The Borg, and health care reform

March 23, 2010 6:17 PM

In honor of the Health Care Reform bill that passed on Sunday, here is a 1992 episode of Star Trek: "I, Borg" (2, 3, 4, 5). It is one of the unsung heroes of healthcare reform.

The user who uploaded I, Borg to You Tube did so for "The benfit of the Star Trek community and the moral teaching of mankind." I offer it to you for your own apophenia.

For those who aren't passingly familiar with this part of Star Trek, the Borg are a race of cyborgs that think with a hive mind and Locutus of Borg is a designation given to Picard when he was captured by the Borg and assimilated. The episode isn't all that confusing if you don't know, but I thought I should tell you anyway.

posted by The Devil Tesla (79 comments total)

God I hate that episode.
posted by Artw at 6:25 PM on March 23, 2010 [5 favorites]

The futility of resistance is a big fucking deal.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 6:27 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

For others wondering how this episode "is one of the unsung heroes of healthcare reform."

1. [It] sets the precedent for the 1997 introduction of Seven of Nine...on Star Trek: Voyager. [I've never seen Star Trek; I omitted what might be spoilers.]
2. The 1997 casting of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine surely changed the course of her 1999 divorce from Illinois politician Jack Ryan.
3. In 2004, Jack Ryan sought to replace retiring Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald, and won the Republican primary, but withdrew from the race after details of his divorce were made public, including a bunch of stuff about maybe trying to pressure his wife into swinging or public S&M. “We did go to one avant-garde nightclub in Paris,” he said, “which was more than either one of us felt comfortable with.” (When in doubt, blame the arts and the French; they’re just freaky like that.)
4. His withdrawal left one Barack Obama running basically unopposed, except by Alan Keyes (who doesn’t count because c’mon, Alan Keyes).
5. You can take it from there.

Most excellent.
posted by sallybrown at 6:29 PM on March 23, 2010 [22 favorites]

Have to agree with Artw. I love TNG, but those episodes were among the worst (including the first season).
posted by purephase at 6:29 PM on March 23, 2010

Oh, that episode makes me cringe. It's one of those situations where I feel sorry for the actor who was cast to play Hugh. But I love the loose connection with health care reform! Yet again, Star Trek rocks my world.
posted by Never teh Bride at 6:30 PM on March 23, 2010

So...am I a Borg if I support healthcare reform, or am I irrelevant if I oppose it?
posted by ThusSpakeZarathustra at 6:31 PM on March 23, 2010

2. The 1997 casting of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine surely changed the course of her 1999 divorce from Illinois politician Jack Ryan.

As I recall, the salacious details of the Ryan divorce involved less Star Trek and more sex clubs.
posted by mhum at 6:34 PM on March 23, 2010

sallybrown: "For others wondering how this episode "is one of the unsung heroes of healthcare reform. ...""

... did you really just basically copy the entirety of the post and make it a comment? Was that necessary?
posted by barnacles at 6:38 PM on March 23, 2010 [4 favorites]

Someone post a Cathy comic that somehow intersects with US healthcare reform.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:38 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

I love this kind of interconnected oddness.

I guess truth is stranger than fiction.
posted by poe at 6:39 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

I guess the point I was going for is that if this Jack Ryan dude is pressuring Seven of Nine to go to sex clubs, I'm guessing he'd be pressuring anyone. So, the fact that Jeri Ryan was cast on Star Trek would be irrelevant.

In other words, we should be drawing the chain of causality back to whatever sparked Jack Ryan's interest in sex clubs.
posted by mhum at 6:39 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

Didn't Gates McFadden play Mrs. Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October?
posted by steef at 6:46 PM on March 23, 2010 [7 favorites]

She did!
posted by exois at 6:48 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

In other words, we should be drawing the chain of causality back to whatever sparked Jack Ryan's interest in sex clubs.

I believe this adventure is chronicled in The C_nt* for Red Cocktober.

No metatalk callouts for me, no sir.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:51 PM on March 23, 2010 [8 favorites]

... did you really just basically copy the entirety of the post and make it a comment? Was that necessary?

