Frontier as a Powerful Symbol/Personified




As we explore the frontier of space, how can we approach the peoples and environments that we encounter? Can we reconcile our instinct to explore with an awareness of our impact on space, planets, and potentially, other species?

Honestly, I have concerns about how we're going to reconcile exploration vs potential influence/exploitation/ignorance.  We're not doing a great job here on Earth, now.  Part of the reason Star Trek is so meaningful to me is that it shows a future I aspire to, not one that I see as a natural progression from where we are as a species right now.  Xenophobia, racism, bias against LGBTQ+ folks, carelessness and greed guiding our environmental behavior and policy--I'd hate to see how any or all of these play out on an interplanetary scale.  I do hope that, if/when we do make first contact or even establish a meaningful human presence on another world, the potential for it to unify us and make us see ourselves as "teammates" is realized.  As Deanna Troi tells Zefram Cochrane while trying to convince him to make his warp flight that attracts the attention of the Vulcans (leading to First Contact): "It unites humanity in a way no one ever thought possible. When they realize they're not alone in the universe, poverty, disease, war - they'll all be gone within the next fifty years."  It worked (sort of) with the Earthrise photo taken from Apollo 8; seeing Earth from space--small, vulnerable, our shared home--gave rise to our modern environmental movement.  

Which captain do we need most in today’s society? Whose approach would best serve to lead us through the challenges we face as a world and universe today? Does Discovery's take on focusing not on the captain in season 1 change our perception of this lesson?


Well, I don't like to be cliche by choosing a woman, but I always felt that Captain Janeway, in addition to being the "caretaker" captain (because woman, I guess), was a good mix of the swashbuckling of Kirk ("Macrocosm"!) and the staunch "ethics" of Picard.  I am a rule-follower, but I could never agree with Picard's decision not to interfere in the Brekkian/Ornaran situation in "Symbiosis."  (He did come up with a pretty good solution, all things considered, in the end.). Janeway, interestingly, was second in a StarTrek.com poll about which captain had the most respect for the Prime Directive (23% of the vote).  Considering she was in the Delta Quadrant and far from any Starfleet infrastructure, that ranking seems exactly right to me.  And it makes sense that she would, in particular, violate the Prime Directive in order to obtain needed technology from Delta Quadrant cultures.  I'm not sure I'd have done that with the Borg ("Scorpion"), though, but at least we got Seven of Nine out of it (and Janeway landed on her feet).  


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