Religions Reviewed

Jindra’s basic argument is that Star Trek, as the late 20^th-century popular culture brand with the greatest “depth and breadth of fan activity” (p. 160), is a clear and pronounced case of ‘cultural religion,’ in which a cultural object originally devised as commercial entertainment then autonomously takes on functional features of religion. He explicitly references Forbes’s formulation of this idea (171), citing the “Popular Culture as Religion” discussion in the introduction to Religion and Popular Culture in America, which in turn draws on the work of John Wiley Nelson to establish the concept. (14-15) Forbes singles out Nelson’s focus on the way in which ‘cultural religion’ brings into relief people’s dissatisfaction with their circumstances in contrast with a form of redemption or deliverance. The manner in which fans activate and interact with the utopian dimensions of the Star Trek scenario can certainly be construed in this fashion.

Although one might expect a more functionalist approach to religion to guide Jindra’s study, he instead proceeds in a largely phenomenological manner: identifying mythological, ideological and moral dimensions intrinsic to Star Trek; examining fans’ modes of social organization (with its roots in the prior history of science fiction conventions); discussing the devotional mode of pilgrimage, expressions in material culture, intellectual activities of canon delineation and linguistic elaboration, and rituals of imaginative fabrication and role-playing; and noting the tensions regarding interactions between the fans and the profane.

Primary sources Jindra cites include interviews with individual fans, and Star Trek literature such as The Star Trek Encyclopedia, The Star Trek Fan’s Handbook and Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. I found his individual data reliable in themselves, but often a little thin in developing his case. For example, the matter of pilgrimage could have been illustrated more effectively with the Riverside, Iowa and
Vulcan, Alberta Trek towns (shown in the Trekkies film) as fan-produced pilgrim destinations, in addition to or instead of the Universal Studios Star Trek set. Additionally, conventions can themselves embrace many of the features and functions historically associated with religious pilgrimage, as occasions for immersion, exchange, and the mutual support of devotional dedication.

Near the outset of his article, Jindra offers almost in passing a rather peculiar reference to “the religious heart of society.” (159) It is not clear to me whether he is attempting to assert a sort of Durkheimian postulate in which religion would reflect and channel the essential values and energies of society; or whether he is instead claiming—more consistently with his later argument (161)—that the “heart” of religion has become sequestered from popular culture because of trends of social “differentiation” that confine religion to either private conscience or traditional institutions increasingly placed outside the political and economic mainstream.

Jindra pays special attention to the extent to which Star Trek relies on ethical and ideological mainsprings of American culture (163), and makes a closing assertion that Star Trek has in some manner been able to pick up where the American “civil religion” (theorized by Robert Bellah) had broken down from its exaggerated and intensified Cold War form. This observation, while arguably valid in itself, could serve as an interesting point of departure for more granular analyses of the cultural participation aspects of Star Trek fandom. In the original Star Trek series, the Klingons were a transparent allegory for the Soviets as a rival superpower—and the Romulans for the Chinese. In later decades, the peculiar popularity of the Klingons may reflect not only the sort of cultural disinhibition assigned to Klingons by fans (ref. remarks in the Trekkies film), but also perhaps a certain measure of nostalgia for simpler villains. In the geopolitical allegories of The Next Generation, the chief villain became the Borg, a power for assimilation and domination that reflected Americans’ anxieties about our own imperialist trajectory, in contrast to our idealized self-image in the United Federation of Planets.

A particularly acute insight of Jindra’s study concerns the paradox involved with such evidently religious devotion to a mythic world that has been itself founded on a rationalistic humanist ideal. (166) Although there are some examples of religious custom that emphasize a sort of pluralistic dignity for the exotic, “religion” per se does not fare well in the Star Trek universe; it is often represented as superstition and hidebound insularity. During the closing credits of Trekkies the standup comedian Rick Overton provides a comically exaggerated characterization of Captain Kirk’s reaction to the religions of extraterrestrial “natives” that is not far off the mark: “Your Bible is a lie! Everything you believe is wrong! Run! Freak out!” Jindra contrasts Star Trek with Star Wars fandom on a related point: Star Wars lacks “the realism and science found in Star Trek.” (168) In fact, Star Wars centers on a mystical religious elite of “Jedi Knights,” and—despite its timely if ham-fisted warnings about the corruption of republican government—strikes a primarily nostalgic and even reactionary tone, as opposed to the progressive futurism that is central to Star Trek. “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,” versus “Space: the Final Frontier.” Recurring to Nelson’s ideas about dissatisfaction and redemption, one might observe these two superficially similar space adventure myths taking diametrically opposed ideological positions, yet both on those terms “religious.”

While I found the aspects I reviewed in the last two paragraphs especially interesting in light of what they can contribute to reflection on the essentially religious dimension of Star Trek fandom in particular, and the place it occupies in the spectrum of American popular culture, the paradigmatic value of the case study extends beyond Star Trek itself, and even science fiction generally, to the modes of participation and types of cultural production associated with subcultures that develop on a basis of mass-market entertainment products. Reading the study in conjunction with the Trekkies film led me to the conclusion that it would have been possible to make a much more persuasive case regarding the specifically religious nature of Star Trek fandom. (In particular, the many anecdotes regarding both miraculous and mundane healings identified with Star Trek participation were quite striking.) But the theoretical references and structure of Jindra’s study point to the ways in which that wealth of detail can highlight analogous features of ‘cultural religion’ in other instances of the fandom phenomenon.