“Grab a phaser, Ambassador:" diplomacy in Star Trek

The perfect Star Trek script begins with a great science fiction concept that allows you to tell an exciting adventure, while at the same time serving as a metaphor for contemporary humanity. In the fourth Star Trek show, the starship Voyager finds itself stranded in an uncharted quadrant of the galaxy. The pilot details how they make new friends and new enemies immediately upon arrival. In a later episode, Captain Kathryn Janeway has an intimate conversation with one of these new friends, the Talaxian Neelix. The conversation ends with her making him the ship’s ambassador to the worlds that they are about to meet on their journey home to Earth. Immediately afterwards, they are hit by gunfire, and Janeway instructs Neelix with the curt command: ‘Grab a phaser, ambassador’. There is a time for diplomacy, and a time for war.