Controversial opinion: his eyebrows in "WNMHGB" are my favorite. More upswept and alien.
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x02 - "Ad Astra Per Aspera"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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Controversial opinion: his eyebrows in "WNMHGB" are my favorite. More upswept and alien.
Thinking person's Trek with metaphors for our own society is best Trek. I would have voted a solid ten but it seemed a bit derivative of some earlier episodes and Neera was perhaps too hostile to the court and witnesses in ways that would have ultimately hurt the case. Still a Noine.
Interestingly enough, I enjoyed Yetide Badaki's performance and thought she actually might have made a fina Uhura if Celia Rose Gooding hadn't gotten the part.
Interestingly enough, I enjoyed Yetide Badaki's performance and thought she actually might have made a fina Uhura if Celia Rose Gooding hadn't gotten the part.
If this show had been a few years after TOS, maybe. But she was a bit old for a cadet.
She looks quite young for her actual ago IMO.
My favorite SNW ep to date, and that is saying something.
As someone who has a disability, this episode was terrifying. I pass, thankfully. But I still fear for the day that abelism rises to it's peak and they will cut government befits for the disabled, which is slowly happening, they are already taking away the benefits from those who are long term unemployed which so far hasn't affected my blind niece.
This was, hands down, one of the best Star Trek episodes I've seen in a very long time. I gave it one of my vanishingly rare 10s.
That said, there are flaws in the premise. The "Denobulan card" was never played (I don't recall exactly where it was established that Denobulans practice genetic manipulation upon themselves, but I think it was mentioned in canon, maybe in connection with the emergence of the QuchHa' Klingons in ENT. Nor was the "Spock card" played: while neither Spock's World, nor The Vulcan Academy Murders, nor the "Interview with Sarek" track of the old Inside Star Trek album could even remotely be considered canon, it is only logical to assume that Spock could not have been conceived, much less born, without considerable genetic harmonizing.
That said, there are flaws in the premise. The "Denobulan card" was never played (I don't recall exactly where it was established that Denobulans practice genetic manipulation upon themselves, but I think it was mentioned in canon, maybe in connection with the emergence of the QuchHa' Klingons in ENT. Nor was the "Spock card" played: while neither Spock's World, nor The Vulcan Academy Murders, nor the "Interview with Sarek" track of the old Inside Star Trek album could even remotely be considered canon, it is only logical to assume that Spock could not have been conceived, much less born, without considerable genetic harmonizing.
Yes, as far as Denobulans go, in ENT "Borderland," Phlox told Arik Soong, "we've used genetic engineering on Denobula for over two centuries, to generally positive effect." And then in "Cold Station 12," Archer said, "Denobula perfected genetic engineering a long time ago, but you never came close to destroying yourselves." (both quotes from chakoteya.net).
And then in SNW's very next episode "Tomorrow...," we see that there is a Denobulan presence in the 23rd-century Federation Starfleet, at least with that one cadet at the beginning of the episode.
Kor
Thanks for confirming that I wasn't hallucinating.
But of course, if the characters had played the Denobulan card or the Spock card, it would have interfered with the writers' ability to say things that need to be said, now more than ever.
I'm reminded of All in the Family. Norman Lear based the series (as acknowledged in the credits of every episode) on the British Till Death Do Us Part, and Archie Bunker on Alf Garnett. His original conception for Archie was to be a direct "expy" of Alf Garnett, i.e., an incorrigible hate-driven racist, but Carroll O'Connor balked at that, feeling that a fool whose bigotry was rooted in ignorance, and who was capable of both love and learning, would be a much more interesting character. And he was right: All in the Family ran 203 episodes, followed by another 97 episodes of Archie Bunker's Place, and produced spinoffs that (in at least one case) spawned spinoffs of their own, whereas Till Death Do Us Part and its sequel series ran, in aggregate, less than half that.
Overall, I got a strong sense of the anti-augment bigotry being driven largely by ignorance, some of it willful.
But of course, if the characters had played the Denobulan card or the Spock card, it would have interfered with the writers' ability to say things that need to be said, now more than ever.
