May 14, 2020
Voyager’s “Critical Care” and the current global pandemic.
A healthcare system struggling with inadequate resources. Patients
dying, untreated, as politicians and administrators grapple with a
humanitarian crisis. In some ways, the Star Trek: Voyager episode
“Critical Care” seems eerily prescient. Originally intended as
classic Trek-style social commentary on the health maintenance
organizations that exercise a vise-like grip on the US healthcare
system, this dystopian parable has been interpreted as a swipe at
numerous other medical models around the globe, including the
“socialized” healthcare provided in the UK and continental
Europe.
In this episode of Primitive Culture, recorded during the height of the coronavirus lockdown, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Clara Cook to look at some of the parallels between this 20-year-old Voyager episode and the current global pandemic. We focus in particular on its critique of the US healthcare model and consider how our own health service in the UK—the NHS—is coping during the most challenging time in its history.
Chapters
Intro (00:00:00)
The NHS (00:07:09)
Getting Critical (00:09:15)
Sicko (00:34:45)
Intensive Care (01:03:03)
Classic Trek-Style Social Commentary (01:29:00)
Final Thoughts (01:35:44)
Host
Duncan Barrett
Guest
Clara Cook
Production
Duncan Barrett (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive
Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive
Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate
Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate
Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)