ABSTRACT
Earth is more than just a pretty picture. The Earthrise photographs provided an iconic image for the education of ‘primitive’ people in Star Trek: primitive being defined, as far as the Prime Directive is concerned, as people constrained by the inability to travel faster than the speed of light. But the representation of earth itself (as distinct from any other planet) is a point of more contention. The planet earth in Star Trek has symbolised not merely human beings, but humanity in a generic sense: it signifies the Star Trek values of rationalism, compassion, and so on, which can be exhibited by any species. ‘Course: Oblivion’ shows us a crew that we know are not human, but who have decidedly humanist, humane, humanitarian values. At one point their captain refuses to follow an immoral course of action for the sake of her crew on the grounds that ‘we’re Starfleet officers – we can’t forget that’ (despite the fact that none of them are really members of Starfleet at all). ‘Our humanity is intact,’ she tells them, and it is this that drives her to return to earth, instead of following a biological attachment to their more ‘real’ demon-class home.
