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).
“Return to Tomorrow” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Patterns of Force” See this for a plot summary.
I could probably type thousands of words about this, but I’ll keep it pretty brief. There are two major political aspects to this episode.
1. The pacifist response of most of Europe’s Jews living in either camps or more generally Nazi-occupied areas. Obviously this is stating the obvious and is kind of using hind-sight, but pacifism wasn’t a good response to Nazi persecution of the Jews. Also, I believe that that could have been said WITHOUT hindsight, as I explain about 1/4 the way down a post here where I seriously attack the Irish government and the IRA about their separate responses to Nazi Germany. (I have heard that at some point non-Jewish anti-Nazi elements, including those quite prepared to fight, didn’t engage in armed resistance either (because their leadership failed to give them orders), which might have discouraged European Jews from resisting)
2. Kirk at one point says something about how they need to help the Zeons, but also need to help the Ekosians. I’m not sure if he was talking about the lack of freedom that Ekosians had under a dictatorship, or the way that bigotry does a fair amount of damage to the group oppressing another group through hate. I go into more details about that here while discussing the episode “Duet.”
I give it three stars out of five stars.
“By Any Other Name” See this for a plot summary.
At first I thought this was pretty non-political. But there is the issue of outsiders colonizing empty planets in the Federation. It reminds me of the settling of the area now known as the US by Europeans and European-Americans. It’s embarrassing for me to say this, but I’m not sure if the question I’m raising came up at any point in my studies; if it did I have forgotten it (some of my Ethnic Studies knowledge has disappeared).
Let’s say European governments and European people had been very different (you could call it “bizzaro Europe”) and had been interested in peace-full co-existance with the indigenous people of this hemisphere who, DID sort of welcome them. Would that have worked? I’m not sure. How much of what is now America was available for settlement? I’ don’t know. But it’s an interesting question. Of course another more positive scenario would have been no settlement at all. Anyway, it's something that this episode got me thinking about some.
I give it two stars out of five.
“The Omega Glory” See this for a plot summary.
This is a weird episode. Part of it is the idea that in the last years of the 20th Century, Chinese Communists (apparently joined or followed by free-market, democratic Americans) left Earth to colonize some far away planet. Apparently, long before StarFleet came to the planet, there had been a large scale war between the two sides that involved Weapons of Mass Destruction. There’s a few lines or so with good comments about bio-weapons and about democratic rights for everyone. On the other hand there is little said about the negative aspects of American democracy.
I give it two stars out of five.
Showing posts with label indigenous people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indigenous people. Show all posts
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews JJ
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).
“Masks” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Eye of the Beholder” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Genesis” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Journey’s End” See this for a plot summary.
A fairly political episode, largely about how American Indians were treated the first several centuries after Colombus crossed the Atlantic. The Indians also discover that an ancestor of Picard’s took part in the brutal repression of an American Indian rebellion centuries earlier.
I give it three stars out of five (the part about Wesley Crusher kind of annoys me- if it weren’t for that I’d give four stars).
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).
“Masks” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Eye of the Beholder” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Genesis” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Journey’s End” See this for a plot summary.
A fairly political episode, largely about how American Indians were treated the first several centuries after Colombus crossed the Atlantic. The Indians also discover that an ancestor of Picard’s took part in the brutal repression of an American Indian rebellion centuries earlier.
I give it three stars out of five (the part about Wesley Crusher kind of annoys me- if it weren’t for that I’d give four stars).
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews II
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).
“Force of Nature” See this for a plot summary.
A very environmental episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Inheritance” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Parallels” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“The Pegasus” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Homeward” See this for a plot summary.
A sort of political episode as it raises issues about technologically advanced cultures interacting with indigenous populations who are much less advanced. I have mixed feelings about what they do- they risked exposing such a population to advanced technology- an experience that would probably be traumatic for most of them. On the other hand, they did save that culture from being extinguished.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Sub Rosa” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give one star out of five.
“Lower Decks” See this for a plot summary.
Although he seems more concerned about peace than democracy, and he seems to not be a dissident regarding the occupation of Bajor, there is a Cardassian dissident providing intelligence to the Federation. That sort of thing, work for peace and in the direction of democracy (with peace, the power of Cardassian senior military officers would diminish and that would probably make creating a democracy on Cardassia more possible) is fairly inspirational.
UPDATE 1/12/12 I should have added this a long time ago, but I DO find the Arab Spring inspirational and I do support it.
I give it four stars out of five.