I'm reminded of All in the Family. Norman Lear based the series (as acknowledged in the credits of every episode) on the British Till Death Do Us Part, and Archie Bunker on Alf Garnett. His original conception for Archie was to be a direct "expy" of Alf Garnett, i.e., an incorrigible hate-driven racist, but Carroll O'Connor balked at that, feeling that a fool whose bigotry was rooted in ignorance, and who was capable of both love and learning, would be a much more interesting character. And he was right: All in the Family ran 203 episodes, followed by another 97 episodes of Archie Bunker's Place, and produced spinoffs that (in at least one case) spawned spinoffs of their own, whereas Till Death Do Us Part and its sequel series ran, in aggregate, less than half that.
Overall, I got a strong sense of the anti-augment bigotry being driven largely by ignorance, some of it willful.
That's more to do with "British Brevity" – UK TV series, especially sitcoms, usually have much shorter seasons than US TV series. Just six episodes a year is the norm. Alf Garnett appeared through multiple TV series between 1965 and 1998, and so was a cultural touchstone in the UK for 33 years. Archie Bunker may have more episodes but only appeared on screen between 1971 and 1983, a total span of 12 years.
Sanford and Son is another show with the same phenomenon – it managed 136 episodes over five years (1972-1977), whereas the British show that inspired it, Steptoe and Son, had only 57 episodes but ran for twelve years (1962-1974).
This doesn't just apply to sitcoms either. Look at the original British House of Cards for another example – 12 episodes in total over three 3 seasons, versus 73 episodes over 6 seasons for the US version. The US HoC's first season had more episodes than the UK version in total! Even big-budget, internationally successful drama series like Downton Abbey still show British Brevity... DA has only 52 episodes in total over six seasons, which still makes it remarkably prodigious by British standards.
With so many species from so many worlds in the Federation, probably with a wide variety of experience with genetic engineering, it's interesting that the Earth-centric view came to have such a strong hold on Starfleet policy. Maybe the other founding members of the Federation, such as Vulcan, Tellar, Andoria, etc., had similar negative experiences in their histories.
As far as Spock goes, I know the older tie-in materials went into genetic therapies or whatever that were needed for his conception as @hbquikcomjamesl mentioned. However I also remembered that in on-screen canon, that idea seemed to go by the wayside. In ENT "Terra Prime," Trip said regarding the Vulcan-Human baby Elizabeth, "It turns out there was a flaw in the technique that Paxton's doctors used in the cloning process. Human DNA and Vulcan DNA, Phlox says there's no medical reason why they can't combine. So if a Vulcan and a human ever decided to have a child, it'd probably be okay. And that's sort of comforting." (source: chakoteya.net)
Kor
As far as Spock goes, I know the older tie-in materials went into genetic therapies or whatever that were needed for his conception as @hbquikcomjamesl mentioned. However I also remembered that in on-screen canon, that idea seemed to go by the wayside. In ENT "Terra Prime," Trip said regarding the Vulcan-Human baby Elizabeth, "It turns out there was a flaw in the technique that Paxton's doctors used in the cloning process. Human DNA and Vulcan DNA, Phlox says there's no medical reason why they can't combine. So if a Vulcan and a human ever decided to have a child, it'd probably be okay. And that's sort of comforting." (source: chakoteya.net)
Kor
I rewatched the episode this morning. Still works wonderfully, and is neck & neck with "Those Old Scientists" as my favorite episode of the season.
Skipping over trivia does not equal a flawed premise.
The Federation as a utopia is a flawed premise.
The Federation was also never a utopia. I don't think any series called it a utopia, in TOS Kirk even said they're not a utopia.
Also not all forms of genetic engineering are banned in the Federation, at least by the 24th Century, Even DS9 says this. Some corrective medical procedures have been said to be allowed.
Also not all forms of genetic engineering are banned in the Federation, at least by the 24th Century, Even DS9 says this. Some corrective medical procedures have been said to be allowed.
Sisko called Earth in the 2370s "paradise" but for a paradise there are still a lot of archaic and counterproductive attitudes held by humans and crimes still happen, so even in the romanticized galaxy of the TNG/DS9/VOY Era it clearly isn't a utopia nor even a paradise. Raffi's chemical dependency and suffering even in the year 2399 belie the notion that the planet Earth of the Trek franchise is some ideal world where all important problems were licked over the previous three centuries.
People still having freedom of choice is indicative of planet wide problems? 
NOOO....but it just goes to show that Earth isn't some utopia and never has been in Trek. Raffi isn't the only "modern day" problem the Trek of the 22nd through 24th centuries has displayed.
No, the Federation has never been Utopia. Just better than current times in most ways.