Note: This article includes spoilers for the first two episodes of “Star Trek: Discovery.”
The latest incarnation of Star Trek hit TV screens Sunday evening. The show, “Star Trek: Discovery” which will now be aired exclusively on CBS’ online streaming platform, has received a mostly positive reception, with critics praising its special effects and the acting of its star, Sonequa Martin-Green.
Still, while “Star Trek” is a traditional bastion of liberal viewers, Discovery is worth conservative attention. Watching the first two episodes, it seems clear that the show’s producers have avoided too liberal a slant.
First off, Discovery’s narrative plays to a hard-headed realist worldview rather than the delusions of multilateral utopia. In Martin-Green’s character, Michael Burnham (yes, she has a male name), we see a young officer who is comfortable with taking decisive action. Recognizing the inherent predilection of Klingons towards aggression, Burnham pushes hard for a pre-emptive strike on a gathering Klingon fleet. It’s not just the realism that sometimes diplomacy doesn’t work which matters here, it’s Discovery’s implicit repudiation of cultural relativism.
After all, while most of the Federation crew seek diplomacy at-all-costs with the Klingons (one officer even starts crying when battle commences), the Klingons act as Klingons are predisposed to act: by using force. Here we see the writers’ recognition that some cultures have an immutable nature. Although the Klingons are ultimately honorable people who, in Star Trek lore, eventually become allies of the Federation, at this point they are an aggressive Viking-like warrior culture.
Second, the action in Discovery isn’t terribly bloody, but it is unashamed: ships blow up, people are sucked into space, and at episode two’s conclusion, a Starfleet captain is stabbed through the heart.
These harder-edged tones suggest that the writers are following in the footsteps of the “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” (the black captain) series rather than “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (the bald captain, Patrick Stewart). And that’s good news, because for all its charm, The Next Generation was too idealistic; the crew was ludicrously reluctant to fight even in self-defense, and security officers rarely carried sidearms into dangerous situations.
Conversely, Deep Space Nine spoke to themes such as the Cold War, espionage, and the brutality of war. At one point in Deep Space Nine, the captain even covers up the assassination of a Romulan senator! Taking a chance on those darker considerations, Deep Space Nine offered a better connection to the real world of messy global politics.
In the same way, as we confront the Islamic State and Russia, Iran and Brexit, hurricanes and North Korea, honesty is well-timed in “Star Trek: Discovery.” If you’re a conservative, you might want to give it a shot.
