Post by Prime etc. on Jan 27, 2020 22:20:43 GMT
I don't know I felt that DS9 started deconstructing the Utopian aspects of Federation. Introducing people abandoned by Federation fighting for their freedom. People disillusioned with the Federation turning to Terrorism. Shadow factions inside Starfleet Section 31. That the facade of Utopian life is built on the work of people willing to do the dirty work and distasteful work in the shadows. That way people can believe it's a Altruistic Utopia and don't see what they do.
Originally Starfleet and the Federation (the UN basically) was a positive ideal--the future was harmonious and diverse, tolerant...
ST 6-the Undiscovered Country implies that Federation officials were less trustworthy than the Klingons though.
But stories designed around social messages run into problems--because the game becomes how to make the messages more and more revolutionary.
The ultimate aim is revolution-deconstruction of the entire system.
But Star Trek ran into problems with human characters since they were supposed to be devoid of emotions and preferences--thus DS9 became the mist interesting since most of the characters were aliens.
Interesting that the Federation ends up having all these sinister elements while maintaining a facade of tolerance and understanding and multicultural outreach (since every alien species had their own homeworld-but Earth was an airport for all of them).