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).
“The Muse” See this for a plot summary.
Overall a fairly non-political episode, but there’s one thing briefly touched on that I’d like to mention. The idea of strictly segregating boys and girls is disgusting (the alien race in question only tells boys and girls about the other sex when they’re 16). Although I get the impression little progress has been made, this is a small part of why I sort of initially supported the invasion of Afghanistan and today have only largely not totally moved from thinking it was a good idea (I lean towards saying we should get out at this point, I'm just not real enthusiastic about it because of the likelihood the Taliban will get back into power, but it's still the right for us to do) (my feelings about this are partly based on the minority statement of the Young Democratic Socialists, here (the page is no longer there)). Anyway, the Taliban treated women horribly and a large degree of segregation was part of it.
I give it two stars out of five.
“For the cause” See this for a plot summary
A fairly non-political episode, except for the politics of the Maquis. I’ve described my thoughts about them here, while discussing the two-parter “The Maquis.”
Eddington talks about how the Federation wants Cardassia to join. That suggests that he thinks no amount of democracy and reform will change Cardassia, although his attitude might make some sense if Cardassia is continuing to attack ex-Federation colonists, but he is still probably under-estimating the ability of Cardassia to change. He also fails to see that if Cardassia did join the Federation, the Federation would be able to stop Cardassian mis-treatment of the colonists.
Eddington also accuses the Federation of being hostile to the Maquis because they left the Federation. I’ve got mixed feelings about the Federation attitude towards the Maquis but I don’t think that’s why there’s hostility.
I give it three stars out of five.
“To The Death” See this for a plot summary.
A very non-political episode, but a very good one. The idea of Starfleet and the Jem’Hadar working together is a great story. And O’Brien’s statement before they go into battle is great. I give it four stars out of five.
“The Quickening” See this for a plot summary.
A very non-political episode, but a good one, I give it three stars out of five.
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