Roddenberry's Star Trek was "above all, a critique of Robert Heinlein"

Star Trek turned 50 in 2016. In its half-century of existence - on TV, on the big screen, and in the worldwide community of its fans - Star Trek has become an integral part of our everyday lives. Even casual viewers know the pointed ears, the Vulcan salute, and the meaning of "beam me up, Scotty."

Manu Saadia's Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek is available from Amazon.

Yet, Star Trek does not owe its enduring popularity and its place in our collective imagination to its aliens or to its technological speculations. What makes it so unique, and so exciting, is its radical optimism about humanity's future as a society: in other words, utopia. (more")