10 Times Star Trek Should Have Known Better

A recent example of Star Trek trying to sit on the fence and ending up struggling to say anything is Strange New Worlds’ third season episode What Is Starfleet? Here, a young documentary filmmaker, Beto Ortegas, has been working on a feature about Starfleet, told through the lens of life aboard the Enterprise. While the documentary is presented as in universe footage, edited and released via the freedom of information act, the result is a very rough hit piece on Starfleet, though with enough evidence to seemingly justify some of Beto’s prejudices.

He contends that Starfleet is a military, taking care to point out the heavy armament of the Enterprise, as well M’Benga’s redacted military records. He questions the role of security in Starfleet, and attempts to manipulate Uhura into going on the record against Starfleet. His bias is exposed, though nothing happens - he is still allowed to complete his documentary, which is given a somewhat hopeful ending - despite the fact that we the audience were apparently watching the finished piece. 

The background mission sees the Enterprise first ordered to escort a weapon of mass destruction to one side of a warring people, then later engage in the self-destruction of that weapon, once it is discovered that it is sentient. It is described as being a weapon only, and that it wants to die rather than live to cause pain. This is Starfleet - surely they will at least try to help? Nothing of the sort. They communicate with the creature, but that’s all.

Starfleet facilitating a war, then simply taking away the weapon, seems to be a poor message to place in a show that is supposed to be about a utopian future, and one that is designed to show that peace is the best option, as opposed to the option forced on people without their consent. 

It was not the only time that Star Trek was guilty of that crime, but it was particularly egregious in light of real world comparisons.