"You know, like all the agents and lawyers we've ever been involved with."

This pretty much says it all. I think it safe to say that their original intent was to stereotype a lot of folks - many of those folks who just happen to be Jewish.

While the latest writers may use them as tools to decry republicans and capitalism - the clear original intent was to parody the agents and lawyers - the stereotypical "moneygrubbers" who sell their soul for a buck. You are simply seeing the prejudice of the writers who carry their ACLU cards alongside their SAG cards in their wallets.

I think that you, at your level of heightened sensitivity to social issues, can honestly see that it was a pretty blatant stereotype.

Star Trek is fine entertainment but already with TNG it was shifted into more of a political tool which ruined its original practical utopian vision. DS9, Voyager in my opinion simply exaggerated this political propaganda aspect and were unwatchable when you can see the transparency of the writers with every plot and episode - for me anyway.

The original series had its share of political commentary "Let that be your last Battlefield" and "A Private Little War" stand out of these type of episodes and IMHO those episodes didn't work as well. That they decided to push the political envelope further and turn it into a sort of leftist propaganda tool was unfortunate - as I really liked the Star Trek concept and it should've been above politics.

Gene Roddenberry's original vision was "Wagon Train to the stars" a cowboyish melodrama where every planet or stop introduces some good guys, bad guys and conflicts. That Director (Richard Donner?) who directed the second ST movie HATED the original Star Trek and had barely ever watched it. His vision was of "navy" ship more militaristic Star Trek that had whistles blowing and primitive obsolete visions. In many ways it was as if TOS is the furthest ahead in its conceptual vision, and TNG and all the movies take place hundreds of years prior thanks to the shifting of the vision.

The alien freakshow aspect of the latter TNG and all the subsequent series was a real turn off as well. They inadvertently shifted the emphasis from plot to make-up and it distracts from the plots and any moral messages.

But that's another issue.

SDAI-Tech1