Ethics, Experimentalism, and Hybrid Purpose: Navigating Science and the Military in Star Trek: Discovery

Abstract

Abstract In “Context Is for Kings,” “The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry,” and “Choose Your Pain,” three season one episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, the hybrid nature of Starfleet becomes apparent when its scientists come into conflict with its soldiers. The order to treat a potentially sentient tardigrade-like creature as a military resource, subject to what is essentially slavery and vivisection, makes scientific ethics subject to strategic value. In each episode, a separate pairing between scientist and soldier develops, which both critiques the competing philosophies and acts as a metaphor for historical conflicts of this kind.