Ok, me and my wife are doing a re watch. I loved TNG and other Star Trek growing up, future is made great through tech, utopia is possible, go humanity, etc.
Wife's watching the series. I dip in from time to time, I know some spoilers and how some characters are, but can't remember a single plot all the way through. We watched the Pegasus (S7E12).
Like, it completely ruined Star Trek. Humanity and the federations before that point are going into all interactions with aliens, and we always assume they're the good guys, always acting on good faith, the frustrations they have with other species is because the other species don't believe how nice they can be, earth has no problems of racism or hunger or fucking whatever.
And then, no, we have clandestine , backstabbing stuff, fully known by the federation, covered up, everyone hushed, the research discontinued, but searched for so it can be dug up again. That research, which was done in direct, knowing violation of a peace treaty they cobbled together with the Romulans, which have been the semi bad guys in various episodes.
Well, if the fucking federation are known, lying backstabbing, black ops using, pride and wrath addled assholes, I also would look at them with distrust. No wonder the Ferengi don't want to join the Federation, of course the Cardassians are attacking on the borders.
Every time they go to a space bar and dig around for information, all the other aliens are wearing some personable clothing with their own customs and history woven into the fabric, when these squares rock up wearing a space potato sack, talking about the greater good. Fuck off you Maoist assholes.
I love the series and the morals, but the worldbuilding is fucking destroyed with this episode. I assume this is what gives way to the section 31 film and all that.
I'd love to hear some counterarguments. I loved seeing Star Trek as a utopia, and with humanity being their best with great leadership. I want to go back to that point of view.
PS : Also, Picard says to decloak right in front of the romulan warbird, then they never show that conversation. I want to know how he talked his way out of that one, and the rammifications. We're about to watch sub rosa, and I am looking forward to the source of all the beverly ghost fucker memes.
I see this as an episode about humans being… human. That despite significant advances in human civilization towards a socialist utopia, there is still greed and a lust for power in humanity, and that strong steps still need to be taken to blunt those evils.
Picard decloaking in front of the Romulans may not have translated well to Romulan mores, but it’s an attempt to re-establish trust, a way of saying, “we don’t tolerate shit like this, and here is us exposing this malfeasance to prove our dedication to being honest.”
I mean, the Romulans will most certainly assume the worst, because they will project onto humans that which they are most likely to do themselves. But at least Picard is holding true to what the Federation stands for, which means airing dirty laundry such that the Federation can learn from it.
Yeah, that's why knowing there are some black ops (illegal infiltration of cardassians, bending the rules on the prime directive) seemed "ok ish" , but this time it wasn't an isolated case or someone's gone rouge, or one writer making a shitty episode. This one was whole cloth, institutionalised , embedded, wholesale corrupt , dishonest and breaking treaties actions taken by all levels of federation leadership, and the creative team coming on board with "yeah, federation aren't all that they seem".
great perspective
Except… was it?
It’s been a while since I watched that episode, but my memory and impressions was that of the Admiral (then Captain) having this as a pet project. As in, an extremely limited skunkworks project that was heavily siloed away from the rest of the Federation command structure.
It’s only when the ship was at risk of being discovered that the cover-up expanded. And with that Admiral still in the pole position, calling the shots. So it still appears to be of limited scope/corruption.
https://lemmy.world/post/30261184/17288875