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).
“Fortunate Son” See this for a plot summary.
There is one little bit about torture, and StarFleet’s opposition to it. Besides that a non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Cold Front” See this for a plot summary.
This episode has something pretty rare in Star Trek- references to “Old Earth” religions, including Christianity. I like that, because it erodes this idea that the sort of progress among humanity that is central to ST requires ditching religion.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Silent Enemy” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Dear Doctor” See this for a plot summary.
This is a fairly political episode. It’s partly about how the (seemingly) inferior of two humanoid races indigenous to same planet is treated almost like children. It’s a fairly good example of bigotry.
There is also talk about if, when and how Star Fleet should interfere in the affairs of other races (this is a hint of what will be known decades later as the Prime Directive, which is drafted sometime not long before the events in The Original Series). As far as I can tell, the exact text of the Prime Directive is not available anywhere, so that affects what I can say about it. I sort of like it, but generally support Star Fleet officers when they bend or break it. It also seems to never be explained if it only applies to another race’s domestic situation, or if it also applies in inter-planetary conflicts.
I give this episode three stars out of five.
This blog is mostly about 3 themes- Irish Republicanism, Star Trek, and opposition to bigotry, primarily in America (racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, etc.). It is mostly about Northern Ireland. It will mostly be about these issues in general and past events and will only sometimes touch on current events. Feel free to comment on the earlier posts.
About My Blog
My blog is about history, popular culture, politics and current events from a democratic socialist and Irish republican perspective. The two main topics are Northern Ireland on one hand and fighting anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia on the other. The third topic is supporting the Palestinians, and there are several minor topics. The three main topics overlap quite a bit. I have to admit that it’s not going to help me get a graduate degree, especially because it’s almost always written very casually. But there are some high-quality essays, some posts that come close to being high-quality essays, political reviews of Sci-Fi TV episodes (Star Trek and Babylon 5), and a unique kind of political, progressive poetry you won't find anywhere else. (there are also reviews of episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and reviews of Roseanne)
(my old blog was not showing up in Google search results AT ALL (99% of it wasn't being web-crawled or indexed or whatever) and there was another big problem with it, so this is a mirror of the old one although there will be some occassionnal editing of old posts and there will be new posts. I started this blog 12/16/20; 4/28/21 I am now done with re-doing the internal links on my blog) (the Google problem with my blog (only 1% of this new one is showing up in Google search results) is why I include a URL of my blog when commenting elsewhere, otherwise I would get almost no visitors at all)
(The "Table of Contents" offers brief descriptions of all but the most recent posts)
(I just recently realized that my definition of "disapora" was flawed- I thought it included, for example, Jews in Israel, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, and with the Irish diaspora, the Irish on that island. I'll do some work on that soon (11/21/20 I have edited the relevant paragraph in my post about Zionism))
(If you're really cool and link to my blog from your site/blog, let me know) (if you contact me, use the word "blog" in the subject line so I'll know it's not spam)
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