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).
“Battle Lines” See this for a plot summary.
The main story here is not that political. It’s about a moon that’s a penal colony where the prisoners are divided into two warring camps and no one can die because some kind of tiny technology brings people back to life when they die. It is a harsh punishment for the prisoners, who frequently die and then come back to life. The prisoners are there because they were at war with each other on their home-planet and no one could mediate a peace, so they were sent to the planet as an example of what happens to such people. I’m not sure how helpful the story is in highlighting harsh treatment of prisoners in real life, but it might help with that, it’s raising that as an issue. It also illustrates how conflicts should not be resolved. It’s likely the government on their planet did not do everything it could to resolve the conflict.
There’s also the part where the Kai, Bajor’s religious leader, when it turns out that the technology means she can’t leave the penal colony, decides to try and stop the fighting between the two sides. That’s another example of how good Kai Opaka is compared to Kai Winn who is Kai almost the entire rest of the series. And as soon as Winn shows up, I develop an intense hatred for her- although I more or less like her being a part of the show, as infuriating as she is. I mention that because this episode lays the basis for Winn to become Kai.
I give it two stars out of five.
“The Storyteller” See this for a plot summary.
Basically nothing political in this episode. However, it does contain a good story about Nog and Jake. Also, we see for the first time, Bashir’s attempts to be friends with O’Brien and the latter’s desire to not be friends. It’s a small part of how O’Brien is the most flawed main character in ST, which is a small part of why he’s my fourth favorite main character. As far as I can tell, Bashir isn’t so annoying that it justifies O’Brien’s attitude, and I consider him to be sort of a jerk towards Bashir until later on when they become friends.
We also see the first time when Ferengi “Rules of Acquisition” are used for good instead of evil. This happens MANY more times (including minor instances) throughout the series but it’s still made pretty clear in various ways that the Ferengi approach to economics is generally wrong- the Federation is still more or less socialist, there’s pro-labor stuff on the show and in various other ways it’s suggested that capitalism is flawed, Sisko frequently has to explain to Quark that his approach to business is unacceptable, and sometimes, even without someone being around to express disapproval, Ferengi say things that almost everyone would consider out of line. But it is neat when Ferengi values are used for good instead of evil.
Overall a good episode, although I don’t like the main story very much. I give it two of five stars.
“Progress” See this for a plot summary.
The main story is about forcibly relocating an inhabitant of a moon which is going to be exploited for it’s energy by Bajor. The last man living there refuses to leave and Kira has to find some way to get him to leave. She ends up burning down his house to force him to leave. This raises two issues.
First, in general kicking people off their land in order to develop an energy source. When I think of that happening to oppressed people, that’s horrible. I’ve got mixed feelings about it the rest of the time, depending on how environmental the energy development is- I’m very much in favor of shifting as quickly as possible to renewable sources of energy like wind and solar, and the idea of kicking people off their land for coal mining or something is even more offensive. One last factor is whether or not the energy development involves private profit- the less it involves that, the better. So, there would be a spectrum between me being okay with it and being against it, and I’d be more likely to be against it.
Related to this is the issue of governments forcing people to give up their homes for private development. There are some exceptions when this is okay- when utilities need some land for their network of power lines or something like that; when it’s going to a non-profit organization (in one case after a local government finished developing some land they took, they had some space left over and gave it to Habitat for Humanity to build a home); some other exceptions I can’t remember. But we should have incredibly high standards for when the government says people have to give up their home for private development. People shouldn’t have to do that just so someone can build a shopping center and make a profit. I’d say something similar about when it’s a business instead of a home, likely a small business with space that a larger business wants.
In this episode, there is no oppression involved, it’s public sector energy development, and after you remove the population from the moon, the environmental issue probably doesn’t matter, the only environment damaged is that of the moon, it doesn’t affect anything else. With that in mind, the energy development will benefit tons of people. So, it seems okay.
(UPDATE 7/21/17 I can't believe I missed this earlier but I need to say the following about the paragraph above: there could be a problem with any WORKERS on the moon getting sick or something in which case they would have look at it again while the place is closed until it gets fixed- I might be a little too willing to trust environmental tech to deal with environmental problems but I imagine they could fix it and get it up an running again)
There’s a secondary story that I like, where Jake and Nog acquire a shipment of food and trading it for something else, and that for something else, until they finally get paid with money.
Overall a good episode, I give it two stars out of five.
“If Wishes Were Horses” See this for a plot summary.
This episode is mostly humor and character development, no politics.
One part of this episode highlights a part of the Sisko character that contributes a bit to him being tied with Janeway as my favorite Captain and my favorite character overall. That’s his interest in baseball. Baseball is one of the two sports I still have some interest in, the other being soccer, and I have a lot of fond memories of playing baseball for 4-5 years ending with 9th grade- most of that time I was very good. So, I like the baseball aspect of DS9.
The part where a walking, talking version of Dax that’s very attracted to Bashir appears is very funny.
There’s one brief bit of politics when Odo calls for attention from the “ladies and gentlemen,” and then adds “all androgynous creatures.” This is a suggestion that such people are a normal part of humanity’s sexual diversity, there’s nothing negative implied by his statement at all and considering ST’s general position on respecting differences, it’s clearly a statement against bigotry towards such people (ST still could have been much better on LGBT issues, but this is one of the times when they made the right suggestion about those issues).
Overall a good episode, I give it two out of five stars.
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