Adi Tantimedh on Star Trek as political allegory

Let's start with the original STAR TREK series, which unconsciously represented the Kennedy Cold War era, with its interesting and occasionally contradictory combination of Liberalism and Interventionism, along with the Klingons and Romulans obviously standing in for the Russians and Chinese (using all at the same time, with their vaguely oriental make-up).
The political landscape of NEXT GENERATION evolved during the three Presidential eras it ran under. It's initial first few years (which featured dreadful scripts), which ran under a Republican era, were waffly, wobbly, and in some cases oddly, but mildly, racist. When showrunner Michael Piller came onboard with the newer writers (all of them avowed Liberals and Democrats), the show took on a very group-therapy-let's-talk-things-through-before-a-misunderstanding-leads-to-war era that coincided with the Clinton era coming in (Piller also heralded in a period of better writing, which is when the show began to actually become good). The latter years of NEXT GEN began to get a bit darker, with the Federation showing fissures with the #### rebelling and breaking away, not to mention the need to bend the rules and even engage in covert operations to maintain the peace.

DEEP SPACE NINE can be read as an allegory for American International Diplomacy and Peacekeeping Abroad, since the Federation has always represented America, and here was the Federation trying to keep the peace in a deeply Balkanised regime (you yourself pointed the Bosnian War metaphor), and the main characters having to operate within grey areas and having to change and adapt their moral structures accordingly.

VOYAGER can be read as an allegory for the actual Clinton Administration itself: essentially well-meaning, somewhat arrogant, not always likeable people, not always getting along, having to put up with a lot of bastards snapping at their heels as they try their best to succeed in the task at hand, and having to repeat themselves over and over again because they were beginning to run out of fresh ideas.

ENTERPRISE, to me, reflects the current era very strongly. A dishonest aw-shucks vibe, the characters feeling their constantly under siege, but that it's never really their fault. No real ideas and a general alienating mediocrity.

What's fascinating is that all of this is strictly unconscious, but the shows managed to capture the mood of their times anyway. And let's face it, the presidential administration tends to be the figurehead of the country's mood.

There's more in link and it's all worth reading. Thoughts on this, anyone?