Apologies if there's already a thread for this, maybe from a user I've got on ignore, but a search for "covid" and "corona" yielded nothing, so, here goes. There's been lots of online chatter about revisiting the movies Contagion and Outbreak recently, which got me thinking, which Trek episodes/movies are most relevant to this pandemic? I'm not nearly the Trek scholar that others on the board are, but the two which most readily pop to my mind are VOY's "Critical Care," about triage and health care in general, and ENT's "Extinction," an almost Lovecraft-ian story of a plague-destroyed civilization. That said, I'm sure there are others; which ones have I missed?
DS9's The Quickening: Bashir tries to cure a genetic illness created by the Jem Hadar. It is a great study of the perseverance of a medical professional.
"Brothers." It showcases a brother struggling with guilt over his sibling getting sick and getting through that illness, even in quarantine.
I just saw that episode a bit ago...and not gonna lie, maybe me feel a bit worried considering some recent developments....the details are obviously wrong but in the broad strokes....
I'd recommend against revisiting "Extinction," the worse episode in an otherwise good season. It also doesn't seem to parallel the situation significantly. Its virus doesn't cause disease, it mutates you from your original species to the species of its creators, and just what destroyed the creators' civilization is left ambiguous. "Observer Effect" is a much better Enterprise story concerning disease. I don't think it parallels COVID much either, especially its resolution, but it does portray people in quarantine trying to keep their spirits up and the fear they cause in others when one tries to break it. I'd have to rewatch Voyager's Phage episodes to see how I'd rank them, but the Vidiians are a cautionary tale about not letting your desire to free yourself from disease turn you into something monstrous.
The Naked Time ...and to a lesser extent, is sappily drunken sibling... The Naked Now Both share the same plot of space cooties infecting Enterprise crew at just the worst possible time.
I haven't seen all of ENT S3, but I have seen "Carpenter Street," so I know "Exctinction" definitely isn't the worst of the lot. I mean, needing to collect all different human blood types to create the ultimate virus? What virus ever has cared about blood type?!
"Miri" is the one that immediately springs to mind. A virus that wipes out the adults, but mysteriously leaves the children unaffected. In its wake, society falls to pieces.
Perhaps "THE OMEGA GLORY"? Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have to stay on the planet for quite a while until tge immunity kicks in, but they do have to face other problems. Like Ron Tracey.
I don't think it needs to parallel the virus to be relevant.You are correct that it shows people helping one another through isolation, but it also has one of the few great Archer speechs: learning compassion by practicing compassion.
You'll see. "Threshold" predicted that all of this was going to happen, but we just didn't want to listen. Don't come crying when you've all mutated into salamanders.