I certainly didn't copy the entire post, although I did quote a big block of it. I put it in italics so others would know it was a quote...see also the use of brackets and non-italics for my own words in #1. But in case anyone else was confused, that was from The Devil Teale's link!

I assumed when reading the FPP that the substance of the episode spurred people to pursue healthcare reform, rather than the more "butterfly flapping its wings" explanation, which I thought was funny and worthy of quoting in case other people made the same assumption and didn't read the link.
posted by sallybrown at 6:51 PM on March 23, 2010

I was going to say that Obama could have won that seat without having to run unopposed, with my evidence being the fact that he won in 2008. But his opponent was John McCain (w/ Sarah Palin!) and how much more unopposed does it get?

(That said, he also beat Hilary and the establishment, so...)
posted by DU at 6:52 PM on March 23, 2010

... did you really just basically copy the entirety of the post and make it a comment? Was that necessary?

Well, it's not the entirety, but it was the important part.

MetaFilter doesn't require that people read the entirety of a link before commenting, so having a little snippet from the post for people who just skim threads is worthwhile IMO. It's a little silly when the blog post is already quite short, but it's fine.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:53 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

Ahh, preview fail.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:54 PM on March 23, 2010

Whugh.
posted by dhartung at 6:56 PM on March 23, 2010

... did you really just basically copy the entirety of the post and make it a comment? Was that necessary?

Yes. I presumed before I started skimming the thread this was some loopy Star Trek fan talking about some scene that ends with a triumphant Picard speech that is vaguely relevant to health care, and was ready to be all NERRRRRRRDS etc. Instead it's this wonderfully insane confluence of events that...well, maybe? I think the casting of Jeri Ryan is clearly the weakest link in the chain of events here, and it's the one most relevant to Star Trek, so.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:56 PM on March 23, 2010 [4 favorites]

Wow, this is a hell of a reach, even for a joke and even for a Star Trek fan. I'm not sure I really even get how the episode relates to health care at all.

Also seconding that that episode was totally lame, although they tied the thread of releasing Hugh "into the wild" into a much cooler two-parter later on, where Hugh had gone back to the Borg and spread the idea of individuality, creating a group of renegade Borg now led by Data's evil brother Lore.
posted by DecemberBoy at 7:00 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

Ahh, preview fail.

Spelling fail on my part, The Devil Teale Tesla.
posted by sallybrown at 7:01 PM on March 23, 2010

Also, did they ever even mention any of this on Voyager? If they did, it couldn't have been any more than one of those throwaway lines like "I read about (plot of episode from another series) at Starfleet Academy" or whatever. I don't see how Hugh "led to" Seven of Nine - the whole reason Seven of Nine was introduced was just that Voyager was getting shitty ratings and they wanted to add titties to the mix.
posted by DecemberBoy at 7:01 PM on March 23, 2010

And, they only made her a Borg because that was the only familiar Star Trek race that was around, since the show was set in an unexplored quadrant of the galaxy. They couldn't have a female Romulan or whatever just show up (although they did that a few times, introducing the odd Ferengi or Klingon that were floating around out there for spurious reasons)
posted by DecemberBoy at 7:06 PM on March 23, 2010

fwiw although I supported Obama over Clinton I honestly think Clinton would have kicked McCain's ass as well and would have had a good shot of passing HCR too, so even if Obama had lost to Ryan I suspect we'd be in a similar place about now. The only potential fish bone would have been if Edwards had racked up a lot of early primary wins and have been on the verge of capturing the nomination when his whole affair was made public. Then, I suspect we would have had President McCain (shudder) and whomever he would have selected as VP (Pawlenty) under those circumstances.

