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).
“Catspaw” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it one star out of five.
“I, Mudd” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode, although Mudd’s sexism kind of deserves to be noted. Mudd is basically the villain, so it is progressive.
I give it two stars out of five.
“Metamorphosis” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode, with one thing worth mentioning. It’s kind neat for us to meet Cochrane in TOS, considering we know about him from First Contact and kind of from Enterprise. (UPDATE 2/18/19 I guess I mean ME)
I give it two stars out of five.
“Journey To Babel” See this for a plot summary.
At one point Spock’s mom explains to Kirk that on Vulcan, men dominate the women. This is the second time we’ve heard something about that, so now I feel very comfortable saying that Vulcan society is very sexist. Should they be members of the Federation? I have mixed feelings about criticizing another culture’s treatment of women, but I think it's usually-always important to do so (I think there are good ways to do that and probably some bad ways to do it). I’m not sure if it’s something that should have prevented Vulcan from joining the Federation. I guess two factors would be: A) was the sexism codified in law, and B) was there some women’s rights organization on Vulcan that wanted their planet kept out of the Federation.
I’ve found many Star Trek episodes that talk about people with a multi-cultrual background (i.e. half human, half Vulcan, or in the real world, for example, half white, half black) and how they have trouble being accepted by one or both of the groups that they’re a part of (I guess you could say they’re part of a third group, for example, people who are half black and half white). I also remember reading that Zack de La Rocha of Rage Against The Machine experienced something similar. And (while getting my Ethnic Studies degree) I don't remember hearing or reading anything saying that this is not a problem; I have a vague memory of something supporting what I said, but I wasn’t sure of this and asked someone familiar with it if such people DO have that sort of trouble. He made me think I had an exaggerated sense of how many people experience it. But in this episode of ST, it’s again raised, in relation to Spock. I’m not saying that writers of ST episodes are experts, but I’m starting to think that I was closer to being right than my friend suggested I was.
There is one bit of socialism. At least one Federation diplomat believes that admitting a new planet into the Federation will result in the wealth of that planet being used to benefit it’s inhabitants.
I give it two stars out of five.
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