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Doctor Who Vs Star Trek – The Answer!

(This post originally appeared on the CopyWrite blog. Join the April subscription marathon or subscribe here.)

Well, if that title got you reading, you probably already have an opinion on the winner. I know I’m inviting a ton of backslaps as well as twice as much hate mail for suggesting this.

But, as Series Four of Doctor Who premiered in the UK this weekend, I thought it only right to devote today’s post to…

The Final Undisputable Reason Why Doctor Who is Better Than Star Trek!
Writers Watch Doctor Who - Computer Programmers Watch Star Trek

Resorting to wild generalisations in the hope of generating a reaction? Moi? Well, let’s look at the evidence.

There are a number of writers that go giddy for the good Doctor. Neil Gaiman recently talked about his excitement at having dinner with Who writer Steven Moffatt. Stephen Fry was almost writing for the show, such is his enthusiasm, until his work schedule prevented it. And let’s not forget that some of the most highly awarded television writers in the UK flocked to the new series when it was relaunched. (Russell T Davies and the aforementioned Steven Moffatt to name but two).

If I trawl the net looking for famous Star Trek fans, you come up with a list of people like Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates. I have yet to find a single writer who claims to be a fan of Star Trek. What I did find was quite a few Star Trek forums desperately trying to put together lists of famous Trekkies as ammunition should they ever be criticised. Most of these lists were people they ‘suspect’ as Trekkies but were more wishful thinking than anything else. (The Dalai Lhama – I ask you! I laughed too at the cheek of it. I mean, can you see him getting excited and putting on his Starfleet pin when a new episode comes on?)

So the people who value strong storylines and creative ideas watch Doctor Who and those that get excited about the physics of black holes watch Star Trek. I think my point is made and made well. But I can push it still further.

The Ellison / Rodenberry Feud

The popular science fiction writer Harlan Ellison admitted his deep rooted affection for Doctor Who when he championed the America syndication of the show back in the 1970s. He went so far as to write the foreword for the US Pinnacle reprints of the Target Doctor Who novels. Yes, this is the one and the same Harlan Ellison who wrote the episode most often claimed to be the best Star Trek script ever, ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’, and is therefore revered by Star Trek fans. But Harlan was very vocal about his distaste for Roddenberry’s treatment of his script. This dispute cuts to the heart of the difference between the two shows.

One of the script changes Ellison objected to most strongly was the removal of a subplot involving drug dealing on board the Enterprise. The Star Trek crew were always presented as paragons of virtue, with even their personality flaws having a noble quality to them. Cut to Doctor Who. Drug dealing on a spaceship? In ‘Nightmare on Eden’, the ships crew are actively involved in the smuggling of a futuristic form of heroin.

Utopia Vs Dystopia

The idealistic form of writing championed by Roddenbery has no place for the seedier side of life. The Star Trek universe is a near utopia. World peace is a reality, even if there are a few alien races challenging Earth’s right to go wherever they want to boldy go! (And about that! Let’s face it, the aliens bear a distinct likeness to America’s greatest enemies from their most recent wars at that time. The Klingons are quite obviously the Vietnamese whilst the Romulans may as well come from Japan with those haircuts and facial features. I think that’s called battering your audience with a subtext.) Star Trek characters are almost universally supermen of morals and intelligence. They represent everything that is best about us and… blah, blah, blah until I’m sick.

The future as presented in Doctor Who is almost a dystopic vision of corruption, poverty, Bladerunner-esque hopelessness, dirt and grime. People are flawed and not in a charming way. People make mistakes. People die even. I’m willing to bet that if you put the death tolls of Doctor Who and Star Trek side by side, you’d soon have a different idea about which was the kids show and which presented a less sugar-coated vision of the world.
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To finish off, the last word has to go to Harlan Ellison.

“Star Wars is adolescent nonsense; Close Encounters is obscurantist drivel; Star Trek can turn your brains to puree of bat guano; and the greatest science fiction series of all time is Doctor Who! And I'll take you all on, one-by-one or all in a bunch to back it up! “

From his introduction to the Pinnacle series of Doctor Who books

I'll be the one standing behind Harlan with the bat.

April 6, 2008 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | Add Comment