TIMOTHY SANDEFUR: The Politics Of Star Trek.

The key to Star Trek’s longevity and cultural penetration was its seriousness of purpose, originally inspired by creator Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction vision. Modeled on Gulliver’s Travels, the series was meant as an opportunity for social commentary, and it succeeded ingeniously, with episodes scripted by some of the era’s finest science fiction writers. Yet the development of Star Trek’s moral and political tone over 50 years also traces the strange decline of American liberalism since the Kennedy era.

Indeed. Plus, binge-watching the entire Original Series in order. “After a while, it was like the same crazy hand-to-hand combat moves, cookie-cutter planet landscapes, and terrible setups to get the characters back in time were not just jokes that modern me could laugh and gawk at as much as they were clues to understanding a very, very different world. And I’m not talking just about the Federation—I’m talking about the real-life generation immediately before mine, too.”

Both via Rand Simberg.