In the mission "Midnight", as the combined fleet is about to charge the Iconians, there's a reference to
The Charge of the Light Brigade (poem):
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
    Rode the six hundred.
The poem itself is a reference to the
Charge of the Light Brigade:
The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, in the Crimean War.
[. . .]
Although the Light Brigade reached the battery under withering direct fire and scattered some of the gunners, the badly mauled brigade was forced to retreat immediately. Thus, the assault ended with very high British casualties and no decisive gains.
The poem is specifically about the British forces who lost the
Battle of Balaclava.
Why did the story writer decide to reference it in this mission?
Additionally,
Star Trek made a reference to the
Light Brigade before. In
DS9: "Sacrifice of Angels", as the Federation charges Cardassian ships in the Dominion fleet, there is this reference:
O'BRIEN: Cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them, volley'd and thunder'd.
BASHIR: Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well into the jaws of death. Into the mouth of hell rode the six hundred.
Someone might speculate that it's used as a metaphor to describe the feeling of hopelessness in a battle. It's just odd that they would pick something so specific to the British forces. It's not like
Star Trek is about Anglo-Saxon propaganda, right?
Memory Alpha: Starfleet
Meyer also wrote about these ideological differences in his autobiographical book The View from the Bridge - Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood. Therein, he recalled, "[Roddenberry] was emphatic that Starfleet was not a military organization but something akin to the Coast Guard. This struck me as manifestly absurd, for what were Kirk's adventures but a species of gunboat diplomacy wherein the Federation (read America, read the Anglo-Saxons) was always right and aliens were – in Kipling's queasy phrase – 'lesser breeds'? Yes, there was lip service to minority participation, but it was clear who was driving the boat."
Just saying.
Comments
Incidentally if memory serves me correctly the charge was a mistake and they were supposed to be chasing down routed enemy guns but a TRIBBLE up in the chain of command sent them into a charge they know they couldn't win.
Midnight also added more ammunition to showcase how much of a ***** leader Captain Kagran was.
And you can only fight with the troops you have, not the one you'd wish to have. There was no solar detonation device lying around conveniently, for example.
Notable perhaps: The Tholians had such a device to use against the Lukari homestar, and one might wonder if they developed it originally for use in the Iconian War. Unfortunately, the device was pretty slow-acting - slow enough that the sun's abberant behavior was detected and investigated. Long enough even that the LUkari themselves managed to come up with a probe they hoped could reignite their sun. It didn't work, but consider how much time they would need to analyze the phenomen and figure out a potential counter. Probably not so useful in the Herald Sphere, with a species that has been deemed responsible for their own solar detonation technology... And a technology to transport entire star systems...
no; it was designed SPECIFICALLY for use on the lukari star to lure kal dano and the tox uthat to a point in time where they could capture it
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
It's a suitable reference, yes it may be a hopeless situation but a soldier must do as he is ordered too.
There is recent evidence that suggests the charge may not have been such a big disaster in the way the russian guns were sited, they could not all fire at the moving targets at the same time.
Take reload time into account, (they're muzzle loaders) and most of your British losses were not from the artillery, but the muskets and sabres of the Russian infantry and cav.
OP, military history is a hobby of mine. Even though I'm British, I study military engagements neutrally to get both sides of the story. Trek chose that particular line because it's a potentially hopeless situation on both instances
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Tholians didn't Tox Uthat Lukari. Tholians did something else to Lukari so that Kal would come back and present the Uthat for swiping so they could go shut off Na'Kuhl.
Why the Alliance didn't just sneak a "backstabbing" Romulan in, cloak and all, to "turn back on" Na'Kuhl is beyond me, but that's a thought for another post...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
The Tholians aren't explaining themselves, after all.
Read your OP multiple times. Exactly what is it that you're "just saying?" That the Star Trek franchise shouldn't use anything that has any connection to Anglo Saxon history? That Roddenberry's premise about Starfleet being akin to the Coast Guard was inaccurate?
Here's what I got out of the OP: A poem based on a failed military endeavor was referred to in an STO mission and a ST:DS9 episode and shouldn't have been because it casts a light that Starfleet has Anglo Saxon leanings which are inherently racist.
Am I reading into this correctly?
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
The dev's use of "Charge of the Light Brigade" is not Anglo-Saxon propaganda and is simply use of an example that most societies understand, be they Anglo-Saxon or not. It is a perfect example of how the Tamarian language worked.
Temba, his arms wide.
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
That would have been epic in something like the the Defiant or the Intrepid.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
The Orient Express in Cleveland.
Both Bashir and O'Brien are British of some description and both are big on military history. They're also not American and 50% of them are not white.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
The light Brigade was a British brigade. It was there because British involvement in the Crimean war. It was a British military action. Foolish but at the same time heroic and mostly because it is immortalized by a poem of Tennyson. A British poet. Yeah British, because it is not likely a Chinese artist is going memorize something like that in a poem. Most likely he takes something from his own history, because, most likely, he is more attached to it. It is called cultural heritage.
Anyway, we have a lot of Anglo Saxon stuff going on. And what about it? I think just as Tennyson got inspiration from what we can call his cultural and historical heritage. So have the authors of Star Trek and the developpers of STO. They have the same native language, English.
Some further thoughts. Can someone give an example of a heroic military action also immortalized in a work of art. A replacement of the Charge of the Light Brigade and belonging to another cultural heritage?
Many times characters in Star Trek refer to literature or history, but is always from our own time. I mean there is some time between 2000 and 2410. Does anything happen in those centuries, something that belongs to the cultural heritage of the people living in the 25d century?
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'