Camus once said, "Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football." I, on the other hand, didn't have football until too late in the day to make much of a difference, and have often claimed with equal parts flippancy and despair that my own moral compass was shaped by Hollywood, Shakespeare, and Star Trek. This last, in particular, while rich in subconscious depth, is generally simple in structure and each episode can therefore be boiled down to one or two simple moral lessons.
Here are some things I learned in childhood (some of them no doubt leaving scar tissue extant on my psyche to this day). Note how often the same moral is repeated in multiple episodes, as if for emphasis, or to indicate thematic obsession.
Man Trap: Salt is important. Also, ex-lovers are not always to be trusted.
Charlie X: Teenagers are not to be trusted with superpowers.
Where No Man Has Gone Before: Neither are adults.
the Naked Time: Jung was right; the Shadow material we each suppress packs a mean wallop when released.
the Enemy Within: Within the Shadow lies our energy. An effective commander must own a powerful dark side (incorporating, in Kirk's case, his sex drive, cowardice, penchant for Saurian brandy, and a weird tendency to wear too much black eyeliner) alongside the "good", both ruled by an overriding intelligence.
Mudd's Women: A woman is responsible for her own level of pulchritude.
What Are Little Girls Made Of?: Human emotion rules the universe, waiting to highjack even robots. Also, ex-lovers are not always to be trusted.
Miri: Chasing immortality is fatal hubris, and growing up is hard.
Dagger of the Mind: Emotion breeds violence, a cage is a cage, and a mind wiped clean is an unbearable loneliness, the sort of loneliness of which a man can die.
the Corbomite Maneuver: An apparently hostile opponent might in reality be a super-being who is testing you, a sort of cosmic Zen Master.
Menagerie: Reality is not always the best life-choice.
the Conscience of the King: One can evade the consequences of one's own sins for only so long. On a related topic, the offspring of fascist dictators are often unstable, sometimes psychotic.
the Balance of Terror: A true sense of honor is a living thing, and must be ever ready to shift and change to remain vital, always resisting the mortifying influence of iron-bound rules and dogma. As a sad corollary, honor is difficult to maintain amongst Romulans.
Shore Leave: Be careful what you wish for.
the Galileo Seven: An effective leader must use both halves of his brain, drawing on both logic and instinct.
the Squire of Gothos: Children are not to be trusted with superpowers.
Arena: You can jerry-rig a crude but effective cannon using sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal and diamonds; a television studio must have better resources than that, however, to fashion an effective lizard-man.
Tomorrow is Yesterday: A man's worth cannot be gleaned from his resume.
Court Martial: A computer is not to be trusted when a life is at stake.
Return of the Archons: Any holy-looking, supernatural being is up to no good, a computer is not to be trusted with absolute rule, and freedom is not easy, involving both sacrifice and hard work.
Space Seed: Creating a race of superhumans is tantamount to placing our fate in the hands of a cabal of arrogant bastards who view us as inferior and are strong enough to make our lives hell. Don't do it.
A Taste of Armaggedon: It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we might let it drag on like an endless chess game.
This Side of Paradise: Ex-lovers, even possibly physically unrequited ones, are not always to be trusted, and a Garden of Eden is always booby-trapped. Best revelation: Spock has a first name, but we would not be able to pronounce it.
the Devil in the Dark: Sentient, intelligent beings do not necessarily look like us.
Errand of Mercy: On the other hand, superhuman entities may look like us just as kind of a temporary favor, out of politeness. Also, don't force your help on someone if they really don't want it.
Alternative Factor: The angel with which each of us endlessly wrestles is ourselves, and there is everything at stake.
the City on the Edge of Forever: Sometimes a simple act of goodness and mercy can have the severest possible consequences, and the best intentions can lead to victory for the dark side. Also, even an unknown person's impact on history can be massive.
Operation: Annihilate!: The weapon which kills the parasite in your system may be entirely harmless to yourself. The corollary: wait until the lab results come back before you put Spock into the isolation chamber under the blinding white light.
Amok Time: A primordial swamp of seething id-sensuality is swarming beneath the placid Vulcan demeanor. In other words, Spock is very sexy.
