9.0 DODGY SUBTEXTS [see postscripts]
As Trekkies regard Star Trek philosophy with near‐religious
adulation, and constantly praise its contribution to Global
Niceness, it may come as a shock to them that I regard it as
deeply suspect. Roddenberry picked the wrong subgenre of SF
for preaching neophilia and tolerance: a Space Opera setting suits
Kirk's human‐chauvinism, black‐and‐white ethics, and
anti‐intellectual distrust of technology much more naturally than
any rational conceptual extrapolation. Space Opera isn't an
automatically evil and fascistic genre (read Iain M Banks'
technosocialist “Culture” novels!), but it takes an effort to make
it intelligent and xenophile.
Remember Kirk's little lectures on Liberty, Individualism, and
Mom's Apple Pie? His personal endorsement of US involvement
in Vietnam (“A Private Little War”, ST:TOS2)? The
episode (“The Omega Glory”, ST:TOS2) where he gets to
recite the constitution of the USA? And speaking of which,
there's the “Constitution‐class” starship, “USS Enterprise”, with
its US‐Navy rank structure… yes, it's the good old U F of P:
a cultural melting‐pot in which every bridge‐crew (like a
war‐movie platoon) is a careful blend of token minorities! …
Spotted the subtext yet?
I have already (5.3) expressed doubts about
the Star Trek Universe's “multi‐racial community” metaphor; if the
intended message was that differences are only skin‐deep, why all
those bad‐guy species whose differences are as profound as they
could get? Why the organism‐chauvinism and contempt for
clones (1.5, 1.6)?
If the United Federation of Planets is so tolerant and equal and
cosmopolitan, why is it run by English‐speaking Terrans?
When was the last time anybody detected any menacing entity
heading straight for, say, the Andorians' homeworld? (uh…
Andora?) How is it Q can declare that he's come to put
humanity on trial without the Klingons, Androids, Betazoids, and
so forth saying “I'll be off, then!”? And above all, what
about those stereotyped comic relief foreigners, like Chief
Engineer Montgomery Scott, or that planetful of appalling stage
Irishmen in “Up the Long Ladder” (ST:TNG2)?
Judging by Kirk's interpretation, the Prime Directive says “never
be helpful to aliens unless it's convenient, profitable, or fun”;
cf. the Monroe Doctrine. By ST:TNG times it has
become an absolutist dogma, which you may furtively break but
can't appeal against, that Charity is Evil (those aliens whose
planet is about to explode ought to learn to stand on their own
two feet – “Pen Pals”, ST:TNG2). It also
seems to have become more universally applicable. The Prime
Directive used to crop up only in connection with “primitive”
societies; but in the ST:TNG1 drugs episode “Symbiosis” it
forbids dropping hints to spacefaring races who beg for Federation
aid. All for Their Own Longterm Good… Surely, by the same
logic, Starfleet has no right to interfere in Romulan expansionist
policies?
Note also that the Prime Directive is based on the (inferred)
ethics of the benign alien observers imagined by
UFO‐cultists. The oddity of this is highlighted in the
episodes when the Enterprise becomes a UFO; like “First Contact”
(ST:TNG4), with its brave UFO‐spotters vs. a Malkorian
government coverup. But hang on; twentieth‐century Terran
Ufologers never were being watched by the United
Federation of Planets! Are we the only race in the Star Trek
Universe with such sad delusions?
Life in 2370 is perfect. We know, because they never stop
saying so.
-
Everybody is legally equal. But the legal system is that of
the USA (with attorneys), and Starfleet officers are more equal
than others.
-
There's no poverty, and no capitalistic economics (“The Neutral
Zone”, ST:TNG1). So what are all the obsessive
traders and gamblers doing, then?
-
There are no drugs – Guinan isn't licensed. But
is Picard's Earl Grey decaffeinated? Why don't they use
harmless customised wonderdrugs?
-
All races and cultures are equal. Everybody has only been
Americanised (rather than, say, Iranianised) because they
genuinely wanted to be.
-
There are no sexual hangups… so what's happened to homosexuality?
-
There is no racism… so where are all the Hispanics, Arabs, and
co?
-
There is no crime, or terrorism… for ominously unspecifed
reasons.
-
People live to 140 (see 4.4). But
octogenarians are considered “past it”, not expected to lead
active lives; see “The Survivors” (ST:TNG3).
-
There is no sexism. But women are still subordinate; see
9.5 below.
…And so on. ST:TOS by contrast displayed rampant
capitalism, alcoholism, intolerance, sexism etc.; the movies
(e.g., the start of “The Search for Spock”, ST:TMP3) hinted
that it was a militaristic bureaucracy. But by
ST:TNG, the United Federation of Planets has become a
1980s‐American vision of paradise, with revealing
blindspots. Note for instance the peculiar sanctity with
which Starfleet officers' ranks and duties are imbued.
Acting Ensign Crusher may not see how he's entitled (as in “Pen
Pals”, ST:TNG2) to issue commands to people bigger,
smarter, and more experienced than he is, but it's simple enough;
he outranks them.
9.5 RESIDUAL SEXISM [see postscripts]
Uhura is, despite her soft‐focus, as close as Star Trek has got to
a sympathetic female, content in a non‐“girly” career with no man
in her life. It's been downhill ever since; name the
highest‐ranking woman on the NCC1701D! Dr Crusher
(née what?) is a mother‐figure; Deanna too is a sexual stereotype,
and outside their ordinary chain‐of‐command. Notice also
that aliens, especially superbeings like Q, are invariably male.
