Real Life in Star Trek, Suddenly Human
Disclaimer
In these posts, we discuss a non-âFree as in Freedomâ popular culture franchise property, including occasional references to part of that franchise behind a paywall. My discussion and conclusions carry a Free Culture license, but nothing about the discussion or conclusions should imply any attack on the ownership of the properties. All the big names are trademarks of the owners, and so forth, and everything here relies on sitting squarely within the bounds of Fair Use, as criticism that uses tiny parts of each show to extrapolate the world that the characters live in.
PreviouslyâŚ
I initially outlined the project in this post, for those falling into this from somewhere else. In short, we attempt to use the details presented in Star Trek to assemble a view of what life looks like in the Federation. This âphaseâ of the project changes from previous posts, however. The Next Generation takes place long after the original series, so we shouldnât expect similar politics and socialization. Maybe more importantly, I enjoy the series less.
Put simply, you shouldnât read this expecting a recap or review of an episode. Many people have done both to death over nearly sixty years. You will find a catalog of information that we learn from each episode, though, so expect everything to be a potential âspoiler,â if you happen to have that irrational fear.
Rather than list every post in the series here, you can quickly find them all on the startrek tag page.
Suddenly Human
Did you, by chance, think that two back-to-back meditations on the nature of family might overwhelm you with pointless angst? Well, tough, because we have a third.
WORF: Halfway through the Woden sector.
You probably already know this, given how Norse mythology has had more than a few moments of prominence in popular culture since this episode aired, but in modern English, we generally refer to Woden as Odin.
CRUSHER: This boy. Heâs human.
You might recognize âthis boyâ as former child actor and teen idol Chad Allen. You might not connect him with his most famous character, Tommy Westphall, whose single appearance (apparently) spawned the late Dwayne McDuffieâs idea that most prime-time network television takes place in a shared fictional universe in Westphallâs mind.
CRUSHER: Itâs not uncommon. It was identified centuries ago as the Stockholm syndrome.
Ugh.
You have, no doubt, already have some awareness of so-called Stockholm Syndrome. You may not know that no such psychiatric disorder has an official listing, it has no means of diagnosis, and that the real 1973 story sounds far wilderâand far more relatableâthan the narrative presented by media.
In short, the Swedish police bungled their reaction to the bank robbery so badly, that it turned into a long-term hostage situation, where the victims worried so much about becoming âcollateral damageâ in their own rescue, that they began negotiating on behalf of robber Jan-Erik Olsson. Seeing Olsson in far over his head and the police making things worse, Kristin Enmark worked both sides, going so far as to call the Prime Minister, whoâŚtold her to take pride in potentially dying on the job, if the rescue went wrong.
Oh, and the police misidentified the perpetrator as an unrelated bank robber on the lam, who became so angry at getting the blame for such a botched robbery that he called the precinct from overseas to yell at them, getting himself arrested and extradited in the process. I did promise you a wild story, right?
Anyway, after the fact, the authorities and media then couldnât fathom why the former hostages would dare to criticize the governmentâs response and wouldnât testify against their captor, and so came up with a narrative that the handsome Olsson must have manipulated the hostages, particularly the young woman whoârememberâthe Prime Minister thought should look forward to her impending death.
Now, do victims of abuse sometimes side with their abusers? Yes. Abusers often create or capitalize on an environment where they can appear as their victimsâ only means of supportâsee Rikerâs interactions with Yuta, I believe, in The Vengeance Factor for the ânobody but me sees you as an equalâ red flagâand so worry that action taken against the perpetrator will cause them bigger problems. But that has nothing to do with this situation, and the invocation of Stockholm still reeks of sexism and excuses for broken institutions.
JONO: Why are you here, Klingon, with them? Did they capture you too?
Once again, we see that the Federation has a fairly terrible reputation, if people believe that non-humans in Starfleet got their through capture and slavery.
PICARD: Youâre probably not aware of this, but I have never been particularly comfortable around children.
He seems so sincere, here, that he considers this a secret, despite making similar statements since Encounter at Farpoint.
ENDAR: I am Captain Endar of the warship QâMaire. To whom am I speaking?
You might recognize Endar as Sherman Howard, who people at the time probably best knew for playing Lex Luthor in the contemporary Superboy show.
PICARD: You should have notified the Federation authorities. To conceal him was a clear violation of our agreement.
B-but Jean-Luc, what happened to âThis is not a law. It is a treaty. It is designed to smooth relations between peoples. Not to act as a straitjacket,â from The Ensigns of CommandâŚ? Ignoring that bit of hypocrisy, it also seems highly unlikely that anybody negotiated a treaty requiring everyone on one side to disclose anybody living with them who has an association with the other. Picard seems to want to equate adoption with becoming a prisoner of war held past the end of the war.
PICARD: Doesnât he deserve to become more than that? His true heritage is human, Endar.
Notice the condescending tone, here: Picard believes that subjecting humans to the sort of life lived by the Talarians would demean the humans. Weâve seen other versions of this sentiment before, such as the crew objecting to Kurn treating them like Klingons in Sins of the Father.
