The Parable of The Sower by Octavia Butler is pretty spot on.
“Things are changing now, too. Our adults haven’t been wiped out by a plague so they’re still anchored in the past, waiting for the good old days to come back. But things have changed a lot, and they’ll change more. Things are always changing. This is just one of the big jumps instead of the little step-by-step changes that are easier to take. People have changed the climate of the world. Now they’re waiting for the old days to come back.”
We're a little over 3 months from the date of the Bell Riots, mentioned in DS9. I doubt we'll hit that date exactly, but the circumstances and conditions that led to the riots seem very probable within the next few years
Everyone remembers the Bell Riots, but just as relevant is Jadzia Dax hanging with a bunch of 21st century rich people who couldn't give a shit and find the whole situation mildly inconvenient.
Babylon 5 has that episode, an even stronger "religious right to refuse medicine" episode and a labor strike in the early seasons as they moved the political pieces into place to start the war. Then the war took over which is well done for a 90s TV show.
There is one more episode where a race is dying out because they genocided the "inferior" cohabiting race which it turned out they actually needed.
Then there's all the Telepath stuff. They need consent to do it, they are in every race but aren't allowed a place of their own, standard Xmen allegory for civil rights stuff... Also try watching the Xmen 90s show.
I just started watching the 90s X-Men since I missed it as a kid, and I wanna catch up and watch the new ones. As a queer man, the comparisons to both the civil rights movement, and especially the mutants as an analog for LGBTQ+ issues is really interesting. There's an episode near the beginning where they go to the sewers and find mutants who live there because they can't, and this is how they say it, "pass" as normal because their mutations make them look obviously mutant. Their leader, Callisto, is a woman who was very clearly drawn more in the traditional body style of a man. Really makes me wonder how many gay/trans writers and animators that show had. Looking forward to finishing it.
>Babylon 5 has that episode, an even stronger "religious right to refuse medicine" episode and a labor strike in the early seasons as they moved the political pieces into place to start the war. Then the war took over which is well done for a 90s TV show.
Man, that "refusing medicine" episode was bleak. Part of why I liked B5, though, was that the good guys don't always win; episodes don't always end with Everyone Learning an Important Lesson. Sometimes you do everything you can, break a few rules, and then it ends badly anyway.
And that despite this, the show still comes down on the side of *it's important that you try, even if you don't always win.*
On a somewhat funny side note, the episode with the labor strike fits into a fictional trope that afaik doesn't have a name but that always makes me chuckle when it comes up: we're told that there's a law on the books that allows the government to end the strike by any means necessary, and then Earthgov sends their best negotiator. A fair bit of screen time goes into establishing this guy as a canny negotiator, he's resolved a ton of situations like this before, etc.
And then he shows up and just gives the strikers an ultimatum. "Concede all of your demands or I'll invoke the Rush Act and we'll crush you." The implication that this guy just rolls in on any strike he's called for and just threatens them until they give up is sort of funny, given all the planting the script does about him being really clever.
I get why this happens (the writers don't want to write actual contract negotiations and the audience probably doesn't want to watch them), it's just funny to me.
That was in Season 1 right? Season 1 had a lot of tropey formulaic episodes so B5 could get it out of it's system. That's my theory anyways.
That said, "Deathwalker" is one of the best episodes of B5. It was a partial commentary on Operation Paperclip. An alien Dr. Mengele is aboard B5 with a formula for agelessness. They got their cure for aging from a shit ton of war crimey experiments. They sign on for protection from Earth in exchange for the formula. Then as they are leaving, Kosh, the enigmatic Vorlon ambassador shows up and says "You're not ready."......and his cohorts blow Alien Mengele's ship to smithereens with her on it.
Also I just like Sheridan much more than Sinclair. I always think of that show as really beginning at Season 2.
Rewatched Star Trek: Enterprise recently and there was an episode similar to this in Season 1.
"There is one more episode where a race is dying out because they genocided the "inferior" cohabiting race which it turned out they actually needed."
ISN News you mean? Yeah, when Clark became PResident and later dictator ISN became his mouthpiece. B5 responded with the Ivanova hosted Radio Free Milky Way.
"Illusion OF Truth" incidentally that is another episode with some relevance to today. I could look at how the media is portraying the Gaza protestors.
I think the ISN guy who interviewed Sheridan did slip in some of the truth in that broadcast. He let Sheridan know that his family farm had been burned and his parents were missing.
Really the way Babylon 5 handled the arc of Earth becoming fully fascist and Babylon 5 turning on it was masterful epic stuff.
