In Defense of Star Trek's Liberalism (Or: The Non-Federalist Federation)

It has been a while since I have posted here, but I felt compelled to revisit Star Trek. Timothy Sandefur has an article over at The Federalist called "How Star Trek Explains The Decline Of Liberalism", and it is not only factually incorrect but it is indicative of the attitudes that are destroying modern society.

There, I think that is a pretty eye-catching opening statement.

Jeffrey Rewrites Voyager: Ex Post Facto

Let’s get this out of the way right off: I love noir.

I love craggy, tough-as-nails gumshoes in battered fedoras and rumpled suits, rubbing their five-o-clock shadows while drinking scotch and talking about the mean streets. I love morally ambiguous detective stories where you’re not supposed to like the hero, you’re just supposed to respect him, and where his detective skills relied less on Holmesian deduction and more on telling when someone was lying, being fast with a gun, keeping the cops at bay, and never, ever trusting the dame.

It's not sexist when Bogey does it. That's the rule, right?

In many ways the entire genre is sexist, where women are either innocent virgins to be protected, or seductive vamps to be used and/or ensnared by, and more often than not the plot twist is that the former turns out to be the latter. And yet men are treated no better, being either crafty and manipulative villains or thuggish and stupid goons. It is a world where everyone has the worst intentions, and no one has virtue. And I love it.

And so when I talk about Ex Post Facto, Voyager’s obvious tribute to noir, I am predisposed to like it. But right from the start it’s an awkward mix. Roddenberry’s future is bright, clean, and idealistic. Noir is the opposite of all those things. It’s like if someone took Superman, a beacon of hope, truth, and justice, and made him a distrusted, hated outcast who eventually had to turn to destruction and violence to save a morally ambiguous people from a morally evil villain and… oh yeah.

Doctor Whosday: Telepathetic Politics

In reviewing stories from the 60s, as I have been both here and on Marvel Mondays, certain themes come up again and again. One of the biggest is the contrast between democracy and communism. The freedom and individuality of the West is championed, while the collective juggernaut of the East is castigated.

"The Sensorites" begins much the same way. The brave, British astronauts from Democratic Earth are menaced by the Sensorites, insidious aliens who, while cowardly, have the ability to control the minds of humans. They have a collective society where each Sensorite is given their task, and they are in a cold war with the astronauts, refusing to let them leave peacefully yet also not killing them, yet. They are the communist threat.

And yet, in a bold move for 1964, "The Sensorites" takes a very different, and in many ways more modern, turn. And that is to be commended. But is it enough to overcome the weaknesses of the story? That is a good question.

Marvel Monday: Terrorists, Communists, and Carnies

In September of 1962 Fantastic Four became monthly. Added to the monthly titles of Journey into Mystery and Tales to Astonish (both now linked to Superheroes), and the bimonthly Incredible Hulk, Marvel Comics was starting to look like a true superhero lineup. And that started with the return of a familiar face in a new superhero context.

You know he's a superhero this time, because the bad guys are Communists.

Apocryphail Phriday: Knee Deep In The Dead

I haven't seen the movie with the Rock.
But it had to be better than this.

In 1993 a video game came out from ID Software that would more or less invent the First Person Shooter genre. This game was Doom. It became wildly popular. This being the nineties, that meant it got spinoffs. And so, in 1995, Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver published "Doom: Knee Deep In The Dead", a full novelization of the first video game in the franchise.

It remains a textbook example of how never, ever to write a video game novel.

The problem is not the hard-on for the Marine Corps that makes Michael Bay look like a weed-smoking flower child. Nor is the problem the confused gender politics and inability to decide whether the heroes are snarky nerds or grunting jarheads.

The problem is not even the network of cliches that renders this story completely and utterly unengaging.

The problem is that this novel, this novel about the most badass Marine in the world mowing down an entire army of demons on the moons of Mars, is terrifyingly, life-suckingly dull.

Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull from Dullsville with a side order of dull and something dull on top.

Let's jump right in, shall we?

Jeffrey Rewrites Voyager: Eye of the Needle

I consider this episode to be typical of the problem with Star Trek: Voyager. A good setup, an interesting and engaging crisis, particularly excellent acting, and a muddled ending that seems to undermine everything.

Plus, this episode makes absolutely no sense less than halfway through the first season. I mean, no sense.

Plus, it's a "Voyager may get to go home!" episode. Which automatically means the audience is just waiting for some deus ex machina excuse for why it won't work, which is what happens with every single "Voyager may get to go home!" episode to the point where I can barely remember any other distinctions between them.

At least this one has Romulans, and I love me some Romulans.

Doctor Whosday: Fixed Points and Macehuitl Fights

It is always a risky thing, creating a story set in a foreign culture. The typical writer for western television grew up in the west, so while foreign cultures like European nations, or the United States, Canada, or the UK if you are not a native, can be difficult, they are at least similar to the writer's experience.

But when a western writer tries to write about a culture that rose up in isolation from the shared Roman Empire history of the West, be it Eastern culture or Hindu culture or African culture, that writer is often having to learn everything from scratch. If the writer does not care enough to do the research, this can lead to glaring stereotypes and errors.

This is doubly true for stories involving Pre-Columbian America, which does not have any shared history with Europe, Africa, or Asia (unless you subscribe to the African Origins theory, but as that is not the current scientific consensus we won't get into that here.)

So when I say that "The Aztecs", the sixth Doctor Who serial, does a magnificent job of realizing pre-Columbian Aztecs, both the good and the bad, and creates one of the most interesting and thoughtful Doctor Who plots yet seen, or indeed seen since, I want my readers to have a sense for just how impressive that is.

This is one of my favorites, and I may gush. You've been warned.