The original “Star Trek” often …

The original “Star Trek” often told morality tales about the Cold War, with the Klingons standing in for the USSR.

I retired from a long teaching career a few years ago, but during my later years in the classroom, I offered a course on the Cold War and American pop culture, to try to help younger students understand the fears that dominated so much of American life in the 20th century. When my students saw how many times images of nuclear devastation (and references to Ronald Reagan) popped up on MTV back in the day, they started to get it. We also discussed The Twilight Zone, a series full of barely disguised allegories about the Cold War; the series’ head writer and creator, Rod Serling, a World War II veteran, explored traumas from his past and his worries about the future in many of the episodes he wrote.

But the students were surprised—as you might be—to find that Star Trek, one of my childhood favorites, was an ongoing and intentional commentary about the Cold War during its three original seasons from 1966 to 1969.

This was not subtle — it was obvious even to me and my fellow 13-year-old Trekkies in the early 1970s.

We also thought the Romulans were stand-ins for the Communist Chinese. I don’t know whether that holds up.