Holosuite whitewashing

Just rewatched the DS9 S7 ep “Badda-bing Badda-bang.” There's this really awkward scene I guess they felt obliged to insert, in which Sisko says he objects to the Vic Fontaine holosuite program because of the way it whitewashes Vegas history, presenting a false version of the early 1960s in which black people are welcome in casinos. And I’m like, y’know, that’s an irrefutably correct point, but if they were going to make it, they'd have been better off just abandoning the whole story altogether. Because Kasidy’s rebuttal, that the holosuite program represents an idealized version of history the way it should have been, rather than the way it was, is really silly and lame, given that the entire story is about Mob violence and corruption. But rather than point that out, Sisko is like, OK, now that I've recited the disclaimer, count me in.

So obviously, it's not history the way it should have been, but rather contemporary TV paying lip service to, but then blatantly choosing to ignore, the obvious problems raised by inserting characters of color into the conventional time-travel (or in this case, fantasy time-travel) story. They're basically saying, "It's 1999, and we can no longer ignore the elephant in the room, but we haven't come up with a good way to explain it, and we aren't willing to give up this popular trope that provides us with so many easy-to-write episodes that we can shoot for little money on the back lot using whatever costumes and props we happen to have lying around, so we're going to hand-wave furiously and hope everyone thinks that's good enough."

It's exactly like that moment in the Doctor Who episode "The Shakespeare Code," when Ten takes Martha back to Elizabethan England. When she questions whether, as a black woman, she'll be "carted off as a slave," Ten, whose appearance is as white and male as can be, blithely replies, "Just walk about like you own the place. Works for me." Well alrighty then.

[EDITING TO ADD: It seems to me it should be possible to write time-travel stories that neither put characters of color in awkward or dangerous situations due to their race, nor demand the audience to just ignore this obvious issue. But how to do it? Racking my brains...this is a tough one...I dunno...I guess you could have them time travel to places where people look more like them? Crazy idea, I know. Do continents that are not Europe even have a past?]

Also, pet peeve of mine: period pieces about the 1950s and early 60s in which men do not remove their hats indoors. I don't care if it's a holosuite full of fake people who don't even notice the aliens with bumpy noses and misshapen foreheads. They would be programmed to notice men wearing hats indoors. Otherwise, what would be the POINT?

DS9 shines a light on the Shithole

On this Shithole morning, when we are so painfully reminded of the racist culture of which we are a part, I find myself watching DS9 "Far Beyond the Stars." It just happens to be up next in my rewatch. And it absolutely guts me. Somehow, I'd basically forgotten this episode entirely, and it's like watching it for the first time. I'm not even going to describe it, because maybe someone reading this, like me, has forgotten it -- or maybe they never saw it at all -- and it's out there, waiting to be discovered or rediscovered.

If you love Star Trek because of the possibilities it unfolds, or if you just believe that telling a story can be a powerful act of illuminating the present and imagining the future, take an hour out of your day and watch "Far Beyond the Stars."

Sisko of Arabia

So I'm rewatching the DS9 episode "Starship Down," a rather contrived, thinly plotted story about the Defiant being badly damaged, and the resultant personal struggles of survival that are meant to illuminate character relationships. A badly injured Sisko is trapped on the bridge with Kira. In an effort to keep him awake, she tells him Bajoran stories. The thought crosses my mind, How Arabian Nights-like. And that's when it hit me.

Benjamin Sisko is Lawrence of Arabia. I've never encountered that idea before, but now it makes so much sense that I can't unsee it. Certain characters enter the cultural consciousness as archetypes that pop up in fiction again and again, often with no conscious reference to the original, yet the influence is clear. I'm not saying anyone intentionally set out to create Sisko in the image of Lawrence (the movie version, not the historical one), but he fits the type so well. (If you've never seen Lawrence of Arabia, you should, if for no other reason than that it invented a good deal of the visual language we now associate with the "sweeping epic," including Star Wars. And if you ever get a chance to see it on a big screen, it's well worth going out of your way for.)

So how is Sisko like Lawrence? He's an officer sent to a remote location as a liaison from a colonial power that sees itself as enlightened and benevolent (British/Federation), but is not above pursuing its own interests in global/galactic conflicts. In this case, it is inserting itself into the conflict between a backward but noble, spiritually oriented people (Arabs/Bajorans), and an empire against which they are rebelling that is brutal, oppressive, and, one suspects, on the decline (Ottomans/Cardassians), but nevertheless remains a threat to remote colonies under British/Federation protection. In many ways, the depiction of Bajor in DS9 is reminiscent of the orientalism oozing from Lawrence of Arabia -- simultaneously admiring and condescending. Along the way, Sisko/Lawrence becomes a spiritual figure to the Bajorans/Arabs and comes to value their independent interests more than the distant ones he's supposed to be representing, which he never fully abandons, either. He is not one of them, but he respects them and is willing to use their regard as a valuable tool, a means to an end. He inhabits an awkward position between two worlds, never comfortable with the veneration directed toward him, but ultimately coming to see himself as chosen for some greater good.

(I know a lot of people bristle at the idea of the Federation as an inherently colonialist enterprise, pardon the pun, but it is. The Federation is yet another version of the grand tale we in the West like to tell ourselves about our highly evolved values that we have but to expose the world/galaxy to, and they will inevitably come to appreciate and share them, and when they do, they will be ready to join us in a kind of secular holy alliance. It's the story America tells itself, and Britain told itself before that. In aspiring to be better, we tend to take what we know and idealize it. When we set that story in the future, we call it sci fi.)