In a more pop-culture vein, Star Trek (1966 to 1969) gave viewers the elfin-eared Vulcan Mr. Spock, who projected a logical detachment from destructive emotions while engaging in hypnotic, telepathic “mind melds” – a sort of Space Age Merlin to Kirk’s King Arthur.
computers that the locals think of as being gods – Kirk short-circuits them or blows them up.
Even though military hierarchy is strictly maintained on the ship, Star Trek radically overthrew the cosmic hierarchy of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and gave us something more in the Greco-Roman style: men (and women and Vulcans) who can strive with gods.