My pacifist disposition seeks more exposure, encouraged by the holidays. Here's a go figure for ya: As far as I can tell the word "Peace" has yet to appear in the title of any Star Trek episode or film. ("A Piece of the Action" doesn't count!) Just to be complete, somebody please write me if any book or novel contains the word but until then consider that omission and other seasonal sentiments.

It took until a starship had babies-on-board before we got "Justice" (for TNG's early, controversial and semi-naked view of the topic). This series also aptly initializes the word "Family" to describe the healing of Picard's dysfunctional one. "Mercy" appears in TOS titles as do both "Truth" and "Beauty" but "Love" only manages an appearance in DS9, and even that in terms of Ferengi Songs. Draw your own conclusions regarding today's yuletide consumerclysm.

Trek is no Pollyanna, pretending peace as the current state of affairs or easy to either secure or maintain. But it used to underline everything both as raison d'etre and desirable goal - both ends and means, in and of itself. War has been found in Trek from the beginning, be they Private Little ones or Armageddons otherwise Tasted. Even so, force was used as a last resort. I've moaned before (and will likely continue to) about the course change of the franchise beating plowshares into swords. The creative juices influencing TOS included personal flavors of global war - a fact I sincerely doubt remains true. As death and destruction become depersonalized the realization fades that "actual war is a very messy business."

Peace must be a saddle point from which any discrepancy represents dissatisfaction. That used to also be true back (back?) in the days of TOS regarding those pacifists par excellence, the Vulcans. But something's most definitely happened since then - er, before then, depending on how one interprets the "Enterprise" portrayal. Trip says mankind eliminated war - along with a few other horsemen troubling us - but it's hard to judge his commitment given the Xindi conflict that either may or may not exist.

Anyway, back to the subject. Is this omission just a quirk, a harmless linguistic oversight? Does our entertainment - or at least how we name individual components - avoid things we treasure in favor of including things we fear? Peace may make for boring television but it does makes life worthwhile. There've got to be ways to demonstrate the power in peace. Trek of all sources shouldn't be afraid of showing that.