The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 15 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
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.