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Revisiting Star Trek: The Next Generation

We've been re-watching ST:TNG lately. It was a good show for me as a kid. It espoused an idealistic view of humanity. It was pro-science and pro-rationality. Every problem could be solved in short order through communication, intelligence, and gadgetry. It's clear to me in retrospect how this show helped form my own ideals and attitudes.

Unfortunately, two decades later, the show's flaws are more evident. The "Rubber Science" of Star Trek is, of course, a long standing joke. But what's truly striking to me now is how pervasive the problem is. In literally every episode, some dramatic new technological event occurs. I've just watched two episodes in a row where eternal life gets invented. In the first, the ability to download brains to computers! In the second, the ability to use the transporter to filter out old age!

These are interesting and deep ideas, well and truly explored throughout the sci-fi literature. But in Star Trek, they're just part of a fusillade of the sci-fi smorgasbord that's being hurled at us. In a good sci-fi, these kinds of ideas are used as a backdrop, and what becomes interesting is the exploration of the societal impact. But Federation culture is impervious to change. The Prime Directive seems to apply more to the Federation itself than to the noble savages they continuously encounter. Disruptive technologies assault the crew of the Enterprise on a daily basis, and yet they rise above, serene, impermeable.

Perhaps this is why Babylon 5 was so attractive; it was arguably the first modern sci-fi show that acknowledged that change happens. Re-watching Firefly in the past few days (in between discs of ST:TNG, since Firefly was so mournfully short) also demonstrates a sci-fi universe where technology has cultural implications.

Here are some examples in the past two decades of ideas that would have been throw-away plot devices in ST:TNG:

  • laptop computers
  • pervasive high speed networking
  • dramatic improvements in visual rendering
  • the web
  • pervasive mobile access to data

For example, seven years ago, the iPod was just coming out. Now, iPhones, Droids, and Pres have dramatically changed the way we look at computing. Where, in ST:TNG's seven year run, is the impact of ANY of their throwaway ideas shown? I'd argue the closest Star Trek ever comes to this is the Holodeck, a technology introduced with the first episode, and which ends up having great impact on the social interactions of the crew.

The show is nice to re-watch, largely because it does harken back to a simpler time. After a stressful year, it's nice to watch a fairly low-impact and innocuous fantasy, where people are just fundamentally trying to be nice to each other. But the elephants in the transporter bay are hard to overlook.

Comments

But that's the beauty of Star Trek. All the things that TNG was lacking, are explored in one of the other Treks.
You say that Federation culture is impervious to change, but in Deep Space Nine, the whole Political and social dynamic is explored, and focused on. Like the Cultural ramifications of the Wormhole, the "Prophets" and their non-linear perspective, and how the relatively undeveloped Beijorans see them as Deities. Also the importance of just one man's existence, as a catalytic force in all of this, is portrayed (almost) perfectly, in the character of Ben Sisko. As the first non-Beijoran Emissary, and also the Federation's representative, he shows how the Secular, and the Non-Secular do not have to be counter productive, or indeed, kept separate, to co-exist. All it takes is one good Man. (I know he is sacrificed at the end but aren't we all?)

The War with Cardassia and the re-alignment of the Klingon Empire, (with their Honour intact) show how Diplomacy, and good sense can only prevail, if people are prepared to fight for what is right. And then, when they find out that the real enemy, are not who they thought, but a shadowy Dominion of shapeshifters, from the Gamma quadrant, demonstrates the consequences from the Wormhole's use as a gateway, and how Superpowers do not make good neighbours. And the poor Jem Hadar, fighting, not for honour, or tradition, but for Tetracil White, shows how a Despotic Administration will use any dirty tricks to maintain Power.
I particularly like the inclusion of the Ferengi in DS9. They represent the role of Materialism nicely, often looked down on by Federation peoples, as a caste of greedy primitives, not even nearly ready to be offered Federation Membership, The Federation despise the Ferengi as a nuisance race. But through Quark's relationship with Odo, his underlying good nature,and love for his friends, the Federation are reminded that there are values they sometimes forget are important. And lets not forget that the Federation, are basically Space Fascists, ostensibly benevolent, but State Membership still means submitting, on a Planetary level, to the Superstate and it's "Prime Directive". And they kind of give the watcher a hint of their dark soul, when they infect Odo with that disease, so he can infect the Founders, thus neutralising any threat from the Dominion.
Anyway, that's it for now.

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