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 Assignment” See this for a plot summary.
A very non-political episode, but one of my favorites. I give it four stars out of five.
“Trials and Tribble-ations” See this for a plot summary.
Although only about 13 years old, this might be considered a classic ST episode. It not only involves time travel, it uses footage from an episode that was part of The Original Series, and has DS9 characters appearing to interact with characters from TOS.
I give it five stars out of five.
“Let He Who Is Without Sin...” See this for a plot summary.
This episode is kind of about the culture wars, although it seems that the conservative side is not motivated by religion. Instead they’re concerned that the pampered, safe, and sometimes hedonistic lifestyle of Federation citizens has made them weak in the face of external threats. Worf does see it as a moral problem. Even though it doesn’t refer to religion, it still kind of makes a good statement about the culture wars from the liberal side.
I give it three stars out of five.
”Things Past” See this for a plot summary.
Although it was well-established much earlier (in the ST universe) that the Cardassian occupation of Bajor was brutal and very unjust, this episode illustrates that more.
We also learn that Garak is sort of racist towards Bajorans, as he says (while cleaning Quark’s bar) that “the Bajorans were much more suited for this sort of thing than we were- servile work is in their nature.”
Gul Dukat’s racism towards the Bajorans is illustrated when he says that the Bajorans are like his children.
It’s also an episode that contributes to how inspirational the story of the Bajoran resistance is.
Overall a good episode, I give it four stars out of five.
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