This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.
I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)
Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).
“For The Uniform” See this for a plot summary.
Aside from the politics of the Maquis, a non-political episode. I give my thoughts on the Maquis here, while discussing the two-parter “The Maquis.” I have mixed feelings about Sisko making the ex-Federation colony uninhabitable for humans. It seems okay since Cardassians moved there right afterwards and from their perspective the environment wasn’t damaged. But it’s still using an indiscriminate biological or chemical weapon and even with the warning Sisko issued, it could have caused civilian death or illness. But it did get Eddington to surrender. So, I’ve got mixed feelings about it.
“In Purgatory’s Shadow” and “By Inferno’s Light” See this and this for a plot summary.
A very non-political two-parter, but a good one, I give it four stars out of five.
“Doctor Bashir, I Presume?” See this for a plot summary.
I haven’t looked into this much, but I would say that genetic enhancement as they talked about in this episode is a bad idea. The Eugenics Wars (in the ST universe) are a good reason to ban genetic enhancement. There are probably related procedures that I would support- things like curing someone of neurological disorders. But what they describe in the episode seems like a bad idea.
UPDATE 2/24/11 Here's a brief note about the Eugenics Wars (I can't find an article about it on startrek.com). The only thing of any importance that I can remember, is that it was a war on Earth which resulted in 30-35 million deaths, sometime in the 1990s I believe.
A good episode, I give it two stars out of five.
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