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Star Trek PhD Thesis Wins Academic Prize
An anonymous reader writes "A PhD thesis based on Star Trek has won an Australian university's top academic prize. Dr Djoymi Baker's 90,000 word dissertation 'Broadcast Space: TV Culture, Myth and Star Trek' was awarded the University of Melbourne's Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in the PhD. Dr Baker watched over 700 Star Trek episodes — more than 624 hours — to investigate the relationship between ancient mythology and today's popular culture. American academics thought her research was 'superlative' and suitable for teaching."
I'm a doctor, not an editor! Not kill I.
It's an article, CmdrTaco, but not as we know it. Ahead mod factor five.
Finally Star Trek is gaining the academic recognition it so richly deserves. Having Trekology as an official subject for a BS degree should be coming up soon at all major mail order universities. Live long and prospers.
... did she successfully pass the Kobayashi Maru exam?
"A PhD thesis based on Star Trek has won an Australian university's top academic prize."
Now all we need is a PhD thesis based on several years of reading slashdot.
It is nice to think that at least today we KNOW that our myths are made-up.
But there are still some people who manage to insist they are real, actual events! - UFO religions like the Scientologists or heaven's gate.
Nonetheless, despite the fact that our current mythology is fiction, Star Trek and the like are at least Science Fiction: not based upon the supernatural, but instead upon testable, and currently tested theories and ideas.
Amazing: even as culturally advanced as we fancy ourselves, we still retain those ancient urges to believe in the fantastic. But
perhaps that's because so much in this universe is actually fantastic; far more, in fact, than we ever imagined.
It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the late, great Dr. Feynman: "Far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the
past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if
he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?"
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But it is possible. There are (courtesy of tv.com)
79 Original Trek Episodes
178 Next Gen Episodes
176 Deep Space Nine Episodes
172 Voyager Episodes
98 Enterprise Episodes
Which totals 703 episodes. He didn't even need the 22 Animated Series episodes.
Wow.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Djoymi Baker watched 700 episodes - 624 hours without ads - of Star Trek and its spin-offs, dating from 1966 to 2005, in the name of research.
But for me it would be:
Anonymous Coward watched 700 episodes - 624 hours without ads - of pornography and its cum-shots, dating from 1966 to 2005, in the name of research.
...sounds like BS to me!
Popular bittorrent sites have noted a huge spike in Star Trek episode downloads over the last 12 months...
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
Watch closer. The whole of ST:TOS was an exploration of the Human Condition. It just happened to take place in space, ergo it was "Sci Fi".
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Finally Star Trek is gaining the academic recognition it so richly deserves. Having Trekology as an official subject for a BS degree should be coming up soon at all major mail order universities. Live long and prospers.
Maybe some day those who embrace the Federation's Ideals can be accepted on a jury or even in public office.
stardate 2006.828 i've successfully been elected to the town school board. the squabbling is terrible and nothing ever gets done. i've never felt in need of a phaser so much in my life.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
to investigate the relationship between ancient mythology and today's popular culture.
Star Trek? My bet would be that the first few seasons of Star Gate would give much more away on that.
bash$
How is this any less valid than a PhD surrounding the works of Shakespeare? It could be reasonably argued that the collected episodes of Star Trek represent a far larger body of work, that they do indeed influence pop culture substantially and serve as a superb mirror for the social attitudes of contemporary society.
Mind, my PhD is in Computer Science, so all that humanities stuff is more or less the same to me. If you can't code it, it isn't good enough!
Star Trek "priest": "And Scotty beamed them to the Klingon ship, where there would be no tribble at all"
Crowd chants: "All power to the engines!"
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Abstract: In the spirit of the best human qualities, Anonymous Cowards seeking public yet anonymous recognition show formidable selflessness. By doing away with the link between benevolent exposure of ideas and karma gratification they elevate public commentary to a social reinforcement of Insightful, Interesting and Funny: all essential components of high achievements. This in turn strengthens the Blog medium with not only cohesive forces but justifies the Anonymous Cowards with legitimacy beyond what have been observed throughout the history of the Internets. Their willingness to start from scratch over and over yet still earn the respect of their peers hardly justifies the "coward" epithet and proves that comments, even at -1, are a gold mine for those seeking understanding of TFA.
We will show that Anonymous Corwardiness is alive and well and that despite sometime adverse moderation, this modern tradition offers by its unique qualities a look inside the human soul.
And to reinforce those in each generation.
Myths tell us what is "good" and what is "bad".
There was nearly no over-arching Myth, but many of the episodes had mythic elements, some altogether too literally. (Remember when our intrepid crew encountered the actual, factual Greek God Apollo?)
But you miss the main point, which is thanks to the magic of Deconstruction, you can read anything you want into anything you want. So of course Star Trek has embedded myth, any embedded myth you want. It also contains deep wisdom about how post-feminist transgendered dialogs can be resolved in a quasi-imperialist milieu steeped in the rhetoric of oppressive patriarchial systemic dynamics in a quantum mechanical universe, if you look hard enough.
Isn't literary criticism fun?
Well, your point would be a little more effective if the quote you gave was actually from Shatner, rather than a Saterday Night Live skit.
