further proof that “Star Trek” is actually a Communist Space Tyranny – the dictatorship of Kathryn Janeway
A while back, I wrote a post that postulated that the Federation in “Star Trek” is actually a brutal interstellar Communist dictatorship, and that the “Star Trek” show is in fact a propaganda broadcast put out by the Federation to glorify itself. Like, you know how the old Soviet Union used to crank out terrible movies and novels where the clean-cut Communist hero would outwit and defeat the terrible capitalists and reactionaries, and everyone would live happily ever after? Those films and novels in no way, shape, or form reflected life in the real Soviet Union – the brutal secret police, the constant material shortages, the pervasive censorship, the economic stagnation, and the constant repetition of lies that buttressed the entire structure. I wonder if, on a meta level, that’s what STAR TREK really is – propaganda films put out by a tyrannical Federation and a brutal Starfleet to promote themselves.
Lately, I’ve been watching episodes of STAR TREK VOYAGER, and it occurs to me that certain internal inconsistencies of the show further support my theory that the Federation is actually a brutal Communist dictatorship. Additionally, I strongly suspect that by the end of VOYAGER, Captain Kathryn Janeway actually returned in wrath and took over the Federation and installed herself as dictator. VOYAGER, therefore, is a propaganda effort by the Federation to disguise what really happened.
I offer four points in support of this hypothesis.
First, there is the fact that slavish devotion to Federation principles stranded Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. In the first episode, Voyager has a clear way back home to the Alpha Quadrant, but Janeway orders it destroyed, rather than risking it falling into the hands of the Kazon. At this point, it appears Janeway was a true believer in the Federation government, to the point where she was willing to strand herself and her crew 70,000 light years from home.
Subsequent events, I suspect, would change her mind. More on that below.
Second, Voyager was curiously resilient. Fans nicknamed the ship “the HMS Reset Button”, due to the show’s knack of returning to the status quo at the end of every episode. And Voyager did not have an easy trip. The ship was almost under constant attack, got shot up on numerous occasions, was stolen and boarded on multiple occasions, and underwent years of constant stress and damage without proper maintenance. And yet, at the start of every episode, Voyager was new and pristine once more. Where did the new parts come from? They were 70,000 light years from the nearest point of resupply, after all. Shouldn’t the ship start to look a bit…well, dilapidated rather than a clean, shiny Starfleet vessel? Yet at the beginning of every episode, Voyager looked as new and as fresh as the day it left the Starfleet shipyards.
Third, at the end of season three, Janeway went nuts.
You can see the exact moment it happens, too. In the finale of Season 3, Janeway contemplates the fact that her ship will have to cross Borg space to get back home. As she sits in the holodeck, contemplating what to do, she gazes at the shadows upon the wall…and a strange expression comes over her face. In that moment, she decides to try and make a deal with the Borg. Which is remarkable, because a.) the Borg are the most powerful enemies of the Federation, and b.) in the previous two seasons, Janeway remained devoted to the Prime Directive, often at great inconvenience and cost. I suspect that Janeway finally realized that her devotion to the Prime Directive would sooner or later lead to the destruction of the ship and the crew. After the encounter with the Borg, Janeway became much more willing to engage with alien species and use alien technology – and she also became substantially more reckless and ruthless. This explains why Voyager was able to repair and sustain itself. In violation of the Federation’s communistic ethos, Janeway had become willing to bargain, barter, and trade to keep her ship running and her crew alive.
It’s not hard to see why she became a harder captain – her crew and ship were under constant attack, and the nearest help was 70,000 light years away. And Janeway died a lot. Between parallel universes, time travel, clones, and other negative space wedgies, Janeway dies something like 17 times over the course of the series. That much broken temporal causality cannot be good for one’s mental health or overall risk-aversion.
Because of Janeway’s changes in attitude, Voyager acquired a lot of new technology during its adventures. The slipstream drive, the transwarp drive, the transphasic torpedoes, ablative armor, the gravitic catapult, enhanced communications technology, a whole bunch of Borg toys, and a bunch of other stuff. And this is only the stuff that made it into the official show – one can imagine what other technologies and weapons Voyager found that the Federation’s Ministry of Information edited out of the propaganda broadcasts. By the end of the show, Voyager had the sort of weaponry that let the ship fight its way through a Borg fleet and blow up a Borg transwarp hub.
Fourth, when Voyager returns to Earth at the end of the series, it has weapons and technology unlike anything in the Federation. It’s also commanded by a woman who has become much harder and ruthless, and manned by a crew that has literally been to hell and back. Additionally, the Federation is something of a wreck at the time – the Dominion War had just finished, much of Starfleet has been destroyed, and a lot of the Federation’s core worlds had been devastated in the fighting. And Janeway had her own grudges to settle, as her orders had put her and her crew through seven years of hell (in once case, a literal Year of Hell).*
Which means when Voyager rode the collapsing Borg transwarp conduit back to Earth, the Federation fleet at earth wasn’t there to stop the Borg – it was there to stop Janeway from taking over the tottering Federation.
But I suspect the fleet, rather than stopping Voyager, took stock of the situation and decided to throw their lot in with Janeway. The Jem’Hadar had almost destroyed the Federation during the Dominion War, and Starfleet had been contemptuous of the civilian government for some time, given how an admiral almost overthrew the government and installed a military dictatorship during DEEP SPACE NINE. So when Voyager arrived back in the Alpha Quadrant, the commanders of the fleet took stock of the situation – and decided to throw their lot in with Janeway and her new weapons.
The final shot of the series, Starfleet escorting Voyager back to Earth, is in fact the beginning of Janeway’s coup.
The success of Janeway’s coup is seen in STAR TREK: NEMESIS, when Captain Picard receives orders from “Vice Admiral” Janeway. Of course, if Janeway was the dictator of the Federation, she could have taken any title she wanted, but its common for dictators to assume less grandiose titles than their actual power. Many Communist dictators have only been the “Secretary” or whatever.
All this is supposition, of course. I don’t think STAR TREK is actually a secret Communist plot, and I doubt it adheres to any ideological viewpoint other than generic mid-20th century American liberalism. That said, if the Federation really is a Communist space tyranny, it is interesting to speculate what Janeway’s dictatorship might do to it. I suspect she would transition the Federation from a Communist state to something like 21st century China – a country that says it is Communist, but in reality has become this weird fusion of a free market and a heavy-handed authoritarian state.
-JM
*In my opinion, one of the best episodes of VOYAGER.
