10 Times Star Trek Should Have Known Better

Star Trek did their take on 9/11 and the War on Terror mere months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. Should they have waited a bit longer before tackling the subject? Arguably, yes. What is now known about the war on terror, the invasion of Iraq, and the torture at Abu Grabe prison makes the entire campaign seem ill conceived and dangerous for all concerned. 

In Star Trek, the Xindi weapon arrives over Earth and fire a concentrated energy beam at the East Coast of the United States, resulting in roughly 7 million deaths. The parallels are obvious, with the episode releasing in 2003, long before the full extant of US involvement in the Middle East was widely known, while the finger of blame was still moving from person to person for the attacks. Enterprise flies off into the Expanse cocked and ready to go, ready to rain vengeance down on the Xindi, while also hoping to try and avoid the attacks in the first place. Time travel is involved. 

There are many things that came out of the third year of Enterprise that benefited the show, and the franchise as a whole. One could easily say that from that initial idea, the writers picked a strong storyline and developed it, whether or not the Nazi Space Vampires were truly necessary in the final shot of the season. 

However, that first opening volley, the one that so clearly represents 9/11, barely two years after the dust settled from the buildings’ collapse, felt like they were trying to run before they could walk. The storyline was strong, but even another year may have benefitted everyone concerned just a little bit better.