Enterprise season opener

Season Opener of Star Treck: Enterprise, Capt. Archer in NY, circa 1944
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Remember when TV shows used to only take a few months
in the summer for the off seasons then pick back up in
August? I suppose production schedules or other things
keep pushing season premiers later and later yet the
actual programs themselves do not venture too far into
the spring and summer before ending a season.

Anyway, back to the opener.

My wife and I like watching Star Treck and the various
shows that have spun off from the original franchise
(save for Deep Sleep Nine, neither of us could really
get into that one) and we've been watching them for
years faithfully, their writing staff is intelligent
and creative and the palate that they work with (the
future) is always fertile ground to pluck a story
from.

They should just stay away from doing history! I
suppose that entertainment has always cast an envious
eye towards history with the intent of "correcting it"
or "making it right" or twisting it to make some
modern point. I think the worst offender to date has
to be Dances with Wolves, the typical good Indian, bad
White Man, evil Soldier that has spawned many a trite
and terrible tale since the 60's on our cinema
screens.

Enterprise? It was a decent episode and it carried the
story lines along started from the first season even
of the Temporal Cold War, of the relationship between
McDaniel's and Capt. Archer. But what is it about just
doing it like it was that seems to be so anathema to
writers? There are so many things wrong with the
social and military fabric of this episode that I
cringed throughout most of the show.

Social

OK, the Nazi's have invaded the US in 1943/44 and are
on the eastern seaboard and pushing into the Midwest.
We find that Archer is under the care of a black
woman. They are in New York, so no big stretch there.
Archer, well he's "progressive" so he pays it no mind.
We are then suddenly introduced to her compatriots,
three Mafioso types. Three Italians walk comfortably
into her flat (she called it an apartment, not a
typical term for the easter seaboard) and even show
concern for her. I'm sorry writers, but as much as you
wanted to make a statement about race relations in
this alternate time line, you do the truth of our
history a disservice with this casting and plot line.

Why where three healthy looking Italians allowed to
just walk about NY while it is under occupation?
Because it was convenient to the storyline but did
nothing to create the atmosphere of occupation by an
enemy force. If they weren't criminals (which they
hinted they where) they would have been arrested and
concentrated somewhere or forced to labor in the
factories in Europe, thus removing a potential threat
of rebellion, a mistake Germany made with occupied
France in fomenting the conditions for sedition.
Thousands of Frenchmen where shipped off to Germany
under sometimes false pretense for work permits. These
toughs from the episode would not have been allowed to
lolly gag around, idle hands are the devils workshop.

The Germans

Why is it, whenever someone wants to do something with
Nazi Germany that it is always the Waffen SS that is
portrayed? They are shown as cocky, cruel, sadistic,
and everything else under the sun. Where these things
all true? Yes, and just as true and by incident count
for count of any other organization where someone
finds themselves in control over helpless human beings
regardless of what side they are on. American
atrocities are lightly treated and often not even
explored but were perpetrated not only upon the
civilian German populations during and after the war
but also upon German prisoners. It suffices to say
that the one lesson we should have learned from the
Abugrabe prison is that the capacity for cruelty abuse
is an innate thing within human beings. It is also a
curious happening with rear echelon troops verses how
front line soldiers treat their opposite numbers
during and after combat with a level of respect.

So, I suppose it could be argued that it was a Waffen
SS division who held New York, but the more plain and
to me just shocking revelation is that the Waffen SS
uniform is the universal symbol of evil. It is that
due to our sloppy history retelling and the use of
symbols in propaganda to inflame the masses and the
emotions.

Waffen SS divisions where but a fraction of the total
manpower of the Whermacht in WWII. Of the eventual 3
million Waffen SS soldiers of the 9 to 10 million
total serving, most were not even of German decent,
but were volunteers from the occupied countries.
Volunteers who volunteered willingly to fight against
Russia and Bolshevism. If Germany occupied that
country, you can find at least one division raised for
the Waffen SS from there. Latvians, Estonians,
Yugoslav's, French, Swedes, Danes, Russians, and
Duetches Reich or ethnic Germans from these countries
where recruited.

Absurd tactics

I always get upset when our entertainment is based
upon supposition and fooling around with historical
reality to the point where our overall grasp of the
truth is warped by the continual pounding in of the
"perfect" ideal of the filmmaker. The worst of this
was the scene where Commander Tucker and Lt. Reed have
beamed to the surface to track down their errant
shuttle pod. They are surprised by a roving SS patrol
and run. Then, inexplicably and adverse to even
someone with 0 training, the soldiers abandon the
chase and all decide to check out the shuttle. All of
them! Like little children in a candy store, or like
little Germans invading a Polish candy store they all
crowd into the cabin while Cmdr. Tucker proceeds to
detonate the explosives he and Lt. Reed have just
planted. Nice! It may appeal to the sycophantic
obsession we have in any media dealing with the
Germans to see a bunch blown up, but it deals an
insult to the several million German soldiers who
fought and died and their allies for what they
themselves believed in. It is time we admired the will
and spirit of men who fought and did extraordinary
feats of arms in Russia against overwhelming odds and
fanatical wastage of Russian soldiery in massed
attacks against thinly held defensive positions.

The formula good GI, stupid German is an insult to
both us and them and unfortunately in this episode we
continued that formula. Is it so hard to portray
things with at least a little more accuracy and still
keep the premise of the story? Is it that these
writers are just stupid when it comes to this time
frame? Or, as I suspect to be more the case, are they
so steeped in the desire to twist and use history to
front their on social Utopian order that anything is
fair game. Maybe it takes a soldier to appreciate
another soldier regardless of the side or the century.


What if's

The what if portion of this episode was only dealt
with on a superficial level, and that was an
intriguing aspect of this in the historical time line.
Hitler had 0 designers on the US and rightly so.
Despite Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of the
British Isles which was planned for but never
executed, Hitler had no real designers upon Britain
but to force them to capitulate so that he could deal
with his real target, Russia. A majority of the
Whermacht fought and died in the east against an
equally fanatic and tough opponent in the Russian
soldier. Despite the numerical superiority enjoyed by
Stavka, the Soviet high command, the Heer, Luftwaffe,
and Waffen SS formations bested them every step of the
way and but for odd decision making by Hitler would
have taken Moscow before the winter snows. Not quite
the soldiers portrayed before our eyes in movies and
TV shows though.

Although this alternate history does give the aspect
that the Germans wouldn't have gone as far as they did
without the help of these aliens, a falsehood as
demonstrated by history itself up to 1942 when the
resources began to be stretched taut for Germany it
also gives little credit to the Prussian militarist
tradition and the awesome power of will and doggedness
demonstrated by the common German soldier.

Is it any wonder that we look with disdain upon our
history when we flippantly watch something as this
episode and do not feel at least a little
uncomfortable with the portrayals? Not everyone can
have the knowledge I have nor be expected to do the
level of research, but even on a surface level this is
poor history in many aspects and the writers should
just stick to their strengths of the future and social
relations. My wife and I always sort of roll our eyes
when we encounter an episode that picks up on some
modern issue to "spread the gospel" of whatever is
supposed to be the PC viewpoint. They should at least
stick to the "preachy" episodes and leave our history
alone unless they choose to at least portray it
properly.