The other thing that makes “The Omega Glory” significant is just how awful it is. Let’s skip past how boring the episode is and get right to the point where the episode takes a huge moral nosedive by subtly suggesting that the Yangs (America) are superior. It’s not clear if Gene Roddenberry was intentionally trying to push this message or if he was so over his head in boiling this complicated issue down to a 40-minute episode that he churned out a confused mess of a plot which accidentally sends the wrong message. We’d believe either.
The WRONG message would be that America is superior to the USSR? Really?
I will say it did give me a chill when Old Glory came out all tattered and worn....but still flying.
I didn’t think it was saying the Yangs were superior. I thought it was saying their declaration of independence - their ultimate system - was superior.
TOS did more than one hint at religion. Remember the Sun worshipers in “Bread and Circuses”? In the end, on the bridge they were sort of mocking the Sun worshipers and Uhura said (IIRC), “I’ve been monitoring their transmissions. They don’t worship the sun. They worship the Son. The Son of God.”
There were a lot of moral and political messages in the show and it was very, VERY conservative by today’s standards. Sometimes they were heavy handed enough to ruin the episode.
It didn't take me long to realize this review of episodes was by a politically correct liberal.
Two episodes I absolutely expected to be in the review were not even mentioned.
1. The one where Riker falls in love with the Homosexual alien.
2. The one where Riker deliberately mutinies against a superior officer and informs enemy aliens of the Federation developed phase cloaking ship.
Both episodes were utter dreck, and the second one prompted me to stop watching "Next Generation" all together.