What Can ‘Star Trek’ Tell Us About Shakespeare?

Even though storytelling is a timeless art form, it is still heavily dependent on the time period the story was generated in. This is fairly obvious when looking at science fiction works set in the future. Quite often, the future will come to pass and be wildly different from the one depicted in the story. So it’s especially impressive when a work withstands the test of time. That’s doubly true when a writer’s entire catalog is still lauded and relevant regardless of the time. It’s hard to think of a writer who encapsulates this more than William Shakespeare, whose works are constantly being adapted and updated. So it may be interesting to compare him to one of the most successful sci-fi franchises of all time: Star Trek.

Created by Gene Roddenberry, the original Star Trek series captured the imaginations of millions. There had never really been anything like it before as it created an expansive science fiction universe filled with advanced technology, spaceships, and bizarre alien creatures. But even given this strength of imagination, Star Trek was still handicapped by the technology of the time. Nowadays, Star Trek utilizes computer technology to create that special effects, but the original series had to rely heavily on practical effects, being as creative as possible in order to tell the stories they could while still making them believable for the audience.

On the other hand, Shakespeare has withstood the test of time by stripping away many of the handicaps from the era he was writing in. For the sake of his audience, Shakespeare made many of his stories topical and relevant to the time period, but the works themselves are quite sparse. There’s no set directions and very limited stage directions. Also, the plots are structured in a way that it is very easy to transplant into different scenarios, including science fiction. That doesn’t even take into account the fact that his stories are heavily built upon strong characterization, something that can exist regardless of time. It just goes to show that even something that has lasted as long as Star Trek can still learn a thing or two from a master of storytelling like Shakespeare.

Star Trek: The Original Series is now streaming on Paramount+.