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 have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.
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).
“Tomorrow Is Yesterday” See this for a plot summary.
A very non-political episode, which is kind of a surprise. Often episodes involving time travel back to Old Earth (that is, Earth in recent decades of the past and in decades of the near future) have some liberal-left political commentary. This doesn’t have that. There is one reference to an alien planet dominated by women- but I have mixed feelings about the nature of that statement. Normally I’d think it’s a good thing, to mention that women are capable of leading a planet. But there’s something about it that’s kind of sexist in this case.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Court Martial” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“The Return of the Archons” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it one star out of five.
“Space Seed” See this for a plot summary.
This is the first ST episode or movie to mention the Eugenics Wars. Some of my thoughts on the issue of genetically engineered humans can be found here while discussing the first three-parter in that post (there is also some background in the plot summaries). In short I think that the Federation is right to ban genetic engineering of humans, with some possible exceptions.
This episode doesn’t really add much to what I had seen in other episodes or movies about the Eugenics Wars issue. There is a two or three book novel about the EW. I read the first one years ago and seem to have lost it. I somehow got either the second or third but don’t want to read it without the other 1 or 2. The thing is, in reference to one of those books, a former friend of mine said he thought it was racist. I can’t really say anything about those books. I am pretty sure he was referring to the fact that the villain was an Indian, and possibly-probably some other details; I would need more than that (Khan’s nationality) to agree.
I give it three stars out of five.
“A Taste of Armageddon” See this for a plot summary.
This episode has a very good anti-war theme. It’s about two planets that have waged war for 500 years using computers, kind of like a war game. When an attack takes place, people in the area of the attack are identified as casualties and are killed by “disintegration machines.” The idea behind this form of war-fare is that the civilizations will not be physically destroyed. But as kirk explains it: “Death, destruction, disease, horror- that’s what war is all about, Anan- that’s what makes it a thing to be avoided. You’ve made it neat and painless. So neat and painless you’ve had no reason to stop it.” Although it would be horrible if one or more civilizations were destroyed through war, it’d be better if there were no war at all (nothing is said about the war being just, it probably is like most wars, i.e. like World War I). Millions of people were being killed every year, and the war probably diverted at least some resources that could have been better used on something else. If they had experienced real war, the destruction and the injured people might have prodded the leaders to seek peace.
I give it three stars out of five.
“This Side of Paradise” See this for a plot summary.
There are a couple political things to mention about this episode.
1. The colonists are all vegetarians.
2. Towards the end, Kirk talks about “paradise” and wonders if humans are meant for “paradise” or meant to “struggle, claw our way up.” I believe something in the middle but leaning towards being meant for “paradise.” We will always have some degree of difficulty (i.e. natural disasters, etc.) but we can, probably in a couple centuries or so, create something pretty close to “paradise.” This reminds me of something that the socialist writer Michael Parenti said once. He said that socialism isn’t the utopia- it is the struggle to create the utopia (I’d say the latter stages of creating a utopia). And I’d say that even the utopia probably won’t be 100% utopian.
I give it two stars out of five.
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