Star Trek: SNW Reviews G

I am now starting to do “reviews” of episodes of the new Star Trek series “Strange New Worlds.” Unlike earlier ST review posts this time I’ll be doing, at least MOST of the time, one relatively long essay for a single episode that merits some significant commentary (I wouldn’t be surprised if out of a final total of 46 episodes I’ll do one or two posts that are very brief). I’ll be focusing almost exclusively on the political aspects of the episodes but will usually not comment on the pervasive multiculturalism and gender equality of ST.

“Lost In Translation” Episode Six, Season Two. See this for a plot summary.

My Environmental Record

There isn’t much here. The idea is that in that small part of space some kind of living, sentient race (which apparently can’t be seen with the naked eye or any StarFleet technology) has become attached to a substance that becomes starship fuel and the alien race is being killed by that industrial process. Crew members are getting contacted by this race who cannot communicate with us as we do and are trying to stop the collection and exploitation of the substance.

I think it’s an environmental issue. And the thing is, I’m not that familiar with environmental issues. I mean, I AM a tree-hugger- in fact, I start making out with the tree!  :  ) Just kidding. 

To be serious, I AM a bit weak on environmental issues. I think it might be partly that I never completed High School chemistry (I have almost no idea what “parts per million” means and no idea what’s a high number for that and what’s a low number). In Jr. High and High School I probably got a no better average grade for science classes than a B- or C+. In college I DID take a course about physics and the environment and I got a C- and in “Environmental Geology” I got a C. I wasn’t a great student in general (for a lot of reasons, some of which can’t be held against me) but I think I deserve a little credit for trying to be a good environmentalist- which is the main reason I took those two courses. I also spent, around 1998, a total of about 4 years working an average of about 25 hours a week at a company in Boulder called Jade Mountain (it sold environmentally-friendly tech like energy efficient light bulbs, solar panels, etc.). I did practically zero sales work that involved answering technical questions from customers, and 90% of what I did was data-entry, shipping, copying, mailing, filing. But, I accepted a relatively low wage compared to what I would have gotten at an entry-level job at Dairy Queen (no one at JM got paid what they should have but were there at least partly for the environmentalism) and made an okay/almost good contribution (a vague measurement of how valuable I was to the operation (not very) and how infrequently I screwed up (overall extremely infrequently), etc., etc.)

In the last 30 years I have a fairly good record as an environmentalist. I probably recycle about 75-95% of what I can recycle (I have been told, twice, “when in doubt, throw it out,” and I probably have thrown away some recycling). I have been using energy-efficient lighting about 1/3-3/4 of that time. I am not half as good as I should be when it comes to not driving a car. I sign a lot of the environmental petitions I hear about and have gone to some marches and protests, etc. and done a little bit of “light lifting” organizing on environmental issues. In the 18 years-archive of this blog there are a total of 14 posts labelled “environmental.”

I almost forgot, I took a class called “Race, Class and Pollution,” and failed it- a few small flaws in me as a student and a few small problems in my life chipped away at the B I probably should have gotten and I failed it.