Star Trek (the Starship Enterprise) Symbol Analysis

As George Takei tells his story in They Called Us Enemy, he uses the television show Star Trek to represent an ideal vision for America, one where the racism that led to the Japanese internment camps during World War II doesn’t exist. Taking place on a spaceship (Enterprise) in the 23rd century, Star Trek follows the ship and its crew as they travel “where no man has gone before.” But Takei makes the case that when he talks about going “where no man has gone before,” he’s not just referring to the various planets the crew visits during each episode. In addition, Star Trek (which began to air in the mid-1960s), went where almost no television shows had gone before by featuring a cast that was, at the time, one of the most diverse on television. In the show Takei plays Sulu, a science officer—and unlike most roles for Asian men at the time, Sulu is competent and honorable. Takei brings up his time on Star Trek at various points throughout the memoir to illustrate how far the U.S. has come since World War II. This, he suggests, is yet more proof of the United States’ exceptionalism and the power of American democracy: it is possible for the country to admit its failings and mistakes and, ultimately, to get to a place where the diversity Star Trek portrays is no longer just fiction.