Alternate Star Trek Aesops

[CharlesPhipps]

"The First Duty" - Being involved in manslaughter and lying about will only get one of you punished beyond losing course credits. One of you will also get away with it completely if your sponsor/possible biodad is there to pull strings.

"Lower Decks" - Picard is entirely willing to use the blackmail of having your career in your hands to get you to work with a Space Nazi on a secret mission. One that ultimately results in getting you killed.

"Ensign Ro" - You can be on a ship where the protagonists have disobeyed hundreds of orders and they will give you immense shit for the same because you failed.

[Yukaphile]

"Homefront/Paradise Lost" - It's okay to surrender your freedom if the illusion of a threat is present. Because then you'll never have to force someone to give it up.

[Yukaphile]

Oh! Here's a big one.

DS9. "Past Tense." Terrorism and taking hostages solves all your problems.

[CharlesPhipps]

TNG: "Too Short a Season"

Alternate Aesop: "Fuck these terrorist assholes."

The essential heart of the story is Karnas was once a terrorist leader before he became a politician, kidnapped a bunch of Federation citizens, demanded weapons in exchange for the hostages, got them, and then Jameson gave the exact amount of weapons to the other side in order to balance the scales. Karnas is thus infuriated that the short but victorious war (to quote David Weber and Russia) he expected became a long drawn out slog. This kicks off the modern plot as Karnas, now dictator of his planet, lures Jameson back to the world in order to punish him.

Okay, how is Karnas not a complete monster and the villain of this story? He obviously was planning to launch an attack against his enemies with Federation weapons and only found out that they weren't pushovers after it happened. He engaged a third party (presumably neutral), attacked civilians, and is infuriated that they acted in a way (post-facto) that was hostile to his nation--assuming he had a nation to begin with.

Everyone acts like Jameson did wrong but it seems like keeping a wannabe Gul Dukat like Karnas from sweeping over the Bajorans is an inherently good thing. Certainly, he plans another act of aggression against the Federation and Starfleet in particular. Why are we meant to think there's anything redeemable about this guy and the guilt is on Jameson?

I get there was meant to be criticisms of "A Private Little War" but both criticisms require you to ignore letting the Klingons/Morden IV dictators off scott free.

[Frustration]

"Okay, how do I deal with the fact that, yes, this religion is legitimately 100% true. Not a computer, not a weird alien."

But the Prophets ARE weird aliens. Very, very weird aliens. Which is what gods would have to be, if they existed.

It's no bigger a mental challenge than accepting the reality of Q, who probably is the Devil. And Loki. And Coyote. And probably the starting lineup of the 1983 Rangers.

[edit: typo]

[Lazerlike42]

ENT: "Cogenitor" seems to be an episode where Archer rips into Trip for the fact that he drove Charles to commit suicide. Except, the woman chose DEATH to returning to slavery. Did Archer miss that apparently the Vissians are like the Taliban or the Handmaid's Tale? A gender is kept solely for reproduction, not allowed to read, and subject to constant rape?

And TRIP is the wrong one?

I cannot wait for Chuck to reach this episode. I can see another ''Fortunate Son'' style rant coming on where Archer is only right because the script says he is. I would say though that they are far more insidious than either the Taliban or Gilead. Because as we saw, the Vissians otherwise come off as completely charming people who have a culture of fine art, food, science and technology. If they weren't dumb enough to bring their rape slave along with them on their voyage then you would never know that they were scum.

One minor point though: Charles wasn't a woman. Its actually kind of an interesting discussion point when you think about it. Human women were oppressed by men throughout most of history on Earth and yet here we have a Vissian woman teaming up with a man to do the same to the third sex of her people. It shows that bigotry isn't confined to what it between your legs.

I just rewatched this one for the first time in a while while watching through the series with my wife, who has never seen it. I think it's probably only the second time I've seen this particular episode.

Honestly, I think this one is probably more offensive than Dear Doctor, not necessarily in terms of the scale of the evil or even necessarily the gravity of the evil (in other words, Phlox denying a single person the treatment might be more evil than a single cogenitor being oppressed and used), but in terms of the way and the strength with which the moral of the story is presented. At least in Dear Doctor Archer largely comes across as being unsure of what decision he ought to make and even in the end the most he does is say something that, in context, more or less just means that he thinks Phlox was probably right.

