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It's a crazy insane Rant. wink wink And for the record Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the best Star Trek ever!!!!And they only had a couple of angry black man episodes which aired near the end of the shows run. And were completely out of place.

I think that you are missing the bigger issues on ST:E. For example they just had an episode called Dear Doctor. Where they encounter a pre-warp race threaten by an uncurable desease. There is a second less advanced race living on the planet as servants for the first race. After lecturing the humans not to judge the treatment of the servant race, the Doctor tells the Capt that he doubts a cure can be found. But surprise surprise, the very next day he finds a cure and determines that they second race would be better off if the first race died out. So he tells Capt Archer that he wants to withhold the cure. Because, get this, he does not want to interfere with evolution. The Doctor has concluded that the second race might be evolving into something better. And if they are evolving, they might be better off on their own. So he thinks that it would be just great to withhold the cure, let the first race die out. So that maybe thousands of years in the future the second race might be better off. Archer ends up taking the "enlighten" view that they should let the first race die out so that they don't interfer with evolution. In the "Scientific" future they don't want to interfer with blind chance.

They also have an anti-hunting show coming up. Where they visit a planet of hunters. It turns out that the hunters favorite prey is intelligent. See animals are people too.

I really can't bust their chops over that plot. It is simply another retread of a well-worn story, as follows:

*****************************************

(snip)

The general puffed at his cigarette.

"After the debacle in Russia I left the country, for it was imprudent for an officer of the Czar to stay there. Many noble Russians lost everything. I, luckily, had invested heavily in American securities, so I shall never have to open a tearoom in Monte Carlo or drive a taxi in Paris. Naturally, I continued to hunt--grizzliest in your Rockies, crocodiles in the Ganges, rhinoceroses in East Africa. It was in Africa that the Cape buffalo hit me and laid me up for six months. As soon as I recovered I started for the Amazon to hunt jaguars, for I had heard they were unusually cunning. They weren't." The Cossack sighed. "They were no match at all for a hunter with his wits about him, and a high-powered rifle. I was bitterly disappointed. I was lying in my tent with a splitting headache one night when a terrible thought pushed its way into my mind. Hunting was beginning to bore me! And hunting, remember, had been my life. I have heard that in America businessmen often go to pieces when they give up the business that has been their life."

"Yes, that's so," said Rainsford.

The general smiled. "I had no wish to go to pieces," he said. "I must do something. Now, mine is an analytical mind, Mr. Rainsford. Doubtless that is why I enjoy the problems of the chase."

"No doubt, General Zaroff."

"So," continued the general, "I asked myself why the hunt no longer fascinated me. You are much younger than I am, Mr. Rainsford, and have not hunted as much, but you perhaps can guess the answer."

"What was it?"

"Simply this: hunting had ceased to be what you call `a sporting proposition.' It had become too easy. I always got my quarry. Always. There is no greater bore than perfection."

The general lit a fresh cigarette.

"No animal had a chance with me any more. That is no boast; it is a mathematical certainty. The animal had nothing but his legs and his instinct. Instinct is no match for reason. When I thought of this it was a tragic moment for me, I can tell you."

Rainsford leaned across the table, absorbed in what his host was saying.

"It came to me as an inspiration what I must do," the general went on.

"And that was?"

The general smiled the quiet smile of one who has faced an obstacle and surmounted it with success. "I had to invent a new animal to hunt," he said.

"A new animal? You're joking." "Not at all," said the general. "I never joke about hunting. I needed a new animal. I found one. So I bought this island built this house, and here I do my hunting. The island is perfect for my purposes--there are jungles with a maze of traits in them, hills, swamps--"

"But the animal, General Zaroff?"

"Oh," said the general, "it supplies me with the most exciting hunting in the world. No other hunting compares with it for an instant. Every day I hunt, and I never grow bored now, for I have a quarry with which I can match my wits."

Rainsford's bewilderment showed in his face.

"I wanted the ideal animal to hunt," explained the general. "So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason."'

"But no animal can reason," objected Rainsford.

"My dear fellow," said the general, "there is one that can."

"But you can't mean--" gasped Rainsford...

(snip)

- Excerpt from The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell ***********************************************

Star Trek, in all of it's forms, has "borrowed" from literature. If this upcoming episode will be about hunting sentient animals, I'm inclined to see it as a re-telling of the above story. BTW, Gilligan's Island did an episode based on that story, too, FWIW.

This will be interesting indeed. At least in the past, when Trek writers "borrowed" plots (i.e.: "Arena"), they were fairly faithful to the original story. If they turn *this* story into a blanket statement against hunting, they will be discarding the original message in favor of current leftist thinking (valuing animals more than people). My response will be swift and brutal: "Tribble Skeet".