Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x04 - "Face the Strange"

I mean, I don't know how you define "real growth." Here is a man going through, well, the unknowable, and we expect it to look real?

I feel like he is trying to make up for lost time that he felt was missed due to the way his work went. We see that emphasis on relationship become more pressing, which, again, makes perfect sense.

 

If he is trying to make up for lost time, I'd like it if they would indicate that in some way. Until you brought it up, that never even occurred to me. I'm not saying I wanted a monologue about how much he regrets never having kids or something, but we had no indication of any desire for more family outside of Culber until he latched onto Adira.

Having him refer to his past self as "pre-tardigrade" was a bit grating too.

 

I mean, to me it's telling in his language and body language. His shift from work focus to relationship focus. It's classic in the psychological presentation, at least to me. Mileage will vary.

Similarly, I find "Family Man" movie moving because of that shift in perspective for Cage's character. He doesn't want it; until he does.

 

Ah. I too am a big fan of Family Man.

 

Adira and Gray: Adira, yes absolutely, decent actor, lots of potential unexplored in their "teen crush" on Detmer, and leaving and being away from Earth at a young age. A bit odd coming up with the "Symbiont in a human" angle but the alternative would have been either an initiate (done before), and emergency Trill non-initiate host (done before) OR an emergency Trill rejected unsuitable initiate host (could have been interesting and explored a lot of the same angles. However, the "hitching up with your symbion't previous host who was also your boyfriend"'s soul and is now in a synth body thing. No.

Also Ian Alexander irritiates the hell out of me, his over-smiling face, his ACAB Twitter handle, and his restricted ability to act.

 

Yeah that's a radical interpretation of the text. It was in the news because it was a big deal. The negative reaction from a lot of the fanbase to queer characters being introduced, shows why it was vital to put the charcters front and centre. Gray was around for 2 seasons and had a large role in the fourth season when it came to Zora obtaining sentience, but ultimately Ian Alexander was a guest and sending Gray to trill to be a guardian was set up from the beginning.

Also what's not interesting about Adira joining Starfleet? They've been front and centre this season sciencing the science and helping the crew on multiple occasions get out of crises. They're going in confidence and being more assertive. I find Adira way more interesting to watch than Harry Kim. I tell you that. Angel was a fun character and Jesse James Keitel and Ethan Peck had phenomenal chemistry. I think we can celebrate both characters for their differences without using one to tear down the other.

 

You might call me biased becaue I'm trans myself, but the way I see it, instead of a huge dramatic scene with Adira's feelings being hurt and them giving an impassioned lecture to an embarrassed Stamets about how respecting the identities of others is important, it was treated as a matter of a simple misunderstanding, rectified as quickly and matter-of-factly as possible. My reading is that it was treated as much as a non-issue as it could've been. Adira being a teenager, it is perfectly in character for them to take a while to figure out their identity and on what terms they want to go public about it, if they want to.

And if we want to compare Adira specifying their preferred pronouns to Uhura feeling the need to disclose she's black, we need to keep the term visible minority in mind. Adira's gender is not visibly apparent to the uninitiated unless they directly disclose it themselves, which makes it a very different case from Uhura and the color of her skin or a Muslim Starfleet officer wearing a hijab as part of her normal uniform.

It would require some connecting the dots, but I find it very telling that Adira came clean about their gender identity after unlocking the memories of the Tal symbiont. I'm not arguing that being joined made them nonbinary, rather that they obviously had so much going on that was repressed, that I find nothing surprising in them only coming out as nonbinary after the dust had (largely) settled, Gray stowing away in their mind aside.

Jesse Keitel is a fringe case as she still identified as non-binary transfem when she was cast for the role (and possibly during filming as well), only coming out as a trans woman during SNW Season 1 being aired. But transgender is an umbrella term with gender being a spectrum, so a nonbinary actor playing a binary trans person or vice versa is still okay as both fall within the trans umbrella (case in point, Ian Alexander is nonbinary but plays a binary trans man). The point it becomes controversial is when a cisgender actor plays a transgender role, especially in an economy where trans actors are already struggling to find roles.

 

I feel the need to point out we don't actually know what Captain Angel would describe themselves as in 21st century terms, or how much the character and actor have in common. All we know is that they use they pronouns.

 

I'm pretty sure the crew was incredulous at the idea of Airiam "giving up" instead of "being strong" and finding another way to save herself. They were upset to learn she would die and thought Airiam would have fought the infection. And they thought that they would not have let Airiam sacrifice herself.

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Separate from that, I just want to say that Adira and Gray are deeply meaningful to me. Just a reminder that not everything is for everyone. Sometimes parts of the story speak to other people's experiences and sensibilities. I'm seeing a lot of dogwhistles being thrown around here and it's a little disturbing.

 

I've been meaning to ask... who else thought that this ep. was "All Good Things..." with more punching?

Not that there's anything wrong with that....

 

I'm curious what you're identifying as a dog whistle.

 

Well this was probably my favorite episode of Discovery ever. I will read the thread tomorrow and comment randomly lol.

 

I like that people have been saying this about multiple episodes this season. Good sign that

 

Yup, us TOSers love Riley, DeSalle, Kyle and Leslie. Riley* should have been a regular from the jump.

*edit i was typing too fast and typed the wrong name here.

 

And Stiles.

And Giotto.

 

from how early Balance of Terror is, it would have been quite reasonable to expect Stiles to be a regular at the post. The conflict might have carried more weight if it was between regulars in an ensemble cast.

 

Not how TOS rolled.

 

Damn, I always forget about Giotto until I see him. Veteran officer, head of security. Should have been seen a LOT more.

 

Oh, we know and understand it completely. Doesn't mean we don't love our characters.