#raise your shields #because youβre about to get wrecked
#this is the star trek i wanna see#like when somebody asked gene roddenberry why piccard was bald#because wouldnβt they have found a cure for male pattern baldness by then?#and he was like βno by the 24th century no one will careβ#i wanna see that attitude with disability and neurodiversity#itβs not that weβll have a magic cure for everything#thereβll always be something new#but disabilities and neurodiversity will be celebrated and seen as part of the norm#it will be accomodated#so blind people can serve in star fleet#and so can people in wheelchairs and autistic people and people with prosthetics and people with chronic illnessesΒ (via @hunterinabrowncoat)
This episode ends with Geordi saving the planet by using something derived from the technology found in his visor (an adaptive device that lets him sense things around him). So a disabled man literally saved the lives of an entire culture that wouldnβt have considered his life worth living, using technology they would have never deemed necessary without the presence of his unique needs.
I donβt watch Star Trek, but I canβt stress enough how important this message is
My favorite thing about this episode is that, while the rest of the characters are taking a more Star Trek philosophical approach to this situation, calmly debating the good and bad points of this colony built upon eugenics, Geordi is just seething. Troi is having a romance with their flippinβ president, but Geordi never hesitates on his morals. Heβs always aware that this worldβs supposed perfection is built upon the despicable philosophy of killing people like him. He barely even bothers to hide his anger as he has to work alongside their scientists. Heβs snappish and short-tempered and bitter, clearly only working with these people because lives are at stake. When he discovers the solution is based on his VISOR, he is viciously triumphant, his joy at saving the people boosted by a bitter sense of righteousness that these people were only saved because someone like him was allowed to survive.
And even though this anger and bitterness are very un-Star-Trek-like approaches to diplomacyβit works. The scientist who works alongside him is the first person who decides to jump ship and leave the colony behind. She sees the stagnation of their bland ββββββutopiaββββββ and realizes that diversity and adaptation create a much better society. And while the other Enterprise crew members have some wishy-washy lament over how this will destroy this planetβs βββcultureβββ, Geordi never waffles. He has far too personal a stake in this to lose sight of the fact that peoplesβ lives are more important than any high-falutinβ philosophical justifications. The episode might waffle over the Prime Directive points of this societyβs decline, but Geordiβs perspective is the one showing clearly why it needs to die.
