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).
“Borderland,” “Cold Station 12,” “The Augments” See the links for a plot summary.
This three-parter contains one very large political theme and a couple smaller ones. The big one is the question of genetic engineering. My thoughts on this are here while discussing the episode “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”
At one point one of the augments and Archer have the following exchange:
Malik: We were defending our right to exist.
Archer: You’ve already killed over 25 people. Your existence has a pretty high price.
Malik: It could get higher.
Obviously they are pretty much unable to co-exist with normal people, and StarFleet was right to prevent any more augments from being born.
The other issues:
1. We learn that at one point Earth space ships were nuclear-powered, something which I have negative feelings about (even in the context of ST, I believe they should have postponed further space travel until they found something better than nuclear power). Could cause serious environmental problems on Earth.
2. There’s also an element of slavery. First, when the slaves can no longer be controlled by the neurolytic restraints, they rebel, which is pretty cool.
It raises the question for me, shouldn’t StarFleet do something about the Orion slave trade? It doesn’t count as an internal issue for the Orions because they enslave outside of their race most of the time. And even if it were internal, I’m very open-minded about StarFleet intervening anyway. I have difficulty imaging that happening in the past with black slaves in America, since I don’t think there was a world power comparable to the Federation of ST. I mean, the British ended slavery in almost all of the Empire in 1833 but I’m not sure if they would have been an ideal candidate for this. Would black slaves in America have welcomed liberation in that way? I imagine they would have. And of course they did welcome liberation during and at the end of the Civil War, and of course many former slaves fought for the Union in that war.
On a non-political note, it was brilliant of them to have Brent Spiner play Soong, an ancestor of the man who created Data (The Next Generation).
I give this three-parter five stars out of five.
“The Forge,” “Awakening,” and “Kir’Shara” See the links for a plot summary.
This three-parter has one main theme- religious persecution, and there are several minor things that come up here and there:
I’m against religious persecution, although there would of course be some exceptions- for example if children are being abused in some way. My thoughts on religion can be found here, here (while discussing the episode "Who Watches The Watchers?"), here (while discussing the episode "Destiny"), here (while discussing the episode "In The Hands Of The Prophets").
1. At one point Archer seems to compare the different interpretations of Surock’s writing with what has happened with the Bible. The basic message I believe was that the Bible (and similar books) shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
2. The leader of the Syrrannites says that the High Command defiled the monastery of P’Jem by placing an intelligence operation there. It really is very inappropriate to use religious places for what might be called intelligence or military efforts.
3. We’re reminded that Vulcans who can do mind melds are treated poorly, and this is undoubtedly a statement against homophobia. See this when I discuss the episode “Stigma.”
4. I think this is my first exposure to the political system on Vulcan. It’s not made clear, but I got the idea that the High Command was the government; I used to think it was the leadership of the military; and what kind of civilian government leadership is known as the High Command? It also turns out that the head of the High Command (HC) organized a large-scale invasion force without the other members knowing. All members of the HC were men. Vulcan still uses the death penalty for some crimes. And lastly, there is apparently a loyalty oath that at least some Vulcans must take. Unless I’m missing something from The Original Series, I would have to say that the Vulcan government isn’t very democratic and considering most of what I wrote in this paragraph, I wonder what they're doing in the Federation? (on the other hand, it IS suggested at one point that the head of the HC was elected).
5. The leader of the HC seems to have gone after the Syrrannites because, as pacifists, they might stir up opposition to his invasion of Andoria.
6. There is one part where a Vulcan is tortured mentally instead of physically, which Vulcans can usually resist. After that the interrogator who used torture suggests that very often people being tortured will say whatever they think their interrogator wants to hear, even if it’s not true (which makes torture ineffective in addition to being immoral).
I’m not a big fan of Vulcan episodes, so I can only give this one two stars out of five.
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