Star Trek plays an important role in the lives of the main characters on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Over the course of multiple seasons, Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali have been seen playing Klingon Boggle, salivating over rare action figures like the “mint-condition production error Star Trek: The Next Generation Geordi LaForge without his visor,” and quoting both James T. Kirk and Spock to illustrate the various situations that they inevitably find themselves in during the course of any given episode.
Star Trek is thus more than a mere television show for the quartet of highly intelligent scientists on The Big Bang Theory but an actual way of life and source of wisdom and inspiration as they embark on their own personal journeys. In fact, one of the first questions that Sheldon Cooper asked perspective roommate Leonard Hofstadter when they first met was “Kirk or Picard?”
Leonard replied, “Original Series over Next Generation but Picard over Kirk.” Suffice it to say that if he had answered differently, there would be no Big Bang Theory as we know it.
What is it about Star Trek that holds such influence over the likes of Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj? The original series only lasted three seasons and consists of a mere 79 episodes, but syndication in the 1970s raised its level of popularity beyond that of a typical television show. It has served as inspiration for countless American youths to explore science as a career and its influence on modern day technological advances cannot be understated.
There is more to Star Trek than “geek science,” however, as the show likewise features a vision of the future that is simultaneously idealistic as well as realistic.
“It was to be a series that promoted individual success and achievement through space travel as well as promoting diversity and equality within a utopian future,” author Lincoln Geraghty explains in his 2007 book Living with Star Trek: American Culture and the Star Trek Universe. “Even after eventual cancellation and many years absent from television screens, Star Trek continued to stand for those incompatible attitudes and, as a result, its fans understood the series to be about the individual and communal pursuit of utopia.”
According to Geraghty, literary scholar Erich Auerbach “observed that through figuration, literatures could be imitated, reproduced and then adapted to embody stories in which people could be bound up and believe to be true – in effect alter reality so that fiction could symbolize what people thought was real in their lives. Star Trek’s representation of a reality through its fictitious future has not only been entrenched as a possible outcome for society, it has become reality for some people who want to believe that it is true.”
Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory can be considered one such person. While his fellow geek comrades-in-arms Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali share both a fascination and admiration for Star Trek, it is Sheldon who most often uses the franchise as a source of guidance during the many memorable situations that the socially-awkward physicist has found himself in.
“In difficult moments like this, I often turn to a force greater than myself – Star Trek,” Sheldon tells Amy Farrah Fowler in the episode “The Alien Parasite Hypothesis.” The “difficult moment” that he is referring to is Amy’s apparent sexual arousal at the sight of next-door-neighbor Penny’s ex-boyfriend Zack. Sheldon offers a solution to her predicament by drawing upon Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
“In it, we learn that when Spock finds himself drawn off the path of logic by feelings bubbling up from his human half, he suppresses them using the Vulcan mental discipline of Kolinahr,” he explains to Amy.
In the episode “The Agreement Dissection,” meanwhile, Sheldon recreates a scene from the original Star Trek when the roommate agreement between himself and Leonard Hofstadter is reduced to shreds by Leonard’s girlfriend-slash-lawyer Priya Koothrappali. “Do you remember what happened to the alien played by talented character actor Frank Gorshin in the Star Trek episode, ‘Let That Be Your Last Battlefield’?” Sheldon asks Leonard in regards to why a new, stricter roommate agreement should be signed.
“Captain Kirk activated the self-destruct sequence and threatened to blow up the Enterprise and kill them both unless he gave in,” Leonard replies as Sheldon in turn activates a self-destruct sequence on his own laptop computer. Although blowing up the apartment is obviously not an option, Sheldon has an equally diabolical agenda nonetheless.
“Unless Leonard signs the new agreement in the next 41 seconds, this computer will send an e-mail to your parents in India saying that you’re in a secret relationship with the whiter-than-marshmallow-fluff Leonard Hofstadter,” he calmly explains to Priya. Needless to say, Leonard quickly capitulates.
Leonard Hofstadter himself has utilized Star Trek to manipulate Sheldon Cooper. During season one of The Big Bang Theory, for instance, Sheldon is reluctant to participate in a Physics Bowl. “Do I need to quote Spock’s dying words to you?” Leonard asks. “‘The needs of the many…’”
“‘Outweigh the needs of the few…,’” Howard Wolowitz continues, only to have Sheldon himself finish with, “‘Or the one,’” before adding, “Dammit, I’ll do it.”
Quoting Star Trek extends further than the male geek leads of The Big Bang Theory as even next-door-neighbor Penny – who it’s safe to say had never watched an episode of Star Trek before she moved from Nebraska to Los Angeles – has used the sci-fi franchise in order to illustrate a point or two on more than one occasion.
In the episode “The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition,” for instance, a new female tenant in the building uses her feminine wiles in order to gain favors from Leonard, Howard and Raj. Penny confronts the interloper in the laundry room and explains that her three friends are not like other guys.
“They don’t know how to use their shields,” she says. “You know, like in Star Trek – when you’re in battle, you raise the shields.” Penny then pauses before adding in shock, “Where the hell did that come from?”
In Living with Star Trek, Lincoln Geraghty argues that the original series and its multiple offshoots not only speak directly to science geeks like Sheldon Cooper but every day people like Penny as well. The lessons and wisdom that can be gleamed from Star Trek thus transcends cultural stereotypes and offers a vision that directly relates to the ideals of the country itself.
“The stories Star Trek recounts about the past in the future produce images that some Americans use to perceive themselves as individuals both separate from and within society and others use to recognize America as a community or nation,” Geraghty writes. “By telling the right stories, Star Trek can help America imagine itself acting as a community, pulling together to resolve its problems often tackled in weekly episodes, ultimately overcoming a national anxiety deeply rooted in the conception of its own history.”
When Sheldon Cooper initially proposes that Amy Farrah Fowler utilize Kolinahr to control her sexual urges, he is met with derision. “Are you suggesting that we live our lives guided by the philosophies found in cheap science fiction?” Amy replies in regards to the suggestion.
Author Lincoln Geraghty and millions of Americans – both geek and otherwise – would no doubt relate when Sheldon succinctly responds that he is “using Kolinahr to suppress my anger at that last comment.”
Anthony Letizia