NEWSLETTER
Crew Thoughts: Beyond Boldly Going and the Prime Directive
Living the Unwritten Values of Starfleet
Ides of Terminus: August 2026
While the Prime Directive may be the most famous Starfleet regulation, if any of us 21st century Earthlings encounter alien civilizations, we're going to be the ones that have "not achieved a commensurate level of technological and/or societal development." Potentially disrupting another society at First Contact is not on our radar any time soon.
And the famous and explicitly stated goal of "Boldy going" has simultaneously grown both less and more complicated. Advances in transportation technology since the first airing of Star Trek in 1966 make exploration, at least on our own planet, more feasible. But other societal "advances" (international tensions, skyrocketing prices, etc.) have also made it less feasible, especially for specific groups of humanoids, in many regions.
With the Prime Directive and primary goal of Starfleet beyond the grasp of most people, how then, do we live up to our role models?
Outside of the regulations and speeches lie the unwritten values of Starfleet. Those values, I would argue, are the reason many of us were attracted to Star Trek in the first place. It gave us an entire universe where being good wasn't reduced to being a "goody two shoes" and being smart didn't automatically mean being a social pariah.
In the day-to-day of fandom, celebrities and collectibles and trivia and online discourse, it can be easy to lose sight of those values. Let's get back to basics and examine some of them. How much do you emulate those values, the reasons we look up to our favorite Starfleet officers, in your day-to-day life? How much do you aspire to live them?
"I am proud of what I am. I believe in what I do. Can you say that?" - Pavel Chekov
One unwritten value is so pervasive that it is simply an assumption that can be applied to any member of Starfleet: a certain level of personal excellence. Lower Decks, the entire premise of which is "the bottom of the barrel of Starfleet" seems like an odd place to explore that concept. But once you look past the laughs, it actually illuminates how even the "average" person can demonstrate skill, smarts, and strength. Accomplishing a difficult task, stepping up and doing your best, striving is something anyone can do. They just need to choose it, as the Lower Decks crew does.
Beckett Mariner, on the surface, is a screw-up and a discipline problem. To be fair, she's serving on a ship captained by her mother; if that's not a recipe for personal disaster, I'm not sure what is. Additionally, she's an Indiana Jones in a society that values a Jean-Luc Picard. But Mariner, like Indy, is the full package of brilliance and buff. She just needs a better outlet for her talents.
Through Mariner's self-created mess, we see glimpses of a brilliant leader. We see someone who knows exactly what she wants and where she wants to be, and does what is needed to get and stay there, even if both her desires and strategies are unconventional. She's deeply trusted by the rest of the lower decks crew, and when an upper officer finally sees through her mess and holds her to high expectations, her brilliance begins to shine.
Brad Boilmler is, to put it bluntly, an awkward nerd, a point the show drives home again and again. But if you look past the patina of cringe he's often painted with, and look at him, you see an ambitious young officer with knowledge of Starfleet history and regulations that is terrifying in its breadth and depth. There's nothing about Starfleet that Boimler doesn't know. This is usually played for laughs, particularly at Boimler's expense. But that doesn't change the fact that his passion for Starfleet drives him to constantly, consciously, make the choice to try to live up to its ideals. Even when that's hard.
Much like D'Vana Tendi's hard choice to join Starfleet, which was unexpected and opposed by her powerful piratical family. At the Academy, she persevered through specieist harassment, determined to excel. Her friendly personality is frequently depicted as naive, even childish, but we need look no further than The Dog to see her brilliance and personal excellence. While the show's writing sends her up as failing at making a Terran dog because she'd never actually met one, let's look at what she actually did. She took inert carbon and brought it to life. She hand coded an entire genetic sequence of 6 billion base pairs. She gave this creature what amounts to super powers. And she did it all because she thought it was fun. The show-writing strongly leans into Tendi failing at recreating a Canis lupus familiaris. But, objectively, she actually created a scientific marvel, in her spare time.
More than once I've heard of Star Trek referred to as "competence porn," and I can't argue that. Eight individuals can have an effective meeting in less than five minutes? That's a real fantasy! A great deal of the comedy from Lower Decks comes from the idea that it is a ship full of the "losers" of Starfleet. But when you look past the humor and observe with a critical eye, it's obvious that the Cerritos crew continuously strives to achieve excellence. They frequently succeed. When the rest of the fleet, their families, or their friends have written them off as hopeless, they show up every shift, every assignment, and do their best. In that they exemplify Starfleet values far more than other, more decorated, ships.
Where does your personal excellence lie? Is there a skill or talent, even an unexpected or supposedly "useless" one, that you can lend your family, friends, and crew? Where have you failed to meet your own standards in the past, and how can you strive to achieve them in the future? What task did you look at today and think, "This needs my best effort. 'Just okay' isn't good enough for this. It's important." We can all step up and be shining examples of Starfleet officers. Even if we sometimes feel like we're just working the Lower Decks.
