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).
“The Tholian Web” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Plato’s Stepchildren” See this for a plot summary.
As the title sort of implies, a small amount of this episode is definitely philosophical. A the risk of making a fool of myself (I’m not good at philosophy) I’ll make some brief comments about that.
1) It briefly talks about plato and utopia and democracy. Apparently their idea for a perfect democracy is that anyone can do anything, as long as they are smart enough. This kind of reminds me of the idea that America is a “meritocracy,” which is very untrue, although I think I’ll skip the details on that for now.
2) This episode also brings up the issue of power and corruption. I believe that to a large degree power can (very often does) result in corruption. But I also think that with government there ar ways to keep that problem at a minimum. Checks and balances, whistle-blower protection, strong unions and more generally a strong civil society, a redistribution of wealth that will mean fewer people with the means to bribe government employees, very serious penalties for government employees accepting bribes etc.
As far as corruption outside government, I’d say some fairly similar things, plus more regulation in some areas (i.e. accounting, equality legislation, etc. (which would also apply to the Government)).
I give it one star out of five.
“Wink of an Eye” See this for a plot summary.
There’s one question that is raised in this episode. Because the Scalosians need to abduct members of other races in order to reproduce, Kirk’s efforts to stop them will result in the death of their race- that is, genocide. I’d say Kirk was right- abducting people like that is horrible, and at some point some races (the human race or alien races) just don’t survive.
On a non-political note, the Voyager episode inspired by this episode, “Blink of an Eye” is one of my very favorite ST episodes, and “Wink of an Eye” is nowhere near as good as the Voyager episode.
I give it one star out of five.
“The Empath” See this for a plot summary.
There’s kind of a political aspect to this, which is the idea that civilization requires compassion for others.
I give it one star out of five.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews M
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).
“Is There in Truth no Beauty?” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Spectre of the Gun” See this for a plot summary.
There are basically three political aspects to this episode:
1) The Enterprise is ordered to make contact with an alien race “at all costs.” When they encounter some kind of space buoy and are told to turn around and not enter the aliens’ space, Kirk acknowledges the buoys message and explains his mission to the aliens. He then takes a small landing party and transports down to the planet.
It reminds me of the United States forcing Japan to open itself to the US. In general, that sort of thing is wrong.
2) There is some talk about how humanity “overcame” it’s “instinct for violence.”
3) At the end, it turns out it’s another episode where an alien race wants to test the Federation citizens to see if they take life when it’s not totally necessary, and then the aliens move towards friendship with the Federation. Some times Kirk goes a bit far in proclaiming the Federation’s commitment to non-violence, but over all it’s fairly true.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Day of the dove” See this for a plot summary.
There are two minor political points made- 1) there’s an incident of sexual assault (or at least attempted sexual assault), which in the context of ST can be seen as a feminist statement (when Chekhov did that, he was under the influence of an alien); and 2) some incidents of racial hostility, which lead to statements against racism.
The political aspect that really deserves some attention comes from Spock: “Those who hate and fight must stop themselves, otherwise it is not stopped.” This presents a problem for me, although I feel comfortable disagreeing with ST on some stuff here and there. But I have gotten the idea that, for example, UN Peacekeepers usually are doing something good that helps with ending conflicts. I also believe in something similar with the non-armed aspects of conflict resolution- for example, I believe that it was a good idea that the International Decommissioning Commission in N. Ireland was led by people from third party countries. In a mid-1990s publication of the Pat Finucane Center in Derry, they called for the police patrolling nationalist areas to be replaced by officers from European Union nations. Partly inspired by those last two items, I wrote up a proposal for resolving the conflict, one that would involve such international elements.
I still believe in such an approach (there’s a possibility that Spock’s theory doesn’t apply to the North, since there is really not much anti-Protetsant bigotry coming from the Catholics) (the Peace-Keepers should come from countries that don't have any selfish interests in the conflict, and civilian 3rd party personel should meet similar criteria). The thing is, when Ireland is close to being united, there will be some degree of loyalist backlash, and I think a UN force dealing with that would be better than either the British Army or the Irish Army would be. That’s because if it were the BA, some soldiers would be sympathetic to the loyalists and hostile to the nationalists, and their presence on the streets might attract attacks by republicans. If it were the Irish Army, that might increase the backlash if they’re suspected of being sympathetic to the nationalists. Third party peace-keepers (who would also have to be conducting raids when necessary) would probably be at least a little better.
I give this episode one star out of five.
“For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
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).
“Is There in Truth no Beauty?” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Spectre of the Gun” See this for a plot summary.
There are basically three political aspects to this episode:
1) The Enterprise is ordered to make contact with an alien race “at all costs.” When they encounter some kind of space buoy and are told to turn around and not enter the aliens’ space, Kirk acknowledges the buoys message and explains his mission to the aliens. He then takes a small landing party and transports down to the planet.
It reminds me of the United States forcing Japan to open itself to the US. In general, that sort of thing is wrong.
2) There is some talk about how humanity “overcame” it’s “instinct for violence.”
3) At the end, it turns out it’s another episode where an alien race wants to test the Federation citizens to see if they take life when it’s not totally necessary, and then the aliens move towards friendship with the Federation. Some times Kirk goes a bit far in proclaiming the Federation’s commitment to non-violence, but over all it’s fairly true.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Day of the dove” See this for a plot summary.
There are two minor political points made- 1) there’s an incident of sexual assault (or at least attempted sexual assault), which in the context of ST can be seen as a feminist statement (when Chekhov did that, he was under the influence of an alien); and 2) some incidents of racial hostility, which lead to statements against racism.