It in retrospect makes me a bit angry. On one level I don't really give a flying flip who elected officials (D or R) boink, but the fact that Edwards was perfectly willing to run and risk the White House for 4-8+ more years of sheer modern day Republican fuckatude so he could get some nookie just makes me want to kick him in the nuts.
posted by edgeways at 7:07 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

I assumed when reading the FPP that the substance of the episode spurred people to pursue healthcare reform, rather than the more "butterfly flapping its wings" explanation

Pff. The substance of the episode was the wussification of some previously badass space baddies and the return to TNGs core values of being sucky and boring and lecturing you at long length on why fun interesting cool things are wrong after accidentally doing something fun and cool by introducing said badass space baddies and having some actual fights and stuff.

I'd also point out that though some superficially similar themes were explored with Jeri Ryan's character she was actually reasonably badass and a pretty fun character, and so a different kettle of fish from the wishy washy business with Hugh.
posted by Artw at 7:07 PM on March 23, 2010

Jean-Luc Picard

[Personal life / Star Trek: Nemesis] Throughout his service, Picard often enjoys Earl Grey tea when he finds a moment to relax, reflect

Earl Grey tea

[History] although this blend of tea was first made from fermented black Indian and "Ceylonese" (Sri Lankan) teas.

Sri Lanka

[Countries with universal health care] Ministry of Health - Seychelles, South Korea Spain, Sri LankaHealth Care System: Sri Lanka, Sweden, The Republic of China (Taiwan)

Universal health care

posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:10 PM on March 23, 2010 [6 favorites]

An interesting theory, but it relies too heavily on circumstance. Here's a more direct link: like many kids our age, Barack Obama was undoubtedly influenced by the socialized medicine of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

In Star Wars, all we really know about Darth Vader is he's a human being inside a walking iron lung. Right off the bat, we know either the Empire or the galaxy in which Vader lives has medical technology vastly superior to ours. Then, after Vader amputates Luke's hand in The Empire Strikes Back, we discover the Rebels have it too, their surgery is performed by robots, and prosthetic limbs look and work as well as--and, in Vader's case, are superior to--human flesh. And in the entire Star Wars franchise, no one is billed for medical expenses, the technology is not proprietary, and everyone--both Rebels and Imperials--have equal access to this medical technology.

So while the rest of us kids were watching Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back and thinking about how cool it would be if we could have lightsabers and blasters, Barack Obama was clearly thinking about bigger and more pragmatic goals: "If the both the officers of the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance can have awesome medical technology available to anyone who needs it, Americans should too."

And now that vision is realized. Thank you, Mr. Obama!
posted by mattdidthat at 7:13 PM on March 23, 2010 [8 favorites]

Ah, this is a great episode. You guys don't know how lucky it is they decided not to make the Ferengi the big bad enemy as was originally planed. The borg were a great villein, and an excellent foil for many heavy handed moral teaching laden plots, just as any good sci-fi needs.

And to totally destroy any fun with Star Trek out-nerding, pretty sure that Picard's transformation, and de-borging from Locutus more directly set the path for Seven of Nine's creation.

(also good lord, are people too lazy to ctrl-click open a link in a new page? Isn't that sorta the point of posting links at all?)
posted by fontophilic at 7:13 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed that episode. I also watched it as a 11 year old kid or somewhere around that age. I haven't watched it since. Maybe I'd have a different interpretation.
posted by Atreides at 7:13 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

And to totally destroy any fun with Star Trek out-nerding, pretty sure that Picard's transformation, and de-borging from Locutus more directly set the path for Seven of Nine's creation.

Ah! That's true! And they DO mention Locutus on the early Seven of Nine episodes, I'm pretty sure.
posted by DecemberBoy at 7:15 PM on March 23, 2010

TNGs core values of being sucky and boring and lecturing you at long length on why fun interesting cool things are wrong

It was a product of its time, that's for sure, but you must remember that most of the heavy-handed morality stuff in TNG was due to Roddenberry itself, which is why DS9, produced entirely post-Roddenberry, had an entire 6-part arc that was almost all kickass space battles.
posted by DecemberBoy at 7:19 PM on March 23, 2010 [4 favorites]

Roddenberry HIMself
posted by DecemberBoy at 7:20 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, they give pretty hand wavy reasons for why they were able to completely rid Picard of all implants, but Seven would be plagued by hers for the rest of her life (read: they need some crappy plot device to have Seven constantly yanked back into evil mode, and Janeway to play mommy.)

