This is a request from the most television-literate group of people I know for suggestions on a project I am working on this summer for one of my fall courses. What follows is somewhat lengthy context, then some specific questions.
I got permission to teach a one-time only college course this Fall with the title in the subject header. I have decided to limit the scope to TOS and TNG (and respective feature films). The limitation is mostly because I have found that I can not assume that college aged kids know anything about the ST Universe - especially if that is limited to the prime reality, so in addition to teaching them the psychology I really do have to teach them about each show. Plus, the first two are my real loves. I have recently finished Robert Sekuler and Randolph Blake's "Star Trek On the Brain: Alien Minds, Human Minds" - which is helpful in many respects, though I will not be using it as a text. It is both geared a little too much to a general audience, and focuses too much on neuroscience, for my purposes. Of course I have seen all episodes of both series multiple times, but I am in the process of viewing all 79 episodes of TOS (remastered) in original broadcast sequence and reading productions notes about each in various sources. I probably will not have time to do the same with all 178 of TNG, but I will watch, in sequence, a big chunk of them. I am making notes as I go on psychological issues that are illustrated in various episodes, and then finding excerpts in "Great Books" of Psychology that relate to some of these, which I will assign as weekly reading, and in a variety of psychology journals, which I will use for weekly lecture/discussion. For example I will probably have them read a chapter or two from B. F. Skinner's "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" in preparation for discussion of episodes that highlight Roddenberry's repeated theme that the struggle and conflict inherent in freedom is necessary for true humanity, and preferable to various forms of autocratic forms of utopia. Will also be looking at issues of race and gender, aging, artificial intelligence, Jungian & Freudian personality theory, memory, torture, and the logical and ethical complexities surrounding the "Prime Directive" (my definition of psychology for this course is rather expansive, and can include other areas of social science, ethics and philosophy). It has been interesting for me to notice how much of ST reflection on artificial intelligence (in both TOS and TNG) is really a variant on its main concern with human freedom/struggle, which often seems to be more of a political/social issue. In TOS the limitations of computers are basically that they are rule-bound and inflexible, and are repeatedly undone by Kirk's preferred strategy of fighting them with paradoxes and illogic; in TNG our most loved computer is trying to discover ways to transcend his own rules, not to defeat humans, but to better understand, and perhaps become, human. But Roddenberry and Co.'s point is the same, whether dealing with Landru or Data, the colonists on Omicron Ceti III or Federation Witch-Hunters - whatever it means to be human, it is inextricably tied up with freedom. Another notable observation is how relatively worthless most of ST's attempt to directly deal with what most people would most easily associate with psychology is for my purposes - for example, Deanna Troi is almost a complete wash (except her brief but crucial scene with Picard at the end of "Chain of Command, Part II). I may be able to work with some of the TNG stuff on dreams and sleep deprivation. My tentative structure for the course (which will meet once a week for 3 hours in the evening), is to assign reading in a psychological source each week, assign students to watch 1 episode prior to coming to class, then watch 1 or 2 episodes (or 1 film) in class, and spend the rest of class time lecturing over the related psychology, and structured class discussion of the related issues. I am working on lectures that will involve clips from episodes related to the main themes of the featured episodes of the week that I will use to illustrate points from lecture and reading. I anticipate an enrollment of between 10 and 20 students. It is open to non-psychology majors, but a passing grade in Introduction to Psychology is a prerequisite. I am interested in any suggestions or comments anyone here might have about this project, but in particular am looking for feedback to the following questions: 1. If you were going to introduce TOS and TNG to a group of novices, which full length episode would you use for each? I am thinking mostly in terms of character introduction and relationships, and illustrative themes. This would also be my chance to screen episodes that don't have explicit psychological tie-ins, since I would be using them mostly to give students a feel for the shows. TOS has two pilots and one premier episode, but none of these really serve as a crucial "Welcome to Star Trek, please meet our characters and understand what kind of show we are". TNG does have an episode kind of like this, but since the first season is so inferior, I am loath to make this the first introduction to the ST universe for students (I will likely use portions of "Encounter at Farpoint" in lectures). I could use typical episodes for this introductory purpose, but right now I am leaning towards two fairly atypical episodes, but each is among what I and most critics consider the best in each series: Season 1 TOS: "City on the Edge of Forever" and Season 5 (one of the strongest seasons): "The Inner Light". But I am open to other suggestions. 2. Any suggestions on episodes that you think raise or illustrate issues or questions related to psychology or social science in general? 3. Any other books or articles along the lines of Sekuler and Blake? I am familiar with the Star Trek and Philosophy and Star Trek and Religion books. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. 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