Sci-fi and space and watching incredibly beautiful people whizzing through the stars on improbable starships at impossible speeds is what I enjoy.
But I have a bit of an issue when it comes to the TV (and movies) of Star Trek.
WARNING: THIS POST IS GOING TO GET A BIT HEAVY ON GEEKDOM FROM HERE ON IN. YOU REGRET READING FURTHER IF YOU DON'T ENJOY SCIENCE FICTION.
Star trek, and it's associated spin shows all have one thing in common.
For those that don't know, Star Trek is a show set in the 24th century where mankind has given up on and the selfish pursuit of money and greed in search of a more enlightened quest for knowledge and adventure.
This is highlighted by the opening credits monologue made famous by Captain Kirk.
"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It's (5 year) mission; to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations. To boldly go where no man has gone before."
All very inspiring and exciting I'm sure you would agree.
There is a problem, however.
While the show centres around Humans and various other alien cultures working together for the common good, there is (in every spin off series) an undercurrent that all is not well in this utopian future.
Following various themes of hate, racism, denial of life, ignorance, the pursuit of trade agreements over the needs of the people there are many examples of how the Federation of Planets are not the enlightened people we are lead to believe.
While some of these issues are highlighted as wrong and corrected by our intrepid crew, there are just as many, if not more, occasions where moral injustice is simply shrugged off or not dealt with in any real way.
Just underneath the surface of our ultimate desires as a species, we are shown a filthy, manipulative and hateful side of humanity which seems to have spread across the galaxy into the lives of other aliens peoples.
Here, for your consideration, are some of the episode that left me feeling cold. Highlighting some, or all of the horrific tropes above in each and every of these select episodes, as much as I like Start trek, alarm bell rings whenever I see these episodes.
TOS: Errand of Mercy
TOS: A private little war
TOS: Patterns of force
TOS: The Omega Glory
TOS: The Empath
TOS: Elaan of Troyius
TOS: The Mark of Gideon
TOS: The Cloud Minders
TNG: Justice
TNG: Angel One
TNG: Symbiosis
TNG: Pen Pals
TNG: Up the long ladder
TNG: The Ensigns of Command
TNG: The Survivors
TNG: Who watches the Watchers
TNG: The Hunted
TNG: The High Ground
TNG: The Offspring (one amongst many that shows the federation elite is a hateful racist ignorant group)
TNG: season three.....
Lordy Lordy .... Even I'm bored now.
The point is there are loads of examples of the crew of the Enterprise buggering about, disregarding the rules, and/or screwing over the little guy for their own selfish needs.
A couple of other HUGE examples are the spin off series.....
THE ENTIRE PREMISE FOR DEEP SPACE NINE: A planet that wants to be independent but "required" the help of the Federation due the occupation from another hostile race.
The Federation took control of a space station (renamed it Deep Space 9) and refused to leave once they discovered there was a wormhole within spitting distance of the planet.
Which leads us to the main conflict of the crew during the VOYAGER series, where a crew, stranded on the other side of the Galaxy is made up of Federation and "Maquis"... the Maquis being made up of federation citizens who were against the federations tactics during the Occupation of the Bajoran home world.
The pricks.
I am a massive geek I know. But I will not apologise for it.
Anyone who wants to disagree shall receive a Vulcan death grip through the post.
Next week: Where the Great British Bake got it wrong!
I have always liked that song. . . . . . . I think you need to remember Mr H that us humans are in general (not us of course) a dodgy and sometimes down right nasty life form that will quite happily kill and eat most other lifeforms here on Earth and given the opportunity the entire Universe. So I suspect these errors are in fact a true reflection of what would happen in reality. Imagine us humans arriving on a planet after months or maybe years and there is a nice juicy critter walking about that tastes just like pork, bacon or beef. Would we try and communicate with it or eat it claiming it was not very intelligent and didn't even know who Elvis was.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right Rob (as usual) .... although I wonder if we would try to eat it or hump it first?
DeleteI ran out of time researching this post, what with being kidnapped by cannibals and what not.
I may do a part two, or I may do a proper disection of beloved TV shows. I've not done a 6/10 review for some time.
I'm a huge Sci-Fi geek, but never could deal with the Star Trek spin-offs. I know, that's sacrilegious in the world of Geek-dom and my big sis would have me hung, drawn and quartered for saying such blasphemy. (she's a true Trekkie)
ReplyDeleteLike Doctor Who and The Tomorrow people, Star-Trek did deal with some fairly serious social issues, but sometimes, they got it massively wrong and seemed to contradict their own morality. But at least they tried.
What's more frightening is the things that came to pass, like Voice Interfaces and those In ear Comms that drive me mental. I'm just waiting for someone to invent a sliding door that makes that 'whoosh' sound.
Supermarkets have them! The future just passed us by Lily. It's here.... all we are missing is pointy eared aliens.
DeleteOne thing that really annos me about Star trek, is that with all the technology, especially holodecks and the like, nobody was into Sci-fi.
It's as if science fiction dies a death sometime around the 22nd century.
Maybe they find this post and decide that enough is enough and it's all my fault.
damn.
I find talking lifts rather annoying, with their sugary mind the doors and going up and the like. I was in one in Shrewsbury the other day in the shopping centre and it claimed to be on a different floor to the one it stopped at. This is OK for me I could see it was not on the floor it said, but if you were blind then it would have totally confused you. I mean what sort of a lift would want to confuse the blind, that is just not nice.
DeleteMrs H won't go in lifts. So we slum it with escalators. I always worry I'll get caught in the grills and shred to pieces but you have to make these sort of heroic sacrifices for the ones you love.
Delete