Star Trek: Discovery 3.03
Oct. 30th, 2020 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakYes, this is really the Star Trek for our age. Show, I'm mentally hugging you to bits.
Seriously, though. Remember that post of mine a few years back about how Star Trek somewhere between the end of DS9 and the later Voyager years took a decided turn for the nostalgic and never quite stopped? (Which didn't mean I didn't love some of the later incarnations, but they did trade on ST nostalgia rather than daring to tackle the future? Well, so far this season of Disco made good on all I hoped for re: its 900 years into the future premise. Because it uses its setting to squarely address problems of the present. That was another thing of ST I at times was annoyed about: with the rare exceptions of episodes like DS9's Past Tense, which used its time travel concept to address current day problems, and okay, also Star Trek: The Voyage Home with its whale saving mission, usually time travel brought with it a certain amount of shoulder padding, telling the audience how far it has come in comparison to whichever backward era was shown. Part of it came with the ST premise of a better future, granted. But still, ST at its best did address the present in not-shoulderpadding ways.
And now: I had an inkling that Earth was no longer part of the Federation because of how the season opener drew parallels to the present. Because the vilification of international organizations, be they the UN or the EU - not the critcicism, which any organisation needs, but the bashing, the demonization, and conversely the return and glorification of nationalism - is one of the abiding vices of our time. Between Brexit and America First, it therefore makes sense for a Star Trek that isn't about nostalgia to address this. Earth, one of the founding members of the Federation, breaking apart from the Federation is as good a mirror as any to the shock when the US not just withdraws from international treaties but outright vilifies them, and Britain continues on its suicidal Brexit run. This being Star Trek and at its core optimistic, the episode loses no time to showcase the value of negotiations, of international, err, interplanetary connections and mediations and lets our heroes make an excellent start on their quest to be the change they need, and be those mediators direly needed.
(BTW, this is also a good showcase by ST works on tv in a way that's just not transferable to the movie format. The movies, with the rare exception like Voyage Home, always need a villain for our heroes to fight. Making a point of avoiding a fight and bringing both parties to the negotiating table is something far easier to sell on tv.
The other reason why I'm glad about this latest twist is that while in theory the Federation is a multiracial community of planets, its headquarters always were on Earth, the majority of the Starfleet crews were human by virtue of a tight budget and aliens being more expensive to create; and there was the occasional "aren't humans the morally best?" smugness in the narratives, too. Again, in 2020, with the past years showing everywhere on the globe, not just in one nation, how terrifyingly easy it is to move backwards, this won't wash, and so for the current ST to establish the Federation, the idea of the Federation, is truly carried by not just one dominating member/planet is a good thing. (And I suspect we'll find that the remaining Federation doesn't have just one headquarters planet anymore but rests on several.)
At the same time, the show doesn't give up on humanity, of course; the current day humans aren't presented as evil, but as primarily driven into their current attitude by fear and a past catastrophe; they are still reachable and in the end willing to start talking again. And the final image, when Tilly and the others make their visit of what used to be Starfleet Headquarters, of the Mesonquin tree (hope that's the right spelling?), lasting through the centuries, offering them an emotional touchstone, a ressurance that some thing survive and remain and are there to come home to, was deeply touching.
In terms of the personal stories, at first I briefly wondered whether a year separated from the crew in this new world would really be enough for Michael to feel off balance upon their reunion, and then I realised: in terms of show time, she's been with her Discovery crewmates only two years, with Book and the futureverse one year, so yes, it's enough. It also makes for a great reunion scene with Tilly (I missed Michael and Tillly scenes last season!) , and the scenes with Saru were marvelous throughout, and a great example of adults having different angles but not in a teenage misunderstanding way but for understandable reasons, and because of all the trust earned in the previous seasons, able to bridge the gaps between them. Their friendship is really one of my favourite elements of the show.
In other news: hooray for Saru being now, at last, officially the Captain! Also, the DS9 fan in me pinged the Ezri remembling newbie as a Symbiont carrier at once, only I thought she was actually a Trill and had disguised her spots somehow. Lastly, I'm glad we saw a bit of Grudge, though not nearly enough. Cats are important, show!
