Which TV Show signifies hope for civilization as we know it

[Endangered Specie]

The alternate to the "Which TV show do you think signifies the end of civilization as we know it" DU thread.


For me... hands down, no question, easy answer:

Star Trek (exculding Enterprise, perhaps).

What I would give to live in the ST world instead of this screwed up one right now.

Agree? No? Please post...


Edit: clarification

[Deja Q]

1. Trek's franchise is the only one that suggests we will improve...

All we need is World War III, with the survivors deciding to unite and improve themselves. (do you see any other way humanity will change its tune and grow out of the infancy it's in?)

[Endangered Specie]

2. Although it is a bit gloomy...

WWIII (in the star trek timeline) allowed sort of a fresh start (like a hard drive clean install)... Whose gonna step up and invent warp drive... we need, after all, a Nuke from Montana.

I like to admit that ST helped shaped some of my more liberal views.

[Salviati]

3. While ST signifies hope...

It comes of to me as being pretty unrealistic. The humanity of the Star Trek future bears little resembleance to the humanity of today (not necissarily a bad thing...) and I just don't see any way of getting there without a very shocking global event (e.g. WWIII). I think Babylon 5 represents a more realistic future, still hopeful, but still frought with the same kinds of problems we have today. Upon being goaded to watch the series by one of my friends, one of my first reactions was "Neat! Actual human beings in space!"

[Endangered Specie]

7. there are a lot of episodes dealing with human problems

Especially in DS9, a much more 'darker' show compared to TNG. Rest assured, plently of bad stuff happens and is commmited by the humans of Star Trek (like section 31, something ashcroft would invent).

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

13. Have to agree with you about Babylon 5

Star Trek was too sterilized for my tastes, and I felt like it was...far too optimistic.
Babylon 5 showed that real human beings could struggle through the same problems we had, and still overcome them. They didn't need (as is the case with the newer Treks, TNG included, sadly,) to tech the tech-tech to tech the tech to defeat the villan and save the day.
While Star Trek does have good human interest stories, Babylon 5 seemed more realistic.
(And I watched it for the CGI originally. Little did I know there was a really good show buried under those effects.)

[moof]

4. wow, Star Trek The Next Generation

was what came to mind as soon as your thread title was seen.

cool to see a like minded lifeforms.

Frontline , NOVA, Scientific American Frontiers are also
positive shows on most occasions.

LOL, Star Trek " A New Hope "

and he's French, talk about prophetic, fitting, symmetry, continuum ?.

[renegade000]

5. i've often wondered how the federation operates without money

very positive and hopeful vision...but i just can't see it happening.
i mean who would become a dilithium miner or some other rather menial task just for the sake of benefiting humanity?

[Terran]

6. free enterprise

Get it, get it? (j/k).

It seems like, at the time of the original series, people still had to work for a living (the guy who sold the tribbles, the dilithium miners, etc.). By the time of TNG, all that has changed. Which is why Star Trek is basically a fantasy, and IMO does not really bode anything for humanity one way or the other. It's just one man's optimistic vision.

For me, nothing on television really bodes well for humanity, other than the fact that I think TV as we know it (as Data once observed) will be gone sometime this century, replaced by the Web. That would be a very good thing.

[Endangered Specie]

9. True, TNG is the most optomistic show...

watch a few DS9's, some of those are depressing.


Fortunatly, in the future of ST, machines (and holograms, which at the end of Voyager, became a morality issue) did alot of the dirty work. In starfleet, you have to work your way up the job ladder, from waste extraction, to day shift, to somthing better... etc... (seems reasonable).

[Cat Atomic]

8. You know- if we turn into a Star Trek society, and the universe

turns out to be more Heinlein than Roddenberry... we're screwed.

:P

[TOhioLiberal]

10. WoooHooo!

Trek! Trek! Trek! Trek! Trek!

You were expecting I'd say 'Touched By an Angel'? LOL!

:hi:

'Trek'kerlass

[sasquatch]

11. The Daily Show, X FIles, Star Trek and Countdown w/ Kieth Olberman

That's a pretty good line up I think.

[Rowdyboy]

12. Agree yes...

I want to live in the time period Star Trek TNG represents. It rivals ancient Greeece as an ideal time to live.

[Endangered Specie]

14. Kick

[populistmom]

15. Now with Bill Moyers

One of the few non-children's shows I watch and it gives me hope regarding the news media anyway.

[HuckleB]

16. Roseanne.

No, I'm not kidding. It shows a struggling, imperfect family that keeps on trying. It's beautiful.

[Ramsey]

17. Buffy?

LOL, just kidding!