A Brief Guide to Star Trek

the majority of
Star Trek
episodes, it’s entertaining even if the moral of the story (peace is better than war) is simplistic and obvious.
    Star Trek
was often less than subtle in its political analogies: such was the case with the ‘Nazi planet’ in ‘Patterns of Force’. In an effort to depict the rise of a totalitarian state, this episode comes close to using Nazi iconography carelessly in a simple entertainment, while trying to convey a history lesson to the show’s young viewers about events then a mere twenty-five years in the past. A Federation historian has employed Nazi methods to run a planet, hoping that Nazism-with-a-conscience might have a different outcome – the conclusion of the story is that it doesn’t. ‘The
Enterprise
Incident’ – apart from giving William Shatner a taste of wearing Spock-style pointed ears – was a Cold War espionage tale in which Kirk and Spock go undercover as Romulans to steal their technology.
    Perhaps the most interesting of all the Cold War-themed episodes of
Star Trek
is ‘Mirror, Mirror’. This well-remembered episode sees Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Uhura attempt to beam aboard the
Enterprise
, only to find themselves transported to an alternative universe version of the ship. Here they find a ruthless Terran Empire wreaking havoc throughout the galaxy, and a ship where promotion is obtained through assassination. In this universe, Mr Spock – sporting a goatee beard – is a ruthless enforcer, although he doesn’t want command of the ship. Chekov attempts to assassinate Kirk, while Sulu runs a sinister surveillance operation. The crewmembers from ‘our’ universemust strive to fit in while trying to find a way back home – but Kirk can’t resist going one step further in trying to persuade the mirror Spock that there is a different way of running things. The episode gave rise to a series of follow-ups, in
Deep Space Nine
and
Enterprise
, as well as in a series of spin-off novels. ‘Mirror, Mirror’ offers a vision of how the Federation might have turned out if the positive future for humanity as depicted by Gene Roddenberry had not come to pass.
    Diplomacy was explored in a variety of episodes, as the
Enterprise
crew played the role of diplomatic ambassador to new and developing civilisations or functioned as an intermediary between disputing cultures. ‘Errand of Mercy’ sees the Klingons and the
Enterprise
personnel battle for influence over the strategically important planet of Organia. The seemingly unconcerned Organians refuse to resist either side, frustrating Kirk and encouraging Klingon Commander Kor in his desire to dominate the planet. As the conflict escalates, the Organians reveal themselves as dominant energy beings that use their powers to prevent the battle. Kirk finds himself arguing against the Organians for his right to wage a war that he initially came to the planet to prevent. It was a rare moment of self-awareness for the
Enterprise
captain that plainly stated the case for and against the kind of conflict then raging in Vietnam.
    More traditional is the second season episode ‘Journey to Babel’, which sees various alien races transported aboard the
Enterprise
to a diplomatic meeting on the planet Babel. A murder mystery is the backdrop for the introduction of Spock’s parents, the Vulcan Sarek and the human Amanda. The diplomacy-as-drama storytelling approach would be hugely expanded by
The Next Generation
, reflecting the era in which the show was made.
    The
Enterprise
crew intervened in events more proactively in ‘Friday’s Child’, an episode that saw the Klingons involved with the political development of a primitive culture. The battle for control of the planet is made personal, with Kirk, Spock and McCoy protecting the dead leader’s pregnant widow from aggression until she can give birth to a rightful heir. Kirk’saction results in the Klingons being driven out and the
Enterprise
winning the valuable mining rights on the planet, an analogy for US foreign adventures.
    There’s more Federation-driven diplomacy in ‘Elaan of Troyius’, in which Kirk ferries Elaan to her arranged marriage to the leader of an antagonistic planet in order to avert a war. The involvement of the Klingons – again – highlights the role of diplomacy in finding solutions to conflict.
    Another 1960s hot-button topic regularly revisited by
Star Trek
was prejudice and racism. At a time when the civil rights movement was progressing in