But, like I said, you don't eat the sci-fi sandwich for the crappy piece of deli-meat plot, it's for the rich thick moral mayo. Mmmm.
posted by fontophilic at 7:20 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

I like this episode!

TNG was at it's best when these sort of incredibly moral characters are put in crazy situations that challenge their morals. That is what happens here, and I'm absolutely gleeful that the show would let itself get campy enough to have character say things like "Resistance is not futile" and the like. And there is some substance here in it's assertion in the desire of someone to be an individual.

So often popular media is about making violence against some kind of bad guy an absolutely moral thing while romanticizing the enemies. Star Trek does it too, but I think that it is at it's best when it strikes some kind of balance between being about these character's morals and being about badassery. I think this episode reaches a good equilibrium in that regard, partially because of the scene towards the end where Picard lies to Hugh and says that he is Locutus in order to gague his reaction. That's awesome.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 7:23 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

I thought it was a terribly clever twist that Picard wouldn't allow them to infect the Borg collective with Data's crazy puzzle-virus, but in the end, when you see Hugh glance at Geordi as he's beaming out, you realize they actually ended up infecting the collective with LOVE, which the Prime Directive doesn't really say anything about, I guess, and I'm sure Riker used that excuse on more than one away mission, after he had fallen under the influence of the alien beard-parasite, that is.
posted by steef at 7:40 PM on March 23, 2010 [5 favorites]

5. You can take it from there.

Take it where?
posted by zarq at 7:40 PM on March 23, 2010

damn, borg creep me out.
posted by elder18 at 7:41 PM on March 23, 2010

Oh god. John Campbell (a cartoonist I adore) decided today, of all days, was a day to make a comic about Star Trek.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 7:52 PM on March 23, 2010

In 2004, Jack Ryan sought to replace retiring Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald

I was just thinking about Fitzgerald today, reflecting that if it wasn't for his habit of attacking pork projects aimed at his own state, the Illinois G.O.P. wouldn't have dropped a burn notice on him, and he might have tried for a second term. Instead of a prop candidate like Keyes, Obama would have faced an immensely wealthy incumbent.

He might well have won anyway, but the outcome would have been more in doubt. That's why I'd say that the tussle over construction contracts for the Lincoln Presidential Library did more to change the course of history than any episode of Star Trek, with the possible exception of "A Fistful of Datas."
posted by Iridic at 8:09 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

....I am ...confused.
posted by The Whelk at 8:11 PM on March 23, 2010

**** frantically tries to figure out if he can connect health care reform to the Space:1999 episode The Dorcons. Fails. ****
posted by wittgenstein at 8:21 PM on March 23, 2010

The Hugh episode is bad, yeah. So's the Lal one, and the li'l Data one and the sex planet one and ... pretty much all of them, really. I loved TNG when I was twelve, though. It was a bit of an obsession, actually.

Now, for some reason, I actually prefer Polaski to Crusher. Yeah, I know. Sometimes adulthood is terrifying.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:24 PM on March 23, 2010

RobotVoodooPower: I think your branch went the wrong way after Picard->Earl Gray, instead of Sri Lanka you should have pointed out that involving the Ceylonese to get access to their advanced technology is part of The Plan. While the Weekly Standard wonders what their Plan is, using our vulnerable networked computers we can already find "a sample of a number of healthcare projects where Cylon systems have been installed." Death Panels turn out to be the least of our worries.
posted by cgk at 8:29 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure I really even get how the episode relates to health care at all.

THE BORG = SOCIALISM!!!!1 UNDER THE NEW CRAZED COMMIE CYBORG HEALTH CARE PLAN, WE WILL ALL BE NOTHING BUT A NUMBER!!!!!!!11!
posted by Sys Rq at 8:43 PM on March 23, 2010 [3 favorites]

But, but, but! The Borg episodes encouraged many people to PROTO-GOOGLE RON PAUL AYN RAND. Didn't that at least drag out the debate a few months or something?
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:45 PM on March 23, 2010

I never got why the Borg couldn't be the Federation's pals. If they didn't focus so much on just taking over people via force, they could be totally kosher. Make it opt-in - who's gonna leave AFTER getting the free trial peroid of being EVERYONE - hell, they could be the Federation's Bestest Friends if they just stopped the hard sell.

