A Culture of One: Cultural Homogenization across the Star Trek Universe

Abstract

Abstract “You're a culture of one which is no less valid than one of millions,” says Picard to Data. Picard makes an interesting but disconcerting point, for a group's beliefs are indeed valid regardless of size or strength, yet culture by definition cannot be “a culture of one”; a culture is the network of references and practices that bind a society. Picard moreover stands as the example of the terrible cultural cost that comes with what he himself describes as resolving “certain social and political differences” to achieve political and therefore planetary unity. The respect for diversity, exchange, and therefore hybridity informs Prime Directive. That Directive is constantly put to the test, at times dramatically, in given episodes. The planetary cultures in the series are presented as monolithic blocks, where subcultures are a source of tension and bicultural characters are problematic: a character's diverse cultural heritage is seen as oppositional, and one culture must overwhelm the other. What culture can Data the synthetic life form have? What culture can Picard the human lose? While embracing diversity, the show unwittingly illustrates the overarching homogenization needed to achieve interplanetary unity, a sense of unity that ultimately undercuts the hybridity the Star Trek universe wishes to celebrate.