Andrew Ferguson

Thoughts on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a Commentary on Present Day Issues

I’m just over 80 episodes into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and there’s a couple of episodes that I think people should watch because they offer a really great commentary on what I see in America today.

To me:

• Duet is about a persons right to have a fair trial, no matter where they came from or what they did. It echoes some of my feelings about Guantanamo Bay detention camp. I also recommend listening to NPR’s This American Life: Habeas Schmabeas 2007.
• In the Hands of the Prophets is about Christians demanding that religion be taught in schools and/or decrying the teaching of evolution.
• Homefront and Paradise Lost are about power, fear, and control. They are about what happens when something you love so much (freedom and America) are taken away from you because a few people threaten you. It’s not a perfect analogy, yet there are definitely a lot of parallels to what has happened over the last six and half years. I think the best quote comes at the end: “If the Changelings want to destroy what we’ve built here, they’re going to have to do it themselves. We will not do it for them.” – Benjamin Sisko. Now, replace Changelings with terrorists.

What I think is interesting is that these episodes are about 12 years old. I don’t think the writers intended this as a commentary on the current events of the time. Yet, somehow, twelve years after their air dates, these shows provide such a great reflection of the current times!

Other thoughts I’m going to throw in:

• There are a surprisingly large number of sci-fi TV shows with episodes named “Paradise Lost”.
• I am now 51.59% the way through all the Star Trek episodes/movies made.
• I have seen 372 episodes/movies with 364 (actually, 365 if you count the upcoming Star Trek movie) left.
• I have watched about 286 hours of Star Trek thus far in this project.

Tags: America, Benjamin Sisko, Christian, commentary, control, detention, Duet, evolution, fair, fear, Guantanamo Bay, Habeas Schmabeas 2007, Homefront, In the Hands of the Prophets, movie, NPR, Paradise Lost, power, religion, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, terror, terrorism, terrorist, This American Life, trial