Ignoring the fact that thier entire structure is kinda stupid. Allow for more autonomy and you get more innovation - of course, that's where the Federation could come in, oh hello slightly skeevy symbiotic relationships, I didn't see you there.
posted by The Whelk at 8:46 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

HOSPITALS WILL BE OMINOUS CUBES WITH COPIOUS EXPOSED DUCTWORK!!!!1!
posted by Sys Rq at 8:46 PM on March 23, 2010 [6 favorites]

I like the idea of TNG. I just wish it was put together better. JAndrewEdits comes close, but I'd like to see a re-imagining of it. I mean, Lost is ending, Fringe can't last forever. Please, Mr. Abrams, fix TNG. Make it animated if you have to. Star Trek and animation go together like ketchup and eggs.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:48 PM on March 23, 2010

I'm not sure I really even get how the episode relates to health care at all.

DecemberBoy, the rest of your posts show that you in fact DRTFA, but... you really missed the point of the article here.
posted by IAmBroom at 8:51 PM on March 23, 2010

They should have made an episode where the Ferangi challenge the Beverly Crusher gatekeeper system and provide a for-profit alternative. Then Wesley dies from medical tricorder radiation due to unnecessary scans.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:56 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

you really missed the point of the article here.

I know, it confused me at first for some reason. It was so short I didn't really read it carefully. If you could edit posts I'd have just edited that out.
posted by DecemberBoy at 9:29 PM on March 23, 2010

So, they teach the Borg guy the value of independence, and then theorize that he'll spread that knowledge when he's reassimilated. But isn't the collective comprised of former individuals? If that theory was true, the collective wouldn't have been able to exist in the first place.
posted by knave at 10:00 PM on March 23, 2010

That episode was just as awesome as it was when I was an eleven-year-old nerd.

How bizarre to see the hologram in the Borg eyepiece and think "that looks like the past" instead of "that looks like the future"
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 10:19 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

If that theory was true, the collective wouldn't have been able to exist in the first place.

Borg drones are brainwashed somehow when they're assimilated (they never went into great detail about how), so that they forget everything about their previous lives. In fact, that's the whole premise for the Seven of Nine character - there were several episodes where she would remember one thing or another about her past and flip out.
posted by DecemberBoy at 12:12 AM on March 24, 2010

I mainly liked it when she hurt people.
posted by Artw at 12:14 AM on March 24, 2010

He might well have won anyway, but the outcome would have been more in doubt. That's why I'd say that the tussle over construction contracts for the Lincoln Presidential Library did more to change the course of history than any episode of Star Trek, with the possible exception of "A Fistful of Datas."

"A Fistful of Datas" is also available on YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
posted by The Devil Tesla at 12:28 AM on March 24, 2010

I also feel the need to chime in that I saw that episode as an 11 year old nerd. It was one of my favorites then and, having seen it since, it still is. What's wrong with you people?
posted by heathkit at 1:03 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I love TNG, but that episode is bad. Hugh's lines make me cringe, and on top of that, I can't watch it without thinking it was written by someone who read one too many Ayn Rand book...
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 2:13 AM on March 24, 2010

It's a cute theory, but besides being non-testable it's highly unlikely that Jack Ryan would have beat Obama; he was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs who taught school for a short time before beginning his run in an effort to convince people that he was interested in public service. Jeri Ryan had already begun her TV acting career; if she hadn't played a Borg, Brannon Braga (the Star Trek: Voyager producer and writer who dated her for several years) would have found some other excuse to cast her.
posted by Halloween Jack at 3:58 AM on March 24, 2010

I'm absolutely gleeful that the show would let itself get campy enough to have character say things like "Resistance is not futile"

Man, I don't even think it's that campy! They'd already brought up the Borg a couple of times, and they always say the same fucking thing, and at some point, yeah, Starfleet dudes are gonna be like "JESUS CHRIST LEAVE IT ALONE WITH THE RESISTANCE IS FUTILE SHIT ALREADY"

You guys don't know how lucky it is they decided not to make the Ferengi the big bad enemy as was originally planed.