“Thine Own Self” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political story. I give it four stars out of five.
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).
“Force of Nature” See this for a plot summary.
A very environmental episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Inheritance” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Parallels” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“The Pegasus” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Homeward” See this for a plot summary.
A sort of political episode as it raises issues about technologically advanced cultures interacting with indigenous populations who are much less advanced. I have mixed feelings about what they do- they risked exposing such a population to advanced technology- an experience that would probably be traumatic for most of them. On the other hand, they did save that culture from being extinguished.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Sub Rosa” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give one star out of five.
“Lower Decks” See this for a plot summary.
Although he seems more concerned about peace than democracy, and he seems to not be a dissident regarding the occupation of Bajor, there is a Cardassian dissident providing intelligence to the Federation. That sort of thing, work for peace and in the direction of democracy (with peace, the power of Cardassian senior military officers would diminish and that would probably make creating a democracy on Cardassia more possible) is fairly inspirational.
UPDATE 1/12/12 I should have added this a long time ago, but I DO find the Arab Spring inspirational and I do support it.
I give it four stars out of five.
“Thine Own Self” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political story. I give it four stars out of five.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Star Trek: Voyager Reviews KK
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).
There are several episodes in VOY that involve the question of whether or not holograms are alive, and/or feature conflict between holograms and organic beings. I’m going to ignore that part of VOY, it’s a bit too philosophical, and comparing the maltreatment of holograms to the maltreatment of, for example, Black people, seems stupid. Although I kind of make an exception for The Doctor (it’s impossible to be a fan of ST and not do that) I lean towards saying that holograms are not life forms, but I don’t feel like going into it.
“Friendship One” See this for a plot summary.
I’m having some trouble deciding what the political aspect of this episode is. It could be about using certain energy sources without the right controls, or using them at all (in this episode it involves anti-matter, but you could interpret this episode as being anti-nuclear power). I don’t know anything about matter and anti-matter, but it seems like in the ST universe it’s a safe enough source of energy. I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem was that the knowledge they recieved from the probe was radically ahead of where they were technologically and they skipped a few steps- steps which might have resulted in them avoiding the accident.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Natural Law” See this for a plot summary.
This episode has a lot to say about technologically advanced societies not treating indigenous people (at least those who live in a traditional way) with respect for their culture. It also illustrates how many from the advanced society will think that invading an indigenous society and radically changing it is good for the indigenous people.
For some reason I’m having trouble describing this episode better than I have, so I’ll just leave it at that. I give it three stars out of five.
“Homestead” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Renaissance Man” See this for a plot summary.
A non-politiccal episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Endgame” parts 1 and 2. See this and this for a plot summary.
A non-political two-parter, but one that deserves some comment since it’s the series finale. Looking at the series finales for each of the 1990s series, I think this one is the best of the three.
I give it five stars out of five.
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).
There are several episodes in VOY that involve the question of whether or not holograms are alive, and/or feature conflict between holograms and organic beings. I’m going to ignore that part of VOY, it’s a bit too philosophical, and comparing the maltreatment of holograms to the maltreatment of, for example, Black people, seems stupid. Although I kind of make an exception for The Doctor (it’s impossible to be a fan of ST and not do that) I lean towards saying that holograms are not life forms, but I don’t feel like going into it.
“Friendship One” See this for a plot summary.
I’m having some trouble deciding what the political aspect of this episode is. It could be about using certain energy sources without the right controls, or using them at all (in this episode it involves anti-matter, but you could interpret this episode as being anti-nuclear power). I don’t know anything about matter and anti-matter, but it seems like in the ST universe it’s a safe enough source of energy. I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem was that the knowledge they recieved from the probe was radically ahead of where they were technologically and they skipped a few steps- steps which might have resulted in them avoiding the accident.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Natural Law” See this for a plot summary.
This episode has a lot to say about technologically advanced societies not treating indigenous people (at least those who live in a traditional way) with respect for their culture. It also illustrates how many from the advanced society will think that invading an indigenous society and radically changing it is good for the indigenous people.
For some reason I’m having trouble describing this episode better than I have, so I’ll just leave it at that. I give it three stars out of five.
“Homestead” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Renaissance Man” See this for a plot summary.
A non-politiccal episode. I give it three stars out of five.
“Endgame” parts 1 and 2. See this and this for a plot summary.
A non-political two-parter, but one that deserves some comment since it’s the series finale. Looking at the series finales for each of the 1990s series, I think this one is the best of the three.
I give it five stars out of five.
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