the rise of postmodernism and its moral relativity, Gene kept his optimism about humankind’s potential. But, many of the writers weren’t so keen with his grand narrative.

In fact, one of the show’s top writers felt that Gene may have taken his optimism too far, perhaps even becoming dogmatic about his position. Our documentary puts Gene’s optimistic orthodoxy under scrutiny, and poses the question: Could Gene have made his Star Trek in today’s time? In fact, many of our interviewees commented that Star Trek began to lose much of its optimistic tone after Gene’s passing in 1991.

Wired.com: Abrams’ reboot is violent and rough, compared to the series. Is that optimism and violence bound up in our new century, as it was in the ’60s, which was an exceedingly violent era?

Colthorp: I believe youth-oriented demographics and moral relativity have more to do with the violent nature and dystopic message of films today than most other factors combined. But there are many of us who would like to see the film and TV industry work harder to present a more positive view of the future, irrespective of the times. Millennials from all over the Western world are being drawn to collaboration in place of competition, to service over profit, and to compassion over selfish conquest.

Granted, this optimistic view of cultural maturation is not well accepted among postmodern cynics and the scientific-materialist crowds, but is gaining interest in many circles. Developmental psychology, evolutionary biology, and Integral Theory are all pointing to a future where humankind may, indeed, shed its prejudices for a more inclusive future. We will see.

Wired.com: So where does your film sit in comparison to 1997 documentary Trekkies, which focused on Star Trek’s biggest fans?

Colthorp: Ten years ago, Rod Roddenberry and I set out to create a film that was, in many ways, an antithesis to Trekkies. We agreed that our documentary would not focus on the overzealous, costumed fans. We wanted to go beneath the surface of fandom and explore the roots of the show’s popularity and endurance from the perspective of a son, Rod, who lost his father when he was 17. What we discovered was an ex-cop with a philosophical bent, and the courage to share his ideals in the form of a television show.

Wired.com: It’s hard out there for a hard-core Trekkie these days.

Colthorp: The zealotry and nerdiness of Star Trek fans were forever immortalized by William Shatner’s “Get a life!” in that late-’80s Saturday Night Live episode. So I wasn’t surprised to find high cognitive intelligence when I first began interviewing fans in the late ’90s. But I was a little surprised to find such a diverse crowd of emotionally developed people as well. Of course, any popular cultural phenomenon, from sports to politics, has no shortage of fanatics. But Star Trek fans are very kind and thoughtful people who have, in my opinion, been misrepresented by the media.

Image courtesy Roddenberry Productions

Read More http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/05/trek-nation-scott-colthorp/#ixzz0oC736Ltq

(Above): Miranda: “I understand Mr. Spock. The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity.” Spock: “And the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.”

One advantages of the endless delays in the making of Trek Nation was that it afforded me the time to research some of Gene Roddenberry’s ideas. One idea in particular that held my attention indefinitely was that of the famed Vulcan philosophy IDIC.

This philosophical concept was of special interest to me because it offered a clue to an existential riddle that had plagued me for years. Are artists, scientists, and moralist seeking a similar truth? Aren’t we all ‘pattern-seekers,’ as I used to say to all my scientist friends? My current documentary, The Good, True, and Beautiful hopes to answer this question and many more.

“Beauty is truth, truth is beauty, that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” – John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

(Right): Spock enjoys the ‘awe’ of being human, after mind-melding with Ambassador Kollos.

The IDIC pendant was first showcased on Spock’s lapel in Star Trek’s Original Series episode, “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” The IDIC symbol represents the Vulcan philosophy of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations – a belief that beauty, growth, and progress all result from the union of the unlike. This episode along with “All our Yesterdays” are two of my favorite Original Series episodes, largely because they explore Spock’s inner struggle to contain his human feelings. (These two scripts were the only teleplays that librarian, Jean Lisette Aroeste, ever wrote. Strange, but true.)

Shatner, in his book Get A Life, claims the IDIC pendant was written into a script by Roddenberry to simply sell more props at his merchandising company, Lincoln Enterprise (now run by his son under the name of Roddenberry.com). Probably so. But is there more to it?

It’s quite likely that GR was attempting to capitalize on Star Trek’s wide audience, but I would also like to think he had an interest in something greater than material gain. Besides, who would get caught wearing one of these things? So my search to find a deeper meaning began.

