Explore, Don't Preach
Lots of stories have a message. Some do a great job of communicating that message in an engaging, seamless manner.
And others … do not. But let’s hold off on those examples for another day. I’d rather start with how to do it right.
The execution is a large part of it, of course. But the approach also sets the message up for success or failure. Are the writers exploring a theme, or are they trying to teach us a lesson that they’re already certain about? Are they examining how a good person might err, or are they merely pointing the finger at wrongdoers?
Exploration is great, and it requires humility. If you’re exploring, you’re acknowledging that you don’t know everything. When writers explore, they’re trying to learn, too, and the readers and viewers can come along for the ride and maybe discover something new as well.
But if the writers are just trying to tell us something they feel we need to hear, that tends to be very off-putting. We might nod along and think, “Yes, other people need to hear this message!” But those other people probably aren’t listening, and no one’s learning anything. More likely, people are rolling their eyes, sometimes even if they agree with the message.
Instead of asserting, “They are wrong! They need to do better!,” stories should inquire, “How might I be wrong? How might I make that mistake? Is there some way I can improve?”
Star Trek: The Next Generation was often great at exploring themes. The exploration might end with Picard giving a speech that ties everything together, but the episode builds up to it. A good Star Trek episode shows its work before asserting its conclusion.
A great example of an episode that effectively shares a message is the Next Generation episode “The Drumhead” from season four. It aired in 1991, but nevertheless, in case you still haven’t gotten around to it, spoilers are ahead.
The basic premise is that an act of possible sabotage leads to suspicions of treason, and a retired admiral comes aboard the Enterprise to investigate the matter. As the episode progresses, we see how she’s more interested in casting blame than determining the truth.
The episode clearly intends to show us that McCarthyism and similar paranoia are bad, and the writers no doubt went in already knowing these things were wrong. But they explore why they’re wrong, and they show us how we might find ourselves in a situation where we allow valid concerns to lead to an excessive response.
While there’s a lot that comes together to make this episode work, one very important element is how the script uses Worf.
Worf falls for space McCarthyism, and it makes total sense that he does. One of our main characters gives in to this terrible behavior, and he finds his way back by the end, sadder but wiser.
Picard, as usual, serves as the voice of reason, but even he’s not depicted as perfectly correct from the get-go, as he realizes that, oh, perhaps he has used Troi’s empathic abilities in slightly unethical ways before and perhaps he should rethink his policies regarding their usage.
At the conclusion of the episode, Picard tells Worf about the importance of vigilance and how it’s the price we must continually pay.
It would be easy to misunderstand that as just watching out for other people who are up to no good, which is part of it, but to stop there would be to miss the point and might only perpetuate the cycle of paranoia and suspicion.
Even more important is our internal vigilance—catching ourselves when we start to go too far as we’re embarking on some otherwise noble cause … noticing when our fears cause us to start seeing our friends and neighbors as some sort of enemy …
… and also, perhaps, stopping when we find ourselves inserting an on-the-nose lecture into our script or manuscript.
So, that’s how you do it. “The Drumhead” shows us how to explore an idea in an enlightening manner without feeling like it’s just preaching at us.
It’s the “show, don’t tell” equivalent for sharing a message through storytelling. Explore, don’t preach.
In case you missed it …
I’ve been dusting off some old posts as I build up this new Substack. Here are the two latest:
Thanks for reading!