Help me teach a Star Trek seminar!

[Eddie Roth]

Dear BBS friends,

I have recently started my new job lecturing American Studies at a university. People have been clamoring for me to do a class on Star Trek for months now (my reputation as a Trekkie precedes me, it appears...). I have now finally relented and next semester (starting in April), that class will happen, titled "The Final Frontier: American History, Myth and Culture Through the Lens of Star Trek", a B.A. level class.

Now I'm trying to prepare the class, selecting episodes to watch and discuss academically with students, but it's harder than I thought breaking down the 700+ episodes to those that merit discussion regarding issues relevant to American Studies. Which made me think of you guys to help me out.

The idea of the class is to introduce students to Star Trek as a text that helps illustrate certain American cultural characteristics. On the one hand, that would have an historical dimension certainly - Trek's treatments of the Vietnam war, slavery, the Frontier, the Cold War etc. Spinning off of that, the key cultural myths such as, again, the Frontier, "manifest destiny", the "city upon a hill" or the "melting pot" and ubiquitous concepts such as class, race and gender are to be explained using Star Trek. The students will likely be in their third semesters and upwards and are supposed to work on identifying these key concepts in texts (in this case, Trek of course.)

The problem is that a class such as this cannot have more than, say, 25 to 30 episodes altogether, each of which should yield enough material for discussion concerning one of the above mentioned topics.

I have pencilled in the following so far:

- The Omega Glory (TOS): for the Cold War story and the celebration of the Declaration of Independence as a universal constant.
- The Cloud Minders (TOS): for a discussion of "class".
- A Private Little War (TOS): Vietnam war
- Rejoined (DS9): for "gender"

I would like to have all five shows represented somehow, although the majority of episodes I would like to be from TOS, TNG and DS9. I would much appreciate it if any of you have any ideas.

Oh, and also, in the first session, I want to show a single episode, preferably TOS, that illustrates to those people totally unfamiliar with Trek, what Trek is all about and I don't know what would work: Where No Man Has Gone Before? Space Seed? Something else?

Who would like to chime in?

1.

 

[barnaclelapse]

TNG's series finale may be good as a means to discuss whether mankind would deserve to be found guilty for various past sins.

 

[T'Girl]

-The Balance Of Terror (TOS) Military virtues and commitment to duty (Romulan Commander), prejudice and presumption of guilt (Spock/Lt. Stiles), Romance and marriage, Proper treatment of a defeated enemy (By Kirk).

-Data's Day (TNG) Romance and marriage (again), Betrayal and espionage (Romulan Spy), Handling defeat (Picard).

-Duet (DS9) The Holocast and personal guilt.

- Jetrel (VOY) Use of weapons of mass destruction (Metreon Cascade), Duty and military cowardice (Neelix), War criminals and redemption (Jetrel).

It's hard for me to recommend a single Enterprise episode, perhap a collection of episodes about Archer's ethical and moral decisions in the face of the Xindi threat.

 

[marylizz]

Wow! How exciting. I'm sure your class will be very successful, and that your students will gather a lot of ideas from it. Certainly there are lots of excellent illustrations of American culture in the show (though you yanks stole Shatner from us igloo-dwellers! grr.)

If you want to show a TOS ep, I definitely second Balance of Terror, and toss in Devil in the Dark for your consideration. Good luck to you!

 

[You_Guyz]

-Data's Day (TNG) Romance and marriage (again), Betrayal and espionage (Romulan Spy), Handling defeat (Picard).

Now, don't be silly.

One of the best episodes that dealt with a real world issue in TNG was "The High Ground” season 3 - terrorism. Absolutely wonderful episode, one of the all time greats imo.

"Nothing Human" in Season 5 Voyager dealt with using medical techniques gained through forced experimentation but the ending kind of destroys the episode and is completely illogical. Although that doesn't really relate much to America.

How about "The Mind's Eye" in season 4 TNG? That related to brainwashing just like that done in Veitnam to US soldiers.

Season 5's "The Game" also relates to America's somewhat over the top reaction to drugs and what they can do to you.

