The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek

Star Trek plays an important role in the lives of the main characters on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Over the course of its many seasons, Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali have been seen playing Klingon Boggle—where they need to make Klingon words out of the letters that pop up—salivate over such rare action figures as the “mint-condition production error Star Trek: The Next Generation Geordi LaForge without his visor” as featured in the episode “The Nerdvana Annihilation,” and quote the likes of James T. Kirk and science officer Spock to illustrate the various situations that they inevitably find themselves in during the course of any given episode.

Star Trek is thus more than a mere television show for the quartet of highly intelligent geek scientists on The Big Bang Theory but an actual way of life and source of wisdom and inspiration as they embark on their own personal journeys. In fact, one of the first questions that Sheldon Cooper asked perspective roommate Leonard Hofstadter when they first met was “Kirk or Picard?” Leonard replied, “Original Series over Next Generation but Picard over Kirk.” Suffice it to say that if he had answered differently, there would be no Big Bang Theory as we know it.

What is it about Star Trek that holds such influence over the likes of Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj? The original series lasted three seasons and consists of a mere seventy-nine episodes after all, but syndication in the 1970s raised its level of popularity beyond that of a typical television show. It has served as inspiration for countless American youths of the time to explore science as a career and its influence on modern day technological advances cannot be understated. There is more to Star Trek than “geek science,” however, as the show likewise features a vision of the future that is simultaneously idealistic as well as realistic.

“It was to be a series that promoted individual success and achievement through space travel as well as promoting diversity and equality within a utopian future,” author Lincoln Geraghty explains in his book Living with Star Trek: American Culture and the Star Trek Universe (I.B. Taurus, 2007). “Even after eventual cancellation and many years absent from television screens, Star Trek continued to stand for those incompatible attitudes and, as a result, its fans understood the series to be about the individual and communal pursuit of utopia.”

Geraghty goes on to explore Star Trek’s progression from failed 1960s television show to cult classic to way of life for millions of Americans. He explains that literary scholar Erich Auerbach “observed that through figuration, literatures could be imitated, reproduced and then adapted to embody stories in which people could be bound up and believe to be true—in effect alter reality so that fiction could symbolize what people thought was real in their lives. Star Trek’s representation of a reality through its fictitious future has not only been entrenched as a possible outcome for society, it has become reality for some people who want to believe that it is true.”

Thus enters Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory. While his fellow geek comrades-in-arms Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali share both a fascination and admiration for Star Trek, it is Sheldon who often uses the series as a source of guidance during the many memorable situations the socially-awkward theoretical physicist has found himself in through the years.

“In difficult moments like this, I often turn to a force greater than myself—Star Trek,” Sheldon tells Amy Farrah Fowler in the episode “The Alien Parasite Hypothesis.” The “difficult moment” that he is referring to is Amy’s apparent sexual arousal at the sight of Penny’s ex-boyfriend Zack. Sheldon offers a solution to her predicament by drawing upon Star Trek: The Motion Picture. “In it, we learn that when Spock finds himself drawn off the path of logic by feelings bubbling up from his human half, he suppresses them using the Vulcan mental discipline of Kolinahr,” he explains to Amy.

In the episode “The Agreement Dissection,” meanwhile, Sheldon recreates a scene from the original Star Trek when the roommate agreement between himself and Leonard Hofstadter is reduced to shreds by Leonard’s girlfriend-slash-lawyer Priya Koothrappali. “Do you remember what happened to the alien played by talented character actor Frank Gorshin in the Star Trek episode, ‘Let That Be Your Last Battlefield’?” Sheldon asks Leonard in regards to why a new, stricter roommate agreement should be signed.

“Captain Kirk activated the self-destruct sequence and threatened to blow up the Enterprise and kill them both unless he gave in,” Leonard replies as Sheldon in turn activates a self-destruct sequence on his own laptop computer. Although blowing up the apartment is obviously not a potential outcome, Sheldon has an equally diabolical agenda nonetheless.

“Unless Leonard signs the new agreement in the next forty-one seconds, this computer will send an e-mail to your parents in India saying that you’re in a secret relationship with the whiter-than-marshmallow-fluff Leonard Hofstadter,” he calmly explains to Priya. In the end, Leonard indeed capitulates.

Leonard himself has likewise utilized Star Trek to manipulate Sheldon Cooper. During season one of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon is reluctant to participate in a Physics Bowl. “Do I need to quote Spock’s dying words to you?” Leonard asks. “‘The needs of the many…’”

“‘Outweigh the needs of the few…,’” Howard Wolowitz continues, only to have Sheldon himself finish with, “‘Or the one,’” before adding, “Dammit, I’ll do it.”

Quoting Star Trek extends further than the male geek leads of The Big Bang Theory as even next-door neighbor Penny, who probably had never watched an episode of Star Trek before she moved from Nebraska to Los Angeles, has used the sci-fi franchise in order to illustrate a point or two of her own on more than one occasion. In the episode “The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition,” for instance, a new female tenant in the building begins using her feminine wiles as a way to gain favors from Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali. Penny confronts the interloper in the laundry room and explains that the three are not like other guys.

“They don’t know how to use their shields,” she says. “You know, like in Star Trek—when you’re in battle, you raise the shields.” Penny then pauses before adding in shock, “Where the hell did that come from?”

In Living with Star Trek, Lincoln Geraghty argues that the original series and its multiple offshoots not only speak directly to science geeks like Sheldon Cooper but every day people like Penny, as well as the nation at large. The lessons and wisdom that can be gleamed from Star Trek thus transcends cultural stereotypes and offers a vision that directly relates to the ideals of the United States itself.

“The stories Star Trek recounts about the past in the future produce images that some Americans use to perceive themselves as individuals both separate from and within society and others use to recognize America as a community or nation,” Geraghty writes. “By telling the right stories, Star Trek can help America imagine itself acting as a community, pulling together to resolve its problems often tackled in weekly episodes, ultimately overcoming a national anxiety deeply rooted in the conception of its own history.”

When Sheldon Cooper initially proposes that Amy Farrah Fowler utilize Kolinahr to control her sexual urges, he is met with derision. “Are you suggesting that we live our lives guided by the philosophies found in cheap science fiction?” Amy replies in regards to the suggestion.

Author Lincoln Geraghty and millions of Americans—both geek and otherwise—would no doubt relate when Sheldon succinctly responds that he is “using Kolinahr to suppress my anger at that last comment.”

Anthony Letizia (December 7, 2011)

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