And even more homework for Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology

Think of a global issue that we are facing today that causes fear or concern. What would be the plot of a television show that depicted a utopian and optimistic vision of the future of that issue? 

Climate. No doubt. The consequences of globalisation, and the problems arising from that, populist political leaders in most of the world to begin with could be another. But the most pressing should probably be climate change.

And the plot. Well, it could simply be – Star Trek. We do see a lot of plots for episodes and movies in that universe that adresses that specific issue. “The one with the whales” (Star Trek IV – the voyage home) is the most obvious. But we see a lot of other episodes. Night in VOY, where Janeway confronts the Malons. The existential threat to Star Fleet and the Federation in “Force of Nature”. So I will abstain from trying to device my own show. And simply ṕoint to Star Trek.

Star Trek confronts the problems head-on. The problems are more or less simply solved. Or at the very least they try to solve them. I am not sure the problems in “Force of Nature” are actually solved. But the Federation, at least in that episode, and some of the following, actually tries to mitigate the effects of their environmentally damaging actions. We see similar issues in Discovery, where the use of the spore-drive, must be said to present som environmental problems. That might be the reason we do not see spore-drive in the existing series.