# Yet Another Idle Wish for a Future Star Trek Series Originally published: 2014-11-17 Canonical URL: /2014/Nov/yet-another-idle-wish-for-a-future-star-trek-series/ ([Previously](http://zackmdavis.net/blog/2013/11/another-idle-wish-for-a-future-star-trek-series/), [previously](http://zackmdavis.net/blog/2012/11/an-idle-wish-for-a-future-star-trek-series/) on _An Algorithmic Lucidity_.) "So, I'm not convinced that deassimilating Seven of Nine was the ethically correct choice." "Oh?" "I'm watching '[The Gift](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Gift_%28episode%29)', and Seven clearly says, quote, 'You have imprisoned us in the name of humanity, yet you will not grant us your most cherished human right, to choose our own fate. You are hypocritical, manipulative. We do not want to be what you are!' End quote. As far as I can tell, Seven is just correct here; Janeway's pretense of acting in Seven's best interests because Seven _used_ to be human twenty years ago, just isn't plausible." "Since when are you a big defender of humanoid rights to self-determination? Didn't you root for the bad guys in _Insurrection_?" "That was a completely different situation! Anyway, on futher thought, maybe my lament isn't so much about Janeway making the _wrong_ decision, so much as I wish that she—or some analogue of her in an episode of some future _Trek_ series, since wishing that Joe Menosky had made a different artistic decision in 1997 would be, uh, there's a specific word I want here ..." "Futile?" "—could just be _honest_ about what she was doing. You could just _say_, 'Yes, I'm depriving current-you of autonomy and the entire purpose of your existence, but I don't care about that, and after a few more months of captivity, Stockholm syndrome will set in and future-corrupted-you will grow to like it,' instead of appealing to some bizarre teleology of humanness."