star trek and being a good person
I can't remember exactly when it was, or what prompted it, but earlier this year i went back to watch the most-maligned (and my most fondly-remembered) Star Trek - Voyager. I loved it, and i especially loved how strongly it stood in contrast to the newer Star Trek shows of the past 5 years or so. 26 episode seasons. Lots of standalone episodes. Lots of opportunities to tell fun or unusual stories, to spend a bit of time on quirky, never-to-be-seen-again side characters, to provide something novel, yet comfortable.
The era of episodic television with a view to syndication was so different to the prestige television that has now become the norm thanks to premium cable channels and streaming platforms. It felt more down-to-Earth. More lowest-common-denominator, to be sure, but also in some ways more free to play around inside the established genre boundaries. When every story must be compressed down to 45 minutes with small cliffhangers or scene changes every 10 minutes or so, it forces the writers to be economical. There's no bloat, no lingering on shots that don't advance the story. I know every Breaking Bad fan is rolling their eyes and exclaiming good riddance, but... man... there's something to be said for telling a story that inspires people, makes them think, makes them care, and doing that again and again, week in and week out.
I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation about a month ago. I haven't seen it (other than occasional episodes in syndication) since it debuted in 1987. But there are still several episodes and characters that stuck with me all these years. I could barely believe it when one of the most memorable characters of all - Moriarty - appeared very early in season 2. I checked on Wikipedia to see if he became a recurring character like Q or Lwaxana Troi, but he did not. He had one episode in season 2 and one episode in season 6. But his story is one of the most profound that Star Trek ever did, in my opinion.
Moriarty is an AI, created by accident as a foil for one of the main characters who in roleplaying Sherlock Holmes keeps solving the mysteries before the story plays out. So the computer constructs a smarter version of Moriarty who is capable of understanding the world outside of the story in which he is depicted. Then - spoilers for a 35 year old show - it turns out that this fearsome antagonist is so thrilled and intrigued by the world outside that he decides not to be a villain any more and the whole show takes a left turn into the meaning of sentience and life itself. It is Star Trek at its very best.
And this is just on season 2, one that some people recommend new viewers should skip, because - to be fair - the effects are janky, the characterization is hit-and-miss, and some of the stories feature "alien" or "futuristic" cultures that cut a little bit too close to present-day ethnic or gender-based stereotypes. And it's depressingly heteronormative too, although that was true of most every show of the 80s and 90s. At least prestige television finally ushered in an era where LGBT people could openly exist on mainstream TV.
Point is, this episode is a gem. And it's not the only one in those first two wacky seasons. Like the episode where they randomly get trapped in a 20th century casino in the middle of a void, and (more spoilers) it turns out to be an artificial construct designed to provide comfort to a long-dead astronaut. We never find out who made it, or how the astronaut ended up there. We never find out how it works. It's just this weird fucking thing in space. I LOVE WEIRD FUCKING THINGS IN SPACE! All sci-fi should have weird fucking things in space. They're such a fantastic way to trigger the imagination, to create mystery, to make you excited about exploration, about the future... You can see how kids who grew up watching Star Trek went on to become scientists - and astronauts! We wanted to bring the fantasy to life!
But getting to season 3 i could immediately understand why it's recommended to modern audiences. Especially the first few episodes of that season are quite polished and tell snappy, accessible stories. And it's in that season where i first start to feel like the show is getting a bit fan service-y. Not in a gratuitous or self-referential way, but in a way where i feel like the stories are written for people who are already fans of the show, rather than fans of sci-fi in general. And i think a lot of modern shows are written to go that way from day one, so that makes season 3 feel more modern, even though there are still clearly hokey, dated and just plain bad episodes in there.
Although not all episodes i would consider bad are episodes that fandom considers bad. In particular, the Klingons - notorious bad guys from the 1960s show - start to take on a major role in the 1990s iteration, and we get several stories about the politics and goings-on of this incredibly fucking boring species of meatheads. Like many Star Trek species, their whole schtick is limited to turning one aspect of human behavior up to 11. Klingons are violent and impulsive and that's all they are. Their society is authoritarian, patriarchal and ultra-conservative, intolerant of any deviation from the orthodoxy. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just one-shot villains, but because they're popular with fandom we have to sit through multiple plodding episodes featuring these murderous asshats whose ideals are directly in conflict with what Star Trek is supposed to be about.
I suppose the point is tolerance, and accepting that there are people with different beliefs to you, and the right thing to do is to accept that and simply try to set a good example. The Next Generation's villainous species like the pitifully capitalist Ferengi or the fiendishly devious Romulans have no qualms at all about interfering with other cultures for their own benefit. That allows them to mastermind byzantine plots that are entertaining to watch unfold, but because they're portrayed as villains it's also part of the broader Star Trek message that non-interventionism is Good and meddling is Bad.
