Essential linkage: 17 important - and rather blunt - moral lessons from the annals of Star Trek.
We love the AV Club good for its witty take on modern pop culture, and one of our favourite regulars on the site is the weekly Inventory. This week, unsurprisingly, the Clubbers are looking at Star Trek, and some of its not so subtle message episodes.
Star Trek in all its forms has always tried to act as something of a social conscience, taking on such tasks as defending gay rights, deploring military excess and even delivering the message that we really need to be looking after our fragile blue-green ball of a planet - you know, in case space tourists show up asking for directions to Antares, and all they speak is whale. But as laudable as those messages are, the delivery was often a touch ham-fisted. And AV Club has 17 of the best:
4. Racial profiling is bad; detention camps are even worse ("Detained," Enterprise)In its first two seasons, the Scott Bakula-helmed series Enterprise faced a formidable foe in the form of the Suliban, an alien race whose weapons included time travel and genetic engineering. And what a terrible race they were! But wait, they weren't all bad, as Bakula's Capt. Archer discovers when he winds up imprisoned in a detainment camp with a bunch of Suliban. Turns out they're a peace-loving race who largely shun the violent tactics of the terrorist-like Cabal sect. Message received, right? Almost. Turns out Archer has some facts about the United States' WWII Japanese internment camps he needs to share with his jailer (Bakula's old Quantum Leap co-star Dean Stockwell) before leading a daring escape. We get it, all right?
It's a great list, filled with snark and insight, but you know what? It really just makes me want to watch a lot of Trek. Even a badly delivered message is better than none at all.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012