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 Outcast” See this for a plot summary.
I have heard that many people don’t think this episode takes a good swing at homophobia. I’m not sure why. The two things I’ve heard are A) since almost all (possibly all) the J’naii are played by women, some have said that the J’naii seem less like a homophobic society and more like man-hating lesbians; and B) that Star Trek higher-ups thought it should put an end to calls for more movement in ST on the issue of homophobia.
To the former I say that I don’t see it that way and probably almost everyone who watched that episode understood the anti-homophobic message. To the latter I say that that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good anti-homophobic episode, it just means that there is a problem with some people responsible for ST and they need to be pressured some more (even today, 15 years later, they STILL need to be pressured).
When in front of the judge, Soren says: “I am female. I was born that way. I have had those feelings, those longings all of my life. It is not unnatural. I am not sick because I feel this way. I don't need to be helped, I don't need to be cured. What I need and what all of those who are like me need is your understanding and your compassion. We have not injured you in any way. And yet we are scorned and attacked. And all because we are different. What we do is no different from what you do. We talk and laugh, we complain about work and we wonder about getting old, we talk about our families and we worry about the future. And we cry with each other when things seem hopeless. All of the loving things that you with each other, that is what we do. And for that we are called misfits and deviants and criminals. What right do you have to punish us? What right do you have to change us? What makes you think you can dictate how people love each other?”
It’s a pretty good speech.
A few other notes on the episode:
1. Dr. Crusher says that the inequality of women has disappeared.
2. Worf shows that Crusher is not 100% right when he makes some sexist comments. He’s also bigoted towards the androgynous J’naii. (this is not an example of progressive politics in ST, but is the exception to the rule)
I give the episode four stars out of five (since DS9 and VOY are my favorite series and TNG is behind them, I have decided I will give no TNG episode five stars)
“Cause and Effect” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“The First Duty” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“The Cost of Living” See this for a plot summary
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
This blog is mostly about 3 themes- Irish Republicanism, Star Trek, and opposition to bigotry, primarily in America (racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, etc.). It is mostly about Northern Ireland. It will mostly be about these issues in general and past events and will only sometimes touch on current events. Feel free to comment on the earlier posts.
About My Blog
My blog is about history, popular culture, politics and current events from a democratic socialist and Irish republican perspective. The two main topics are Northern Ireland on one hand and fighting anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia on the other. The third topic is supporting the Palestinians, and there are several minor topics. The three main topics overlap quite a bit. I have to admit that it’s not going to help me get a graduate degree, especially because it’s almost always written very casually. But there are some high-quality essays, some posts that come close to being high-quality essays, political reviews of Sci-Fi TV episodes (Star Trek and Babylon 5), and a unique kind of political, progressive poetry you won't find anywhere else. (there are also reviews of episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and reviews of Roseanne)
(my old blog was not showing up in Google search results AT ALL (99% of it wasn't being web-crawled or indexed or whatever) and there was another big problem with it, so this is a mirror of the old one although there will be some occassionnal editing of old posts and there will be new posts. I started this blog 12/16/20; 4/28/21 I am now done with re-doing the internal links on my blog) (the Google problem with my blog (only 1% of this new one is showing up in Google search results) is why I include a URL of my blog when commenting elsewhere, otherwise I would get almost no visitors at all)
(The "Table of Contents" offers brief descriptions of all but the most recent posts)
(I just recently realized that my definition of "disapora" was flawed- I thought it included, for example, Jews in Israel, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, and with the Irish diaspora, the Irish on that island. I'll do some work on that soon (11/21/20 I have edited the relevant paragraph in my post about Zionism))
(If you're really cool and link to my blog from your site/blog, let me know) (if you contact me, use the word "blog" in the subject line so I'll know it's not spam)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment