Conquest of Synthehol - Star Trek on Anarchism

 

 I've been watching Star Trek again, Season 3 episode Allegiance surprised me. I remembered liking bits of it but I'd forgotten a good chunk of it. The plot is an mystery involving the abduction of captain Picard. He finds himself in a sort of holding cell with three other abductees, meanwhile an imposter is giving strange orders on the Enterprise. 

Two parts of the episode stood out to me as being unusual. One of them was a line of dialogue Picard throws at the culprits of the kidnappings, "Imprisonment is an injury no matter how you justify it". Seeing a common argument of prison abolition on a network TV show was quite the surprise. The second surprise was that this episode examines Anarchism. The purpose of the abductions was to conduct an experiment to observe attitudes towards authority. Picard and his fellow prisoners were chosen as representatives of differing attitudes towards the concept.

 The prisoner representing Anarchism is Esoqq a member of the Chalnoth species, his people reject authority. Usually when Anarchism gets a little exposure in the mass media its as a cautionary tale about the dangers of Anarchy. Anarchism is shown to be a chaotic dog eats dog world a primitive social darwinist playground. Allegiance is a bit different. We do get the standard lamentation over the loss of law and governance, but that view point doesn't come from Picard or Starfleet, it comes from another prisoner Kova Tholl a Mizarian. Both the Chalnoth and Mizarian peoples appear for the first time in this episode, they're depicted as the polar opposite in values and philosophy. While the Chalnoth respect fighting and reject authority the Mizarians value peace so much that they always collaborate with the established authority, including their occupiers.

"My given name is Esoqq, it means fighter."
"I bet half the names in the Chalnoth language mean fighter."
"Mizarians, your names all mean surrender!"

Esoqq and Kova Tholl

Picard is essentially occupying the role of middle ground between the two extremes. Which is fairly typical of episodes of Science fiction. Though what surprised me is that of the two Esoqq is treated more charitably. 

The Alpha Qaudrents Errico Malatesta

Esoqq in his own words concedes that he has enemies and has killed some of them, and he also wields a nasty looking knife and he growls his lines. But of the two he's the more proactive one, he works with Picard on their escape attempts and his rejection of authority isn't the typical "Fuck you! I won't do what you tell me, whatever you tell me" caricature. Its more like he's open to working with others if he thinks it makes sense. A distinction betwee working with rather than for. He doesn't obey Picard he remains suspicious of him but can be reasoned with. Meanwhile Kova Tholl advocates capitulation and defends the unseen captors and extremely reluctantly gets involved. Even Picard the view point character for the audience displays an attitude of incredulousness that borders on open contempt when Tholl explains the Mizarian philosophy. "None! in the past 300 years of Mizarian history you've been conquered six times".

As far as popular programming goes this episode, once you get past the needle teeth and jagged dagger is a more nuanced look at Anarchism than most media even media that is consciously exploring political themese would do. It isn't perfect, Esoqq comes from what appears to be an extreme individualistic and violent place, but they have managed to develop space travel and have at least some knowledge and connections to the rest of the galaxy. Trek has a spotty record when dealing with politics in more substantial ways then moral criticism, I would put Alliegiance with its commentary on imprisonment, ethics and authority in the better half of the mix.