Who Mourns for Adonais?: Any holy-looking, supernatural being is up to no good. In fact, man has evolved to a point at which gods are not only unnecessary, but vaguely embarrassing.
Changeling: A mechanical entity imprisoned in its own logic is no match for human cleverness and wile.
Mirror, Mirror: It is easier for a civilized man to impersonate a barbarian than for the barbarian to pretend to civilization. But really as a child the moral I took away was this: we all have an evil twin in an alternate universe, and Spock's is really sexy.
the Apple: Every Garden of Eden is booby-trapped, and no civilization, however apparently content, is vital if it is merely existing to service, and be fed and supported by, a ruling god or god-like machine. Such a god is to be destroyed and a Protestant ethic of hard work and good, healthy procreation within the proper heterosexual bounds are to be imposed from without if necessary.
the Doomsday Machine: Sometimes the monster must be destroyed from within.
Catspaw: Your senses may be lying to you; all of this might be illusion. Also, the human experience of sensation is the most powerful attractant in the universe and all aliens succumb to its succubus call.
I, Mudd: The adamantine fortress of robot-logic is no match for the sheer trickster power of human whimsy. Also, once the master is addicted to services rendered, the servant becomes the master.
Metamorphosis: Interspecific love involves sacrifice (on the female's part, naturally), but is not necessarily hopeless.
Journey to Babel: An effective commander must not let his personal loyalties override his duty to his ship, Vulcan father-son relations are hardcore problematic, and there's always some mercenary spy trying to throw a fatal wrench into the works of any peace-talk.
Friday's Child: A society calcified by its notion of honorable death and the worship of strength is doomed unless it can also learn to nurture its weak and care for its sick. Also, Klingons are cheaters and liars and not to be trusted.
the Deadly Years: Getting old bites, and fear can save your life.
Obsession: We are all haunted by ghosts from the past, guilt being the most detrimental to clear judgment in the present. Heeding intuition is crucial for a commander. Best revelation: Spock's blood is green because his hemoglobin is copper-, rather than iron-based.
Wolf in the Fold: An entity which feeds on fear makes an expert serial killer.
the Trouble With Tribbles: A bar fight is sometimes a lot of fun, and Klingons are cheaters and liars and not to be trusted.
the Gamesters of Triskelion: Slavery is bad, and a civilization built on it is doomed to fall unless it adapts.
A Piece of the Action: The Prime Directive is a brilliant idea, but really not generally workable. Somebody's always going to leave some random book behind and inspire a cargo cult.
the Immunity Syndrome: In a multi-specied Universe, a distinction between which is virus and which infected can be murky. A secondary, but more intriguing, moral lesson is that we are all connected on a deep, empathic level, and that the ever-logical Vulcans are the ones who have sense enough to understand that denying this is mere arrogance.
A Private Little War: Providing arms for South Vietnam to match the communist-provided arming of North Vietnam is a fool's game.
Return to Tomorrow: A species with superpowers can only be trusted if it voluntarily chooses to transcend the physical realm. Corollary advice: don't let even the nicest alien take over your body.
Patterns of Force: Nazism is a bad idea on any planet.
By Any Other Name: Human emotion is the most powerful force in the universe, like a trickster just waiting to highjack all species, knocking them right off their high, anti-human horses.
Omega Glory: War leads to armageddon and Charlton Heston's jeremiad at the end of Planet of the Apes.
the Ultimate Computer: A computer is not to be trusted to run a starship. ("Open the pod bay doors, HAL.")
Bread and Circuses: A society built on slavery is bound to fall, but some take longer than others.
Assignment: Earth: A television network will shamelessly abuse a hit series in a gross attempt to jump-start another, obviously inferior, one.
Spock's Brain: The idea that women might rule a civilization without male guidance is utterly absurd. The corollary: men without women live brutal, unkempt lives; women without men are ditzy and ineffective. Therefore, heterosexual balance is the duty of every planet. Also, setting up a computer to rule your civilization is sheer laziness when you should be out there fighting and procreating with the males. Awesome line reading: "Brain and brain. What is brain?"
the Enterprise Incident: No amount of lying or deception is impossible (or, indeed, morally inexpiable), even for a Vulcan, as long as it is done in the name of patriotic service (in this case, to the Federation). Best moment: the Vulcan Death Grip (in reality, only a clever permutation of the Vulcan Nerve Pinch).
the Paradise Syndrome: Hubris breeds a fall. Also, a computer is worthwhile only so long as it is tempered and maintained by living intelligence.
