Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3.7: The Medium and the Message

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One of the joys of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the way it bends conventional TV/streaming narrative structures, weaving it into the stories it tells -- blending, as per Marshall McLuhan, the medium and the message, into one -- playing, in Season 2, with animation (episode 2.7) and the musical (episode 2.9), and  this summer, in episode 3.7, with the documentary as a vehicle of exposition.

That's a good choice for a Star Trek story vehicle.  A documentary seeks to present the truth, to pose and answer questions about the subject of its investigation.  I've long thought about the fact, going back to the original series in 1960s, that it was significant that the explorations Star Trek showed us were conducted in a military context, by a group of people who had to obey orders, could be court-martialed (as per what seemed to happen to Spock in "The Menagerie" in TOS about what he did for Captain Pike!), etc. There have been lots of scientists and science in every Star Trek series, but their stories were always governed at some ultimate point by the military.  It thus was refreshing to hear the documentarian in Strange New Worlds 3.7, entitled "What is Starfleet?",  voice his prime question as: are the crew of the Enterprise and Starfleet, soldiers or explorers, military or scientists?

The answer, of course, is that they've been inextricably intertwined throughout all of Star Trek, and that's one of the things that help make Star Trek in all its forms so compelling.  The individual stories have usually been riveting too, raising deep ethical questions as our characters risk their lives.  Episode 3.7 tells us the story of an intelligent, literally interstellar organism which a more conventional humanoid species has enlisted, against its will, as a weapon in its battles.   The Federation has some responsibility to support the humanoid species, but will the Enterprise support its enslavement of the interstellar being?

Well, I didn't warn you about spoilers in this review as yet, and it's a little far into the review to warn you now,  so I'll conclude this with no warnings and just my recommendation to make sure you see this episode of Strange New Worlds, and for that matter, the superb whole series.

See also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3.1-3.3: Gorn, Spock & Chapel, and The Walking Dead ... 3.4: Lots of Laughs and Serious Business ... 3.5: Endearing Pseudo-Science ... 3.6: Chris and Jim

And see also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2.1: Nurse Chapel ... 2.2: Racism and Sexism in the Courtroom ... 2.3: Time Travel and Alternate Universes ... 2.5: Chapel and Spock ... 2.6: Jimmy Kirk ... 2.7: Pike, Spock, and Boimler ... 2.8: Ethically Wrenching ... 2.9: The Operetta ... 2.10: Young Scotty and Five Other Great Things about This Season 2 Finale

And see also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.1-1.2: Great Characters, Actors, Stories ... 1.3: "Instead of terraforming planets, we modify ourselves ..." ... 1.4: The Gorn and the Wub ... 1.5 Going to the Chapel ... 1.6: Two Stories ... 1.7: The Kiss ... 1.8: Ends of the Continuum ... 1.9: Momentous! ... 1.10: Everything!