What ST:TNG's "The Hunted" Means To Me

As I begin to explore the various facets of using Science Fiction as vehicle to social commentary, an obvious example comes to mind.

• Title: Star Trek: The Next Generation - "The Hunted" Season 3, episode 11
• Medium: Television
• Year made: 1990
• Country of Origin: United States

Synopsis: While the Enterprise-D is reviewing a seemingly idyllic planet's application for Federation membership, an escaped prisoner leads its crew to discover an ugly secret: the government's shameful treatment of its war veterans.

Since this took place slightly before Desert Storm, I'm going to assume this is thinly-veiled attempt to shed light on the plight of many of our surviving veterans of Vietnam. At this time, the Vietnam War ended some 15 years before. This is one of the few episodes on television that I can remember that depicts a Vietnam veteran as intelligent, competent and as a protagonistic character in general. Prior to this episode, veterans in television usually came across as psychos or lunatics, all suffering from severe PTSD. While the character in this Star Trek episode also shows signs of this disorder, it is controlled and is part of his wounded nature, not the main motivation for his actions.

Star Trek is to be congratulated in bringing issues such as these in the forefront of our minds when we watch their episodes. In the my coming blog posts, I will be showing more fine examples of how our favorite Starfleet officers address touchy issues of our day sometimes poignantly, sometimes as a slap in the face.

A Most Powerful Medium

Science Fiction has a bad rap. I bet your English teacher turned their nose up at it. I know mine did. I remember for an 8th grade reading assignment we had to bring in a book that was over 200 pages. I brought in 'BOLO' by Keith Laumer, a sci-fi book about a futuristic tank with AI.

I enthusiastically showed it to to my teacher and she mockingly exclaimed, "BOLO?! Ugh, one of them."And then she gave the book back and dismissed me. And so the first of many dreams of fantasy, adventure and imagination were squashed by someone in educational authority.

But the science fiction genre, and fantasy for that matter, has always been in the unique position to make the most powerful of statements on society without being overtly preachy, which is, quite frankly, boring. No one wants to be a captive audience to blatant political commentary.

But wrap that comment in a fun, exciting and imaginative story, and now you have engaging entertainment with allegorical overtones that may or may not be subtle. Will the audience get the allegory? Who cares! Either way, they are entertained and you get to use your novel, screenplay, or painting as a mouthpiece of what you want to express about life on this spinning ball of mud.

For example, Godzilla was intended to be the personification of Japan's utter horror and helplessness in regards to nuclear annihilation. But they were banned to express how they felt about 'the bomb' that fell some 15-odd years earlier. So they created an allegorical horror in the form of a 200 foot tall monster that destroys a city (well, the model of one, anyway), and now you have an amazing film.

Ironically, J. R. R. Tolkien was quoted as saying he despised allegory, and he never used it in his books. It's funny, because it doesn't take much thought to compare the battle of the Shire vs. the invading Orcs as the struggle our rural facet of society faces against an expanding industrial one.

In short, the purpose of this blog will be to pick a movie or an episode that is taken from the science fiction genre and just say what I feel it is really about. I'm sure it will evolve from there.