(I swear I'm not just continuing on about this because my SFA posts keep blowing up)
In the most recent episode especially, but really with all of Starfleet Academy and a decent chunk of New Trek, there's this theme going on of asking the question, is the Federation actually good?
And the thing is, I think this is actually an important question that all of Trek in some way interacts with, even if it just waves the flag like the original series or Lower Decks. And I think there are some Star Trek fans who, in a world where ambiguity is being beaten out of everything all the time, aren't reacting very well to it.
And I think because SFA is directly engaging with that question and trying to be as deep and honest about it as possible, some people are deciding the questioning means the writers have given up on the answer being yes.
But I think if you watch with an open heart and an open mind you'll see something much more interesting, and I think probably necessary about now: a set of values that isn't afraid to put the strongest cases against it in the mouths of characters we see on screen.
See, the thing about Nus Braka is, he's an asshole.
But he is a SMART asshole, and one that knows the Federation is rebuilding itself, brick by brick, planet by planet. And the thing about the Federation, which as we know runs on the Root Beer Doctrine, is it has a way of stealing the oxygen from the room of exactly assholes like Nus Braka.
I think it's very easy to fall for his shtick, because it sounds kind of like what we say about the US sometimes, and because the Federation can kind of seem like the US sometimes, but the Federation is NOT the US.
It's sooooo much weirder than that. The Federation is a conglomerate of species who have signed on, with more sincerity than any Earth nation ever has, to something quite like the "rules based international order" that we on Earth have occasionally paid lip service to, but never really been that sincere about. And on top of that, layers of doctrine that are worth fighting for: respect for civil discourse, post-scarcity economic values (it's the galaxy outside the Federation that uses latinum), and the Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations creed.
But again, Nus Braka is an asshole.
The fact that he's a smart enough asshole to twist the story around and convincingly make the Federation sound like an empire does not make him right. And the biggest reason that I'm sure the show knows all this and is doing it on purpose is Caleb Mir.
The thing about Caleb is that he is sort of the one person who just happened to be at the spot of the exact place the rocks were falling as Federation rules-based thinking was splintering against harsh realities that wouldn't go away, and he saw it all with a terrible clarity that only a child can.
And he does not trust Federation ideals.
But he's surrounded by people who do. And through them we are hearing the real story of the Federation: that it isn't really a collection of species: it's a unique thing itself, that's shared between them. The reason the Federation is rebuilding itself is because its member states believe in the good their merger can do. They believe they can make the galaxy a safer place again. They believe they can solve the dilithium shortages that plague the post-burn alpha quadrant.
And they believe in the power of stories to fuse them back together.
Caleb's job in the story is to not buy it... yet. Unless I have wildly misjudged everything about the writing design of this series, that's why he's here and what's going to happen is that the show is going to teach him, and through him, hopefully, US, to believe in what he does.
And in times like ours, this is exactly what I think Star Trek should be doing: finding a convincing way to tell us that it's still worth it to build on a dream of a better tomorrow, even when it feels like building a sandcastle on a beach filled with children who think knocking them over is peak comedy.
Because we know what's right, and if Star Trek as a whole is about anything, it's about the idea that in time, and with possibly endless work, what's right will eventually become what's expected.
annaxmalina
turnnoffyourmind
jacobvanloon
titsay
prguitarman
