Last night they started airing the penultimate episode of Star Trek Enterprise. Next week is the big finale.
I won’t spoil too much here lest folks haven’t seen it yet. (CHECK YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS.)
I do, though, want to comment on a few things.
The episode is better than I expected.
From the previews, I knew that it featured sci-fi regular Peter Weller (a.k.a. Buckaroo Bonzai a.k.a. RoboCop) in the role of an extremist leader who makes fiery speeches. Something about seeing this in the previews gave me a sinking feeling that they were going to do the standard things of giving it a religious/moral values overlay that would allow the series creators to make a veiled statement about "the religious right" (the way they did in that stupid, stupid Deep Space 9 episode where Fundamentalism and the Moral Majority was portrayed under the name "Foundationalism").
But they didn’t!
They had Weller playing a character named Paxton who leads a purely secular extremist group. No talk about religion or values or anything like that.
Paxton’s group is concerned with alien immigration and influence on human society.
The episode also starts setting up the founding of the Federation (to be seen in the series finale, next week).
It’s understandable that many in human society would be hesitant about joining the Federation.
Folks here don’t want to give up their sovereignty to the United Nations (and justly so! thoroughly corrupt and unjust body that it is). Why should people go unhesitatingly into a federation of planets?
It’s natural that there would be a xenophobia problem (particularly if Earth had just been attacked by an alien race like the Xindi!).
The show’s producers even let Weller’s character get in some good points–like the fact that Starfleet has been galavanting around the galaxy giving other, possibly hostile species’ knowledge of the whereabouts of Earth.
There is also mention of the fact that there are numerous "unregistered" aliens on Earth–a deliberate allusion to the U.S.’s current illegal immigration problem.
But despite these fair points, Paxton’s group is still, at bottom, evil, and the episode makes that clear.
What I found suprising was the name of the group.
"Terra Prime."
Y’know what that means in (fractured) Latin?
Earth First.
(It’s fractured Latin because it should really be Terra Prima.)
Still, "Earth First" is a good name for a xenophobic, Earth-centric organization.
Like that there xenophobic, Earth-centric group on Babylon 5, which was also called . . .
"Earth First."
Guess that name was already taken or something.
Jimmy, I’m from New Zealand and your post reminds me of a local political party called “New Zealand First”. If this issue extends all the way to the UFP or Babylon 5 it’s obviously something more than just a South Pacific aberration!
I found this one kind of dull. Maybe they’ve just been too good lately that this mediocre episode was just no fun to watch.
My two cents.
I used to be a Star Trek Enterprise fan, would watch every episode up until about two years ago. There was an episode that was so upsetting to me (it infuriated me) that I could not watch it any more. The episode had to do with a religious race of beings, I forget if they were humans or what. But the episode was one hour of none stop religion bashing. All of the enlightened crew of the Enterprise could not believe that there where these ignorant fools that could still possibly believe in God. The episode even went to great pains to show how back in the old days of earth religion was the cause of so much strife and war that they had long ago abandoned such imbecilic ways. Why those old fools all most destroyed earth. I know that this thought has always been under the surface of all the Star Treks, but it was never so blatant as that episode. At least I cannot recall anyway. I was a lapsed Catholic for many years and maybe it did not effect me as much. I guess I don’t understand the attraction the Mr. Akins or any religious person has to Star Trek. What keeps you watching? I know what I am going to get when I watch it; indoctrination in political correctness with a little bit of “You’re a dolt to believe in such nonsense (God)”, thrown in for good measure.
Re Ben Hammer’s post:
Wow. An episode that actually sounds worse than the gay indoctrination episode. I’m stunned.
The name was probably inspired by the “America First” isolationist groups of the early 20th century.
Ben–I enjoy (or have enjoyed–I’m growing more disenchanted with it as time goes on) Star Trek, but you’re right that its attitude towards religion generally ranges from bemused tolerance to contemptuous hostility.
Actually, there is an organization named “Earth First!”; it’s an enviromental group that’s been associated with violent activities in the past.
I think I remember the episode Ben is talking about. The race of beings thought the Delphic Expanse was created by spiritual beings, and there were two factions of the race that were fighting with each other. It turned out the big doctrinal dispute was over how many days it took to create the Delphi Expanse. I was really embarrassed by that episode.
Star Trek has got it’s good points and bad points. I remember the episode from the original series about the “sun” (actually “Son”) worshippers on the Roman-dominated planet. That was pretty cool. Also, I think ST:TNG portrayed Worf’s religious beliefs in Kay Les rather well. But ST:TNG usually tried to disuade planets from “superstitions” they should have rejected (like when the Vulcan-like people thought Picard was a god, or the planet that was being duped by some woman pretending to be a demon that the planet made a deal with centuries before). So, both good and bad, but it is so ingrained in me that I keep on watching.
Andy