In Cogenitor, Archer owns the decision and he really digs into Tucker. What's more, he doesn't just make a decision that harms others in a detached or stoic sort of way: he actually blames - aggressively - the act of trying to help the person for the consequences of the oppression that he himself forced this person back into. It's almost a perverse sort of victim blaming.

It's also frustrating as a viewer, because not only does Archer go full Janeway and dig into one of his people for doing something he's done before and if I'm not mistaken will do again, but the episode has Tucker challenge Archer with something very weak ("this is just like you giving them books and movies") when Tucker is perfectly well aware of instances of Archer doing the same sort of thing. For example, he could have brought up the prison camp that Archer liberated.

[clearspira]

TNG: "Too Short a Season"

Alternate Aesop: "Fuck these terrorist assholes."

The essential heart of the story is Karnas was once a terrorist leader before he became a politician, kidnapped a bunch of Federation citizens, demanded weapons in exchange for the hostages, got them, and then Jameson gave the exact amount of weapons to the other side in order to balance the scales. Karnas is thus infuriated that the short but victorious war (to quote David Weber and Russia) he expected became a long drawn out slog. This kicks off the modern plot as Karnas, now dictator of his planet, lures Jameson back to the world in order to punish him.

Okay, how is Karnas not a complete monster and the villain of this story? He obviously was planning to launch an attack against his enemies with Federation weapons and only found out that they weren't pushovers after it happened. He engaged a third party (presumably neutral), attacked civilians, and is infuriated that they acted in a way (post-facto) that was hostile to his nation--assuming he had a nation to begin with.

Everyone acts like Jameson did wrong but it seems like keeping a wannabe Gul Dukat like Karnas from sweeping over the Bajorans is an inherently good thing. Certainly, he plans another act of aggression against the Federation and Starfleet in particular. Why are we meant to think there's anything redeemable about this guy and the guilt is on Jameson?

I get there was meant to be criticisms of "A Private Little War" but both criticisms require you to ignore letting the Klingons/Morden IV dictators off scott free.

It depends on your view of the Prime Directive. Its wrong because he gave Karnas Federation weapons to do it. If Jameson had just let them kill themselves, its fine.

Besides which we only have a one-sided story here. We don't actually know how good or bad the opposing side were.

[clearspira]

ENT: "Cogenitor" seems to be an episode where Archer rips into Trip for the fact that he drove Charles to commit suicide. Except, the woman chose DEATH to returning to slavery. Did Archer miss that apparently the Vissians are like the Taliban or the Handmaid's Tale? A gender is kept solely for reproduction, not allowed to read, and subject to constant rape?

And TRIP is the wrong one?

I cannot wait for Chuck to reach this episode. I can see another ''Fortunate Son'' style rant coming on where Archer is only right because the script says he is. I would say though that they are far more insidious than either the Taliban or Gilead. Because as we saw, the Vissians otherwise come off as completely charming people who have a culture of fine art, food, science and technology. If they weren't dumb enough to bring their rape slave along with them on their voyage then you would never know that they were scum.

One minor point though: Charles wasn't a woman. Its actually kind of an interesting discussion point when you think about it. Human women were oppressed by men throughout most of history on Earth and yet here we have a Vissian woman teaming up with a man to do the same to the third sex of her people. It shows that bigotry isn't confined to what it between your legs.

I just rewatched this one for the first time in a while while watching through the series with my wife, who has never seen it. I think it's probably only the second time I've seen this particular episode.

Honestly, I think this one is probably more offensive than Dear Doctor, not necessarily in terms of the scale of the evil or even necessarily the gravity of the evil (in other words, Phlox denying a single person the treatment might be more evil than a single cogenitor being oppressed and used), but in terms of the way and the strength with which the moral of the story is presented. At least in Dear Doctor Archer largely comes across as being unsure of what decision he ought to make and even in the end the most he does is say something that, in context, more or less just means that he thinks Phlox was probably right.

