Did the theme of the show change when communism collapsed?

[ReadyAndWilling]

hey guys, i've noticed the shows have a very strong marxist overtone. even in that episode where the xindi go back in time to 21st century earth during S3 of ENT T'Pol says something about how humans are so primitive.

so i was wondering if the TNG's tone or outlook changed when communism collapsed in eastern europe, since the show was only mid way through its run when it happened.

thanks

 

[Christopher]

Oh, not this again. There's nothing "Marxist" about Trek. Marxism is a political/economic theory based on the concept of class warfare and the shifting control of the means of production and wealth, predicting a progression of societies from agrarian feudalism to industrial capitalism to a socialist dictatorship in which wealth is redistributed evenly and government eradicated, leading to a theoretical stateless communist society (though in practice it was usually preindustrial countries that had socialist revolutions, and they always get frozen in the dictatorship stage because the state has no incentive to work toward its own annihilation). The Federation is definitely not a stateless society, and it doesn't conform to Marx's economic theories because it's a post-scarcity society; there's no need for state-regulated redistribution of wealth when there is no scarcity of wealth.

 

[Kegg]

so i was wondering if the TNG's tone or outlook changed when communism collapsed in eastern europe, since the show was only mid way through its run when it happened.

There is an emphasis that shifted, but not exactly in TNG. TNG early on seems to imply - specifically in the pilot episode and some of early season one - that we simply outgrew the capitalism/communism debate and found it as worthless an excuse to wage war as religion. That's not before our situation got a whole lot worse with drug-addicted soldiers and kangaroo courts (fitting Star Trek's shifting but oddly consistent vision that while our distant future is bright, our near future is apocalyptic), but hey, we got the general message okay.

There's also a general condescension towards capitalism when the subject is brought up in the first season, be it the contempt shown for the financier in "The Neutral Zone", or the grubby, capitalistic and at this point villainous Ferengi in "The Last Outpost." This attitude isn't as pronounced in any of the subsequent seasons, so vilifying capitalism was the least of TNG's priorities when the Cold War ended... and, again, this doesn't quite equal support of communism either. We've outrgrown 'em both, after all.

The Klingons, who were more-or-less analogous to Cold War enemies in the original series, were now seen as our friends - and while there's one episode, "Samaritan Snare", that suggests they were absorbed into the Federation, TNG's view eventually was there was this peace treaty and we evolved out of our squabble with the Klingons as we tended to do. This meant that, with the Cold War still more or less in-effect, the new stand-ins for the conflict were the Romulans (who had taken the role on TOS occasionally anyway).

But then the Soviet Union collapsed and we got a Star Trek movie depicting a similar fallout in the Klingon Empire. So peace became a necessity for the Klingons due to their weakness. TNG never engaged the collapse of the Soviets as directly as that film did, however, so I wouldn't overestimate the importance of this event to the series. You could argue that the "Unification" has some relevance to the post-Cold War environment - it deals with Romulans, our Russian proxies by TNG, possibly undergoing a transformative event in their culture - but you'd be really, really pushing it.

 

[BlastHardcheese]

Well the Klingon Empire(Soviet Russia) ended up on the brink of collapse due to a catastrophic explosion of Praxis, one of their primary energy production facilities(Chernobyl), forcing the Klingons(Reds) to become less warlike(less communist) and accept peace(capitalism).

A major part of the original series and movies was devoted to reflecting in the Federation's cold war with the Klingon empire. I always liked Trek: The Undiscovered Country because it served as a fitting homage to the end of that conflict; the emerging idea that the world doesn't have to be seen in terms of "us vs them" anymore.

It's a pity that lesson fell on so many deaf ears.

 

[BlastHardcheese]

it deals with Romulans, our Russian proxies by TNG, possibly undergoing a transformative event in their culture - but you'd be really, really pushing it.

Considering the events of Nemesis and Trek XI where mass destruction and chaos having been wrought by small groups of deranged power-hungry Romulan madmen who "stand apart" from the Romulan Empire, I think the Romulans have become our terrorist proxies.

 

[Bones2]

Did the theme of the show change when communism collapsed?

Nope, they kept a variation of Jerry Goldsmith's main theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

 

[blaXXer]

hey guys, i've noticed the shows have a very strong marxist overtone. even in that episode where the xindi go back in time to 21st century earth during S3 of ENT T'Pol says something about how humans are so primitive.

so i was wondering if the TNG's tone or outlook changed when communism collapsed in eastern europe, since the show was only mid way through its run when it happened.

thanks

erm, did you even watch TNG from start to finish?

 

[iguana_tonante]

Oh, not this again.

I think the proper form for this elocution is "Aw Jeez, not this shit again!"

Considering the events of Nemesis and Trek XI where mass destruction and chaos having been wrought by small groups of deranged power-hungry Romulan madmen who "stand apart" from the Romulan Empire, I think the Romulans have become our terrorist proxies.

This is actually a very interesting idea. I never thought about that. Thank you.

 

[DevilEyes]

But then the Soviet Union collapsed and we got a Star Trek movie depicting a similar fallout in the Klingon Empire. So peace became a necessity for the Klingons due to their weakness. TNG never engaged the collapse of the Soviets as directly as that film did, however, so I wouldn't overestimate the importance of this event to the series. You could argue that the "Unification" has some relevance to the post-Cold War environment - it deals with Romulans, our Russian proxies by TNG, possibly undergoing a transformative event in their culture - but you'd be really, really pushing it.

I remember reading an article or post or whatever that linked "Unification" to the reunification of Germany (which I suppose would make Romulus DDR/Eastern Germany and Vulcan BDR/Western Germany, keeping with the Cold War analogies). I guess that's one way to look at it, although it had never crossed my mind before, but then again, I first saw that episode years and years after it originally aired.