Hacker News Reader

Comment by phlakaton | Hacker News Reader

I would not call Deep Space 9 a dystopia. Nor Babylon 5, for that matter. They are not happy places to live, for sure, but both settings are abundant in hope and possibility.

View on HN

Deep Space Nine is about people from a utopia dealing with the realities of a place that is just emerging from being a dystopia (Bajor under Cardassian occupation). Later, they struggle with the need to uphold their utopian values in a conflict where it might be more expedient to abandon them.

You also have Captain Sisko's arc where he is declared, and ultimately follows the path of, a prophet for the Bajoran people. And it works because for all his protests he fundamentally is a good person from the enlightened (if imperfect) 24th century of Roddenberry's vision, in the necessary place at the right time.

That the writers at this point in Trek canon started playing pretty fast and loose with Roddenberry's vision doesn't erase the deeply optimistic and even spiritual grounding of that show.

I was thinking of mentioning Babylon 5, but it's worth contrasting the situation aboard the station with the fascist takeover of Earth. Maybe "dystopia with hope" describes it better.

Also worth mentioning the recently deceased Walter Koenig who had said that playing Alfred Bester in Babylon 5 was his favourite role, despite being much more famous as Chekov in the original Star Trek.

The situation on the station in Babylon 5 is that intergalactic peace is incredibly fragile and the station is basically a last ditch effort of making it work. It, like most of Star Trek, is also a military operation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com