Fascism and Spaceship Orion

Back in the early part of 1966 in Germany....the TV management folks for public TV at ARD sat down and wanted to do a science fiction movie.  It was a new genre and I suspect that it'd been on their mind for a number of years.

The project that was accepted?  Spaceship Orion.

The writers settled upon a seven-episode series, that would involve an Earth-command, and this one single crew.  Hyped up in the middle of this....a war against some alien race referred to as the 'frogs' (don't ask, I think they were drunk that night when they choose the name).

Each episode would be sixty minutes.  The background landscape?  Well....folks would be dancing, drinking, socializing, dating, hyped-up on what-if situations, fighting bad guys, and most everyone would be defiant to their leadership.

There are a number of interesting aspects to the series.

First, to make all of this realistic in the background, there was a cost factor.  I don't think the network ever realized that.  The production crew ran through their budget fairly quickly.

Second, the viewer ratings went way beyond reality.  Germans got all pumped up and reruns for a number of years (of the seven episodes) became a big deal.  An entire cult situation developed over the seven episodes.

Third, the show interest grew to such an extent....that German science fiction writers had material for years to write over the further adventures of the spaceship Orion crew.

So, with so much popularity and interest....why didn't they produce more?  And throughout the past forty years.....why never going back to more shows like this?  Science fiction produced by ARD since 1966?  Non-existent.

Well....in the years after the production, some management folks quietly admitted to this one single problem.  When the seven shows were lined up and you reviewed the characters, the script, and the results..... they lead back to fascism.

Yes, evil and dreaded fascism, which Germans worry about, day in, and day out.

Yes, the whole series was developed around a future Earth, and their landscape was focused upon war, military-use of space, and people reacting to fascism that had developed.

A couple of years ago when I heard this discussion over the series, I looked back at the various Srar Trek series that had been developed, and each reflected the same landscape.....future Earth, war, military operations in space, and some level of fascism.  In fact, in various shows....you reached a a point of agreeing that you could accept 'good-fascism' as long as it defeated 'bad-fascism'.  Time and time again, your balance of fascism was if Captain Kirk said it was fine....you were approving of Kirk-fascism. Later with Captain Picard, you were also approving of Picard-fascism, and even Data-fascism.  When Seven-of-Nine came along in the Borg stories.....you could accept Seven-fascism.

It is in a way....just plain odd how the German media system created their own version of Star Trek, with lots of charm and character.....and then woke up months later to dissolve the future opportunity by saying it freaks you out on fascism existing as the storyline.