'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' Showrunner Explains Promotion Of Polygamy

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy showrunner Noga Landau recently explained why she decided to not only include, but show polygamy in a positive light in the show.

In the show’s fourth episode, it is revealed that the Klingon Jay-Den is part of a polygamous “family.” He has two fathers, Drekol and Enok, and his mother L’Vanna.

Speaking to Polygon, Landau explained why she did this, “There are a lot of folks alive in the world right now, and there always have been, who have three parents.”

“We put our heads together when we were [writing] the episode, and we said, ‘There are going to be people in our audience who’ve never seen their kind of family before on screen, so why don’t we do that?’ Klingons are fun. They seem like the sort of people who wouldn’t hold back from having a three-parent household,” she added.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is very clear on polygamy. It states, “‘The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to man and wife in mutual and unreserved affection.’ Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive.”

It also states, “Polygamy is not in accord with the moral law. [Conjugal] communion is radically contradicted by polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the plan of God which was revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal personal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is total and therefore unique and exclusive." The Christian who has previously lived in polygamy has a grave duty in justice to honor the obligations contracted in regard to his former wives and his children.”

Finally, it declares, “Adultery, divorce, polygamy, and free union are grave offenses against the dignity of marriage.”

Additionally, in the doctrinal note Una Caro, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith notes that St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelic Doctor) sees it as a slavery, “There is thus no room for any form of polyandry or polygamy, which, among other things, the Angelic Doctor defines as a form of slavery: “It would seem also contrary to equity for the aforesaid fellowship to be dissolved. […] Hence, if a man, after taking a wife in her youth while she is yet fair and fruitful, can put her away when she has aged, he does her an injury, contrary to natural equity. […] Consequently, if the husband could leave his wife, there would not be just fellowship between husband and wife, but a kind of slavery on the part of the latter.”

It adds, “Moreover, equity in love creates a substantial parity between the spouses—that is, a fundamental equality between man and woman: ‘Besides, equality is a condition of friendship. Hence, if a woman may not have several husbands (because this removes the certainty of offspring), if it were lawful for a man to have several wives, the friendship of a wife for her husband would not be freely bestowed but servile, as it were. And this argument is confirmed by experience, since where men have several wives, the wives are treated as servants. Further, in perfect friendship, it is impossible to be friends with many, according to the Philosopher [i.e., Aristotle]. Hence, if the wife has but one husband, while the husband has several wives, the friendship will not be equal on either side.’”

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