Rescue the Bridge!

Sarah just sent me a link on Facebook about something that she thought I'd be interested in, and she was dead on!  "Rescuing the Bridge"  I guess I'm a little bit of an abnormal Star Trek fan, it seems like almost every Trekkie I meet is obsessed with the technology and the specs of the spaceships or, less common, just want to watch some good old special effects.  Me on the other hand, what has always interested me was the cultural aspects of the show, how the races interact, how they have "bettered themselves" (to quote the Borg Queen).  I've always loved seeing episodes that take on social issues like racism (TNG: "The Measure of a Man") or torture and brainwashing (TNG: "The Chain of Command") or the horrors of war (DS9: "Siege of AR-558") or even religious interpretation of texts (TOS: "Let that be your last battlefield" and ENT: "Chosen Realm").  Ok, I could gush all night about the show, because I love it, but there are reasons why it is an important show.

Star Trek as a show has chosen to tackle man of the important issues of our world today, and without it, television would not be what it is today including the first interracial kiss on network TV (TOS: "Plato's Stepchildren").  Alot of those episodes I mentioned above are remembered for how they deal with an important topic and not because it was a technological showcase.  This was one of the things that Gene Rodenberry wanted to do with Star Trek, to show humanity moving beyond the petty differences that exist today: a black woman was a high ranking bridge officer, a Russian is not the enemy, but the tactical officer, they could always bridge gaps with their enemies.  But while Star Trek tried to show a Utopian future for us, I felt that it always lacked an element that it needed, the struggle to maintain ideals.  Kirk showed how he struggled to forgive the Klingons in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" and Sisko showed that he was willing to bend his ideals during the Dominion War to be able to bring about an outcome that was better for all (both of these were things that Rodenberry did not want in the shows but he had no control of ST6 and was dead by the time DS9 was being made), but these things help us to see that humanity has problems and we need to fix them. 

The replica of the USS Enterprise-D bridge would in my opinion be a great way of attracting people to an exhibit talking about the social change that Rodenberry felt was so core to the series.  Around the bridge there could be interactive displays talking about many of the aspects that made Star Trek important.  And lets face it, if they made the display about the technical aspects of the show, it would attract very few people, while if they make the display to focus on the issues that Star Trek tackled, they expand the reasons to come see the set.