And yet, we have all the "first contact" episodes. Early in season three is another of those episodes that has stuck with me for a long time. It features a comedic piling up of mistakes that results in a group of so-called professionals revealing themselves to a primitive culture they were intending to clandestinely study for anthropological reasons. The story makes us question how or if we should study less developed species, or even less developed cultures of our own species. It's one of dozens of "first contact" episodes that most frequently pop up in Star Treks TNG and Voyager, all addressing the question of how far to take non-interventionist policies. Should we save a species that is about to become extinct? If we can cure a plague or halt a natural disaster, should we do that? What about if our intervention would disrupt the normal development of a culture? I love those stories, they're almost as great as the weird fucking things in space stories, and yet another reason why Star Trek rules. Even as it's trying to portray a utopian future, a people who live by a higher set of moral standards than we do today, it shows those same people wrestling with their morals in ways that feel relevant.
I've written all this before, so write now? Because i just watched the episode where a scientist is obsessed with finding a crystalline entity that flies through space eating planets. It casually destroyed a settlement where her son lived and she cannot control her bitterness and anger. When they find the entity - the most beautiful creature that has appeared on-screen in any episode up until this point - and the main characters are stunned as they finally start to understand how to communicate with it... she fucking destroys it. There's only one of them in the universe, and now it's gone. And she is treated as the heel of the whole damn franchise for her actions. Sent to her quarters in disgrace. Dressed down by a fucking android, which makes the message even more brutal than if it had been delivered by one of the characters capable of feeling emotion. Dear vengeance-fueled murderer, you fail at being a scientist. You are a disappointment to your dead son. End credits.
And that, that is why modern Star Trek - and in particular the last season of Strange New Worlds - grates with me. Because they take that role of irredeemable scumbag that used to only appear as a guest, and make it into one of the main characters on the show. I think Deep Space 9 did the same thing, and i'm sure i will have something to write about that when i get to it. But this kind of woobifying of the bad guys? No. Fucking no. I am not okay with it. Sure, it's possible to make a compelling show about criminals. But that's not what Star Trek is. Star Trek is about people who are better than that. Or at least who strive to be better than that. Of course violence and greed and corruption still exist, but at least it's portrayed as a clear moral failing. You don't get to "both sides" being a petty, spiteful shitbag. There's no greater cause at stake. You're just a shitbag.
Anyway, the season 5 crystalline entity episode? Another one of those ever-memorable Star Trek moments. Great story, told concisely, and something that hopefully molded at least some of the viewers into better humans in the decades that followed. I want to watch more TV like that.
Do i have anything else to write about that isn't Star Trek? Sure, but this is getting long, so i won't. It's been cold and wet this week, and even though there is a smidge of sun in the sky this Saturday, i think i'm going to head back into space where people are nice and there are weird fucking things.
The era of episodic television with a view to syndication was so different to the prestige television that has now become the norm thanks to premium cable channels and streaming platforms. It felt more down-to-Earth. More lowest-common-denominator, to be sure, but also in some ways more free to play around inside the established genre boundaries. When every story must be compressed down to 45 minutes with small cliffhangers or scene changes every 10 minutes or so, it forces the writers to be economical. There's no bloat, no lingering on shots that don't advance the story. I know every Breaking Bad fan is rolling their eyes and exclaiming good riddance, but... man... there's something to be said for telling a story that inspires people, makes them think, makes them care, and doing that again and again, week in and week out.
I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation about a month ago. I haven't seen it (other than occasional episodes in syndication) since it debuted in 1987. But there are still several episodes and characters that stuck with me all these years. I could barely believe it when one of the most memorable characters of all - Moriarty - appeared very early in season 2. I checked on Wikipedia to see if he became a recurring character like Q or Lwaxana Troi, but he did not. He had one episode in season 2 and one episode in season 6. But his story is one of the most profound that Star Trek ever did, in my opinion.
Moriarty is an AI, created by accident as a foil for one of the main characters who in roleplaying Sherlock Holmes keeps solving the mysteries before the story plays out. So the computer constructs a smarter version of Moriarty who is capable of understanding the world outside of the story in which he is depicted. Then - spoilers for a 35 year old show - it turns out that this fearsome antagonist is so thrilled and intrigued by the world outside that he decides not to be a villain any more and the whole show takes a left turn into the meaning of sentience and life itself. It is Star Trek at its very best.
And this is just on season 2, one that some people recommend new viewers should skip, because - to be fair - the effects are janky, the characterization is hit-and-miss, and some of the stories feature "alien" or "futuristic" cultures that cut a little bit too close to present-day ethnic or gender-based stereotypes. And it's depressingly heteronormative too, although that was true of most every show of the 80s and 90s. At least prestige television finally ushered in an era where LGBT people could openly exist on mainstream TV.
