No, Not That Secular Scot!
When it first aired in the 1990s, I watched the Next Generation infrequently. Robert Bork had recently been denied a chair on the U.S. Supreme Court and I recall being amused by a large Rubik's Cube flying through space decimating human diversity: Borg = Bork? It is a puzzle I never attempted to solve. I was content to admire the fact that the franchise had at last found a Captain who could act; it was never necessary that I attach myself to this new, heretical generation.
The root of the word heresy means to choose and the nefarious forces (not, note bene, Force) behind STNG chose to further stretch Gene Roddenberry's gauzy Unitarianism into utter materialism. In the Next Generation one finds all problems solvable by human techne and the power of positive thinking. The universe is filled with interesting and complex puzzles but devoid of substantive meaning.
"Sub Rosa" (S7E14) ambitiously seeks to destroy two mysteries in one squeamish episode: God and ghosts. I can imagine no drearier world than Scotland writ large (unless it were New York Planet), but STNG has a writer for that. Thus we move from the cold of the Scottish Highlands to a place with just a wee more warmth: a burial plot.
The Best Plot in the Episode
We are on this grim planet because Dr. Crusher's grandmother has died and since the Borg threat is in abeyance. the Enterprise can make a visit. At graveside these words are intoned:
And so now we commit her body to the ground: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. In sure and certain hope that her memory will be kept alive within us all.Whether or not there was a hue and cry by Anglicans worldwide for this act of liturgical theft and redaction, I know not. Given the general trend toward theological drivel in the West, it may well have been viewed as "prophetic"! In any case, what is clear is that the "faith" expressed in those words are light years away from these from the Book of Common Prayer:
In sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend our sister N. and commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless her and keep her, the Lord lift up his countenance upon her and give her peace. Amen.One is reminded here of Nietzsche: God is dead, and we have killed Him. Or perhaps in the futuristic vision, God died through our smugness.
Seriously?
It gets worse. It was not enough to snuff out God but ghosts too must be annihilated. It turns out that Granny had a thousands of year young lover named Ronin. After she passes on into our memories, up pops an apparently supers-sexy spirit who plays doctor with the doctor. Well, rubes like us would conjecture, "Ghost!" but it turns out Ronin is a run of the mill rare life form. I think Beverly whacks him with a phaser but somehow he's disposed of.
This episode is terrible on many levels but it accurately portrays the series' metaphysical anemia: strange new worlds that dazzle the eyes but chill the soul; a universe that is a kind of Mega-Las Vegas - bright shiny objects, emptied of significance.
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