In Cogenitor, Archer owns the decision and he really digs into Tucker. What's more, he doesn't just make a decision that harms others in a detached or stoic sort of way: he actually blames - aggressively - the act of trying to help the person for the consequences of the oppression that he himself forced this person back into. It's almost a perverse sort of victim blaming.

It's also frustrating as a viewer, because not only does Archer go full Janeway and dig into one of his people for doing something he's done before and if I'm not mistaken will do again, but the episode has Tucker challenge Archer with something very weak ("this is just like you giving them books and movies") when Tucker is perfectly well aware of instances of Archer doing the same sort of thing. For example, he could have brought up the prison camp that Archer liberated.

This is the sort of episode that deserved a season 4 return; back when Many Coto was trying desperately to repair all of Berman and Braga's crap before the show was taken off the air. And hey, its not too late, we can always return to them in the newer shows.

There is so much wasted potential with this race. For example, how about showing us the parents of one of these Congenitors being forced to give up their child to become a rape slave? How does that come about? Why do they allow it? That cannot be a willing thing unless this race really is scummy levels of evil.

Another example, how about showing us how this situation came about? Why are there so few Congenitors? Surely any real species would have a 3/3/3 gender split, not a 4/4/1 as is implied.

[CharlesPhipps]

Fun fact about Cogenitors: In the ALIEN NATION series, the Techtonese have almost an identical biology in that only about 1 in a hundred of their race are born a different kind of male that is required to also inseminate their females. Rather than treat them as slaves, they are a priestly caste honored for their activities or actually highly paid professionals.

A bit of a contrast.

[Nealithi]

TNG: "Too Short a Season"

Alternate Aesop: "Fuck these terrorist assholes."

The essential heart of the story is Karnas was once a terrorist leader before he became a politician, kidnapped a bunch of Federation citizens, demanded weapons in exchange for the hostages, got them, and then Jameson gave the exact amount of weapons to the other side in order to balance the scales. Karnas is thus infuriated that the short but victorious war (to quote David Weber and Russia) he expected became a long drawn out slog. This kicks off the modern plot as Karnas, now dictator of his planet, lures Jameson back to the world in order to punish him.

Okay, how is Karnas not a complete monster and the villain of this story? He obviously was planning to launch an attack against his enemies with Federation weapons and only found out that they weren't pushovers after it happened. He engaged a third party (presumably neutral), attacked civilians, and is infuriated that they acted in a way (post-facto) that was hostile to his nation--assuming he had a nation to begin with.

Everyone acts like Jameson did wrong but it seems like keeping a wannabe Gul Dukat like Karnas from sweeping over the Bajorans is an inherently good thing. Certainly, he plans another act of aggression against the Federation and Starfleet in particular. Why are we meant to think there's anything redeemable about this guy and the guilt is on Jameson?

I get there was meant to be criticisms of "A Private Little War" but both criticisms require you to ignore letting the Klingons/Morden IV dictators off scott free.

It depends on your view of the Prime Directive. Its wrong because he gave Karnas Federation weapons to do it. If Jameson had just let them kill themselves, its fine.

Besides which we only have a one-sided story here. We don't actually know how good or bad the opposing side were.

The way I remember the story Karnas is the one that held the Federation citizens hostage so he could get weapons to steam roll his opponents. Jameson tried both diplomacy and rescue operations that failed. So he either had to let Karnas kill those people or give him the weaponry he demanded. Then he also armed his opponents to even the playing field so he kept some balance. Jameson had no good way out.

"A Private Little War" The klingons were arming a faction above the tech level of the planet and were not so subtly accelerating even that. The two factions had been in balance and a measure of peace till the other outside faction interfered. Kirk could not restore peace, but he could get the klingons off the planet and put in a balance of an equal number and level of weapons. In a way showing the cold war proxy fighting that was going on. Oh Russia is supporting X group. So we must support Y group and keep them on parity with each other. It is a crap situation. What should Kirk do? Walk away and say hey we didn't violate the prime directive. So all the death here is on the klingons? There was no right answer. The best they had was the least bad answer.