Let’s talk about Kelpiens

Without a doubt, Saru is one of Discovery’s breakout characters. Also without a doubt, this is due in large part to the amazing performance of Doug Jones, who imbues Saru with so much soul, dignity, and powerful poignancy that he tugs at your heartstrings every moment he’s onscreen. But there’s also something about his species. Star Trek is famous for giving us aliens who capture something about our times and embody them in a way that only sci fi can.

In the 1960s, a time of cultural upheaval, when Americans began looking at philosophies from other parts of the world for answers to our problems, we got Spock, the embodiment of the cool, emotionally subdued, exotic East. And yes, that is as problematic as it sounds. Star Trek’s reductive treatment of cultural characteristics was an inherently flawed affair, as has been much discussed over the years; it was progressive in its attempt at cultural inclusion, even as it was also offensive in its stereotypes. (And yes, I’m well aware of the Vulcans’ Jewish roots as well. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.)

And of course, there were the Klingons. Born of the Cold War, over time they morphed into the foreign threat of the day, but always with a patina of uncivilized aggression that suggests sketchy racial overtones. In Discovery, we see again the tension between this reductive approach (Disco Klingons suggest the religious animus of radical Islam) and the more progressive contemporary impulse to understand and recognize commonality with the enemy (they’re not just aggressive lunatics, they’re understandably threatened by the Federation’s inherent cultural imperialism and ham-fisted diplomacy that fails to grasp the nuances of Klingon culture).

The list goes on: the Borg, TNG's most terrifying aliens, created at a time when we began to fear that the depersonalizing effects of technology might be catastrophic; the Cardassians, a highly successful, authoritarian, hegemonic race from an era when American dominance was beginning to flag; the Xindi, a post-9/11 existential threat to Earth; the Ferengi, emblematic of the ultra-capitalist, materialistic, me-generation boom years (whose disturbing resemblance to racist caricatures of Jews has been much remarked upon); etc. All things considered, Star Trek has an impressive track record of creating carefully differentiated, meaningful alien races.

Which brings us back to Saru and the Kelpiens, a species bred as prey, attuned to threat, sensitive to the coming of death, always in fear.

Welcome to 2017, the age of American anxiety.

• Generalized anxiety; a constant companion, especially among younger people, manifesting in many ways and taking up an enormous amount of everyone's energy. It’s the hallmark of an entire generation, certainly in America, and arguably elsewhere.
• The anxiety of marginalized groups: people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ, the poor, Muslims, Jews, women, and more. All feeling constantly under attack, threatened by forces both institutional and cultural. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Voicing their concerns in ever greater numbers, but somehow never seeming to make a dent. 
• Political anxiety; the horrifying spectacle of an America led by an incompetent, immoral, unhinged fear-monger who scapegoats every vulnerable group and distorts reality in order to manipulate his fear-driven base. And not just in America; the spread of propaganda, doublethink, and division the world over in service of the consolidation of power in the hands of an oligarchy.
• Fear; the sense that we are not safe. Mass killers striking without warning. Gun proliferation. School lockdown drills. Data breaches and identity theft. The cognitive dissonance of security measures that are meant to keep us safe, but feel more like violations themselves. 
• Economic anxiety; a feeling of financial insecurity that haunts all but the wealthiest.
• Epistemic anxiety; the sense that we are losing our ability to function as a society because we no longer have a shared understanding of reality. My facts are not your facts; my evidence is not your evidence; my truth is not your truth.

In this age of anxiety, the Kelpiens, beings whose defining attribute is fear, which they have elevated to a superpower (not a coincidence that the same theme appears in Doctor Who just a couple of years earlier), strike a deep chord. Who among us doesn't have metaphoric threat ganglia? Once again, Star Trek aliens turn our TV screens into mirrors that reflect us: our culture, our world view, and our sense of self.

But like the Star Trek aliens who have come before, this reductive exercise isn’t without its problems. What are the implications of getting us to identify with a species whose DNA dooms them to victimization? In the time of Black Lives Matter, Dreamers, Me Too, Pride, etc. — do we really want to be summed up by an alien race that was bred as prey -- or for that matter, that was bred at all? I'm sure that’s a question destined to be much debated as Discovery consolidates its position in the Star Trek universe.