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Looking back on the 1966-69 Star Trek television series it becomes clear that Gene Roddenberry’s imagination was light years ahead of his time. Alright, well maybe a little closer to 40 years ahead of his time, but many of his technological fantasies have come to life and surround us every day. We might not be able to beam our sexy selves from one location to another or to regenerate our kidneys with a blue pill, but the infamous communicator is a prime example of this sci-fi meets real world phenomenon, manifested today in flip top cell phones. So, which one is sexier?
Okay, so maybe aesthetically speaking today’s phone wins the beauty pageant, but upon further investigation is becomes clear that it’s not how it looks, but how you use it that matters. Despite the clunky, primitive look of his communicator, no one flips open a phone like Captain James T. Kirk. Not only did it allow Kirk to keep in touch with his ship and crew, but whenever he suffered from inter-galactic snack attack he could use the flip top to grate cheese.
Today’s cell phones may be sleeker, more colorful, more versatile, far surpassing Roddenberry’s predictions for the 23rd century, but what’s crucial to note is that you’ll never get a date flipping open your phone like this:
He may not have been able to take planetary pictures, watch Romulan music videos or send nasty text messages to the Klingons, but Kirk knew his way around a phone. He kept his flips simple, and the results speak for themselves:
April 1st, 2008 at 1:42 pm
We laugh at Star Trek’s attempt to create futuristic gadgets, but have we really come that far?
They actually did such a great job that the later series could only offer upgrades to the original tech (holographic technology aside - which was way oversued and the later series suffered from it because they rarely used it for anything but entertainment).
The communicator was probably more of an advanced walkie talkie (open to everyone) as opposed to the closed telecom systems we have today. All you needed was the tech and you were instantly on the grid. You also had voice interfaces with a computer, radiation-based hand weapons (phasers) which is in development today (outside of atomic weapons), cloaked ships (invisibility suits being developed today).
You could argue that alot of their tech was open… transportation devices didn’t require ticket purchases, permissions, etc… Medical scanners required the ability to only read the data and so much more. Pretty soon, you won’t even be able to watch TV without being tied into a contract.
Even though we may be moving toward some of the features of Star Trek Tech… our philosophies with that universe are still polar opposites. The few dominating and profiteering from the many (politically and commercially).
(fyi: your comment box is white on white)
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 am
It was Hollywood’s way of coming up with tech to complement a story. Originally Gene Roddenberry came up with the transporter to minimize travel time during missions the actors can simply beam down and back.
Communicators aided the Enterprise crew not wasting screen time hollering ordrers or waiting for someone to show up.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Actually Reboot, Star Trek technology is more MILITARY than “open” and it’s quite evident in the episodes that you could directly call an individual using voice recognition, i.e. “Kirk to Spock, come in Spock” (I’m paraphrasing, I think)
PS. My iPhone makes me think of ST:TNG PADDs every time I use it.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:30 pm
wish they would make a cellphone that looks and sounds like TOS Communicator
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
[…] quite pertinent to Korea, in fact, comes straight from Star Trek, as made abundantly clear in this consumer review comparing cell phones to Star Trek’s original series communicators. Actually, the “inventor” of the modern mobile phone actually credits Star Trek with […]