8 Ups & NO Downs From Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.2 - Shades Of Green
8. UP — Money To Burn
"The economics of the future are somewhat different. You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century," Captain Picard once told a rightfully incredulous Lily Sloane whilst they were both dodging Borg. We've all seen Star Trek's famous 'post-scarcity' society in action — for Earth and (most of) the Federation anyway — but never enacted quite like this!
In Shades of Green — already a nice bit of wordplay on the (a) colour of moolah and dough — the locals of Targalus IX have just acquired replicator technology and are throwing off the shackles of capitalism… mostly… as a result.
There's a planet-wide party going on (and no one has to pay for it). "Museums and meditation gardens" — the latter atop piles of gold ingots, no less — are springing up in place of the old monetary monoliths. Even the Stock Exchange is now an animal hospital, and I doubt the traders will want their briefcases back!
As a piece of satire, it is rather satisfying. Once more, Lower Decks ramps up the parodic, holding up a candle to some of Star Trek's greatest, though often inconsistent and ill-explained, ideals. You can be a saint in Star Trek's paradise, but the show is hardly a practical guide to canonisation. That candle is then held so blisteringly close in Shades of Green that it's not only the money that starts to buuurn.