Gene Roddenberry created the Star Trek franchise with the original series taking flight in 1966. Given its popularity, several iterations have continued to follow keeping Roddenberry’s vision and passion for sci-fi alive. As a result, almost every entry in the franchise has featured one classic Roddenberry element that the creator popularized in the franchise’s early days.
In the Star Trek shows, a common visual of the ship’s crew playing a game of poker can be seen. During an interview, Roddenberry reflected on making poker one of the go-to board games for the Starfleet crews while traversing space there was a deeper significance behind its addition. Here is why Gene Roddenberry added poker to almost every Star Trek series.
Star Trek creator revealed why almost every series in the franchise features poker
Created by Gene Roddenberry, the Star Trek franchise frequently features references to the game of poker. Star Trek: The Original Series first referenced the game in the episode The Corbomite Maneuver, where Leonard McCoy offers to teach Spock how to play poker.
However, Roddenberry made poker an essential part of Star Trek: The Next Generation, with most of the subsequent entries continuing the tradition. During an interview with The Humanist conducted in 1991, the creator revealed the real reason he added poker games to the sci-f television franchise.
I agree with Somerset Maugham, who considered poker a test of a person’s intelligence and decency.
Roddenberry made the above statement, citing writer William Somerset Maugham, who argued that poker was a smart man’s game.
Given the sci-fi show’s futuristic setting, a poker game is a good narrative device to establish the Starfleet crew’s competency while also allowing their personalities to bounce off each other. Other Star Trek shows, including the more recent animated Lower Decks, have also featured poker games to denote the character’s intelligence levels, proving Roddenberry had a solid reasoning for its addition.
Why a major Star Trek series ended with a poker game
Although most entries in the franchise feature allusions to poker, the game is arguably the most crucial to the story of The Next Generation. The crew of USS Enterprise-D is known to play a poker game on the ship almost every week.
The series used these poker scenes as a means to further character arcs and they also provided unconventional means for character-driven conflict and drama. However, the ship’s captain Jean-Luc Picard played by Patrick Stewart abstained from the weekly poker game.
Picard eventually joins his crew for a poker game in the two-part series finale All Good Things, bringing his arc to a conclusion. As a result, it is only fitting that the follow-up series focused on the character also concluded with the Enterprise-D crew playing a game of poker.
Ultimately, poker proved an important plot device that signifies the bond between the crew. The Next Generation and Picard both utilized it to great effect, growing its significance beyond what Roddenberry had originally intended with its addition to the sci-fi franchise.
The Star Trek movies and shows are streaming on Paramount+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire