5. Stargate SG-1 - An Exploration Of Growing Military Nations Caught Between Two Superpowers
At face value SG-1 is pretty much just a rip off of Star Trek: The Next Generation; only with better fight choreography. It really would be hard to be worse. Sometimes it's as if they are trying to make the shootouts look crappy. SG-1 has many of the same elements of exploration, militarization of science, and the weekly triumph of reason and progress over evil. But, bubbling just beneath SG-1's easy to digest premise is a pretty obvious analogy for the geopolitical conditions of several post WWII nations such as Israel or Vietnam. The basic story is that humanity discovers the stargate, goes out into the galaxy, discovers aliens, realizes aliens are total dicks, gets told to prepare for being occupied by dick aliens, discovers new aliens, realizes the other aliens are sweethearts, realizes the two aliens are at war, and winds up in the middle of a conflict way beyond their own capacity. How does that sound like if not post-French occupation Vietnam? Much like the Afghan conflict or even Israel to an extent, Earth finds itself between two much more powerful nations in Cold War. Earth has some strategic value, which makes both parties interested in maintaining control of it. However, in the end, both sides just want it out of principle. And so, poor little Earth is forced to participate in a war they are way outgunned in by fighting a guerrilla campaign. So far this story is close to Vietnam, but could easily be seen as a coincidence. Until.......things start getting too close to history when you look at the development of militarization of Earth in the show. The underfunded, outgunned, backwards Earthlings are all set to get their butts kicked up and down the galaxy until they start stealing technology from the enemy. Once they prove they are capable of using that technology to fight the jerk-faced aliens, the nice guy aliens start supplying technology to keep up the fight, making Earth a battleground state for an increasingly violent Cold War between two powers. The show doesn't follow any one nation down to the T. But, you can be certain that this is a pretty accurate look at the militarization of certain nations during the cold war era.