Where did Gene find his inspiration for IDIC? Having stayed at the Roddenberry house numerous times, I often found myself scanning his library. I noticed he enjoyed poetry, so I thought “maybe he found it in Coleridge or Keats?” He also had a multi-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Perhaps he found his inspiration there? Who knows, since there are no shortage of thinkers who’ve explored the concept of unity-in-variety.

Aristotle coined it the Golden Mean, calling it ‘the desirable middle between two extremes.’ Confucius called it the way of Zhongyong, or the constant mean. And Buddha called it the Middle Way. Unity-in-diversity can be found in much of pan-Indian philosophy, at the heart of classical Chinese philosophy, ancient Greek and Roman societies, and in modern times with the ecological movement.

(Left): The concept of Yin Yang is used to describe how seemingly disjunct or opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent

Another popular rephrasing of the IDIC concept, is the Law of Complexity/Consciousness, first formulated by Teilhard De Chardin, an oft-quoted Jesuit priest and paleontologist … that’s right, it took the unity of a priest’s spiritual curiosity and the empirical data-finding of a paleontologist to uncover one of the great universal patterns of evolution. He noticed that matter tended to complexify upon itself — from inanimate matter, to plantlife, to animal-life, then to human-life. And for Teilhard, human beings continue to complexify in the form of better organized social networks. This was further expanded into the concept known as the Noosphere.

As human beings converge around the earth, he reasoned, they will unify themselves in ever more complex forms of arrangement, which will make consciousness (or awareness) rise. This sort of ‘collective consciousness’ is what he called the Noosphere. Now you know why he earned the title of ‘Patron Saint of the Internet.’

(Right): ‘Solok,’ sporting the IDIC teamwear in “Take Me Out to the Holosuite.” – Ron Moore, of Battlestar Gallactica fame, penned this episode for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 7

So it was this IDIC philosophy—and the endless delays in post-production—that put me back on the road again … that endless road to discover who I am, and who WE are. Have a look at some interviews for my upcoming documentary, The Good, True, and Beautiful. You will see how a silly pendant on a fictional character’s shirt drove me to make a film about it.

Spock is there, sure, but not as First Officer – that’s reserved for Gene’s soon-to-be-wife, Majel Roddenberry. We find Spock to be a little less stoic in this never-run pilot. In fact he’s downright eager, like Trip in Star Trek’s final series, Enterprise.

The atmosphere of this Trek is different too. It’s contemplative and dreamy, not unlike my own preferred style of filmmaking – just a whole lot better. It’s unfortunate that this style is not more common among TV viewers. Even today the production values are impressive, on a par with 1950’s big budget sci-fi films like Forbidden Planet, from which The Cage borrows heavily.

Besides numerous visual elements, both productions also rely on a similar story line – a highly developed benevolent alien species with advanced mental abilities turning its powers into malevolent acts. Both stories also borrow heavily from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Captain Pike, like the Ship-wrecked sailor of The Tempest (and Commander Adams of Forbidden Planet), lands on an uninhabited planet only to be enslaved by a powerful being. And all three of these Captains are lured by the planet’s only living female.

Two other episodes of The Original Series also owe a debt to Forbidden Planet. Have a look at “Requiem for Methuselah” and “The Cloud Miners” for some surprising similarities. Hey, there wasn’t that much Sci-Fi back then. Where else are you going to get your inspiration?

OK, back to the Rod Serling’s universe. I was given the 1st season of The Twilight Zone for Christmas last year. Upon viewing an episode titled “People Are Alike All Over”, I was shocked to discover some heavy shop-lifting from Roddenberry.

In this Twilight Zone episode, Captain Sam Conrad (an astronaut played by Roddy McDowall) lands on Mars and finds it to be inhabited by a highly-intelligent, benevolent, and seemingly-human race. Sound familiar? The sole female Martian is played by the beautiful Susan Oliver. Yes, that’s the same Susan Oliver who played the sole female alien in “The Cage.”

Vina (above), played by Susan Oliver, is the sole female survivor of a scientific expedition team on planet Talos IV. Before that role Susan Oliver played Teenya (left), the sole female survivor on Planet Mars in Twilight Zone’s “People Are Alike All Over.”

In the typical Serling style, this episode ends in a twisted surprise – our Captain is reduced to a helpless observer when the superior beings place him in a ‘zoo-like’ enclosure. Hmmm. Well, they say originality is the art of concealing your sources.

Of note, Serling’s episode was adapted from a short story by Paul Fairman, first published in Fantastic Adventures in 1952. Gene Roddenberry was an avid reader of this science fiction magazine, and it’s companion publication, Amazing Stories.