I've been thinking about this lately, and yeah, of course, the Ferengi were initially introduced in the most over-the-top stupid way possible -- clearly, beyond the ability of the show to write/direct them -- so the Borg ended up being a good villain for someone you basically don't have to write or even act; you just put some opaque humanoid faces in a bunch of wires and have our beloved Guinan LOSE HER SHIT.

But really, I woulda liked to see a show where the Ferengi WERE the villains. If the writers had been as good in general (and as good with Ferengi specifically) as they were in Deep Space Nine, there could have been some really interesting stuff about the way capitalism creeps into an otherwise-Utopian system to divide people through jealousy and petty one-upmanship. There's a lot of potential for an episode where, say, Geordi buys himself a nice beard trimmer, and Riker's like, "Man, I wish I had one of those," and Geordi's like, "Too bad, last one, got it from the Ferengi" and Riker's like, "Well I do believe I'll just replicate one then" and Geordi's like, "But this is the ORIGINAL" and Riker's never read Benjamin's The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction so he just pouts.

Also, on that topic, I do wish Geordi had ended up growing that beard. How sweet would it have been if you had this steadily-growing rivalry between the only two dudes with beards on that ship? Everyone woulda had to pretend like Riker's is better since he's basically an electronic-heart-attack away from being the Captain, but in secret, in Ten Forward, you'd have all these peeps getting total boners for Geordi, all "Aw damn, he's good at science AND he's got a better beard than Riker? Sign me UP for a ride on his warp nacelle"

also something about healthcare
posted by Greg Nog at 5:37 AM on March 24, 2010 [14 favorites]

Now, for some reason, I actually prefer Polaski to Crusher. Yeah, I know. Sometimes adulthood is terrifying.

You weirdo.
posted by Atreides at 6:09 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

We will NOT just b a number in the new health care system.

We'll be six numbers, a dash, three letters followed by four numbers, a slash and five MORE numbers.
posted by DWRoelands at 6:11 AM on March 24, 2010

Hey greg-Nog, if I ever come into money, I am totally letting you create a show centered around the Enterprise's grunts and lesser officers - where all the action takes place off camera and our characters just sit around drinking and saying things like "Aw damn, he's good at science AND he's got a better beard than Riker? Sign me UP for a ride on his warp nacelle" Call it It's Always Sunny In Engineering or something.
posted by The Whelk at 6:30 AM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

I actually like the episode I, Borg. It's one of the few TNG episodes I can name by its actual title.
posted by yeti at 7:20 AM on March 24, 2010

The last episode of TNG I caught was about Troi teaching someone that it's okay to grieve and then temporarily losing her empathic powers and lots of heavy handed shit about it being just like being disabled and her having to learn to grieve herself. So I guess it could be worse.
posted by Artw at 7:38 AM on March 24, 2010

YOU KNOW WHO'S SOCIALIST??? THE SWEDES!!! YOU KNOW WHO'S A SWEDE???? BJORN BORG!!!! I REST MY CASE
posted by Sys Rq at 8:16 AM on March 24, 2010

I'm not sure I really even get how the episode relates to health care at all.

Isn't it obvious?

The crew of the Enterprise clearly enjoys the full benefits of a robust and superior universal health care system. Have you ever seen Dr. Crusher once mention billing anything to a patient?

