Warp Factor Trek

Several months ago, I was approached about writing material and contributing to a new Star Trek-oriented website. Honestly, I was more than a bit skeptical, initially. Another Star Trek website? Is that what the world really needs right now? Even more star trekking for Trek….. Sure…

Now, Warp Factor Trek warps along nicely. Sure, other Trek sites chronicle the shows and movies by interviewing creators/producers/actors/staff, but this site has added something different yet important and compelling to the creative mix. The angle: Why not ask creators/staff from the various Trek incarnations to actually write articles for fans? In this more personal way, they can share memories, observations and experiences not necessarily gleaned through an interview.

It’s in such a collaborative spirit that we’re publishing an excerpt from my book, Star Trek Sex: Analyzing The Most Sexually Charged Episodes Of The Original Series. Gene Roddenberry’s legendary “Wagon Train to the Stars” is nothing if not provocative in all ways, especially interpersonal relationships and sexuality. Without being too graphic or coarse, The Original Series provided stories of thrilling adventure and refined romance amid a star-tinged, intergalactic backdrop.

Fellow Trek fans, I do hope you enjoy this excerpt and support the future of Warp Factor Trek. You’ll find it’s a place much like the hypnotic purr of a contented Tribble; naturally, it’s a sound no true Trekker can hope to resist.

Star Trek Sex – Foreword

The original Star Trek soared high as an entertainment pioneer in many ways. In how it respectfully and seriously treated science, explored important social issues and depicted the inclusion of women and minority groups, and how it proffered the notion of global unification, making it a television and cultural milestone.

Curiously, one important aspect seems to have been mostly overlooked when it comes to examining Gene Roddenberry’s “Wagon Train to the Stars” – sex.

It’s true that while the 1960s were exploding with advancements and liberation on all fronts – especially sociological ones – Hollywood and American television still resisted the depiction of graphic physical relations. However, for years, shows like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits could use the vehicle of science fiction to weave a tapestry of entertainment and manage to get more adult themes by the dreaded censors. Writer and producer Gene Roddenberry wanted to do the same with his science fiction program.

So, what is Star Trek Sex? This isn’t yet another companion, compendium or cross-referenced database of planets, props, aliens, trivia or episode synopses. It’s not a science manual nor fan fiction romp. It’s not a musing on the real science behind the show.

It’s all about the sex.

No, it’s not a pornographic depiction, nor satire on how love space jockey Captain Kirk handled his many women, or how Spock could maintain multiple boners during his days of heat and lust – the Vulcan Pon Farr.
While going over a large number of original series episodes – thirty-seven in all – and the feature films Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, I found that many of the plotlines, character motivations and basic story elements hinged upon or were preoccupied by sexual expression, lovemaking or good old reliable lust.

Tribbles are such sexually potent and eternally horny creatures they are born pregnant. Orion Slave Girls – those jade-skinned beauties – simply reek of dangerous eroticism. Natives from planet Delta IV are so sexually expressive and advanced, they must take an oath of celibacy when dealing with us romance-timid humans—since we are so sexually immature compared with those lusty, bald Deltans.

Star Trek may never be confused with the fleshy fantasy of Barbarella or the pure party atmosphere of Flash Gordon, but when it comes to sexuality, it’s not just about Captain Kirk’s many women. It’s about Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Chekov and Scotty loving and losing, and others having intense sexual adventures all over the galaxy.

So go and initiate diagnostics, calibrate the dilithium crystal matrix to power up your Kindle, iPad (PADD) or Android tablet or smartphone, and set up in a place with proper mood lighting. Could Dr. Ruth give sex advice to a lust-filled Klingon? Can Dr. Phil help sexually heal a romance-rollicking Romulan?

The Human Sexual Adventure Is Just Beginning.

“Where No Man Has Gone Before”
Sexual Situation: Being Frigid, Delusions of Godhood
Stardate: 1312.4
After encountering an old, battered ship’s recorder from an Earth space vessel, the SS Valiant, Enterprise approaches and traverses the galactic barrier. The starship is fully enveloped in an immense energy wave, which injures two crewmembers, and also imbues them both with the awe-inspiring abilities of a god.

Practice makes perfect. If that’s the case, then this second pilot – starring Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman (Back to School) – is a practiced case of Star Trek taking flight and warping straight into entertainment history. NBC accepted the Desilu-produced series after this was filmed, and more of the Star Trek we came to know and love was evident. DeForest Kelley had not yet assumed the role of Dr. McCoy – here the ship’s physician is played by reliable character actor Paul Fix (The Bad Seed) – and instead of a youthful Russian navigator, Lt. Lee Kelso would meet his doom after guiding the starship to planet Delta Vega, intent on marooning Mitchell, now transformed into a raging and dangerous godhead.

Mitchell accelerates Dr. Elizabeth Dehner’s morph into a superior snob with a nifty bag of parlor tricks to rival Trelane of “The Squire of Gothos” or Q from “Encounter at Farpoint”, but he has a motive to his minion-mining madness. He wants a partner, a companion – an equal, like the Borg Queen would say – to sit next to him on a self-made, royal throne, presiding over a lonely, desolate world. He wants a mate.

Read more in Star Trek Sex: Analyzing the Most Sexually Charged Episodes of the Original Series, available from Amazon.com, and directly from BearManor Media.