Wednesday, September 23, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 7
'Star Trek'.
Continued from Page 6
What Anderson and his colleagues
in the department try to do is create
a "happy medium whereby a subject
is both popular to the students and relative
to philosophy .
Star Trek has both these qualities,
he said. Followed by millions of Trek
kies" (who prefer the term "Trekkers"),
Star Trek is as popular today as when it
left the air in 1969.
Star Trek most popular
Star Trek continues to be one of the
departments' most popular of the depart
ments' mini-courses. Anderson's mini
courses also include the philosophies
of Bob Dylan, J. R.R. Tolkien, Ayn
Rand, communism vs. religion, the Ameri
can revolution, and Martin Luther King.
Anderson said he couldn't choose a
favorite mini-course. "I like all of them,"
he said.
But the students do have a favorite
Star Trek which had an attendance of 125
last semester, compared to 105 for Dylan,
and 101 for Tolkien.
Anderson said he is a Star Trek fan
himself-to a degree.
"I've seen all of the episodes many
times, and have read all the books about
Star Trek, so that shows some devotion
on my part," he said.
Star Trek is overflowing with philo
sophical content, Anderson said, mainly
because of the influence of Gene Rodden
berry, the show's producer.
Roddenberry injected several character
istics of philosophy into the show, Ander
son said. Anderson can give specific ex
amples of Roddenberry 's influence.
"The "Cloud Minders" (a Star Trek
episode) involved race hatred," Anderson
said. "The cloud dwellers and Troglites
were the two battling races."
Anderson said the three main charac
ters of Star Trek can be analyzed philo
sophically. For example, Anderson said, Mr.
Spock represents logic, Dr. McCoy rep
resents emotion, while Captain Kirk
represents these two forces intermixing.
While it might seem all fun and games
to study a 1960s science-fiction T.V.
show, Anderson assured that it is not.
"We illustrate philosophy," Anderson
explained. "We leave out the entertaining
part and dwell on philosophy."
Anderson said the Bob Dylan class
does not listen to Dylan's records, the
Tolkien class does not read Tolkien, and
the Star Trek students do not watch the
show in class.
Depend on popularity
Anderson said course schedules are
open to change depending on their popu
larity. "We drop some, we add some,"
he said.
The mini-courses are succeeding in
helping students become interested in
philosophy, Anderson said.
Two students interviewed who had
taken philosophy mini-courses agreed with
Anderson that they make philosophy a
little less scary.
Brendan Kelley, an education major
who has taken several mini-courses said,
"I think they have redeeming value.
They're lighter than the really heavy
dasses.
"They got me more interested. I took
a few other philosophy classes after that,"
he said.
Bill Barelman, an agricultural economics
major who took Anderson's Star Trek
course, said he enjoyed the class.
"The course gave an already popular
program a deeper general meaning,"
he said.
"It made me more interested in philo
sophy," he added.
Anderson said that while the mini
courses are helping, it is still an uphill
battle to get students interested in phil
osophy. "I've talked to people who get out of
college and didn't know what philosophy
was," he said.
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