New thought!

After what I just wrote I have an even more intense need than I did after seeing the leather jackets, to have some time travel shenanigans so Una Chin Riley can meet Seven.

Like before I was just going uhhhhh Captain in leather. But now I have actual common ground and feelings about said common ground.

I will probably file this under the same heading as “B’elanna and Kira Nerys should be friends” as something I probably won’t do anything with but damn it would be cool.

Thinky thoughts 🙃

trillscienceofficer:

I know that “Space, the final frontier” went from “where no man has gone before” on TOS to “where no one has gone before” on TNG for reasons of ‘let’s try to make this less sexist’ but still nobody thought to question the whole idea of the frontier until the DS9 pilot. And then no other show followed up on that except maybe the hints on Voyager and Enterprise about those ships destabilizing an already existing situation everywhere they went

Your recent posts like this one ^^ is what reminded me about my essay which included Imperialism and the Federation.

I think a big part of the issue is narrative framing. The characters on older Trek (not always but sometimes) argued more. They took perspectives on parts of the debate. The newer Trek has a lot of the same hooks in the storylines but the thrust of the plot tends to push the same agenda (which isn’t a reflective one). They don’t tend to question whether they are right anymore, they just assume they are and go from there.

I mean Discovery began with the Klingons at least making the point about cultural homogenisation, and the way the Federation spread. That point was lost in the show (narrative framing) because good guys vs bad guys is easier to sell? I don’t know.

It’s hard for me because I have all of this ^^ in my head so I tend to see it, whereas it might not actually be there so much.

Ok while I am on the topic of “unpopular Star Trek opinions” I’m going to go back to an old one. When I first heard the Klingons in the Discovery pilot say about the Federation and the most dangerous words being “we come in peace” I got chills.

I wrote an essay for university about that time. It covered more than just this ^^ but that was part of it. I also did a segment on the goa’uld from Stargate. It was correlating real world political ideologies, and actual historical implementations of those policies, with fictional groups/events in science-fiction. With the aim of the analysis to go to the core of sci-fi which is using it as a lens to explore facets of ourselves.

What makes the opinion so unpopular is because it is a conflict between the stated ideals of the Federation and how it actually is. My argument basically drew a comparison in universe with the Federation and the Borg (and out of universe with Americanisation/westernisation in terms of homogenisation of culture). In many ways the Federation does ‘assimilate’ the worlds it absorbs. That’s a simplistic generalised overview, obviously lot more to it.

The Federation claims to be Explorers but they are expansionists. They have their territory, and they have constant wars over defending it. It is really imperialism. Calling it peace doesn’t change that. Add to the fact that while Pike claims everyone votes it’s also very Earth-centric with the leaders of the Federation (and StarFleet as something of an enforcement arm in practicality) being majority human.

There is also a deep undercurrent of superiority/we know best. A bit of a colonial saviour complex. The best Trek in my opinion is when it is self-aware. I cheered in Strange New Worlds when Doctor M’Benga said they had left some prejudices behind, but on reaching the stars they had just adopted new ones.

It’s the eternal struggle. We all have work to do on ourselves, cultural prejudices/blinkers that we might not even realise we have. Constant battle to be better. More understanding, more open minded etc. and sci-fi as a lens to look at ourselves, is supposed to reflect that. So I don’t have a problem with Trek being how it is, in fact I think it is supposed to be like that, to provoke debate and reflection.

The unpopular part comes from the reflection. It is a cynical view of a Federation which is supposed to offer hope for a brighter future.