I've been running a Star Trek campaign for about a year and a half (though it's not really as much gaming as that implies). So I must have a relatively well-defined idea of what Star Trek means to me. The essence of Star Trek. One of the things that Chris Van Horn mentioned about my campaign is that he didn't consider it to be really Star Trek, mostly because what the other characters did was so un-Star Trek-like to him. That is a difference of opinion since I think everybody else is pretty well into the mold.

I'll start with what Star Trek is not. It's not about spaceships and phasers and transporter, replicators nor holodecks, Klingons nor Romulans nor any of the other races. The essence of Star Trek is not the Federation nor Starfleet, it does not depend on whether the Universe is hard science or scifi. And I think that's what most people see as Star Trek, and hence what is compared to other science fiction shows.

Star Trek tends to come off worse in comparison to more serious science fiction shows like Babylon 5 or Farscape. Babylon 5 had humans with foibles, technology that's more realistic and more based on current physics, story arcs and politics and an epic tale. Certainly that was one of the big draws for Babylon 5 and I'm not here to discuss why it was better or worse than Star Trek. But in those comparisons you get an idea of what people consider important about Star Trek and what people believe that Star Trek is about.

The essence of Star Trek is the superiority of humanity. Across all the television series, the common thread is that being human is a good thing and of itself. We make mistakes, we have highs and lows, we've committed various attrocities and heights of culture and kindness. And we keep improving, striving to be better, to uphold our ideals. From Kirk refusing to kill when it's not necessary (even with good reason, such as the Gorn in "Arena"), to Picard arguing Data's sentience, to whatever Sisko and Janeway did (admittedly, I can't think of anything offhand) -- it's all about controlling our baser passions, helping others, trying to maintain our ideals in the face of sometimes overwhelming opposition.

And that to me is the essence of Star Trek. It's not about the various challenges that face the characters, it's how they go about overcoming those challenges. I don't mind if half of the episodes are ripped off from other genres and science fiction (though it's probably nowhere near that much). To me it's not important that this episode is the "Survivor" rip-off or the homage to "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". I'm interested in how the Star Trek characters deal with the situation.

The show is all about humanity and ideals. And that's what my campaign should be about. And that's what my campaign *is* about, at least to me. I stress renown because that's a good indication of whether you're doing things the right way or the wrong way. Let's face it, most of the scenarios I run are rather easy to solve. They're even easier if you're willing to cut corners or have a lower standard for your ideals. What makes the episodes challenging is doing them while maintaining the Federation and Starfleet ideals, even when everybody else is not.

And that's very hard. As I look back, only Clancy (Shannon) almost always upholds the Star Trek ideals and means it. Krystal (Donald) usually does, but sometimes you have to remind her so it's not ingrained in her. Venor (Pick) definitely does not uphold those ideals -- Pick is just playing a D&D character. John (Sweet) is too caught up in the action of Star Trek, not in the ideals; or at least the ideals are his excuse for action. Jon (Rowe) has a fairly well-defined set of ideals. Unfortunately, they only partly intersect the Star Trek ideals. Gonar (Woo) doesn't really do anything so it's hard to tell what his ideals are. Beltana (Chris) was too busy trying to be Vulcan to care about ideals. Contrast that with Serin (Fulton) who did a good job of balancing Vulcan and Starfleet ideals.

In any case, that's what I think Star Trek is. In the future, even when we go out into space, we'll carry all our baggage with us. But that baggage is not a flaw, it's a strength. Humans are adaptable, they persevere, they push back and strive the hardest when the situation is hopeless. We may not be the strongest, or most intelligent, or wisest, but we'll do well enough being us.