AOC Wants to Debate Star Trek Fans About Tuvix

New York congressional representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who just successfully defended her seat in the 2020 U.S. election, is preparing for the debate of her lifetime: with Star Trek fans, about “Tuvix,” a 1996 episode of Star Trek: Voyager with a long and complicated history that has made it as interesting a story behind the camera as it was onscreen. And, as the supporter who suggested the topic pointed out, “Tuvix” raises a question relevant to politicians: do the ends justify the means? Certainly it’s something that politicians in both the real world and on Trek have to wrestle with from time to time.

The topic came up when one of her supporters asked if she was going to be on Twitch again soon. Maybe predictably, Ocasio-Cortez said that she was tired, but that she would try to make it happen soon. Then she asked for potential discussion topics.

Author Manu Saadia, who goes by the name Trekonomics, suggested “Tuvix,” and Ocasio-Cortez latched onto the idea pretty quickly.

“This one is deep,” she tweeted. “Would definitely have to rewatch it but this is solid.”

Shortly thereafter, actor and writer Brian Michael Scully invited AOC to join in a writers’ discussion group that already had the episode on its agenda, and various geeky Hollywood types chimed in with comments about the episode itself.

In “Tuvix,” the characters of Tuvok and Neelix are merged into a third character, named Tuvix. This baffles the crew, but for the time being, Tuvix is accepted into the crew. After a couple of weeks operating together, the ship’s doctor figures out a way to separate the DNA of the two merged crew members, but runs into an ethical dilemma: in doing so, he would kill Tuvix, who is a distinct entity who doesn’t want to die. In accordance with his oath to do no harm, the doctor refuses, but the ship’s captain goes ahead and makes the call to restore the original crew members.

In late October, Ocasio-Cortez took a break from conventional campaigning to reach out to supporters online by heading to Twitch and playing Among Us with a number of popular gaming personalities including Pokimane, Hasanabi, and more. it was her crash course in the game, which was released in 2018 but has become a much more popular game on Twitch than it had been until recently.

Keep your eye on ComicBook.com and we’ll let you know when and if AOC decides to go forward with her Star Trek plans.