I can imagine that most episodes would have to be TOS．

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I think you need to add "In the Pale Moonlight" to balance out the selections we've seen so far. Most of what you have posted has a very specific spin to it, and I think if you tossed something like that into the mix, you could really get some interesting and thought-provoking reactions from the class, really stretch their idea of what Trek really is, get them to debate whether utopia is actually sustainable in real life.

 

[Gaith]

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but Trek doesn't strike me as a legitimate focus of an entire academic course. One could make an awesome lecture or two on how it purports to reflect humanistic values, yet generally does so via a contemporary American perspective... but a whole course? If it carried half the weight of a normal course and were pass/fail, then maybe...

The idea of the class is to introduce students to Star Trek as a text that helps illustrate certain American cultural characteristics. On the one hand, that would have an historical dimension certainly - Trek's treatments of the Vietnam war, slavery, the Frontier, the Cold War etc. Spinning off of that, the key cultural myths such as, again, the Frontier, "manifest destiny", the "city upon a hill" or the "melting pot" and ubiquitous concepts such as class, race and gender are to be explained using Star Trek.

All worthy topics for a lecture or two, particularly if supplemented by well-integrated video clips, but anyone who's made it to college, imho, should already be familiar enough with those concepts that examining the ways in which Trek reflects them ought to be superfluous.

Just my two cents. But it bears asking: would Kirk or Picard take a similarly pop-centric class during their university years?

 

[Broccoli]

You should have a unit titled: "'Threshold' and the Theory of Evolution: What. The. Fuck?!"

Other units should include: "The 1,544,654 Reasons on Why Trip Isn't Dead", "Rick Berman: A Burnt-Out TV Producer or the Anti-Christ?" and, of course, "Richard Robau: The Portrait of a Badass".

TNG's series finale may be good as a means to discuss whether mankind would deserve to be found guilty for various past sins.

I would dare say "Encounter at Farpoint" would be better at examining that.

Just my two cents. But it bears asking: would Kirk or Picard take a similarly pop-centric class during their university years?

I'm sure Kirk would have taken the class "Skirt Chasing Around the Galaxy" if it was offered.

 

[Kai Winn]

ds9's 'inquisition' if you want to highlight paranoia, infamy, rogue government agencies, and ethical compromises.

 

[Frontier]

"In the Pale Moonlight" needs to go in there somewhere. No doubt. Do the ends justify the means? What is patriotism, what is treason?

A good general episode to show your class who've no idea about Trek: "Arena"

It got me hooked on Trek.

It raises questions about revenge versus justice, ethics in the face of death, holding to ones beliefs in such a circumstance, the strong "interfering" with the weak. The ending when Kirk spares the Gorn captain, the being who lead a deadly sneak assault on Kirk's fellow humans at the starbase, and who tried to kill him, even at the risk of losing his own ship and crew, really smacks you in the face with the realization; these humans are not so flawed, these humans are better, we have evolved.

 

[Eddie Roth]

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but Trek doesn't strike me as a legitimate focus of an entire academic course. One could make an awesome lecture or two on how it purports to reflect humanistic values, yet generally does so via a contemporary American perspective... but a whole course? If it carried half the weight of a normal course and were pass/fail, then maybe...

The idea of the class is to introduce students to Star Trek as a text that helps illustrate certain American cultural characteristics. On the one hand, that would have an historical dimension certainly - Trek's treatments of the Vietnam war, slavery, the Frontier, the Cold War etc. Spinning off of that, the key cultural myths such as, again, the Frontier, "manifest destiny", the "city upon a hill" or the "melting pot" and ubiquitous concepts such as class, race and gender are to be explained using Star Trek.

All worthy topics for a lecture or two, particularly if supplemented by well-integrated video clips, but anyone who's made it to college, imho, should already be familiar enough with those concepts that examining the ways in which Trek reflects them ought to be superfluous.

I disagree. It may be different for American students, who I presume have learned quite a bit about these (indeed very elementary) concepts in high school. But I teach American Studies at a German university (I may have neglected to mention that). As such, American culture is not much of a focus in school, the English curriculum in our Gymnasium focuses heavily on Great Britain, the study of the language itself and literature. Cultural Studies per se don't really happen there. University students are thus brand new to many of these things and our introductory classes can only do so much - most of that is the theory of myth and I have found in my current class (which is entirely about 9/11) that there is, yes, huge interest on the part of the students, but not much grasp of these fundamental concepts left over from the introduction to work with concerning any given topic. These are, after all, students who work on wrapping their brains around what is to them a foreign culture. It's a longer learning process for Germans, I assume, than it is for Americans.

