I know about the news from Northern Ireland about a potential reunification with the Republic of Ireland, and I know we're all talking about Data's line from that one episode about "The Irish Reunification of 2024". But, the episode that quote comes from gives me a pretty big ick when it comes to the bombardment of Gaza.
Obviously, when she wrote the teleplay, Melinda Snodgrass couldn't have even seen what was going to happen tomorrow, let alone what would happen in the actual year of 2024. And, obviously, Star Trek: The Next Generation was a television show with deadlines and sponsors and contractual obligations to fulfill. Not knowing anything (or caring to know) about her personal political views, either intentionally or not, TNG 3.12-"The High Ground" still carries a pretty strong pro-imperialist message. Data's famous quotation is delivered in something that seems to be a defence of terrorism as a political motivator, and, throughout the episode, Picard and Riker try to convince the audience that they think the Rutian police aren't any better than the Ansata terrorists they're fighting. But, in the end, it comes down to the Federation narcing on these people and leading the police straight to their secret underground base. The hero ship gets its captain back, Acting Ensign Crusher gets his mum back, and the Enterprise sails off into the sunset. The Federation probably stops trading with Rutia without looking into the whithertos and whyfors too much, and everything goes back to the way it was before the story ever happened.
Obviously, there's nothing overtly suggesting that the Ansata are Palestinians and the Rutians are Israelis, but it's not about particulars, it's about imperialism and how the Enterprise is basically the extension of Western democracy and the Protestant work-ethic in the 24th century. I've always seen Star Trek as existing in a universe where all of Earth becomes Americans and, as a TV programme, Americans are still very possessive of the Enterprise captains. Picard might be French, but the prefix of the Enterprise is still "USS". It's like how the original series decided to do "Taming of the Shrew" with Shatner as Petruchio and France Nuyen as Katherina right at the height of the Vietnam war. It was American imperialism beating down the savage Vietnamese to protect their oil interests in a censor-friendly manner.
I mean, good on Ireland for taking steps toward making the Irish Reunification of 2024 something more than just a plausible near-future reference in a Star Trek list. But that was just one line in an otherwise really janky episode.
--18 February 2024--