The Pipe Bit: Star Trek/Sci-Fi: …And The Clouds Made of Smoke

By Chris Rentner

            The new Star Trek movie will open next month, and if tradition holds, nary a tobacco product will appear.  In fairness, Trek has shown some smoking:  in Next Generation, Data was shown smoking a pipe as Sherlock Holmes, and Riker and Picard were gifted with cigars by Q (which they didn’t seem to appreciate).  On DS9 Worf enjoyed a cigar on the holodeck, and on Voyager there was a brief appearance of a cigarette in an early episode—which a character, I think Tom Paris, promptly condemned.  And may I say Bones from the original series would have been a perfect pipe smoker, as would have Captain Sisko from DS9.

            But tobacco is not a factor, really, in Star Trek.  Nor is the franchise alone in seeing a future without smoking—with a few exceptions, most sci-fi ignores or viciously rips any and all tobacco use.

            Those exceptions are notable.  Dennis Leary’s character in Demolition Man is the leader of a pro-freedom group who, forced underground by the health-crazy surface world, proudly advocates red meat, sex, and smoking.  Westworld participants enjoyed cigars and the unfortunate crew in Alien smoked cigarettes.  In comics, Transmetropolitan’s main character smoked in almost every panel.  And Wolverine and Nick Fury are known to enjoy a cigar.

            All of these later examples feature to some degree a dystopia—a very imperfect, un-Star Trek-like universe.  Hopelessness and strife abound in these alternate realities, totally unlike today’s world (insert rim shot).  This may explain why smoking is “allowed” in these creations.  Smoking also creates, in some cases, a “noir” atmosphere reminiscent of classic films.

            Confining smoking to these dystopias is a disservice, at least.  In the realms of fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien—a pipe smoker—created the immortal, “pipe weed”-loving Hobbits, which sustained them on their long quest to vanquish evil.  Smoking is such a vital part of this epic that even the recent filmed versions of the trilogy kept the pipes intact.  And as a whole, the genre of fantasy seems to give smoking a much fairer shake than science fiction.

            I know that sci-fi has a better imagination, more creativity, than to limit smoking to dystopias or bitter vitriol.  The long history of sci-fi is one of tolerance of differences and a lust for new horizons.  Surely, the creators and innovators of this noble genre can see a new place in their works for smoking, instead of the tired negativisms of the past. 

            There would surely be smoking in Quark’s bar, to relax, to invite friendship, and to give solace to minds forever voyaging.

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