The website you gave *was* http://snltranscripts.jt.org/
What's really amazing here is that Djoymi Baker is female. Die-hard ST fans weren't known often for being of the fairer sex.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Culture is culture. If no one looks at culture of the present day, we lose a lot of valuable information. You're basically saying it's OK to abolish the study of culture at the university level. And while I am not personally interested in Star Trek, I do think that it has had an amazing influence over a large portion of the general population, and studying that effect is definitely worth the effort. And I wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't look at the effect of the Simpsons on our civilization. Ignoring the mundane details that describe our culture means ignoring the essence of culture as a whole.
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
No, no, no. Not 'shitty'. The term you're looking for is 'Shatty'.
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
This just proves that PhD stands for "piled higher and deeper."
Not all PhD's. But in this case...I'm a little inclined to agree. No offence to the talented and fetching Dr. Baker, but here are the other three winners of the U of Melbourne's Chancellor's Prize of Excellence:
(1) "Penelope Smith (Social Sciences), who used economic modeling to better understand business cycles in Australia and large Group of 7 economies - drawing information which is critical for setting fiscal and monetary policy."
(2) "Martin de Jonge (Science and Engineering) whose work will lead to more incisive synchrotron x-ray studies that are 100 times more accurate than current levels."
(3) "Christopher Smith (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences) who identified the cell which encourages the body's immune system to fight the herpes simplex virus."
Seems like a wee bit more serious and useful work. On the other hand, clearly Baker is a right clever jane, having figured out how to get the yeomanry of 'Stralia pay her a handsome stipend for five years while she watches her favorite TV show and takes notes. Well done, lass! You have to admire that kind of panache.
I'm a doctor, damnit, not a Star Trek addict!
And only Bones could fix the brain-melt she must be suffering after 624 hours of Trek. It must have been like a dagger in the mind.
Crap, I'm a nerd.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
to Truly understand the thesis, you must read it in its original Klingon.
...how important intelligent communication is. While a topic like 'TV Culture, Myth and Star Trek', in my opinion, does not provide a revolutionary breakthrough in the study of humanities, the fact that she intelligently and effectively enumerates and supports her argument is enough to merit the award she received.
Faith is a willingness to accept something w/o complete proof and to act on it. Reason allows you to correct that faith.
Seems like a wee bit more serious and useful work.
Dunno.
It's been famously stated that those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it. I'd suggest that those who do not study myths are condemned to act them out.
Many of may have been taught abouth myth in this way: Myth is obsolete science. Zeus is just a primitive mind's way of explaining lightning without the benefit of understanding electricity. I know I was taught this way. However, if you look at a myth like Cupid and Psyche, it's obviously not the product of a primitive mind. Myths are what they are, but the do serve a very practical purpose in allowing us to relate the world to the subjective experiences and responses that make up our identity.
We're currently fighting a war whose root causes are clearly in the economics of petrolum and regional politics. But what sustains the war (on both sides) by a mythical theme: the alien who wants to destroy our way of life. This is the alien of "War of the Worlds". This is "the Hun". This is not the alien from ET.
One of the most popular terms in US political discourse these days is "islamo-fascism". Notice that while this term is technically inaccurate when applied to Al Qaeda's goals, it is mythologically potent, combining the alien (islam) and the threatening (fascism). This is not to say Al Qaeda isn't alien and threatening! It's just to say the term is more emotionally loaded than technically accurate. Framing your thinking in terms of the mythical theme of alien invasion means you mischaracterize the other's intentions. The other party's real intentions may be just as bad, or even worse, but it doesn't change the point: allowing one mythical theme to dominate your thinking about a situation means you act more in accord with the mythical paradigm than specific facts of the case.
What does this have to do with Star Trek? Well, it doesn't necessarily have to have any immediate use. There is no immediate use for studying the genetics of a fruit fly, but the knowledge gained from that study is valuable indeed. It's clear to me that TOS and TNG have connected with many people, many intelligent people, in a deep way, a way which subsequent series like Voyager and Enterprise failed to, although individual episodes may fall below or rise above the others in any of the series. This in itself is no doubt mysterious to the company that produced them. Which means we are in some sense in a state of ignorance, the wealth of theories regarding this notwisthstanding. There are always plenty of theories available when you are in a state of ignorance. So serious scholarship is certainly called for. It may provide useful fundamental results, or it may not, but it is at least of interest to those whose jobs it is to provide mythologically potent entertainment.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
TFA says "Since finishing her thesis last year, the 34-year-old has had a daughter and is turning her thesis into an academic text." So it probably will be published.
It's been done.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
And then what about Star Gate SG1? Modern Mythology? Which of course brings to mind The Matrix Movies. Indeed, one might wonder if in 300 years the new empire won't pick up those movies and make a state religion out of them...
Tom: What's he doin?
Droz: He's finishing his senior thesis. Pigman is trying to prove the Caine-Hackman theory. No matter what time it is, 24 hours a day, you can find a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie playing on TV.
Tom: That's his thesis?
Droz: Yes! That's the beauty of college these days, Tommy! You can major in Game Boy if you know how to bullshit.
- PCU