A few readers may have wondered why our Star Trek: The Next Generation list didn't include the Indians in the seventh season episode Journey's End. The reason is threefold: 1) we forgot it; 2) it was boring; and 3) Classic Trek was much, much more insensitive to Native Americans than TNG could ever hope to be. In The Paradise Syndrome, the Enterprise must save a planet which is inhabited by just about every stereotype about Red Indians (as the First Doctor once called them) that one can imagine, minus the rain dances and that 'wah-wah-wah-wah!' thing they supposedly do with their mouth and hand. Upon seeing them from afar, Spock points out that the natives have characteristics of the 'Navajo, Delaware, Mohican' tribes, even though they have no such damned thing. The Mohicans weren't even a real tribe, to start with. Way to go, Vulcanian. Sure, there's some business here about the race known as the Preservers, who may have transplanted a tribe of Indians (Native Americans, whatever) to the planet eons ago, and that might explain why they look as they do. (Sadly, it also explains the existence of Chakotay in Voyager, but more about him another time.) But how does that account for the startling dearth of Native American actors in the cast? Did they all intermarry with Italians? All in all, this makes The Paradise Syndrome painful to watch - and that's even without Kirk's shouted 'I am Kirok!' which is a cringe onto itself. And speaking of racism...
Tony Whitt has previously written TV, DVD, and comic reviews for CINESCAPE, NOW PLAYING, and iF MAGAZINE. His weekly COMICSCAPE columns from the early 2000s can still be found archived on Mania.com. He has also written a book of gay-themed short stories titled CRESCENT CITY CONNECTIONS, available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle format. Whitt currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
