I've often wondered how with the advanced medical science of the Federation how they can, for instance, revive practically dead people, but not create a communication device for Pike (or any of a number of people in the background of Lower Decks) more advanced than a blinking light....
Many times Star Trek has taken us to the future only to reset the status quo at the end of the story arc. Tapestry (but in reverse?), that time Voyager crashed in the ice, and all that....
While some may argue in transparently bad faith that it isn't so, it's obvious to even a casual observer that Star Trek's setting depicts in the Federation a vision of society in which the goals of both the social and economic left wing have largely won out and largely been attained. The people of the Federation have relatively...