Orson Scott Card Blasts Star Trek

Posted on May 4, 2005

With the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise, there will be no Star Trek on TV for the first time in quite a few years. But bestselling SF author Orson Scott Card couldn't care less. In a stinging, well-written essay in the L.A. Times, Uncle Orson takes on the Third Rail of SF, driving a knife through the heart of die hard Trek fans.

Card says, "The original Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry, was, with a few exceptions, bad in every way that a science fiction television show could be bad. Nimoy was the only charismatic actor in the cast and, ironically, he played the only character not allowed to register emotion."

Card, who wrote the brilliant Ender's Game, goes on to argue that there are much better examples of science fiction and SF and that we don't need Star Trek anymore. He calls the series Lost, created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, the best science ficiton tv series of all time, "so far." He also gives a thumbs up to Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.

Needless to say, Card's comments have ignited a controversy among SF fans. Some agree, some don't. But Star Trek fans are -- to say the least-- not pleased. We have both Star Trek and Orson Scott Card fans here, which has led to a somewhat disturbing state of cognitive dissonance for some of us. You can read our interview with Orson Scott Card here.