I doubt the network censors would’ve allowed it to air with the line “Earth doesn’t need any gods.” Adding “One is enough” made it acceptable to 1960s audiences.
What about the animated one where they meet that guy who was possibly the Devil? But he really wasn’t because that society was testing him or something. And they’d been cast out from Earth as witches?
“Jesus on Star Trek!” sounds like an expletive.
And English. Not Latin. Even the self-identified Romans speak English. A language that, in our timeline, evolved in an environment for which the fall of Rome was a necessary precondition.
“Excuse me . . . Why does God need a starship?”
In the novelization of ST5, McCoy says something like “Hmmm, a being claiming to be God, imprisoned and trying to deceive humans into freeing him… doesn’t that sound a bit too familiar?”
Kirk does not specify which God–it is assumed he meant the Christian one, but he could have been referring to Yahweh or Allah. Any Abrahamic version will do (for the show’s purposes).
ST:TOS poses lots of metaphysical questions while not mentioning Christianity or Jesus. Perhaps that’s why I like it so much. (that wiki page is something else, though!).
As for the Romans speaking English, well, ALL the alien life forms speak English in Star Trek world. Nothing odd about that.
I like the idea of Tribbles speaking English. They say “Purr. Purr. Purr.” and all sound like Lorenzo Music.
They sing, too.
To everything, purr purr purr…
There is a season, purr purr purr…
And a time for every purr-pose…
And so forth.
I recall that episode; The Magics of Megas-Tu. The animated episodes aren’t canon though. The devil guy, named Lucian is one of a race of beings who visited Earth long ago and helped create the myths behind magic. They live in a realm where thought defines reality, and technology doesn’t work; thus all the “magic” trappings. Basically Lucien would be the Devil without Jesus/God, except he wasn’t especially bad.
Can you imagine the reaction if they’d put out an episode where it turned out Jesus was an alien? That sort of thing is pretty much restricted to written sci-fi.
TNG sorta-vaguely touched on this in the second-season premiere (called ‘The Child’, as I recall).
Tell me if I’m crazy, but was Dr. McCoy an athiest? Specifically, I remember a line from Spock to Kirk, something like, “Captain, I was under the impression that Dr. McCoy does not believe in a god.” I can’t recall the episode, and I may have misheard the line (I know it was a boring episode, because I specifically remember thinking, “did they just say McCoy’s an athiest? Eh, I’d rewind it, but that would only prolong this crap”), so I’m having some trouble googling it.
Thanks, Der Trihs.
Not ST but Twilight Zone did an episode where an alien comes down and he cures illnesses but humans mistrust him and murder him, and it’s very Christ-like. (To be fair, in TZ most of the time the aliens are out to get us.)
If not Jesus, how about God+Gods+Spacetime in the form of Q?
Though they are not canonical, I definitely remember some Christians – Catholic nuns, if I recall correctly – establishing a mission on a newly discovered planet in one of the ST:TNG books.
The catholic church is still rolling along in 2160 or so, as Dr Phlox talked about going to mass at St Peter’s during Enterprise.
Christmas has survived into the 23rd and 24th centuries. There have been episodes of TOS and Voyager which have featured or made references to “the ship’s Christmas party.” And Picard experienced a fantasy Christmas celebration with an illusory family while in the Nexus in "Generations."Although that doesn’t have to mean Christianity survives, as many of today’s Christmas traditions are taken from pagan observations rather than from the Bible. Christmas may survive more as a secular festival of peace and goodwill to all of mankind’s fellow sentients than as a religious celebration.
This wasn’t about Jesus particularly, but there was a TNG episode, “Who Watches the Watchers”, about these Federation sociologists who are observing a primitive society, the Mintakans. There’s an accident, and the natives discover the Federation people and become convinced that Captain Picard’s a god.
So, Captain Picard and one of the sociologists are talking about the incident, and the following conversation occurs:
So, that sort of gives you an idea of the way religion was looked at on The Next Generation.
Jesus indeed was on Star Trek, kinda.
Made me giggle. For the past few hours. Thank you.