STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE is not a recent show, I know. But in its day it was really groundbreaking, particularly for its willingness to break with STAR TREK creator Gene Roddenberry's insistence that his characters must all get along. (It was sort of the antithesis of SEINFELD's "No hugging, no learning.") Characters on DEEP SPACE NINE argue, and in fact the heart of the series is a seasons-long war between different alien races.
Still, a problem that DEEP SPACE NINE had early on which matches up well with other STAR TREK shows of that era is a certain interior flatness. Characters didn't really reflect too much on their own situation or interrelationships. Everyone kind of seems on the same level as everyone else.
Then at the start of season four, showrunner Ira Stephen Behr and co-writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe produced this fascinating scene between two of the show's non-human supporting characters, where they step back and reflect on themselves and the Federation using root beer as an analogy. It's a very small moment, but I would say it utterly transforms the experience of watching the show. Because it gives you a fresh take on what and who you're watching. That's what a good analogy does.
And when they're effective, those takes tend to stay with the audience as it moves on. Going forward from this scene, you start to think about the Federation (and also our humanity) in the terms that have been offered--cloying and insidious in its happiness, and yet also a source of great hope. It's like that moment gives us a new purchase on this world and its characters.
Is there a moment for an analogy like this in the show or script you're working on? There isn't always; if you try to force these kinds of things you can end up breaking with the reality of the show and its characters. The DS9 moment works precisely because it emerges naturally out of the lived experience of those characters. Is there a place like that in your script?
Or the next time you're watching something, keep your antennae up for a moment like this. They don't happen all that often, but when they do they have a big impact.