Ides of Terminus: August 2026
While the Prime Directive may be the most famous Starfleet regulation, if any of us 21st century Earthlings encounter alien civilizations, we're going to be the ones that have "not achieved a commensurate level of technological and/or societal development." Potentially disrupting another society at First Contact is not on our radar any time soon.
And the famous and explicitly stated goal of "Boldy going" has simultaneously grown both less and more complicated. Advances in transportation technology since the first airing of Star Trek in 1966 make exploration, at least on our own planet, more feasible. But other societal "advances" (international tensions, skyrocketing prices, etc.) have also made it less feasible, especially for specific groups of humanoids, in many regions.
With the Prime Directive and primary goal of Starfleet beyond the grasp of most people, how then, do we live up to our role models?
Outside of the regulations and speeches lie the unwritten values of Starfleet. Those values, I would argue, are the reason many of us were attracted to Star Trek in the first place. It gave us an entire universe where being good wasn't reduced to being a "goody two shoes" and being smart didn't automatically mean being a social pariah.
In the day-to-day of fandom, celebrities and collectibles and trivia and online discourse, it can be easy to lose sight of those values. Let's get back to basics and examine some of them. How much do you emulate those values, the reasons we look up to our favorite Starfleet officers, in your day-to-day life? How much do you aspire to live them?
"I am proud of what I am. I believe in what I do. Can you say that?" - Pavel Chekov
One unwritten value is so pervasive that it is simply an assumption that can be applied to any member of Starfleet: a certain level of personal excellence. Lower Decks, the entire premise of which is "the bottom of the barrel of Starfleet" seems like an odd place to explore that concept. But once you look past the laughs, it actually illuminates how even the "average" person can demonstrate skill, smarts, and strength. Accomplishing a difficult task, stepping up and doing your best, striving is something anyone can do. They just need to choose it, as the Lower Decks crew does.
Beckett Mariner, on the surface, is a screw-up and a discipline problem. To be fair, she's serving on a ship captained by her mother; if that's not a recipe for personal disaster, I'm not sure what is. Additionally, she's an Indiana Jones in a society that values a Jean-Luc Picard. But Mariner, like Indy, is the full package of brilliance and buff. She just needs a better outlet for her talents.
Through Mariner's self-created mess, we see glimpses of a brilliant leader. We see someone who knows exactly what she wants and where she wants to be, and does what is needed to get and stay there, even if both her desires and strategies are unconventional. She's deeply trusted by the rest of the lower decks crew, and when an upper officer finally sees through her mess and holds her to high expectations, her brilliance begins to shine.
Brad Boilmler is, to put it bluntly, an awkward nerd, a point the show drives home again and again. But if you look past the patina of cringe he's often painted with, and look at him, you see an ambitious young officer with knowledge of Starfleet history and regulations that is terrifying in its breadth and depth. There's nothing about Starfleet that Boimler doesn't know. This is usually played for laughs, particularly at Boimler's expense. But that doesn't change the fact that his passion for Starfleet drives him to constantly, consciously, make the choice to try to live up to its ideals. Even when that's hard.
Much like D'Vana Tendi's hard choice to join Starfleet, which was unexpected and opposed by her powerful piratical family. At the Academy, she persevered through specieist harassment, determined to excel. Her friendly personality is frequently depicted as naive, even childish, but we need look no further than The Dog to see her brilliance and personal excellence. While the show's writing sends her up as failing at making a Terran dog because she'd never actually met one, let's look at what she actually did. She took inert carbon and brought it to life. She hand coded an entire genetic sequence of 6 billion base pairs. She gave this creature what amounts to super powers. And she did it all because she thought it was fun. The show-writing strongly leans into Tendi failing at recreating a Canis lupus familiaris. But, objectively, she actually created a scientific marvel, in her spare time.
More than once I've heard of Star Trek referred to as "competence porn," and I can't argue that. Eight individuals can have an effective meeting in less than five minutes? That's a real fantasy! A great deal of the comedy from Lower Decks comes from the idea that it is a ship full of the "losers" of Starfleet. But when you look past the humor and observe with a critical eye, it's obvious that the Cerritos crew continuously strives to achieve excellence. They frequently succeed. When the rest of the fleet, their families, or their friends have written them off as hopeless, they show up every shift, every assignment, and do their best. In that they exemplify Starfleet values far more than other, more decorated, ships.
Where does your personal excellence lie? Is there a skill or talent, even an unexpected or supposedly "useless" one, that you can lend your family, friends, and crew? Where have you failed to meet your own standards in the past, and how can you strive to achieve them in the future? What task did you look at today and think, "This needs my best effort. 'Just okay' isn't good enough for this. It's important." We can all step up and be shining examples of Starfleet officers. Even if we sometimes feel like we're just working the Lower Decks.
