The One Word That Can Never Be Spoken In The Star Trek Universe (Sort Of)
In William Shatner's film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," the U.S.S. Enterprise is hijacked by a hippie Vulcan cult leader named Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) and flown to the very center of the Milky Way. In reality, the galaxy's center is the site of a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. In "Frontier," Sybok believes it's where God lives. Not a spiritual conduit to God, mind you, but the actual physical body of God Himself. Kirk (Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) think Sybok is mad, but are dragged along in his mad scheme.
When the Enterprise arrives at its destination, however, it seems for a few moments that Sybok is right. He and the Enterprise crew encounter and land on a mysterious planet, and God Himself (George Murdock) appears. Everyone is awestruck ... except for Kirk. When God asks the mortal characters for a starship to spread His Word, Kirk raises his hand and, displaying the largest possible amount of chutzpah, merely asks "What does God need with a starship?"
It seems that God was not God, but a powerful alien a-hole who was merely posing as God for his visitors. The alien was imprisoned by an ancient unknown force millennia ago and needed a starship to escape its prison. It seemed for a moment that "Star Trek" would scrape against the Divine, but instead revealed itself, as always, to be a profoundly humanist show that eschews faith and religion for logic and the sciences. Spock, a being of logic, kills God.
"Star Trek" has always been, since the start, a post-religious utopia, taking place in a world where faith no longer has an operational function among humanity. Indeed, according to a 2017 article in EW, the word "God" was not allowed on the set of "Star Trek: Discovery."
The post-religious world of 'Star Trek'
"Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry was always wary of religion. He sometimes described himself as something of a deist but looked on organized faith with suspicion. In Yvonne Fern's 1994 book "Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation," Roddenberry was quoted as saying "It's not true that I don't believe in God. I believe in a kind of God. It's just not other people's God. I reject religion." Most Trekkies will likely be able to tell you that Roddenberry also famously rejected a studio note back in 1966 demanding that he include a chaplain on the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Throughout "Star Trek," religion has usually rested in the hands of aliens. Species like Bajorans, Klingons, the Ferengi, and even Vulcans are seen engaging in spiritual rituals and sometimes discuss gods or the afterlife, but one will have to look hard to find explicit references to known Earth religions (Data once noted the celebration of Diwali, characters on "Lower Decks" wear hijabs). One will certainly never find, however, a human Starfleet officer wearing a crucifix.
According to the EW article, actor Jason Isaacs, who played Captain Garcia Lorca on "Discovery," played a scene with a small amount of improv that needed to be corrected to match the godlessness of "Star Trek." Evidently, Isaacs yelled the line "Lock on the Bird of Prey! Basic pattern Beta 9. Hard to port! Fire at something, for God's sakes!"
That, it seems, was a big no-no. Isaacs was pulled aside by Kirsten Beyer — the episode's writer and author of multiple "Star Trek: Voyager" novels — and she had to explain to him that a human in the 22nd century of "Star Trek" wouldn't say that.
'For f***'s sake'
EW noted an exchange between Beyer and Isaacs that revealed something of a misunderstanding. The actor thought at first that saying "for God's sakes" was merely a matter of what words count as acceptable cussing, and didn't think that it has anything to do with faith or religion. Beyer explained that his ad-lib was counter to Roddenberry's post-religious ideas. Isaacs said:
"Wait, I can't say 'God'? [...] I thought I could say 'God' or 'damn' but not 'goddamn.'"
Isaacs tested his theory, asking "How about 'for f***'s sake?' [...] Can I say that?" Beyer replied by saying "You can say that before you can say 'God.'"
This may be a recent pedantic flourish, however. Deep-cut Trekkies may be able to think of many instances when "Star Trek" characters refer to God in a colloquial fashion. The holographic Doctor on "Voyager" once exclaimed "My God!" in the episode "Flashback." In "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," Kirk himself, says "My God, Bones, what have I done?" McCoy (DeForest Kelley) said "My God, what is this? The Dark Ages?" in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." Etc., etc. God is clearly allowed as a figure of speech.
Indeed, the banning of "God" from the "Discovery" set was later proved to be an exaggeration. According to a Nerdist interview with producer Gretchen Berg, "God" was allowed. Berg said:
"In our room, it's something we discuss a lot. [...] On a show about diversity and with different points of view, I feel like you have to accept that some people believe in God, some people want to worship a potato, and some people don't want to believe in anything. I think there is room for that on 'Star Trek.'"
In true Trek fashion, it was a diplomatic response.