Star Trek: The Way to Eden (First Watch: S3E20)

He’s Dead, Jim (Death/injury count): red shirt (security?) knocked out. Yellow shirt knocked out. Spock, kirk, red shirt, okay, the whole ship affected by the sound (how did he protect himself/his cult members? Sonics affect everyone, right?, Chekov got burned by a flower (acidic) one of them poisoned themselves, so did dr. sevrin, the others got acid burns.

That’s a different lookin’ ship.

It’s gonna blow up on a mostly water planet.

Scotty what do you even mean by that?

If you thought they were possibly Romulan thieves, why didn’t you have security officers?

Oh, okay.

Are you the space hippies?

Chekov meets a past flame.

Kirk definitely doesn’t believe in paradise or eden.

Kirk’s recognizing another authority figure.

Okay, yep, he doesn’t like Luddites.

They turned a sword into a musical instrument.  I’m impressed.

You have no say in what they do with their lives.  Even if you think they joined a cult.  (It does somewhat sound like Scientology but hey.)

Refusing to get a vaccine is all well and good in your own community, but once you’re among others—especially on a ship?  Guessing it’s like an airplane, in which case, protecting everyone (especially if deadly!!!) is the priority.

Mr. Sulu, stop flirting on the job.  If you want, wait until you’re off shift.

Science is a singular word.

Hey, I’m pluralistic.  Multiple ways of living are possible.  It’s closed off thinking that’s a problem.

That red shirt looked possessed/sleepwalking.

Kirk’s not wrong that a lot of the experts he likes have gone insane, dangerously so.

They managed to make a realistic slang, I realize.

Do you know how many computers kirk has destroyed?

That creepy grin.

Is that magic music?

I like how they’re playing with the ‘are they a cult or just an alternate religion’ because it’s often hard to tell in the real world unless the leader(s) are raping converts or something.

Hi random engineering guy jamming out on the bridge.

Jim got into ‘a little trouble’ when he was young, eh?

Yeah, because he doesn’t want galactic war!!!

Okay, evil cult, because you’re not allowed to question or think and he’s planning on murdering people.

Well, they survived, though is that just because Kirk turned it off?

Would rather kill himself & all his followers than go back—delusional.

The fact that you know you did something wrong is more important.

Will the cult survive without the leader?

(they seem oddly calm about the whole ‘our leader died on that planet’ thing…)

(oddly enough, spock’s always the one who’s more on board with paradise.)

(it’s also interesting that they’re using tech and not giving a fig like they’re so anti-tech but if it fits their objective ‘there goes that rule out the window’)

(Cult signs [as taken from multiple websites]: critical thinking is evil, maybe the fear of the outside world [herbert]—I’d note that they don’t appear to differentiate between different kinds of outsiders—surely everyone doesn’t fit the definition of ‘herbert’, the leader is always right, knowledge from the outside is untrustworthy, persecution complex, especially with questioning, isolation from friends unless there’s an interest, the group > laws, single charismatic leader, members always happy and enthusiastic, seductive recruiting strategies (?), blind obedience to harmful directives, reinforcing or excusing unethical behaviors, anti-scientific thinking, reinvention of language to widen gulf between insiders and outsiders, disregarding reality, I’d add ‘following rules only when it suits them; followers don’t seem to realize rules aren’t being followed’+; leaders: arrogant, entitlement, criticized: rage, superficially charming, doesn’t feel guilt, rigid/unbending [especially with the Herbert thing: they tend to criticize others for their own traits & the followers wouldn’t notice], isolates members [mentally], wants to physically isolate them [in the middle of Romulan space would be pretty isolated])

I guess part of my problem is that we haven’t seen a) finances b) anyone leave the group.  Those two are some of the most obvious.  (well, and abuse.  That makes it kinda clear, too.)  Then again, we didn’t see from the members’ pov.  We didn’t see them being disciplined for individual thinking, or anything they experienced.

I would note that some might think Spock getting drawn in by a dangerous cult is unrealistic.  Wrong!  Smart people get hoodwinked by cults all the time, because they prey on a very biological impulse within all of us: the need to belong.  They usually seem harmless or even benign at first and save their more unsavory ideas until later, when your way of thinking has already been shaped by the cult.  It’s also unhelpful because some cults are benign—you could probably consider the Amish a cult, but they’re free to leave the group and aren’t demonized because of it, and, like most Christian denominations, doesn’t have a single leader in charge.  Just being eccentric or weird isn’t a requirement, and that’s where things can go wonky, because that makes it easy for the bad ones to blend in with the good.  Generally, though, if you’re being encouraged to break laws or the leader can kill/hurt people and it’s all fine, it’s probably a cult!!

(Reaction to reviews: I didn’t read this as a criticism of hippies, I read it as a criticism of cults.  True hippies would be outraged at the idea of killing to protect the idea of love.  Though I wasn’t alive then so I don’t have quite the historical perspective.  Well, I also kinda thought that the superficial similarities were intentionally designed to make them appear more harmless/welcoming.  Designed, I say, by Sevrin [well, and also potentially the writers].  Though given the reaction rather than a critical look at cults “Christianity is always good” “you haven’t looked at some of the ‘christian cult’ results on the internet, and if you dismiss them out of hand or from petty reasoning you might be in one yourself” maybe the specific trappings were a bad idea.  Either that, or the writers really were anti-hippie.  I’m kind of sad I haven’t managed to find any more readings like mine, though.  I wouldn’t judge all hippies by what I see here because this is clearly a crazy dangerous cultist offshoot any more than I would judge all Christians by the so-called Christian cults that emphasize giving the cult all your worldly possessions and that the leader can demand sex from anyone and is never wrong or even to be questioned.  Given the response by Kirk & the establishment [Chapel especially], I wonder if rumors about sexual abuse or other actions against Federation peoples were bandied about.  My brother and one poster brought up Jim Jones, but I haven’t really looked him up.)