I don't know what discipline you come from, but in Cultural Studies, Star Trek (along with many other pop-cultural products) is generally accepted as an salient cultural text and research has been done in all sorts of areas aside from the humanist/philosophical angle. I myself wrote my master's thesis on gender, masculinity construction specifically, in TOS and TNG. And that's the tip of the iceberg.

To all others: Thanks for these initial recommendations. Balance of Terror has been recommended to me now several times, also from Trekkie friends, as an introductory episode. I hadn't considered it much, because to me, the episode's strong focus on combat seemed not much in line with what I personally see as Trek's specificity: exploration, and peaceful at that, a scientific mindset... But there is a point to what you are saying in so far as it touches upon issues of bigotry, racial profiling even (in Germany, the episode was interestingly titled Spock unter Verdacht - Spock under suspicion) and ultimately, if memory serves, a gesture of friendship towards an enemy. (Right?)

In the Pale Moonlight I do consider, strongly, for later in the semester. One of DS9's strongest points was its questioning of Trek's utopian angle, making a good point about American values and the sustainability of same, being the "city upon a hill" as it were, in times and political climates where they can be read as an impediment to success - economic or military. It's definitely in. What I'm trying to find is a companion piece, another show that either underlines this (Homefront/Paradise Lost have come to mind, but a two-parter might inflate our screenings too much, time-wise) or presents a strong depiction of what this future utopia was originally supposed to look like. TNG's The Neutral Zone explains it, but only in words... Was there any episode that actually shows life on earth in this supposed paradise? VGR's Non Sequitur maybe?

 

[Misfit Toy]

A friend of mine used to use TNG's Darmok to illustrate the importance of cross-culture communication.

 

[mythme]

I think "The Outcast" is a better choice than "Rejoined" for the topic of gender. A better example of the stigma and reprecussions of gender identification. "Cogenitor" might also be an interesting choice.

 

[barnaclelapse]

You should have a unit titled: "'Threshold' and the Theory of Evolution: What. The. Fuck?!"

Other units should include: "The 1,544,654 Reasons on Why Trip Isn't Dead", "Rick Berman: A Burnt-Out TV Producer or the Anti-Christ?" and, of course, "Richard Robau: The Portrait of a Badass".

TNG's series finale may be good as a means to discuss whether mankind would deserve to be found guilty for various past sins.

I would dare say "Encounter at Farpoint" would be better at examining that.

Just my two cents. But it bears asking: would Kirk or Picard take a similarly pop-centric class during their university years?

I'm sure Kirk would have taken the class "Skirt Chasing Around the Galaxy" if it was offered.

I debated between the two and honestly thought the finale would be better in terms of entertainment that could still provoke that serious discussion afterward, but I suppose it could go either way.

 

[Ziz]

Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant is a good place to start. It touches on not just specific cultural issues but the attitudes of the different Trek races towards themselves and each other. That in itself is what makes any society succeed, fail and balance itself out.

 

[WillsBabe]

A few texts you might find interesting, too: Star Trek in Myth and Legend by Thomas Richards; Watching Science Fiction Audiences: Star Trek and Doctor Who by Jenkins and Tulloch; and Sexual Generations: Star Trek the Next Generation and Gender by Robin Roberts.

 

[kes7]

I'll kick in a few suggestions from VOY:

Critical Care (ethics of health care/allocation of resources -- timely, to say the least)
Living Witness (history vs. truth vs. keeping order)
Nothing Human (this is probably my favorite "ethical" episode in all of Trek, despite the dated special effects for the alien parasite -- deals with both patient's rights and the ethics of medical research)
Child's Play (two issues here ... parental rights vs. what's best for the child in the first half, and whether or not it's okay to sacrifice an innocent to try to save a race in the second half.)

 

[mattyhugh]

"Ethics" from TNG has some interesting 'Right to Die'/Euthanasia flavor to it.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Nothing Human is a really, really good choice. I wish I'd thought of that.