Star Trek 3 Plot: 10 Moral Dilemmas From The Show That Could Be Resurrected
9. Time Travel
Okay this is a fairly obvious old chestnut to use, but its an over-frequent one that always seems to rear its head in Star Trek, regardless of the time or iteration. There are at least three episodes in TOS that come to mind that involve all sorts of moral implications: City on the Edge of Forever, Tomorrow is Yesterday and Assignment: Earth. City on the Edge of Forever places Kirk in the position of exchanging his happiness for the preservation of his future. It means that one person he loves very dearly must die and he must ensure that it happens. This is the type of dilemma that makes one wonder if he, or she, would have the same sort of strength, placed in the same situation. Its the conversation that keeps nerds up late at night. Tomorrow is Yesterday shows how fallible those with the power to affect the time stream are. It doesnt matter if you can go back in time and make changes; the chance for error is always there. Even Mr. Spock, despite his powers of immediate recall and reliance on logic still made a mistake in advising that Captain Christopher should return with them to the 23rd century. Certainly his disappearance would have no significant change on the time stream, but what about his children? His involvement in their lives would certainly have implications on their individual futures. Spock initially missed this, but the lesson has been learned: look before you leap. Assignment: Earth is an episode where the crew of the Enterprise has been sent to perform historical research and travels backwards in time via the slingshot method thats where the ship uses warp speed to somehow use the gravity of the sun as well as moving faster than light to somehow deposit them back in time. Ive never been completely clear on the theoretical physics, I just accept it for the giant deus ex machina that it is. Its often easier that way. But the point is, time travel has been reduced in value and taken for granted. The moral implications of this attitude are staggering and this needs to be addressed in the new franchise Particularly given that the damage to the continuum was the bedrock upon which the new franchise currently rests: the death of James Kirks father (screwing the kid up even more), the premature introduction of Romulans to the Federation and the destruction of Vulcan are all issues that significantly caused a great deal of moral outrage with hardcore Star Trek fans. Im personally hoping that the lesson has been learned here and Star Trek III includes some sort of temporal repair and restoration to the original continuum the first film caused.
John Kirk is a Teacher-Librarian and currently a History/English Teacher with the Toronto District School Board.
But mostly, John teaches Geek.
Comics, Sci-Fi (Notably Star Trek), Fantasy and Role-Playing and table-top games all make up part of John’s repertoire, There is a whole generation of nerds-in-embryo who rely on him to make sense of it all, to teach that with great power comes great responsibility, that the force will be with us always and that a towel IS the most useful thing to have in one’s possession.
When John isn’t in the classroom, he can be found in his basement writing comic reviews for www.popmythology.com and features for Roddenberry Entertainment's www.1701news.com.
