Permit me this geeky tangent, but I’ll make it worth your time. I stumbled upon a seemingly typical moment in Star Trek that I found emotionally resonant and quite profound when contextualized in history.

It has to do with the Apollo Space Program in 1967.

There’s an episode in Season 2 of Star Trek called “Return to Tomorrow,” and it’s otherwise standard stuff: godlike aliens looking to take corporeal form again, asking to use the bodies of Enterprise crew so they can build permanent android bodies yada yada yada. But...

When the senior officers are debating whether or not to help the aliens, Kirk argues with a doubtful McCoy who thinks it’s all too dangerous and not worth the risk.

One line from Kirk caught my ear:

“Do you wish the first Apollo mission hadn’t reached the Moon?”

I know that Star Trek aired on NBC from 1966-1969.

But this episode aired in the second season.

That means that when this episode aired the Apollo Program had NOT reached the Moon yet. That would not happen until September 13 1969.

I checked the air date for “Return to Tomorrow” and sure enough it aired February 9, 1968, almost a year and a half before the Apollo Mission would prove successful.

What Kirk is saying as history was in fact still speculative in the present. Science fiction!

BUT...

Here’s what makes it much more than just a nice moment of idealism in the show, a wink that the Apollo Mission would succeed.

“Return to Tomorrow” aired Feb 9 1968... but was FIRST WRITTEN by Jon Dugan (pen-name Kingsbridge) and co-showrunner Gene Coon in May-June 1967. So...

When the writers were crafting this episode—and specifically this speech (known colloquially as the “Risk is Our Business” speech)... there had only been ONE Apollo mission in the program.

Apollo 1.

Tragically, Apollo 1 never even launched. A fire broke out during rehearsal on the launchpad. The entire crew—comprised of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee—was killed in the fire.

This happened on January 27 1967.

It was a blow to the space program and to human dreams.

It was a trauma felt in the psyches of all those who were literally reaching for the stars and for all the people rooting for them to make it.

Three months later, Dugan began writing this episode. The staff crafted Kirk’s speech.

Kirk says in fact, Apollo made it to the Moon.

Here Kirk is reaching back to us from the future to assure us we can still be bold, dream big, and achieve something greater than ourselves.

The writers are in turn reaching THROUGH the TV to Americans who at this point only associate Apollo with death and tragedy.

With that context, the speech becomes incredibly powerful. Yes it’s delivered with Shatner’s typical hamfistedness, but it is saying that exploration and truth are worth the risk.

Watch it with all that in mind:

And if you don’t want to watch, here is the part that resonates so strongly with a humanity traumatized and made afraid by its attempt to explore:

“Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential... But I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great.

Risk. Risk is our business. That's what the starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her.”

It’s a call to America—and the world—not to give up hope even in the face of immense tragedy. Despite loss.

It struck me as incredibly relevant when looking at the current American situation.

If we don’t give up hope, our future will thank us, and continue to carry that torch.

Anyway. Star Trek was cancelled in February 1969.

We landed on the Moon seven months later.

Hope and television are two very powerful things.