The popular, socially conscious reputation of Star Trek often doesn’t match up with the reality of its basic status quo. Hardcore fans will tell you that Trek is good for the world because it reveals a hopeful future in which humanity is united, and super tolerant and accepting of all sorts of different lifeforms. And yet, Trek is also a pew-pew action-adventure series, and has been from the start. If you look at the early history of the franchise, there are no memos to the writers during the course of The Original Series about a “hopeful future.” There’s also nothing in the way that Gene Roddenberry pitched the series that suggests that the show was trying to portray Starfleet and its officers as aspirational or politically motivated people. Instead, the ethical, peace-loving aspect of Star Trek is somewhat intertwined with the fact that if you squint, the format of the franchise leans toward military science fiction.
And, now, 59 years after the debut of Star Trek in 1966 (an episode in which the crew murders a monster and feels slightly bad about it), Strange New Worlds has dropped an episode called “What Is Starfleet?” And, in this episode, the franchise has delivered an interesting and revealing introspective story that unpacks the inherent paradox at the heart of Starfleet: How can a warship also be a ship of peace?
