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Television

Star Trek: Enterprise

Sofia Villaweaver asks, what kind of future do we want – Gene Roddenberry’s, or Friedrich Nietzsche’s?

At first glance, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and the long-running US TV franchise Star Trek seem unlikely combatants. But they have visions of future humanity that are fundamentally opposed. So as both a sci-fi nerd and a lover of philosophy, my ears pricked up when Nietzsche was parroted in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise by an Augment, a genetically modified human with superior intellect and strength and zero pesky moral inhibitions. The Augment, named Malik, loftily proclaims to the Enterprise’s morally upstanding Captain Archer: “We [Augments] don’t care what happens to you. Humanity is no longer relevant.

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