DATA: Talarian warships are limited to neutral particle weapons, high energy X-ray lasers and merculite rockets. No match for the Enterprise, Captain.
PICARD: The last thing I want is to be forced into destroying one of their ships.
Youâd think that âno matchâ would mean that they could largely ignore the attacks and quietly fly away. And yet, their first thought involves mass murder.
CONNAUGHT: Jeremiah? My name is Connaught Rossa. I am your fatherâs mother. I wish we could talk in person, but that will have to wait. When I heard the miracle that you were alive, I wanted to reach out to you as soon as possible. I find myself wondering what you look like. All I can do is imagine your father at your age. You come from a family that would make you proud. Many of them have given their lives to bring peace to the galaxy. You are the last of the Rossas. I was so very thankful when you were given back to us to carry on the line. Your grandfather and I will greet you with all the love in our hearts. Have a safe journey home, Jeremiah.
Two parts of this message stand out to me, apart from sending video greetings instead of an e-mail.
First, âgiven their lives to bring peaceâ sounds similar to the various euphemisms that we use for active military service, often in excusing actions that do something nearly the opposite of bringing peace.
Then, we have the importance of âcarrying on the line,â suggesting that the Rossas come from an affluent background. I realize that the status of wealthy people has caused this sentiment to penetrate lower classes, but the only real reason to care about heirs is to make sure that generational wealth stays in the family.
PICARD: Jono, let me show you what I do when I get those feelings. Come on. Now, you can serve from within either of these two sections by bouncing the ball and hitting it into that top center target. You have to return the ball before it bounces twice. Alright? Letâs try it.
Nothing shows a character as a man of the people, able to connect with teenagers, than racquetball. I suppose that we should thank the writers for not making this some fancy equestrian eventâŚ
WESLEY: This is called a banana split. Itâs quite possibly one of the greatest things in the universe. Here, try some.
While I have to give Wesley some tiny amount of credit for offering to share his dessert with a stranger whom he presumably has no romantic interest inâcontrast with The Dauphinâthis comes off as far too pretentious and even staged. It almost feels like an advertisement for the Banana Split Manufacturers LeagueâŚ
RIKER: Access your data banks under humor, subheading slapstick.
Wait. Data can look things up? Then all those times he asked people to define terms, he actively made life more difficult?
PICARD: Just half an hour ago he was crying like a baby.
Well, at least babies have permission to show emotion. Too bad for the rest of the population, I guess.
ENDAR: Commander Riker, you have failed to transport my son aboard the QâMaire.
RIKER: Our intentions have not changed, Endar. Weâre returning him to Starfleet.
It seems worth noting that Endar consistently addresses Riker by title, but Riker has yet to use Endarâs title.
PICARD: There was a crime committed on board this ship, but it was not Jonoâs. It was mine. When we found Jono, it seemed so clear what had to be done. We knew that if only we could persuade him to make the decision to stay, then you would most likely let him. So with the best of intentions, we tried to convince him, and in so doing, we thoroughly failed to listen to his feelings, to his needs. That was the crime, and it has taken a huge toll on a strong and very noble young man. And it must be rectified. He will return home. To the only home heâs ever known. And to the father that he loves. To you, Endar.
Hold on. Did we plan to ignore the trauma of his regaining his memories of his biological parents? No interest in setting up better governmental relationships so that his remaining human family can get to know him? All theâfairly impressive, if irrelevant to our projectânuance around the issue at handâŚvanishes? I guess so.
Maybe I should have seen this coming when they chose to have Admiral Rossa send off a quick e-mail, instead of showing up in person. Had they introduced her into the episode, we might have had two actual sides to the argument, instead of an adoptive father against a petty bureaucratâs racismâŚ
And donât get me wrong, here. I see merit in their ultimate conclusion, and appreciate that they managed to eventually see the issue from the perspective of the participants present. However, it also feels like theyâve decided that neither the emotional trauma that has begun nor the potential additional support available to the kid matter, because someone wanted to make a point about the love of an adoptive father.
Conclusions
Other than tracking down the various references, we donât get much out of this one.
The Bad
We continue to see that the Federation has a terrible reputation, beyond its borders.
The episode also foregrounds a lot of racism, focusing on the idea that humans have an important destiny, and that fraternizing with aliens might damage their status. They also seem to refuse to refer to foreign officers by title, even when they see the same courtesy extended to them.
Violence also comes up, with the crew believing that an attack by a vastly weaker foe demands that they slaughter the attackers. Likewise, some families pride themselves on the number of members who have died in military action.
Economic inequality, likewise, shows up as Picard tries to present racquetball as an ordinary sport that people play whenever they need to work off some nervous energy, and an admiral talks about wanting to preserve her family line.
And finally, the crew seems to think of child custody as a binary issue, and one resolved based on emotion, rather than the complete well-being of the child in question.
Next
Come back in a week, when the good doctor feels neglected, in Remember Me.
Credits: The header image is by , made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International license.
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Tags: scifi startrek closereading