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 Vengeance Factor” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“The Defector” See this for a plot summary.
This could have been a really good episode, if the defector had been commenting on the grip of the Tal Shiar (like the KGB) on Romulan society or more generally democratizing the Romulan state. It’s still good (the defector wanted peace between the Romulan state and the Federation), but would have been better if the cause was democracy.
At one point there was some brief dialogue which sounded supportive of the US Army when it was fighting/massacring Indians in the 1800s. That’s disappointing, but is the exception to the rule with ST.
I give it three stars out of five.
“The Hunted” See this for a plot summary.
What the state was doing with their soldiers, programming them, is extremely questionable. What’s even worse is how those soldiers were treated after the war. The state didn’t even try to reverse the programming.
When the Prime Minister tells Picrad that it’s a matter of internal security, Picard describes that as “the age old cry of the oppressor.”
“The High Ground” See this for a plot summary.
This episode looks at what is often called “Terrorism.”
Some of my thoughts about this are here, towards the bottom of the review for the episode “Defiant.”
Some other parts to point out:
1. Picard says “history has shown us that strength may be useless when faced with terrorism.” If he was talking about the sort of people who are better called Freedom Fighters instead of terrorists, I like that statement.
2. The Rutians were keeping track of people who took part in marches and general strikes in support of the goals of the Ensada(??) (the "terrorists"). Riker doesn’t seem too worried about that, which is unusual for ST.
3. When bombs accidentally kill civilians, for example republican bombs in N. Ireland, the fact that they were not intended to kill civilians should be considered when judging the organization responsible. It doesn’t make it less of a tragedy- those people are dead and their family and friends have suffered a great loss.
4. Data, after surveying armed rebellions, says that “terrorism” (his word, apparently for any kind of armed rebellion) is often effective at forcing political change. He refers to Irish unification in 2024. The Brits didn’t like that very much as this explains
I give it three stars out of five.
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