The political aspect that really deserves some attention comes from Spock: “Those who hate and fight must stop themselves, otherwise it is not stopped.” This presents a problem for me, although I feel comfortable disagreeing with ST on some stuff here and there. But I have gotten the idea that, for example, UN Peacekeepers usually are doing something good that helps with ending conflicts. I also believe in something similar with the non-armed aspects of conflict resolution- for example, I believe that it was a good idea that the International Decommissioning Commission in N. Ireland was led by people from third party countries. In a mid-1990s publication of the Pat Finucane Center in Derry, they called for the police patrolling nationalist areas to be replaced by officers from European Union nations. Partly inspired by those last two items, I wrote up a proposal for resolving the conflict, one that would involve such international elements.
I still believe in such an approach (there’s a possibility that Spock’s theory doesn’t apply to the North, since there is really not much anti-Protetsant bigotry coming from the Catholics) (the Peace-Keepers should come from countries that don't have any selfish interests in the conflict, and civilian 3rd party personel should meet similar criteria). The thing is, when Ireland is close to being united, there will be some degree of loyalist backlash, and I think a UN force dealing with that would be better than either the British Army or the Irish Army would be. That’s because if it were the BA, some soldiers would be sympathetic to the loyalists and hostile to the nationalists, and their presence on the streets might attract attacks by republicans. If it were the Irish Army, that might increase the backlash if they’re suspected of being sympathetic to the nationalists. Third party peace-keepers (who would also have to be conducting raids when necessary) would probably be at least a little better.
I give this episode one star out of five.
“For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The anti-Apartheid Struggle and Republicans
I have mentioned Apartheid S. Africa several times on my blog in some connection to the Republican Movement. I've been aware of four connections between the two groups in recent decades, and a couple more connections between the two have just surfaced, which I’ll get to soon (I'm not sure they are as confirmed as I would like them, but the source for the new info seems like a good source).
First, here are the four connections I’ve been aware of for some number of years
1) A plaque remembering the sacrifice of both anti-Apartheid and Irish Republican Prisoners of war, is on Robben Island, which is kind of a monument to the anti-Apartheid struggle. That info was found here.
UPDATE 1/27/17 If that link is dead for some reason, I did a search of http://www.independent.co.uk using google and found a link to the article. It should show up here and is head-lined "Adams pays tribute to detainees' suffering." One quote from the article is:
The ANC changed its mind after Mr Adams's meeting with Mr Mandela who described Sinn Fein as "an old friend and ally''.
2) In 1981, as IRA (and INLA) prisoners went on hunger-strike, there was talk among ANC Prisoners of War of going on a solidarity hunger-strike. That's taken from an on-line only article in The Nation, by Tom Hayden- it was published some time in 2004, or 2005, or 2006. I can't find it online. When I do I'll update this.
3) In 2005 the Minister of Intelligence for South Africa visited Ireland as a guest of Sinn Fein and compared what he did as a member of the ANC's military wing during the anti-Apartheid struggle with what IRA members did during the Troubles. He spoke at republiccan events and at one point, according to the Irish Times said: "I could never accept that Sinn Féin has debased republicanism. They carried the flag of republicanism in the most difficult of times. ... The Irish struggle is a particularly heroic one." You can read at least a little of an Irish Times article about this here. If all you read there is the brief free paragraph, reading this from a Sinn Fein publication will make it clear what the Minister meant with his comments in that brief intro of the Irish Times article. I now have the text of the article and can email it to you if you want
4) In 1992 Nelson Mandela was on a British political talk-show and said that he supported the IRA. That information is found here (it's towards the bottom, says "mandela. and. ira").
There are some more pieces of information about this relationship. Those are found here, here, and here.
UPDATE 4/25/15 Another one here.
Tom
First, here are the four connections I’ve been aware of for some number of years
1) A plaque remembering the sacrifice of both anti-Apartheid and Irish Republican Prisoners of war, is on Robben Island, which is kind of a monument to the anti-Apartheid struggle. That info was found here.
UPDATE 1/27/17 If that link is dead for some reason, I did a search of http://www.independent.co.uk using google and found a link to the article. It should show up here and is head-lined "Adams pays tribute to detainees' suffering." One quote from the article is:
The ANC changed its mind after Mr Adams's meeting with Mr Mandela who described Sinn Fein as "an old friend and ally''.
2) In 1981, as IRA (and INLA) prisoners went on hunger-strike, there was talk among ANC Prisoners of War of going on a solidarity hunger-strike. That's taken from an on-line only article in The Nation, by Tom Hayden- it was published some time in 2004, or 2005, or 2006. I can't find it online. When I do I'll update this.
3) In 2005 the Minister of Intelligence for South Africa visited Ireland as a guest of Sinn Fein and compared what he did as a member of the ANC's military wing during the anti-Apartheid struggle with what IRA members did during the Troubles. He spoke at republiccan events and at one point, according to the Irish Times said: "I could never accept that Sinn Féin has debased republicanism. They carried the flag of republicanism in the most difficult of times. ... The Irish struggle is a particularly heroic one." You can read at least a little of an Irish Times article about this here. If all you read there is the brief free paragraph, reading this from a Sinn Fein publication will make it clear what the Minister meant with his comments in that brief intro of the Irish Times article. I now have the text of the article and can email it to you if you want
4) In 1992 Nelson Mandela was on a British political talk-show and said that he supported the IRA. That information is found here (it's towards the bottom, says "mandela. and. ira").
There are some more pieces of information about this relationship. Those are found here, here, and here.
UPDATE 4/25/15 Another one here.
Tom
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