Logline
Commander Una Chin-Riley faces court-martial along with possible imprisonment and dishonorable dismissal from Starfleet, and her defense is in the hands of a lawyer who’s also a childhood friend with whom she had a terrible falling out.
Written by Dana Horgan
Directed by Valerie Weiss
Star Trek has always been contemporary issues wrapped in the veneer of space aliens. It’s not meant to be pure escapism.
This was my first Star Trek Series, I’ve now realised it’s a theme. It’s certainly my least favourite aspect of the show.
The episode about child sweatshops in particular felt very accusational to me, the message seemed to be that by existing I’m causing child suffering akin to child murder, through cobalt mines and clothing sweatshops etc.
I’m reminded of that bit in The Good Place where the judge says “There’s a chicken burger that, if you eat it, means you hate gay people. And it’s so gooood! It’s not fair!” (Referring to chik-fil-a)
It’s more than a theme, it’s the entire cloth the show is cut from. It’s meant to be a vehicle for progressive, egalitarian, humanist ideals. It dares to see the world as a better place without the chains and vices of greed and capitalism and bigotry.
It’s not popcorn sci-fi. It’s a surprisingly deep show meant to make you confront biases and prejudices you may not have even realized you had.
Yes I get that, I simply find it doesn’t achieve that goal and that its attempts to do so are without subtlety and overly contemporary, I’m now watching Discovery and in S01E03 or so, Captain Lorca cites Elon Musk as a great innovator.
The show is already dated and it’s only 5 years old, that’s a major downside.
I think it’s primarily the shallow depth of the prejudice confrontation that causes the problem, I don’t remember any episodes so far which didn’t feel like primary school level metaphors for racism etc. A more tactful and/or deeper writer would perhaps cause me no issues
The Elon comment kinda comes back around, you’ll just need to keep watching and it’ll make sense. Also, that image I used above was from a TOS episode about racism being stupid all the way back in the 60s. It’s not trying to be subtle, and it never was.
And there’s STILL people who think it’s a show that glorifies and celebrates white, western colonialism and American exceptionalism. It has to be blatant because people miss the point regularly.
What you’re saying is that you hate actually having to acknowledge that you consume stuff that causes pain and suffering and would rather just ignore it.
Correct. How do you propose I live in the modern world without a phone that uses cobalt?
There is a phrase that describes this situation: “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism”
There is nothing I can do while living in the modern world without benefitting from exploitation or encouraging evil, that’s the point of the The Good Place quote I included.
I’m already depressed about it, I don’t really want to be berated for it when there’s nothing I can do about it. I already buy all my clothes second hand, fight my phone and laptop for basic privacy rights, vote for the least evil politician I can, I don’t own a car.
You can fight the system