From: Sylvia Engdahl <sle>
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 16:48:07 -0800

DDPattison at aol.com wrote:
 know because I read as many sf&f books as possible. Reading it now, it does seem like it's in the Star Trek line. Because I already know the Prime Directive, how d ifferent cultures like this must interact, and how technology can be viewed as magic, the early chapters seem like a very slow pace as they explain all this. I wonder if today's kids know these things, too, because of TV and films?

I never thought about this until several people here mentioned it! Today's kids will surely notice the comparison; I wonder if they will "read in" a closer parallel than actually exists?

I got the idea for _Enchantress_ in 1957, long before Star Trek existed, and at the time I wrote the book, in 1968, I had seen only a few episodes (though I watched it many years later in rerun). Those few episodes did make me impatient with the way Captain Kirk invariable violated the nominal policy of Starfleet, and thus influenced my emphasis on how seriously the members of my Service took their Oath. But I don't think the Service's policy is identical to the Prime Directive, which has always struck me as merely an admonition not to interfere in a planet's internal affairs. The non-disclosure policy demands on hiding the very _existence_ of a more advanced civilization from the species it observes, since that mere knowledge would have profound effects on their evolution. (And this is another respect in which attempts at analogy with relationships between cultures on own own world break down.) Roddenberry created the Prime Directive to make plain that Starfleet wouldn't consider taking over less advanced worlds and establishing an interstellar empire, but as I recall, the crew of the Enterprise didn't hesitate to interact openly with natives of planets they visited, even when they didn't decide it was justifiable to right some wrong they encountered. The Service, on the other hand, is meant to suggest an answer to the very serious question now being asked by scientists, "Why, if there are other civilizations in the universe, haven't we seen anything of them or at least picked up their radio signals?"

The Federation in my books, incidentally, is meant to be very much further advanced than the civilization portrayed in Star Trek. (This was rather hard to show and still make Elana someone with whom young readers could identify, but her people's command of psychic powers was intended to suggest it.) Star Trek is more at the level of the Imperials as they would be had I not based them on the myth of interplanetary invaders. Of course, I don't really believe interstellar explorers would try to colonize inhabited planets! Even today, our culture would never permit that; the myth reflects attitudes we have already outgrown. One of the very good things about Star Trek is that it assumes humans will make progress.

Sylvia

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 Sylvia Engdahl - sle at sylviaengdahl.com
 Author of CHILDREN OF THE STAR and ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS
 Visit my Web site, http://www.sylviaengdahl.com
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Received on Mon 12 Nov 2001 06:48:07 PM CST