And the Children Shall Lead: Any holy-looking supernatural being is up to no good and should not be trusted. And, yet again, children are not to be trusted with superpowers.
Is There No Truth in Beauty?: Interspecific love is difficult but not always impossible.
Spectre of the Gun: If you don't believe in it, it can't hurt you.
Day of the Dove: Laughter is the opposite of anger.
For the World is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky: The Dominant Paradigm is not necessarily based in truth. Also, a computer should not be trusted to rule over humans.
the Tholian Web: An effective leader must use both halves of his brain, drawing on both logic and instinct.
Plato's Stepchildren: Nobody is to be trusted with superpowers. Also, a civilization built on slavery and extreme social stratification is bound to fall.
Wink of an Eye: A sterilized species may attempt to mate interspecifically, sometimes to the detriment of the stud race, and usually beginning with Captain Kirk. Interesting fact: greatly accelerated, humanoids are invisible and sound like insects.
the Empath: There is a certain amount of cold sadism implicit in scientific research.
Elaan of Troyius: Diva supermodels of the most annoying kind still hold inexplicable power to enslave males, and growing into adulthood is difficult if everyone does what you say all the time.
Whom Gods Destroy: If you have two apparent Kirks, the one who values the safety of the Enterprise over his own is the real mccoy. Also, crazy people should not be trusted with shapeshifting powers.
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield: Racism is based on logical fallacy and delusion.
Mark of Gideon: Overpopulating your planet is a terrible error. Every population must have its predator, even if that predator is only a disease.
That Which Survives: Although continuing with some of the long-running themes (a computer is only to be trusted under the supervision of a living intelligence, and human emotion is so strong a force it threatens to conquer even computer projections), Spock is here taught that he can indeed effectively command a starship using only his left-brain logic, so long as he is working in tandem with people he trusts who are in touch with their own instincts (in this case, Mr. Scott).
the Lights of Zetar: A man in love is inefficient, but love is so powerful a force that it can mean the difference between life and death.
Requiem for Methuselah: The human condition incorporates "a little ugliness from within and without," the avoidance of which is folly. Also, the agonies, ecstasies, and mysteries of love are so powerful that even a robot can be destroyed by them. Best moment: although the episode itself is certainly no great shakes, its end moment, with Spock's last choice, is extraordinary, and indicates a whole new level of personal development in both his friendship with Kirk and in coming to terms with the puzzle that is humanity.
the Way to Eden: A Garden of Eden is always booby-trapped, ex-lovers are not always to be trusted, and the sterility of technological advancement can breed malcontents who rebel against it. Although there is a kinship between Vulcans and hippies, there tends to be something disturbingly manipulative about hippies; do you reach me, Herbert?
Cloud Minders: A society built on slavery and extreme social stratification is bound to fall unless it adapts.
the Savage Curtain: Good guys and bad guys are often indistinguishable on the battlefield.
All Our Yesterdays: We all carry within us the primitive underpinnings of the id, a primordial soup of caveman passions at whose mercy we ultimately exist. Even Spock.
Turnabout Intruder: I hated this one so much that I've only seen it once or twice, and not at all for many years. I remember the moral being that ambitious women are psychos, but you could argue for a more radical reading, that a woman can be driven mad by the chauvinism inherent in Star Fleet's hiring practices.(*) Also, ex-lovers are not always to be trusted.
(*) Back when I was working in record stores and was consistently "tested" by male coworkers concerning feminist ideology, one of them said that Nichelle Nichols had come out in an interview defending the sexy uniforms with, "Maybe in the future, women will be able to wear miniskirts if they want to without defending the choice," to which I (with some frustration) reply that the micro-mini was obviously mandatory, since women never wore anything else, and nobody had bad legs, which tells me that Star Fleet was hiring on a standard of calf-definition rather than ability where women were concerned.
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