In his article, “Cold War Pop Culture and the Image of U.S. Foreign Policy,” Nicholas Evan Sarantakes claims that purpose of the episodes in the Star Trek original series was to critique U.S. foreign policy and discourage actions that ran counter to America’s core democratic values. By serving as thinly veiled allegories of real world conflicts and issues, these episodes could still comment on U.S. policy while also depicting an action-packed science fiction story. One example of this is the episode “The Doomsday Machine” which help establish the writers’ disapproval of nuclear proliferation. Here, a giant conical device eviscerates the entire crew of the USS Constellation after it lost a battle with it and serves as an obvious symbol of nuclear weapons. When the crew of the Enterprise discovers this machine, it threatens to unfold its devastation once again. It is only able to be stopped when the USS Constellation is rammed into it. The episode shows the destructive potential of weapons such as nuclear bombs and criticizes any those who try to utilize them. Sarantakes asserts, “The message is clear: Nuclear weapons must never be used in the defense of the United States or any other country. They will destroy the planet, including the country that used them” (89).
Science Fiction and Fantasy are great media through which one can challenged political and social beliefs since they can explore deep issues like the Vietnam war but can operate under the guise of just being entertainment. This effectively circumvents any efforts that publishers or television stations take to stay away from divisive topics. An example of this can be seen in The Lord of the Rings which explores the topic of industrialization in a fantasy context. Nature is seen to be corrupted and abused in order to build up power and strength. Here Tolkien critiques the destruction of nature by the British government from the Industrial Revolution onward. Parallels are drawn between the quest for ultimate power in the book and the quest for economic development in Britain.
The Rhetoric of Containment 