WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 1 – “Dos Cerritos”
A new starship captain in Star Trek: Lower Decks‘season 5 premiere aggressively enforces a rule that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to be a major part of the Star Trek: The Next Generation. Wondering what Star TrekThe future would look like 100 years after Captain James Kirk’s (William Shatner) starship Enterprise, Roddenberry created rules for the Star Trek: The Next Generation writers to follow. One of Roddenberry’s rules was the prohibition of “interpersonal conflicts” among the crew of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) USS Enterprise-Das Roddenberry believed that humanity would evolve beyond this in the 24th century.
In Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 1, “Dos Cerritos”, the crew of the USS Cerritos encounters a space anomaly that sends them to an alternate universe with a 0.237% change – just the smallest change, really. Unlike the gloomy reflection of familiar characters in Star TrekIn the Mirror Universe, this alternate Cerritos team conquered their differences by making choices that weren’t necessarily wrong, just different. In this universe, the USS Cerritos is commanded by Captain Becky Freeman (Tawny Newsome), a Mariner version of Lieutenant Beckett who appears to have put herself back together.-with a little help from Star Trekcreator.
Mariner double captain does not allow interpersonal conflicts on his USS Cerritos
Captain Becky Freeman’s Conflict-Free Ship Criticizes Roddenberry’s TNG Rule
Upon finding the two crews of the USS Cerritos arguing with their doubles instead of cooperating, Lt. Beckett Mariner’s double captain, Captain Becky Freeman, exclaims, “I do not allow interpersonal conflicts on my ship!“in a direct reference to Gene Roddenberry’s biblical series for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Instead of Captain Freeman Cerritos’ alternate crew avoiding interpersonal conflict by being genuinely harmonious, however, Becky Freeman enforces the no-conflict rule by ruling with an iron fist and a whip that ensures her subordinates know their place. This version of Cerritos is “mainly brigs“, ready for anyone who leaves Freeman’s hard line.
Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ Captain Becky Freeman points out how a total ban on dissent could only be imposed by an aggressive dictatorship. Interpersonal conflict is a natural part of interaction between people, even among the most civilized crews, so Roddenberry’s prohibition of all interpersonal conflict in TNG it was almost impossible to put into practice as written. A better interpretation of Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future of humanity in Star Trek is that society encourages the harmonious resolution of conflicts through mutual understanding rather than a purely theoretical absence of conflicts. Fortunately, most Star Trek I did exactly that.
How Star Trek got around TNG’s no-interpersonal conflict rule
If there is no conflict between Starfleet officers, have half the cast be non-Starfleet
Because conflict drives dramatic narrative, Star Trek writers found ways to get around Star Trek: The Next GenerationThe difficult UK rule prohibiting interpersonal conflicts between Starfleet officers. Star Trek: Deep Space NineThe numerous non-Starfleet characters made up more than half the cast and generated conflict on the DS9 station without breaking Roddenberry’s rules. Star Trek: Voyager followed suit, with his Maquis crew, Delta Quadrant natives and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Roddenberry”no interpersonal conflict“The rule was quietly eliminated after Gene’s death in 1991opening space for episodes of intense conflict such as TNG season 6, episodes 9 and 10, “Chain of Command”.
New Star Trek shows ended Star Trek: The Next GenerationIt’s early”no interpersonal conflict“govern entirely and embrace the Star Trek future like one in which interpersonal conflicts still exist, even in Starfleet. Today Star Trek Characters are relatable people who have their own feelings, motives, and agendas, and that means they sometimes conflicteven if they have common goals. Nowhere is this more true than in Star Trek: Lower Deckswhere the junior officers of the USS Cerritos have realistic reactions to adversity, but discover how to resolve their conflicts with understanding… except Captain Becky Freeman, of course.