Ok, me and my wife are doing a re watch. I loved TNG and other Star Trek growing up, future is made great through tech, utopia is possible, go humanity, etc.
Wife's watching the series. I dip in from time to time, I know some spoilers and how some characters are, but can't remember a single plot all the way through. We watched the Pegasus (S7E12).
Like, it completely ruined Star Trek. Humanity and the federations before that point are going into all interactions with aliens, and we always assume they're the good guys, always acting on good faith, the frustrations they have with other species is because the other species don't believe how nice they can be, earth has no problems of racism or hunger or fucking whatever.
And then, no, we have clandestine , backstabbing stuff, fully known by the federation, covered up, everyone hushed, the research discontinued, but searched for so it can be dug up again. That research, which was done in direct, knowing violation of a peace treaty they cobbled together with the Romulans, which have been the semi bad guys in various episodes.
Well, if the fucking federation are known, lying backstabbing, black ops using, pride and wrath addled assholes, I also would look at them with distrust. No wonder the Ferengi don't want to join the Federation, of course the Cardassians are attacking on the borders.
Every time they go to a space bar and dig around for information, all the other aliens are wearing some personable clothing with their own customs and history woven into the fabric, when these squares rock up wearing a space potato sack, talking about the greater good. Fuck off you Maoist assholes.
I love the series and the morals, but the worldbuilding is fucking destroyed with this episode. I assume this is what gives way to the section 31 film and all that.
I'd love to hear some counterarguments. I loved seeing Star Trek as a utopia, and with humanity being their best with great leadership. I want to go back to that point of view.
PS : Also, Picard says to decloak right in front of the romulan warbird, then they never show that conversation. I want to know how he talked his way out of that one, and the rammifications. We're about to watch sub rosa, and I am looking forward to the source of all the beverly ghost fucker memes.
But there was backstabby, clandestine stuff authorized by the federation before, in Chain of Command (S6E10&11) for example.
I have never understood the Federation and especially not Starfleet as perfect, and utopian only in comparison to our society. And neither could have ever been perfect, because Star Trek isn't about the far future and how it may be but about our society. It is social commentary and you cannot spin episodes about standing up to an imperfect government or society in a show with a perfect government and society.
(Also, I personally have always found it weird that both Klingons and Romulans had cloaking tech but Starfleet hadn't. I get it for storytelling, it is hard to write some stuff when you got cloaking and the obvious solution would be to get invisible and get out, but lorewise it's just stupid to go without such an impactful tech when the other two major powers in your quadrant have it.)
Right. But it was also kinda like "we need to know this, if we don't entire planets could be at stake and this weapon is absurd", not "if we made this thing we made a commitment to not make, we will have the upper hand in a war that we are trying to avoid having, and making it will possibly CAUSE the war".
The motivation is shitty.
Also, I guess there was so much shit going on in the Chain of Command that some of that analysis had to be a given, since we were trying to understand why the old captain had to go on an action packed mission with the chief medical officer, and doing 90s action in a star trek way (Absailing! But with all the proper safety equipment!) , and if Jelico was an asshole or just doing things his way, both on the ship and with the Cardassians, etc etc.
Every time they introduce the Federation to other species , be it on equal grounds or for acceptance to the Federation,it's always "We have outgrown greed and warfare, unified and are always acting for the good of everyone and forsaking bad things. Are you worthy to join our Federation, or are you a bunch of unevolved, stupid apes that don't deserve to be near us, you scumbags?" and it's really hard to see that as being genuine after "hell yeah, let's violate our treaty with the Romulans to get the tech we said we wouldn't get so that if we ever fight them, we'll be on top".
Right, those views are being tested in terms of "when you are a person of good moral character and can tell right from wrong, what do you do in this difficult situation", and it's assumed back home, those kinds of problems are never present, because of how awesome society has evolved; and it's up to our crew to behave according to those ideals to help make these other planets/species/whatever to also start living by those ideals.
It's difficult when starfleet does coverups instead of holding those principles to their heart and slamming this Admiral Erik Pressman directly into space jail forever. Because they started an investigation, then covered it up. It goes directly in the face of Picard's "Duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth!" speech; it seems that Picard is just one honest man in a sea of corruption, and the face of a less than stellar entity.
I mean, if we look at it on a human timescale, there have been many wars fought with asymetrical technology, and it's "only" 200+ years into the future. I guess while the feds managed to invent warp drive, they still didn't figure out how to get to cloaking technology. The feds might have some tech the Klingons/Romulans don't.
Cloaking-wise, humanity was behind. The workaround of the Treaty of Algeron just adds a narrative twist, holding back the greater principles of the Federation. Of course certain parties still tried to develop the tech (I assume through reverse engineering captured wessels from either faction).
Still doesn't make sense to concede such tech, even or especially when you're behind others. It's just that much of a game changer.
Also, it's not really the point of my comment but a side note.
Just a stop-gap to prevent a war, which still happened eventually by DS9. Was only looking to address that end of the comment. The corruption part, we both know fairly well.