This is a reblog from Samantha Field, an author who has quickly become a new favorite of mine in the blogosphere. Samantha writes with a rare combination of personal vulnerability and razor-sharp insight. After you’ve read this one, I highly recommend perusing other articles on her site. Enjoy!
Star Trek, in many ways, is a modern morality play. There’s more nuance, more shades of grey, more complicated human realities, but what it does best is feature people with all their flaws and beauties struggling to make the world a better place. Sometimes, they fail. As Chakotay learns in “The Year of Hell,” sometimes even your best and purest motives are wrong. In Star Trek, though, winning is defined not by typical notions of success and wealth and power, but by understanding. When characters learn more about themselves– like Data learning about fear in Star Trek: Generations– or about other people, nations, planets, and species, that’s what the show considers a success.
Hopping Hadrian's Wall 