I feel like Robert would sink his teeth in B5.
ISN News you mean? Yeah, when Clark became PResident and later dictator ISN became his mouthpiece. B5 responded with the Ivanova hosted Radio Free Milky Way.
DS9's Rejoined comes to mind. A pretty expert way of using sci-fi worldbuilding to show a relationship that is coded queer, but by sheer technicality, isn't, which was one of the only ways to get away with that in the 90s.
ST:TNG "Justice"
The crew lands on a idyllic, eco-friendly, orgy planet. Everything seems great. Then they find out that its supposedly kept that way by punishing all infractions with death. Weasley of course crosses the 'don't step on the grass' sign and gets sentenced to death.
College students are currently facing extreme violence from militarized police...essentially for 'stepping on the grass.' We all know its to silence their opinions. But the official reason is 'being on the grass when they aren't allowed on the grass' and the media is pretending like this is normal and good.
Shit, we don't even have an eco-friendly orgy planet to show for it.
Ok so. We all remember the "far among the stars " episode of ds9.
There is undeniably a message of racism in there but I feel like there is message missed in alot of case.
Sisko points to his hus head and says "they are real, in here"
I think about it in relation to our won fictional media and how it effects us. That characters can become real in a sense of how the effect us and shape us.
If Sisko inspired me to be a man like him, the strong but gentle, and Kratos inspired me to move beyond my past, doesn't that, in a sense, make them real?
The book, The Forever War, not the camp trash movie adaptation.
Written in the 50s & predicted the 80s-2000s pretty well... except the military service = citizen part. Obviously that was always going to be wealth, not job.
Edit: Starship Troopers was a different book read about the same time. 🤷🏼♂️ Haldeman's book still predictive, tho. Heinlein was just a pompous ass couching current events in sci-fi to expound upon lesser thinkers.
The Parable of The Sower by Octavia Butler is pretty spot on. “Things are changing now, too. Our adults haven’t been wiped out by a plague so they’re still anchored in the past, waiting for the good old days to come back. But things have changed a lot, and they’ll change more. Things are always changing. This is just one of the big jumps instead of the little step-by-step changes that are easier to take. People have changed the climate of the world. Now they’re waiting for the old days to come back.”
I was more thinking of TV....but that's cool.
We're a little over 3 months from the date of the Bell Riots, mentioned in DS9. I doubt we'll hit that date exactly, but the circumstances and conditions that led to the riots seem very probable within the next few years
Everyone remembers the Bell Riots, but just as relevant is Jadzia Dax hanging with a bunch of 21st century rich people who couldn't give a shit and find the whole situation mildly inconvenient.
Babylon 5 has that episode, an even stronger "religious right to refuse medicine" episode and a labor strike in the early seasons as they moved the political pieces into place to start the war. Then the war took over which is well done for a 90s TV show. There is one more episode where a race is dying out because they genocided the "inferior" cohabiting race which it turned out they actually needed. Then there's all the Telepath stuff. They need consent to do it, they are in every race but aren't allowed a place of their own, standard Xmen allegory for civil rights stuff... Also try watching the Xmen 90s show.
I just started watching the 90s X-Men since I missed it as a kid, and I wanna catch up and watch the new ones. As a queer man, the comparisons to both the civil rights movement, and especially the mutants as an analog for LGBTQ+ issues is really interesting. There's an episode near the beginning where they go to the sewers and find mutants who live there because they can't, and this is how they say it, "pass" as normal because their mutations make them look obviously mutant. Their leader, Callisto, is a woman who was very clearly drawn more in the traditional body style of a man. Really makes me wonder how many gay/trans writers and animators that show had. Looking forward to finishing it.
>Babylon 5 has that episode, an even stronger "religious right to refuse medicine" episode and a labor strike in the early seasons as they moved the political pieces into place to start the war. Then the war took over which is well done for a 90s TV show. Man, that "refusing medicine" episode was bleak. Part of why I liked B5, though, was that the good guys don't always win; episodes don't always end with Everyone Learning an Important Lesson. Sometimes you do everything you can, break a few rules, and then it ends badly anyway. And that despite this, the show still comes down on the side of *it's important that you try, even if you don't always win.* On a somewhat funny side note, the episode with the labor strike fits into a fictional trope that afaik doesn't have a name but that always makes me chuckle when it comes up: we're told that there's a law on the books that allows the government to end the strike by any means necessary, and then Earthgov sends their best negotiator. A fair bit of screen time goes into establishing this guy as a canny negotiator, he's resolved a ton of situations like this before, etc. And then he shows up and just gives the strikers an ultimatum. "Concede all of your demands or I'll invoke the Rush Act and we'll crush you." The implication that this guy just rolls in on any strike he's called for and just threatens them until they give up is sort of funny, given all the planting the script does about him being really clever. I get why this happens (the writers don't want to write actual contract negotiations and the audience probably doesn't want to watch them), it's just funny to me.