Point is, this episode is a gem. And it's not the only one in those first two wacky seasons. Like the episode where they randomly get trapped in a 20th century casino in the middle of a void, and (more spoilers) it turns out to be an artificial construct designed to provide comfort to a long-dead astronaut. We never find out who made it, or how the astronaut ended up there. We never find out how it works. It's just this weird fucking thing in space. I LOVE WEIRD FUCKING THINGS IN SPACE! All sci-fi should have weird fucking things in space. They're such a fantastic way to trigger the imagination, to create mystery, to make you excited about exploration, about the future... You can see how kids who grew up watching Star Trek went on to become scientists - and astronauts! We wanted to bring the fantasy to life!
But getting to season 3 i could immediately understand why it's recommended to modern audiences. Especially the first few episodes of that season are quite polished and tell snappy, accessible stories. And it's in that season where i first start to feel like the show is getting a bit fan service-y. Not in a gratuitous or self-referential way, but in a way where i feel like the stories are written for people who are already fans of the show, rather than fans of sci-fi in general. And i think a lot of modern shows are written to go that way from day one, so that makes season 3 feel more modern, even though there are still clearly hokey, dated and just plain bad episodes in there.
Although not all episodes i would consider bad are episodes that fandom considers bad. In particular, the Klingons - notorious bad guys from the 1960s show - start to take on a major role in the 1990s iteration, and we get several stories about the politics and goings-on of this incredibly fucking boring species of meatheads. Like many Star Trek species, their whole schtick is limited to turning one aspect of human behavior up to 11. Klingons are violent and impulsive and that's all they are. Their society is authoritarian, patriarchal and ultra-conservative, intolerant of any deviation from the orthodoxy. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just one-shot villains, but because they're popular with fandom we have to sit through multiple plodding episodes featuring these murderous asshats whose ideals are directly in conflict with what Star Trek is supposed to be about.
I suppose the point is tolerance, and accepting that there are people with different beliefs to you, and the right thing to do is to accept that and simply try to set a good example. The Next Generation's villainous species like the pitifully capitalist Ferengi or the fiendishly devious Romulans have no qualms at all about interfering with other cultures for their own benefit. That allows them to mastermind byzantine plots that are entertaining to watch unfold, but because they're portrayed as villains it's also part of the broader Star Trek message that non-interventionism is Good and meddling is Bad.
And yet, we have all the "first contact" episodes. Early in season three is another of those episodes that has stuck with me for a long time. It features a comedic piling up of mistakes that results in a group of so-called professionals revealing themselves to a primitive culture they were intending to clandestinely study for anthropological reasons. The story makes us question how or if we should study less developed species, or even less developed cultures of our own species. It's one of dozens of "first contact" episodes that most frequently pop up in Star Treks TNG and Voyager, all addressing the question of how far to take non-interventionist policies. Should we save a species that is about to become extinct? If we can cure a plague or halt a natural disaster, should we do that? What about if our intervention would disrupt the normal development of a culture? I love those stories, they're almost as great as the weird fucking things in space stories, and yet another reason why Star Trek rules. Even as it's trying to portray a utopian future, a people who live by a higher set of moral standards than we do today, it shows those same people wrestling with their morals in ways that feel relevant.
I've written all this before, so write now? Because i just watched the episode where a scientist is obsessed with finding a crystalline entity that flies through space eating planets. It casually destroyed a settlement where her son lived and she cannot control her bitterness and anger. When they find the entity - the most beautiful creature that has appeared on-screen in any episode up until this point - and the main characters are stunned as they finally start to understand how to communicate with it... she fucking destroys it. There's only one of them in the universe, and now it's gone. And she is treated as the heel of the whole damn franchise for her actions. Sent to her quarters in disgrace. Dressed down by a fucking android, which makes the message even more brutal than if it had been delivered by one of the characters capable of feeling emotion. Dear vengeance-fueled murderer, you fail at being a scientist. You are a disappointment to your dead son. End credits.
And that, that is why modern Star Trek - and in particular the last season of Strange New Worlds - grates with me. Because they take that role of irredeemable scumbag that used to only appear as a guest, and make it into one of the main characters on the show. I think Deep Space 9 did the same thing, and i'm sure i will have something to write about that when i get to it. But this kind of woobifying of the bad guys? No. Fucking no. I am not okay with it. Sure, it's possible to make a compelling show about criminals. But that's not what Star Trek is. Star Trek is about people who are better than that. Or at least who strive to be better than that. Of course violence and greed and corruption still exist, but at least it's portrayed as a clear moral failing. You don't get to "both sides" being a petty, spiteful shitbag. There's no greater cause at stake. You're just a shitbag.
Anyway, the season 5 crystalline entity episode? Another one of those ever-memorable Star Trek moments. Great story, told concisely, and something that hopefully molded at least some of the viewers into better humans in the decades that followed. I want to watch more TV like that.
Do i have anything else to write about that isn't Star Trek? Sure, but this is getting long, so i won't. It's been cold and wet this week, and even though there is a smidge of sun in the sky this Saturday, i think i'm going to head back into space where people are nice and there are weird fucking things.