The show was from a time when the U.S. thought they had beaten fascism
I think all the time about how early TNG largely reflected the falsehoods we were being sold at the time - that all of these things were Past Problems.
Early Picard seemed to be going that way,
Discovery went there in its first season, with the Federation prepared to sell its soul to win the war until they found another (problematic) way.
The post-Burn 32nd Century is coming at it from the other side, with SFA in particular reckoning with some of the choices that were made during the period when everything was falling apart.
The latter too closely resembles “American exceptionalism”
Yeah, I've always found the "Starfleet must always be in the right" mentality to be patronizing at best, imperialistic at worst.
Oh, good catch - I've never delved into the Big Finish stuff, and I'm concerned about having the attention span for it, but...this is an impressive bundle. It may just be enough to convince me to give it a go...
Is there any evidence at all of the writers of the more recent series not having "freedom," or of corporate interference in the shows?
I don't think that planet was portrayed as a particularly idyllic place...
I'd say they took it even further than that - the reason they were in that all-too-relevant "past" to begin with was that they had travelled back in time to an inflection point that could lead to a global descent into fascism.
True, but I assume that if there were an obvious successor waiting in the wings, the result would have been...at least less lopsided.
I look forward to analyses. Was it a lack of clear alternatives, or is their base so far gone that they genuinely think he's their guy?
I think that arrogant, quasi-imperialistic has always been simmering in the background of the Federation, so I wasn't too surprised to see them arguing over this - and, to be clear, the actual debate was always amongst the students. Vance was determined to convince the Klingons to accept asylum, but "compelling" them did not seem to be seriously on the table.
Esri Dax’s excellent critique of the Klingon Empire
That's an interesting point. If I were to come up with a counter-argument, I suppose it would be that the Klingons' readiness to do this ritualistic faux combat shows some growth - they're willing to settle for performing their culture and feeling respected, rather than endure actual warfare. A smarter person than me could probably find parallels in many modern cultural practices.
It’s not as if the Burn expunged all records of Klingon-Federation relations and the Federation had to rebuild from illuminated manuscripts copied by monks.
No, but I don't think there's any era that we've seen in which the Federation would stage an act of aggression as a diplomatic overture. Even in this episode, no one seemed sure it was going to work (and it may not have, were it not for Ake's personal connection to Obel).
the solution was that obvious.
I do agree - they probably telegraphed it a little too hard.
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Between this and Freeland, I wonder if we'll see an election called in the near future.