Quasisciences (1.0) work well in SF;
pseudosciences don't. “The New Age” is the latest
Californian fashion in parareligious tosh, seeping into
ST:TNG whenever Deanna opens her mouth. (Any New
Agers offended by my comments should remember: let go of your
judgemental mindset, sucker!) It's a bizarre (but
profitable) syncretistic mishmash, incorporating:
-
Technophobic mysticism! Reviving “naturally dead”
corpsicles (see “The Neutral Zone”, ST:TNG1) is wrong;
clones, cyborgs, autopilots etc. are all “unnatural”; and even
Data (the ST:TNG Spock‐figure) prefers
irrationalism!
-
Materialistic hedonism! Awkward to mix with the
above? Nonsense – read this mail‐order
brochure! Buy psychic crystals (as advertised in, e.g.,
“Home Soil” ST:TNG1)! Maximise your own physical
wellbeing – live in sheer individualistic luxury
(“Justice”, ST:TNG1; “Captain's Holiday”, ST:TNG3)
on a planet full of bronzed Californianoids where nobody who
matters has to do any work! Never mind your consumer
society's impact on the Third World, or the environment!
After all, we can probably fix that later!
-
Mental laziness! Don't think – just go
with the flow; eastern mysticism minus the ascetic
self‐discipline! Solve problems by positive thoughts
(“Where No‐one Has Gone Before”, ST:TNG1), or waiting for
them to go away (every other ST:TNG1 plot)! Equally
facile solutions are offered for such real‐world problems as
drugs, terrorists, or 'Nam Vet psychosis (“The Hunted”,
ST:TNG3: the answer, apparently, is to storm the White
House).
-
Callous idealism! Evil doesn't exist – or
if it does, it has a right to (“Skin of Evil”,
ST:TNG1)! Pain doesn't hurt, it's a learning
experience! No need for charity towards disaster victims;
“victim consciousness” dogma says they brought it upon themselves
by putting out bad vibes!
-
Pure gullibility and appetite for junk‐science!
Hence their inability to tell genetic adaptation from
technological progress (1.6; superbeings are
always “highly evolved”, as in “Transfigurations”,
ST:TNG3). And then there's Deanna's psychobabble
“advice”, with plugs for (late‐twentieth‐century) fad therapies
like “directed dreaming”. At least for once it's free.
ST:TOS was a respectable effort (for the sixties) to
produce intelligent SF. It at least tried to make
sense, and featured US TV's first interracial kiss.
ST:TNG has bigger budgets but less integrity: it reuses the
setting not because it was good, but to guarantee an audience for
minimal risk and creative investment. So it can't imperil
its ratings by depicting a world where most humans aren't WASPs,
women are as important as men, and moral codes can be
irreconcilable (Xyzons torture babies! Terrans eat dead
meat!). The diversity‐stifling corporate control of the
media has formularised Star Trek into a soap‐opera using sci‐fi
special effects; a genre in its own right, supplanting SF in the
minds of the viewers and in the ecosystem of big‐budget TV
productions. Resistance is futile…
1993 Footnotes
- 9.1
-
I hasten to add that the USA is a perfectly fine country, as
countries go. But I hardly expect Lincoln to be remembered
as “an early Earth President” (“The Savage Curtain”,
ST:TOS3).
- 9.2
-
There is for a change one English‐accented character who isn't a
baddy; but despite his taste for tea, identification with Horatio
Nelson, and willingness to take seriously a woman named Vache,
he's supposed to be French! Deanna, meanwhile, is an alien,
and therefore speaks with an Americanoid accent – even
though the actress is a Londoner!
- 9.3
-
Note for those ignorant of American history: that's the
nineteenth‐century President Monroe, not Marilyn.
- 9.7
-
I remember the days (up until about 1985) when the BBC used to
produce SF, as opposed to kiddy fantasy spoofs or half‐hearted
technothrillers. This will never happen again while they
can get hot and cold running Roddenberry.
1997+ Postscripts
- 9.0
-
Babylon 5 has some themes I don't care for, but it evades
criticism by refusing to endorse any cause unequivocally.
Witness its handling of the Vorlon/Shadow war.
- 9.1
-
JMS doesn't show the USA as dominating Earth, let alone the
universe; the “Us/Good/Americans vs.
Them/Evil/Aliens” dichotomy is one I'm glad to see the
back of.
- 9.2
-
Bizarrely, USS Voyager's token black officer is also its token
Vulcan (raising the question of why all the rest were
melanin‐deficient).
- 9.3
-
B5 has several times pointed out the questionable ethics of the
Prime Directive (usually via the elitist Minbari), and indeed
made alien abduction jokes. (Note the unhelpfulness of
ST:TMP8's second‐hand title…)
- 9.4
-
Although the Star Trek Universe is free to discard Roddenberry's
utopianist straitjacket, I have yet to see evidence of democratic
elections, a free press, or Starfleet officers with
unconventional opinions, let alone crime, poverty, drug
addiction, evil corporations, bad laws, discrimination, biassed
journalism… the Earth Alliance is far more interesting! The
next step is some sign of subcultures cutting across racial
boundaries – let's see some punk Drazi and/or
G'Quonist humans!
- 9.5
-
USS Voyager's female captain is a cardboard Competent
Bizniswimin; the Queen B is a ludicrous piece of misogyny.
Still, this is one of the areas where B5 is itself open to
criticism, since its aliens are patriarchal by default.
- 9.6
-
The X‑Files strikes me as the
perfect disproof of postmodernism, which holds that today's
media‐literate audiences are sufficiently sophisticated to play
around with genre boundaries (like “fantasy” and “documentary”)
without getting them hopelessly mixed up. JMS uses
religions as material, maintaining a clear
quasi/pseudoscience divide.
- 9.7
-
By now even the fans should see that the Star Trek Universe is
being strip‐mined beyond sustainable limits. Death to the
Star Trek Collective! Long live the Resistance!