The Borg, on the other hand, represent the Republicans with their single-minded pursuit of conquest, their unreflective confidence in their own superiority, their love of uniformity and ideological discipline. And Borg society clearly loves defense spending and treats its individual member as if they were disposable, too.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:44 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

1. The Ferengi were introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Last Outpost" as a race of amoral capitalists.
2. This led to a Ferengi, Quark, becoming a regular character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
3. Quark was played by actor Armin Shimerman.
4. Armin Shimerman was in Stardust Memories with John Rothman.
5. John Rothman was in Picture Perfect with Kevin Bacon.
6. Kevin Bacon was among those scammed by Bernie Madoff.
7. Madoff's scheme might not have been uncovered within his lifetime if not for the recession which led unusually large numbers of his "investors" to try to withdraw funds from accounts held with Madoff.
8. John McCain's "suspension" of his presidential campaign to attempt to help handle the recession was widely seen as a misstep, and may have contributed to Obama's win.
9. You can take it from there.

posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:42 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

The Borg, on the other hand, represent the Republicans with their single-minded pursuit of conquest, their unreflective confidence in their own superiority, their love of uniformity and ideological discipline. And Borg society clearly loves defense spending and treats its individual member as if they were disposable, too.

The Borg are far too collectivist to be Republican.

I always took the Ferengi to be the Republican avatar on TNG. Remember, as they originally appeared, the Ferengi, in addition to being pure capitalists, were warriors. They actively attacked and took whatever appealed to them.

Later, especially when DS9 appeared, the Ferengi lost much of the aggression and became über-capitalist parodies.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:28 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Borg are far too collectivist to be Republican.

They claim to be anti-collectivist, and yet politically they always act as a uniform block and severely punish any show of individual initiative or independence. How are we to reconcile these apparent inconsistencies?

Besides, the Star Trek folks have talked about it on the show before. In the Star Trek future, there is no money. The future in Star Trek reality appears to be social democracy.

The Republicans, despite what they may say, are collectivist in their insistence on ideological conformity among the party ranks and with respect to the severe penalties they impose for anything less than total fealty to the party agenda. And a couple of years ago, when they had all the power in the US locked up, a lot of Republicans wouldn't even do business with you at the state/local levels of government unless you contributed to the Republican party or supported Republican candidates and at least pretended to be a party faithful.

Methinks when it comes to the darker side of the collectivist impulse, the Republicans doth protest too much.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:21 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

erm, "bloc" not "block"
posted by saulgoodman at 12:21 PM on March 24, 2010

Republicans AM NOT FROM CUBE PLANET LIKE BIZARRO!
posted by Artw at 12:24 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Now, for some reason, I actually prefer Polaski to Crusher.

Yeah, I agree. I guess I never noticed when I was younger, but having, uh, re-watched the entire series, I must say I dislike the whole Crusher family. It's nothing personal. Wesley has been a disciplinary and liability problem from the very beginning, and Dr. Crusher unprofessional relationships with her patients are wholly inappropriate on a starship. Why do you think they booted her from starfleet medical?
posted by fuq at 12:26 PM on March 24, 2010

erm, "bloc" not "block"

Well, that too.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:44 PM on March 24, 2010

Hey greg-Nog, if I ever come into money, I am totally letting you create a show centered around the Enterprise's grunts and lesser officers - where all the action takes place off camera and our characters just sit around drinking and saying things like "Aw damn, he's good at science AND he's got a better beard than Riker? Sign me UP for a ride on his warp nacelle" Call it It's Always Sunny In Engineering or something

They did an episode like this in TNG AND Voyager, centered around a small group of Space Toilet Cleaner 5th Class-es or what have you. The TNG one was pretty good, the Voyager one wasn't (it was a direct rehash of the TNG one).
posted by DecemberBoy at 8:58 AM on March 25, 2010

The TNG one was actually in my list of Intro to ST:TNG episodes!
posted by Greg Nog at 9:14 AM on March 25, 2010

Actually this mildly pisses me off. The two of them had a sealed divorce, yeah, and lots of times kinky sex accusations get levelled in custody agreements. This is discrimination, whether it's Republicans or not.

Now if he was actually pressuring her, or he is one of these bastards who is anti-gay and whatnot all the time politically, I will have less sympathy for him.
posted by By The Grace of God at 10:38 AM on March 25, 2010

Space Toilet Cleaner 5th Class

Ah, Planetfall...
posted by Artw at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2010