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).
“Babel” See this for a plot summary.
Basically no political themes at all. It’s a good story though, I’d give it two stars out of five.
“Captive Pursuit” See this for a plot summary.
Almost the entire story is about an alien from the Gamma Quadrant who is bred by other aliens to act as hunting game. It raises issues of respecting sentient life, and is anti-hunting in general, although there are differences between the alien and, say, a deer, since the alien is more intelligent than an animal and can communicate with those who hunt him, which makes it different and worse than hunting animals. As far as normal hunting, I’ve got mixed feelings about that, maybe lean towards negative; as far as hunting beings comparable to humans, obviously that’s pretty messed up.
Besides that, the only other political issue to come up is at the very beginning with a conversation that has nothing to do with the rest of the story. A female employee of the Ferengi Quark (Ferengi are very sexist) whose job is to entertain customers gambling, complains to Sisko about Quark requiring her through her contract to provide him with sexual services. Sisko says that he’ll explain to Quark that he cannot enforce that part of the contract.
The main story is pretty good, the idea of the hunt, the technology of the aliens, and the first encounter with life from the Gamma Quadrant are very interesting, and O’Brien’s friendship with Tosk is good. I give it three stars out of five.
“Q-less” See this for a plot summary.
This is the only Q episode on DS9, which I have mixed feelings about. Although the Voyager Q episodes were pretty good, in general I’m not a big fan of the Q episodes. On the other hand, considering how Q was part of the other two 1990s series, it would be weird if there wasn’t one on DS9, and this one has something that is special. That’s how Sisko relates to Q compared to how Picard handled Q. At one point Sisko hits Q, something which Picard never did.
The only political theme is the references to how Vash has an ethics problem with her archeology work. As she admits, she’s more interested in making a profit than anything else. This results in her taking items of various planets cultures and histories that the people on those planets want to keep on their planets.
Overall a good episode, I give it two stars out five.
“Dax” See this for a plot summary.
Overwhelmingly just a mystery, basically no political issues at all. But a good story anyway, even though this is the 4th or 5th time I have seen it and I know how it ends. It also goes into more detail about the Trill host-symbiant relationship, something which is neat and lays the basis for more stories later. I’d give it three stars out of five.
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