While the Prime Directive may be the most famous Starfleet regulation, if any of us 21st century Earthlings encounter alien civilizations, we're going to be the ones that have "not achieved a commensurate level of technological and/or societal development." Potentially disrupting another society at First Contact is not on our radar any time soon.
And the famous and explicitly stated goal of "Boldy going" has simultaneously grown both less and more complicated. Advances in transportation technology since the first airing of Star Trek in 1966 make exploration, at least on our own planet, more feasible. But other societal "advances" (international tensions, skyrocketing prices, etc.) have also made it less feasible, especially for specific groups of humanoids, in many regions.
With the Prime Directive and primary goal of Starfleet beyond the grasp of most people, how then, do we live up to our role models?
Outside of the regulations and speeches lie the unwritten values of Starfleet. Those values, I would argue, are the reason many of us were attracted to Star Trek in the first place. It gave us an entire universe where being good wasn't reduced to being a "goody two shoes" and being smart didn't automatically mean being a social pariah.
In the day-to-day of fandom, celebrities and collectibles and trivia and online discourse, it can be easy to lose sight of those values. Let's get back to basics and examine some of them. How much do you emulate those values, the reasons we look up to our favorite Starfleet officers, in your day-to-day life? How much do you aspire to live them?
"I am proud of what I am. I believe in what I do. Can you say that?" - Pavel Chekov
One unwritten value is so pervasive that it is simply an assumption that can be applied to any member of Starfleet: a certain level of personal excellence. Lower Decks, the entire premise of which is "the bottom of the barrel of Starfleet" seems like an odd place to explore that concept. But once you look past the laughs, it actually illuminates how even the "average" person can demonstrate skill, smarts, and strength. Accomplishing a difficult task, stepping up and doing your best, striving is something anyone can do. They just need to choose it, as the Lower Decks crew does.
Beckett Mariner, on the surface, is a screw-up and a discipline problem. To be fair, she's serving on a ship captained by her mother; if that's not a recipe for personal disaster, I'm not sure what is. Additionally, she's an Indiana Jones in a society that values a Jean-Luc Picard. But Mariner, like Indy, is the full package of brilliance and buff. She just needs a better outlet for her talents.
Through Mariner's self-created mess, we see glimpses of a brilliant leader. We see someone who knows exactly what she wants and where she wants to be, and does what is needed to get and stay there, even if both her desires and strategies are unconventional. She's deeply trusted by the rest of the lower decks crew, and when an upper officer finally sees through her mess and holds her to high expectations, her brilliance begins to shine.
Brad Boilmler is, to put it bluntly, an awkward nerd, a point the show drives home again and again. But if you look past the patina of cringe he's often painted with, and look at him, you see an ambitious young officer with knowledge of Starfleet history and regulations that is terrifying in its breadth and depth. There's nothing about Starfleet that Boimler doesn't know. This is usually played for laughs, particularly at Boimler's expense. But that doesn't change the fact that his passion for Starfleet drives him to constantly, consciously, make the choice to try to live up to its ideals. Even when that's hard.
Much like D'Vana Tendi's hard choice to join Starfleet, which was unexpected and opposed by her powerful piratical family. At the Academy, she persevered through specieist harassment, determined to excel. Her friendly personality is frequently depicted as naive, even childish, but we need look no further than The Dog to see her brilliance and personal excellence. While the show's writing sends her up as failing at making a Terran dog because she'd never actually met one, let's look at what she actually did. She took inert carbon and brought it to life. She hand coded an entire genetic sequence of 6 billion base pairs. She gave this creature what amounts to super powers. And she did it all because she thought it was fun. The show-writing strongly leans into Tendi failing at recreating a Canis lupus familiaris. But, objectively, she actually created a scientific marvel, in her spare time.
More than once I've heard of Star Trek referred to as "competence porn," and I can't argue that. Eight individuals can have an effective meeting in less than five minutes? That's a real fantasy! A great deal of the comedy from Lower Decks comes from the idea that it is a ship full of the "losers" of Starfleet. But when you look past the humor and observe with a critical eye, it's obvious that the Cerritos crew continuously strives to achieve excellence. They frequently succeed. When the rest of the fleet, their families, or their friends have written them off as hopeless, they show up every shift, every assignment, and do their best. In that they exemplify Starfleet values far more than other, more decorated, ships.
Where does your personal excellence lie? Is there a skill or talent, even an unexpected or supposedly "useless" one, that you can lend your family, friends, and crew? Where have you failed to meet your own standards in the past, and how can you strive to achieve them in the future? What task did you look at today and think, "This needs my best effort. 'Just okay' isn't good enough for this. It's important." We can all step up and be shining examples of Starfleet officers. Even if we sometimes feel like we're just working the Lower Decks.