NewsT. Rick JonesStar Trek: Voyager

Star Trek gets political as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Kate Mulgrew talk “Tuvix” on Twitter

NewsT. Rick JonesStar Trek: Voyager
Star Trek gets political as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Kate Mulgrew talk “Tuvix” on Twitter
(L-R) "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @ SXSW 2019" by nrkbeta is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager “Tuvix”

(L-R) "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @ SXSW 2019" by nrkbeta is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager “Tuvix”

NOVEMBER 6, 2020 - Star Trek just got political. Just kidding, it’s always been political! Don’t @ me.

Late on Wednesday night, the evergreen question of whether Janeway was justified in her actions in the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Tuvix” spilled out of Star Trek Twitter and into Political Twitter.

It all started when tech entrepreneur Rick Klau tweeted: “Can we get @AOC on Twitch again? Please?” He was referencing an Among Us stream that Congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had participated in in October, as part of the Democratic Party’s Get Out the Vote campaign. That stream peaked out at around 435,000 viewers, making it one of the top 5 most-viewed individual streams in Twitch’s history.

But back to Klau’s tweet. Ocasio-Cortez herself quote-tweeted the request, saying, “I’ll do it again soon, but I need a nap. Maybe this week or next”, and then replied to herself asking her followers for suggestions on what her next stream should be.

Enter Manu Saadia, noted Frenchman and hater of melted cheese, and author of the book Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek. Saadia is outspoken about his view that Janeway, in fact, murdered Tuvix in the eponymous Voyager episode, and took the opportunity to suggest it as a topic for Ocasio-Cortez’s next stream. He replied to her tweet, saying, “We need to talk about justice for Tuvix, I understand it's a very niche issue but it matters in so far as it raises the delicate and dare I say, eminently *political* question of whether ends justify means.”

And it only gets better from there. Ocasio-Cortez called the idea “solid”, and even Kate Mulgrew joined in on the discussion. She defended Janeway’s decision, saying, “Willing to hear the crew’s thoughts, as always. However, shouldn’t Tuvok and Neelix should have the biggest say...oh wait, they couldn’t! I stand by my decision to restore them to their lives. Rewatch and report back, AOC - and congrats on your win!” (Mulgrew, of course, was referring to Ocasio-Cortez’s recent reelection to her post in New York’s 14th Congressional District.)

While Ocasio-Cortez has not as yet confirmed whether the discussion could be in the running for her next Twitch stream, she did commend Janeway’s leadership. Without, of course, committing to which side of the argument she falls on. She said, “One thing I learned watching Janeway growing up is how leadership means being responsible for working through dilemmas w/ no clear answers. All the easy decisions are made before it gets to the top. Janeway leads w/ focus on her mission - to get her crew home. Thank you Kate!”

If you’d like to keep up with Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch streams, you can find her at twitch.tv/aoc. And if somehow you’ve not seen “Tuvix” yet, you can catch up on that with Star Trek: Voyager, now streaming on CBS All Access.