Star Trek

"Star Trek Into Darkness," the newest edition in a space saga that reaches back a half-century, was, of course, a big hit at the box office this weekend.We might consider why.Beloved story, glowing with nostalgia? Check.Good special effects? Check.Good characters? Check.Indeed, there's a special richness to science fiction. Sci-fi looks into the future; the slogan of the Syfy Channel (formerly the Sci-Fi Channel) is "Imagine Greater." That is, imagine greater, with either fear or wonder. And there's a part of everyone that wants to do just that.Yet in addition, the most powerful works of sci-fi also provide commentary on the present. Yes, they show us the future, but they also show us ourselves. H.G. Wells' 1895 novella, "The Time Machine," for example, was a tale of a time-trip 800,000 years into the future, and yet it was also a sharp commentary on the deeply divided class system of 19th-century Britain. A half century later, George Orwell's "1984" was both a future dystopia and a sa...

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