Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, in his article Cold War Pop Culture and the Image of U.S. Foreign Policy, The Perspective of the Original Star Trek Series, argues that the Star Trek series made use of the media in order to critique U.S. foreign policy. One of the episodes which Sarantakes mentions is “Patterns of Force”. The episode is centered around saving the planet of Ekos from a Nazi movement surprisingly implemented by a fellow Federation researcher, Gill. Kirk and Spock, two Enterprise officers, manage to persuade Gill, called the Führer, to hold off the attack against a neighboring planet. Gill confesses to the fellow officers of his intentions, to unify Ekos “using Hitler’s Germany as a historical model.” This alludes to the comparison writer Paul Schneider was considering to deepen. It was his notion that a totalitarian regime was not all bad, and if disregarding the horrific outcome of Hitler’s regime, it managed to unify Germans and to give them a sense of purpose. The validity of two U.S. foreign policies is further questioned in the episode. To convey the importance of “non-interference,” Gill finally admits “The non-interference directive is the only way.” To enhance the importance of supporting democratic regimes, the ship’s doctor emphasizes the message “a man holds that much power, even with the best of intentions just can’t resist the urge to play God.”
In my opinion, science fiction enjoys the intersection between having to oblige to actual facts, and presenting a possible outcome or criticizing a parallel situation, without explicitly taking a stance. A great example of science fiction which self-consciously provides a cultural critique is Black Mirror. The television series currently consists of three seasons, in which each episode is completely independent of the others. The series depicts plausible near outcomes that society can expect. The episodes are flooded with social critique and questioning of the modern way of life, and where it is taking us.
(Black Mirror S3 Ep1)
Photo Credits: Google Images.
The Rhetoric of Containment 