The Obsolete Man

I've always been moderately entertained by this episode, because I think the overall message is good: the individual has worth, has rights that ought to be respected, and that we have a better society when those rights are respected; and it also has the message that an oppressive state that would crush the individual is evil.

Apart from that, I have never been overly impressed with the episode. The brutal, totalitarian state is far too accommodating of Wordsworth the dissident. It generously allows him his choice of how he is to die, thus permitting him to expertly orchestrate the humiliation of the nation's totalitarian dictator. Real dictatorships don't work that way. They don't smugly accommodate dissidents' final wishes; they crush them ruthlessly. They don't offer a choice as to the method of execution; they just take you out behind the courtroom and put a bullet in your head. The dictator doesn't pay you the respect of a personal visit; one of his extremely junior flunkies signs your death warrant, and you are carted off to your doom. The victim has no power. The lone individual is doomed, and without hope.

I like the message, but I can't suspend disbelief and buy into the story.