Is this my nerdiest post? Yes. Anyway,
The Star Trek wiki had something interesting…
Paul Schneider modeled the Romulans on the ancient Romans, naming the species’ homeworlds after the mythical founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. “It was a matter of developing a good Romanesque set of admirable antagonists that were worthy of Kirk,” Schneider related. “I came up with the concept of the Romulans which was an extension of the Roman civilization to the point of space travel, and it turned out quite well.” (Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 34) D.C. Fontana reckoned that Schneider basing the aliens on the pre-existing Roman civilization was the cause for the writer receiving insufficient credit for creating the Romulans. (“Balance of Terror” Starfleet Access, TOS Season 1 Blu-ray) Gene Roddenberry, interested in ancient Rome himself, approved of the initial depiction of the Romulan species. “He loved Paul’s having endowed the enemy-Romulans with the militaristic character of the ancient Romans,” wrote John D.F. Black and Mary Black. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 11, p. 19) Roddenberry’s original concept of the Romulans, however, was that they represented 1960s’ Chinese Communists.
Yes, Romulans are somewhat based on the Roman Empire and are xenophobic conquerers, but Westerners often ignorantly attribute these traits to communist countries anyway.
Then there is the Klingons, again, the Klingons are nothing like communists, (they’re a patriarchal empire) and yet I’ve seen people say they were based on the Soviets.
So what do you think?
This is an interesting way to look at the Klingons, I honestly never thought about it that way.
For me the biggest problem is perhaps that very clearly everything Starfleet actually does is coated in liberalism ideals of the 90s where we(the Fed) are the only ones worth saving unequivocally. When the PD is invoked and when the Feds refuse to interfere in greater conflicts or choose “peace” it is seen as moraly justified. The Maqui arc, even though I still believe the “settlers” narrative is BS and a shitty allegory for hack writers of the time, that whole arc is just a hint at US blowback from “terrorists” they created themselves while refusing to admit they did anything wrong.
I think the worst part about it is the dominon war arc. The Federation is represented as this ubiquitous undeniable force that must not fall, obviously they’re meant to represent us and are the heroes, but when more objectively “moral” questions arises like the Dominion + Romulan pact we get Sisko committing a war crime just to bring their whole civilization to their side.
Heck I’d even say the Dom war aged extremely well, the entire Fed rethoric about how the
westgood guys can’t fall to the brutal savage monstersRussia/Chinais entirely 100% on equal to 2020’s US MSM rethoric about how it is US in the west and our liberal ideas vs everyone else.That to me is the biggest nod to American FP in the series? In the Pale Moonlight is a ridiculously awesome episode obviously, but Sisko is very much presented as an allegory of the US state department and the CIA doing whatever they need behind the scenes to get their “friends” and allies to do what they want.