BackTrekking returns again to look back at the real-world inspirations of classic Trek episodes!

OK, now that the actual Holocaust is out of the way, we can try something much more idyllic but still a little bit sinister. In the early days of TV, before we had these "500 channels" with nothing on them (which seems like a bad business model), programs were much different than they were today. Times were simpler, characters were whiter, and everything wrapped up pretty neatly in 30 or 60 minutes (plus commercial breaks). There were daring private eyes, brilliant lawyers and cops, and cowboys cowboys cowboys, and all were morally impeachable. Sure, they'd make mistakes, they'd be tempted by evil, but they would always win out in the end because that's what TV was for: presenting morally enriching tales that featured just a hint of violence and sex. Drain all vice completely out of '60s TV and you get The Andy Griffith Show, an anodyne picture of rural America in the 20th century that's more fictional than the Federation of the 24th. Andy Taylor is the sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina, a town where the deputy only has one bullet, all problems can be solved by home-cookin', and black people simply do not exist.

Fast-forward 300 years to a distant alien planet that is eerily similar to 20th century Earth (is that Floyd's barbershop?) where a deadly plague has wiped out everyone over the age of 18, leaving the children to frolic in the ruins. But these are no ordinary children; they, too, are the victims of the age-prolonging experiments that initially caused the plague, each of them growing slowly, inexorably toward puberty where they too will join the mountain of corpses that fills the old fishin' hole. Star Trek wasn't the first or arguably best show to employ genre thrills in the service of didactic storytelling (see "Twilight Zone, The") but it made a meal out of taking the TV conventions of the decades prior and putting an alien face on them, posing questions about social issues that were rarely as black-and-white as some of those alien faces. It wasn't by any means a blameless show, but it presented a world that was more diverse, more frightening, and more real than any of Aunt Bee's pickle-induced nightmares, and in doing so, blazed a trail for socially-conscious storytelling that would lead into the 21st century and beyond.

On this episode, we discuss the rigid but airy structure of The Andy Griffith Show, the darker implications of Mayberry's sterile world and its effect on the '60s audience, immature depictions of neuroatypical characters, the complaints Star Trek received over the "gross" Miri, letting details slide so you can sell your audience on a big ask, the complicated gender politics of the episode, and the singularly unique Michael J. Pollard. We also discuss the original Blue Collar Comedy, naming your show after its star, how Hallmark movies are the fuel-air bombs of the culture war, keeping your kid out of showbiz, taking the "sub" out of "subtext", the positive version of Harrison Ford, masculine wiles, "Take a seat, Neelix," NARCANing Otis, quarantine snacks, Gooey Is all-in on "The 'Rents", and Kal attacks the Myth of the Sexy Kirk!

This is what it's all about, boys!

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