So, there's a new Star Trek series in the works over at CBS...
What will it be about?
Star Trek, in its early days, always excelled at re-imagining our
Earthly issues, social and political, as challenges faced by our
characters on alien worlds and within the Federation. At times, it was radical and almost subversive.
While the series of the '80s, '90s, and the naughties were generally written to a much higher standard, and often provided social or moral commentary on various issues of the day, the hard-edged daring that defined The Original Series (that and the copious cheese) was increasingly absent.
The world feels morally disoriented lately. Maybe that's something every generation thinks about the world as they age, but If you want a radical theme for the new Star Trek show, something topical, then how about ambiguity?
Friend? Foe? Neither? ...Why?
DS9 tackled some of this ambiguity with Changeling infiltrations and
religious extremism. It occasionally seems almost prescient when you re-watch it
these days!
I'm not suggesting we look for more of the same, but the current global political landscape offers many opportunities to dust off Star Trek's old social commentary mirror, and expand upon DS9's rich and textured groundwork:
Europe is facing a tide of refugees and immigrants from the Middle
East, composed of desperate, decent people struggling tooth and nail to
find a safe haven in the EU. They're running from opposing forces of
tyranny and cult-exploitation, or just from the all-encompassing
destruction between those forces.
The welcome they find here is limited - they're treated with suspicion for many reasons:
They're desperate - will they turn to crime?
They're running from radicalisation - have some of them been turned? Will they kill us if we take them in?
They're educated - might they have a hidden agenda?
Meanwhile the strife they're running from is a cesspool of competing
corporate and political interests, many of which have environmental
ramifications that are exacerbating the whole situation.
Imagine re-casting this real-world situation as the fallout of the
Dominion War, or (cringe) the destruction of Romulus... or both.
The Federation, structurally, is much more like the EU in this
situation, and would continue to serve as an aspirational society -
though flawed. They would be the ones dealing with the moral dilemma of
how to accommodate the displaced hordes of Cardassians, Romulans, and
Gamma Quadrant species.
The Cardassian Union would make multiple attempts to create a lasting government, but repeatedly fall to internal struggles.
They, together with the Dominion would be like the Assad and Murzi
regimes, desperately trying to hang onto control as their empires
crumble. Initially the Dominion would be hit by a popular uprising
applauded by the Alpha Quadrant powers, but some new group rising within
the influx would represent ISIS, and start to co-opt the uprising to
try to secure its own foothold.
Leaderless, structure-loving Romulans would cast around for whomever
they could install as a leader, but unused to the nomadic lifestyle
thrust upon them, and unable to contend with the uprisings on vassal
worlds throughout the former empire, they fracture into multiple
factions, some seeking Federation aid.
All of this would place a strain on the Federation, with border
worlds beset by resource shortages and bottlenecks in the refugee trail
emerging everywhere. Tensions between member worlds would rise, but I'd
rather the Federation weather the storm. Star Trek exists to show us the most righteous way to deal with our problems. That's what it has always set out to do.
This might be controversial, but I think it would be interesting to
turn the traditional Trek political analogy on its head, and have the
Klingons fulfil some of the unsavoury roles that the US has had in the
last couple of decade's events.
They should be the ones who suffer a 9/11-style atrocity,
and then use it as an excuse to start a proxy war that's really about
Dilithium or labor. The Federation has been ignoring some of the uglier
traits of Klingon culture for decades, but events will conspire to force
the UFP to either call them out, or tacitly permit immoral behaviour.
Their warp engines are damaging subspace, and they're waging war to
continue mining the Kovenium Monotserite and dilithium that continue
that process. Meanwhile, an enormous cultural bias against scientific
advancement (There's no honour in being a nerd), and a general
incompatibility with Federation tech stalls any move away from that
dependency, and they maintain a misplaced pride in the fact that their
primitive technology allowed the allies to circumvent the Dominion's
Breen advantage in the war.
The Klingons would retain the sympathetic regard we've built up for
them over the last 16 seasons of 24th century TV, in that many of them
would be fine people, but the Federation public would have to deal with
the uncomfortable truth of how the Klingon government conducts itself in
war, occupation, and intelligence.
...So, that would set the stage. Then the writers come in and
depict the heroes of the Federation, their Klingon allies, and the
decent folk among the disadvantaged masses doing the right thing, and resolving the situation as peacefully as possible
Perhaps that's the perspective that's been missing from Trek
- they need to stop trying to make the Federation be the US. It used to
be the aspirational goal for the US, but America has shifted away from
that path, and perhaps it's time for a foreign perspective. The
Federation is the EU, and the Klingons are the US... everyone else is
just trying to pick themselves up...
...you know... in a lot of ways, that
fits like a glove!
Now, I don't expect this idea to be anywhere near the mark - for one thing, I figure 24th century Trek is done-for, thanks to the healthy profits turned by the lowest-common-denominator schtick of the Abrams films. The new series is being produced by Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of the 2009 'Star Trek' film, a core member of JJ Abrams' creative team and seated on their self-styled "Supreme Court Of Trek". Dollars-to-donuts, the series will be set in that continuity. It could still be an entertaining and valuable contribution to the canon, but with the foundation of those movies under it, it's an unstable start to say the least.
So this post is little more than a thought experiment, but a fun one at that. I actually came up with the idea as a thought experiment a few days before the announcement of the new shows.
The Star Trek "lit-verse" of Pocket Books novels has apparently provided a consistent continuation of the 24th century universe left behind in the wake of Voyager, incorporating many of the same elements I've used here, but I haven't read them, so I don't know how that cocktail turned out.
End Transmission.
