A Star Trek Morality Primer

What are the lessons Star Trek teaches us? Does Star Trek have a clear moral compass? Is it consistent, or does it evolve over time? Did you really expect me to have the answers? Of course not.

Instead, I offer these series-by-series nuggets:

TOS:  Do the right thing. However, the right thing will change from week to week, depending on who wrote the script.

TAS: The universe is confusing. Just go with it. Nothing lasts longer than 24 minutes anyway.

TNG: If you do the right thing, all will be well, because those are the rules.

DS9: Out here on the frontier, the rules are fungible. Do the best you can. Mostly just try not to start a war or a religion. But if you do, you’d better prevail. At both.

VOY: One for all and all for getting home.

ENT: Doing the right thing will generally get you absolutely nowhere, but pay it lip service from time to time because your series has an inferiority complex.

DSC: Doing the right thing will seriously mess you up, because streaming TV is dark 'n gritty.

PIC (speculative): The rules are back, but in a more neutral color palette.

Before I go, I'd like to take a moment to recognize that, at times, Star Trek really does deliver some profound insights with intelligence and subtlety. And sometimes, it's more like this: