BackTrekking returns again to look back at the real-world inspirations of classic Trek episodes!
There's a reason that the Pepe Silvia scene from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" has become a popular meme. In our post-Watergate/Gamergate/Deflategate/et al. world, governmental conspiracy has gone from something the Washington Post investigates to fodder for the obsessive, "crazy" tinfoil hat characters of prime-time TV. Conspiracy was popular as a subject long before ex-President Nixon took his last helicopter ride out of Washington, but Watergate seemed to solidify paranoia as a *genre*, leading to the classic paranoid thrillers of the '70s like "Three Days of the Condor", "The Conversation", and of course, "All the President's Men". Generally, conspiracy films end with justice done and our hero's integrity being rewarded. Unfortunately, however, the actual process of uncovering a conspiracy tends to be a long and frustrating one, replete with half-truths and redactions and missing the satisfying third act reveal, the bad guys in question going unpunished and often keeping the positions they abused in the first place.
Such was the Iran-Contra affair, a twisted, multi-national criminal conspiracy to fund right-wing rebels in a Central American nation that the Reagan Administration used illegal weapons sales and drug money to support. Iran-Contra was all anyone on either side of the aisle could talk about in the late '80s; in 2019, it's a barely remembered footnote of the Reagan presidency, as is the stack of pardons handed out to nearly everyone involved by Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush. Bush (and his son) went on to be president, the Sandinista party (with a new coat of paint) remains in power in Nicaragua to this day, and Ollie North got a TV show on Fox News. Players with bit parts---like CIA-recruited pilot Barry Seal, focus of the 2017 movie "American Made"---got a bullet for their troubles, disposable by design and by policy.
The TNG episode "Too Short a Season" and the conspiracy it contains doesn't have a Barry Seal character exactly. Imagine instead that Ronald Reagan himself---the "Great Communicator"---began his diplomatic career by secretly negotiating with terrorists and giving them exactly what they wanted. Now, after 45 years of lies and cover-ups, he's returning to the planet in question to atone for his crimes . . . as a sweaty 25-year-old? Star Trek!
This week, we're looking at one of early TNG's botched attempts at political commentary and the Tom Cruise film that swooped in to set the record straight. On the show, we talk about the twisted conspiracy underpinning Iran-Contra, the film's attempt to "McKay" a potentially stultifying subject, the "Three Billboards" vibe, Domnhall Gleason=weak dick, getting your "Burn After Reading" in your "Goodfellas", too much medicine and not enough sugar, Tom Cruise question acting, the Federation's first Muppet admiral, Professor X chairs, "Oops, you war-crimed", exactly when to Benjamin Button yourself, Troi clownface, the dreaded "anti-Bechdel", running phasers to the Contras, pharmacological crime-fighting ethics, and LEONARD MAIZLISH! *gasp*
This episode is dedicated to DC Fontana, Rene Auberjonois, and the many Trek actors and staff we've lost this year.
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