Just to carry on the Star Trek theme from earlier, if anyone is interested in just how articulate, engaged and involved fan reaction to Star Trek is becoming, I certainly think this is worth a watch. I’ve been watching Steve Shives’ videos for a while now. In this one, he begins to explore one of Trek’s central precepts that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. As Shives points out, it is a recurring theme throughout Star Trek, and it can get very philosophical about it: is it wiser to save one person if it endangers many more, or vice versa? Is one life worth saving over others, and what factors might influence such a decision. I think the way Shives explores this topic is commendable as well as creative, touching on ideas such as ‘the trolley problem’: say an unstoppable railway carriage is heading down a track. Ahead of it there is a fork. On one branch of the track, towards which the carriage is heading, lies one person; but on the other branch lies five. You control the lever which controls the fork, so where should you direct the carriage? It’s the sort of dilemma which involved fictions often confront an audience with, so to see it being engaged with in this way, to the depth which Shives does, really is interesting.