Enterprise: Ripped from the headlines

Spoiler Warning

This entry is about the Vulcan Arc in Star Trek: Enterprise (season 4). If you plan on watching the episodes The Forge, Awakening, or Kir'Shara, you should probably read this later because my analysis includes spoilers.

I came up with this theory just from watching the episodes, but it seems so obvious to me that someone else must have already noticed this. The writers may have even already admitted their source for the general plot. This is certainly not the first time a Star Trek plot has been influenced by real life events, but I never noticed such a propagandist bent before. But maybe I'm just imagining it.


Where have I seen these characters before?

V'Las represents the demonic warmonging caricature of George W Bush that liberals voted against on Election Day. (Of course, I almost didn't recognize him since I see Bush as the valiant leader we need to keep our country safe, but that's another topic...) V'Las is crazy with his need for violence and power. He lies as easily as breathing. He's an enemy of peace and a traitor to his world. Many people who have called for Bush's impeachment would say that V'Las is the spitting image of Bush.

The Syrrannites are the Muslims that are supposedly oppressed by the Patriot Act and TSA screeners. The Syrrannites are very peaceful and thoughtful. They just want to practice their religion out in the desert. They probably even meditate towards Mecca several times a day. Then, the intolerant Vulcans blew up their caves. Of course, the caves don't represent Afghanistan since everyone was in favor of that war.

Hopefully, you see where I'm going with this. Okay, then. Let's speed this up then.

Enterprise: The human embassy was destroyed at the beginning of the arc by terrorists.
Real life: Terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Enterprise: The Vulcan leaders secretly attacked the embassy themselves.
Real life: The "Blame American First" crowd claim: (a) we invited the terrorists kill us through our greed and lack of compassion, (b) Bush know we were going to be attacked and lets it happen, or (c) all of the above.

Enterprise: V'Las leads Vulcan to war against the Andorians with lies.
Real life: Liberals say things like "Bush mislead us into war" and call Bush a liar.

Enterprise: The Andorians didn't have the Xindi super-weapon.
Real life: The U.S. never found Saddam's WMD's.

Enterprise: The human's vessel Enterprise was situated between the innocent Andorians from the aggressive Vulcans.
Real life: The "Human Shields" in Iraq offered to protect schools and hospitals.

Enterprise: Surak (the father of Vulcan logic)
Real life: Michael Moore (the father of modern liberal propaganda)

Enterprise: Kir’Shara (legendary writings)
Real life: Fahrenheit 9/11 (fictional documentary)

At the end of the third episode, V'Las's clandestine Romulan friend probably represents a Saudi prince (as in "blood for oil"), but he could also represent the Pope. Which would be more sinister to liberals: Gigantic Oil (an alliance between the Big Oil companies and the Mideast reservoirs) or Super Jesusland (evangelical protestants and observant Roman Catholics acting a single majority voting bloc)?

So who represents John Kerry? I'm not sure he's there. Perhaps he's some peaceful Vulcan such as T'Pau. Maybe Archer was supposed to be John Kerry. Then T'Pol would have to be John Edwards. It doesn't really matter. The point is that Bush didn't win in this allegory because Bush respresent evil to the liberals and everyone knows that good always triumphs over evil in the Star Trek universe. (I'm sure the plot was developed before November 2, and it may have even been filmed before the election.)

I'm not against using current events as inspiration for art. But at least don't use the wacko off-the-wall liberal view of the world when you're doing it. I've been a fan of Star Trek for a long time, but I'm no longer a fan of the Enterprise series. I'll probably keep watching for a while, but it's more laughable than enjoyable.

By the way, they really should have given Michael Moore a "story by" credit to be fair.