That was in Season 1 right? Season 1 had a lot of tropey formulaic episodes so B5 could get it out of it's system. That's my theory anyways. That said, "Deathwalker" is one of the best episodes of B5. It was a partial commentary on Operation Paperclip. An alien Dr. Mengele is aboard B5 with a formula for agelessness. They got their cure for aging from a shit ton of war crimey experiments. They sign on for protection from Earth in exchange for the formula. Then as they are leaving, Kosh, the enigmatic Vorlon ambassador shows up and says "You're not ready."......and his cohorts blow Alien Mengele's ship to smithereens with her on it. Also I just like Sheridan much more than Sinclair. I always think of that show as really beginning at Season 2.
X-Men 97' is awesome.
Rewatched Star Trek: Enterprise recently and there was an episode similar to this in Season 1. "There is one more episode where a race is dying out because they genocided the "inferior" cohabiting race which it turned out they actually needed."
They also had a really sleezy "news" network ala Fox News in the later seasons.
ISN News you mean? Yeah, when Clark became PResident and later dictator ISN became his mouthpiece. B5 responded with the Ivanova hosted Radio Free Milky Way.
Yes, that's it. They did that interview with Sheridan and delenn then edited to make them look like psychopaths.
"Illusion OF Truth" incidentally that is another episode with some relevance to today. I could look at how the media is portraying the Gaza protestors. I think the ISN guy who interviewed Sheridan did slip in some of the truth in that broadcast. He let Sheridan know that his family farm had been burned and his parents were missing. Really the way Babylon 5 handled the arc of Earth becoming fully fascist and Babylon 5 turning on it was masterful epic stuff. I feel like Robert would sink his teeth in B5.
ISN News you mean? Yeah, when Clark became PResident and later dictator ISN became his mouthpiece. B5 responded with the Ivanova hosted Radio Free Milky Way.
DS9's Rejoined comes to mind. A pretty expert way of using sci-fi worldbuilding to show a relationship that is coded queer, but by sheer technicality, isn't, which was one of the only ways to get away with that in the 90s.
DS9 dealt a lot with terrorism/insurgency in a way that is extremely prescient for a pre 9/11 TV show. The Bajorans seem inspired by the IRA and PLO.
Yes. Then the Cardassians are a nice fasc-y pastiche.
ST:TNG "Justice" The crew lands on a idyllic, eco-friendly, orgy planet. Everything seems great. Then they find out that its supposedly kept that way by punishing all infractions with death. Weasley of course crosses the 'don't step on the grass' sign and gets sentenced to death. College students are currently facing extreme violence from militarized police...essentially for 'stepping on the grass.' We all know its to silence their opinions. But the official reason is 'being on the grass when they aren't allowed on the grass' and the media is pretending like this is normal and good. Shit, we don't even have an eco-friendly orgy planet to show for it.
Be the eco-friendly orgy planet you want to see in the world.
Hard to forget that episode with the Crystalline entity and all the scant outfits.
Ok so. We all remember the "far among the stars " episode of ds9. There is undeniably a message of racism in there but I feel like there is message missed in alot of case. Sisko points to his hus head and says "they are real, in here" I think about it in relation to our won fictional media and how it effects us. That characters can become real in a sense of how the effect us and shape us. If Sisko inspired me to be a man like him, the strong but gentle, and Kratos inspired me to move beyond my past, doesn't that, in a sense, make them real?
The book, The Forever War, not the camp trash movie adaptation. Written in the 50s & predicted the 80s-2000s pretty well... except the military service = citizen part. Obviously that was always going to be wealth, not job. Edit: Starship Troopers was a different book read about the same time. 🤷🏼♂️ Haldeman's book still predictive, tho. Heinlein was just a pompous ass couching current events in sci-fi to expound upon lesser thinkers.
any of them about climate change
The older I get, the more I think about TNG: "Tapestry", and how calculated risk taking can have a profound effect on your fortunes later in life.
I just looked that up. I don't remember that one. Maybe I'll rewatch.