Tintin Forums

I'd like to open this topic for discussion. I believe both authors were humanists, as well as scientific.

A curious note: Professor Calculus's (Tournosol) real-life model was physicist Professor Piccard.
On Star Trek: The Next Generation the captain's name was Jean-Luc Picard.
Could this be a Hergé influence on Gene Rodenberry?
I believe Rodenberry admired Hergé.
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they both knew each other and influenced one another's work.

Whilst I'm not sure that Rodenberry would be aware of Hergé and Tintin (still to some extent an unknown quantity in the US), I can see some definite similarities between the two men, and their work!

Both Tintin and Star Trek started off relatively humbly, and took on a life of their own fairly quickly. Both eventually featured a highly detailed fictional setting for their stories, with many recurring themes, locations and characters occasionally popping up.

Maybe it's even not too far fetched to draw parallels between Tintin / Haddock / Calculus and Kirk / Bones / Spock as the respective spirit of adventure, humanity and man of science of each!
Fortunately, Tintin, though equally brave and dauntless, doesn't share some of Kirk's dodgier habits - it'd have been mortifying if he'd copped off with a green alien woman who wanted to know, "What is this thing that Earthmen call 'love'?" at the end of Flight 714 ;)

Rodenberry shared Hergé's interest in Eastern culture and philosophy (he was a Buddhist), and also met and later married a younger woman who was part of the staff, in his case, Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Chapel (and later Luxwana Troi in The Next Generation).

Both Star Trek and Tintin are enormously successful merchandising money-spinners, for Paramount and Moulinsart respectively (Paramount execs reputedly refer to Trek as "the Great Franchise"), and the rights to both are consequently jealously guarded.
Despite this, both have an enthusiastic fanbase, who spend a lot of time and effort constructing fan fiction, elaborate timelines and theories, maintaining websites and the like!

Of course, the biggest difference is that Tintin, in effect, "died" with his creator, whilst Trek has outlived Rodenberry, and continues to present stories to this day.
Then again, given the diminishing returns of Voyager and the just-cancelled Enterprise, maybe Moulinsart have the right idea after all.
There are no doubt many talented writers and artists who could have produced decent "new" Adventures of Tintin, but imagine what could have happened if he'd ended up in the hands of a BD version of Trek's much-criticised Berman and Braga?!

Hello
Star Trek is one of the few things that I like as much as Tintin.
I can't think of any Star Trek character who resembles or acts like Tintin.
The only one that I suppose could be compared with him is Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but that isn't actually by Gene Roddenberry.
Both Odo and Tintin fight for justice and neither really use weapons. They also tend to work alone (although this was only really true in the early Tintin adventures).
Oh, and thanks for telling me Roddenberry was a Buddhist; I didn't know that. I'm one too.
I must set up a discussion for Star Trek fans in the members lounge section.
Oh, and are Berman and Braga really criticised that much...?