In the recent “Reflections” episode of the Star Trek: Lower Decks cartoon, Starfleet officers Ensign Beckett Mariner (voiced by Tawny Newsome) and Ensign Bradward Boimler (voiced by Jack Quaid), from the Federation starship Cerritos and under orders from Cerritos first officer Commander Jack Ransom (voiced by Jerry O’Connell), are manning a Starfleet recruitment booth at a job fair outside an embassy of the United Federation of Planets on Tulgana IV. While manning the booth, Boimler and Mariner have to deal with mockery and conspiracy theories about Starfleet from other job fair participants (including from conspiracy theorists who remind me of QAnon, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, all of which would be a disgrace to the United Federation of Planets, to Starfleet, and to the crew of any Federation starship named “Enterprise” with an NCC-1701 registry), ultimately triggering a public conniption by Boimler in defense of Starfleet, a conniption that reminds me so much of the conniption I nearly had over Josh Hawley’s attempt to use me as an excuse for his role in inciting the insurrection at the Capitol that it isn’t funny. For me, Boimler’s conniption was a heartbreaking moment in Star Trek.
But the real subject of this diary is that conspiracy theorists exist in Star Trek, and they’re just as annoying there as real life versions. A conspiracy theory believed by a Cerritos crew member is that the Battle of Wolf 359 (see “Best of Both Worlds” two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation) was an inside job, a conspiracy theory that seems to reference the “inside job” conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks. And in the “Voyager Conspiracy” episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) basically goes full Tucker Carlson (aforementioned real life version of whom would be a disgrace to the United Federation of Planets) about how the show’s eponymous starship wound up in the Delta Quadrant.