I owe a debt of gratitude to Gene and the entire crew. I was doubting my religion, and felt like I was losing my moral compass in the process. I was asking myself what type of person I wanted to be. The values that TNG showed me helped me in the 10 years since — being open to other cultures and their beliefs (Half a Life), to hold truth above others, and nothing can break that (Chain of Command), and to live my life more open, honestly, and fully (Inner Light)
I condemn false prophets, I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people of their free will–and a hell of a lot of money in the bargain. Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all. For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain. -Gene Roddenberry
Jesus had even harsher words, calling the hypocrites like tombs full of rot and worms inside, and the people like a camel in heat chasing after everything stubbornly & selfishly but not giving one single damn about one another. Everyone claiming that the words mean whatever they want, instead of bowing to the will of the universe.
Anyway, Gene Rodenberry was a great man of true integrity, and we won’t see his like in Hollywood again anytime soon I expect - everyone else seems all about how to cash in without putting in the effort to make GREAT shows like his all were:-(. As just one modern example, look at Stranger Things that showed such potential, but cashed in immediately after the first season:-(.
Btw Gene Roddenberry had another sci-fi show put on by his wife after he died, using his notes for it, and while she was in charge of it (before the last few seasons when iirc her health got poor) it was pretty good too: https://gamerant.com/star-trek-fans-gene-roddenberry-sci-fi-series-earth-final-conflict/. It is still highly worth checking out imho.
I loved seeing it - it was like a cross between DS9 and TNG, it allowed explorations all over the Earth but yet still centered on the Earth (except when it left that behind and went to the stars:-).
It also tells a story of skepticism b/c these angelic, gender-neutral beings descend from the stars and yet… not all as is people might wish for it to be. It kinda went DEEP into exploring some of those concepts that were harder to do in the Star Trek universe - b/c the Federation was just so culturally evolved, it being in the future, while EFC was essentially the present, heck it’s likely the past even by now, if alien technology were just suddenly handed to people.
One thing that really intrigued me was the focus on more biotech than physical tech, and also the updated technology to show special effects allowing the aliens to be literally beings made of energy (these ofc existed even back in TOS but… it’s nowhere near the same), which put on a fleshy shell most of the time for convenience but often reverted to show off the cool special effects for uh… “reasons”. And since you see these beings day-in and day-out, not once in an episode and then gone, you really get to explore how such a thing would influence their thought processes, like did their ancestors hunt for food or like… what? (btw you not knowing next to anything about them is very much a part of the experience of watching the show, so I will not spoil it here:-P) DS9 did a lot of that with the shapeshifters and a little bit with their genetically-modified servants, but in EFC Gene Roddenberry did it differently, with these energy(plasma?) beings.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy at least checking it out!:-)