Seriously, though. Remember that post of mine a few years back about how Star Trek somewhere between the end of DS9 and the later Voyager years took a decided turn for the nostalgic and never quite stopped? (Which didn't mean I didn't love some of the later incarnations, but they did trade on ST nostalgia rather than daring to tackle the future? Well, so far this season of Disco made good on all I hoped for re: its 900 years into the future premise. Because it uses its setting to squarely address problems of the present. That was another thing of ST I at times was annoyed about: with the rare exceptions of episodes like DS9's Past Tense, which used its time travel concept to address current day problems, and okay, also Star Trek: The Voyage Home with its whale saving mission, usually time travel brought with it a certain amount of shoulder padding, telling the audience how far it has come in comparison to whichever backward era was shown. Part of it came with the ST premise of a better future, granted. But still, ST at its best did address the present in not-shoulderpadding ways.
And now: I had an inkling that Earth was no longer part of the Federation because of how the season opener drew parallels to the present. Because the vilification of international organizations, be they the UN or the EU - not the critcicism, which any organisation needs, but the bashing, the demonization, and conversely the return and glorification of nationalism - is one of the abiding vices of our time. Between Brexit and America First, it therefore makes sense for a Star Trek that isn't about nostalgia to address this. Earth, one of the founding members of the Federation, breaking apart from the Federation is as good a mirror as any to the shock when the US not just withdraws from international treaties but outright vilifies them, and Britain continues on its suicidal Brexit run. This being Star Trek and at its core optimistic, the episode loses no time to showcase the value of negotiations, of international, err, interplanetary connections and mediations and lets our heroes make an excellent start on their quest to be the change they need, and be those mediators direly needed.
(BTW, this is also a good showcase by ST works on tv in a way that's just not transferable to the movie format. The movies, with the rare exception like Voyage Home, always need a villain for our heroes to fight. Making a point of avoiding a fight and bringing both parties to the negotiating table is something far easier to sell on tv.
The other reason why I'm glad about this latest twist is that while in theory the Federation is a multiracial community of planets, its headquarters always were on Earth, the majority of the Starfleet crews were human by virtue of a tight budget and aliens being more expensive to create; and there was the occasional "aren't humans the morally best?" smugness in the narratives, too. Again, in 2020, with the past years showing everywhere on the globe, not just in one nation, how terrifyingly easy it is to move backwards, this won't wash, and so for the current ST to establish the Federation, the idea of the Federation, is truly carried by not just one dominating member/planet is a good thing. (And I suspect we'll find that the remaining Federation doesn't have just one headquarters planet anymore but rests on several.)
At the same time, the show doesn't give up on humanity, of course; the current day humans aren't presented as evil, but as primarily driven into their current attitude by fear and a past catastrophe; they are still reachable and in the end willing to start talking again. And the final image, when Tilly and the others make their visit of what used to be Starfleet Headquarters, of the Mesonquin tree (hope that's the right spelling?), lasting through the centuries, offering them an emotional touchstone, a ressurance that some thing survive and remain and are there to come home to, was deeply touching.
In terms of the personal stories, at first I briefly wondered whether a year separated from the crew in this new world would really be enough for Michael to feel off balance upon their reunion, and then I realised: in terms of show time, she's been with her Discovery crewmates only two years, with Book and the futureverse one year, so yes, it's enough. It also makes for a great reunion scene with Tilly (I missed Michael and Tillly scenes last season!) , and the scenes with Saru were marvelous throughout, and a great example of adults having different angles but not in a teenage misunderstanding way but for understandable reasons, and because of all the trust earned in the previous seasons, able to bridge the gaps between them. Their friendship is really one of my favourite elements of the show.
In other news: hooray for Saru being now, at last, officially the Captain! Also, the DS9 fan in me pinged the Ezri remembling newbie as a Symbiont carrier at once, only I thought she was actually a Trill and had disguised her spots somehow. Lastly, I'm glad we saw a bit of Grudge, though not nearly enough. Cats are important, show!
no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 12:44 pm (UTC)They completely had me with Adira - I was thinking 'are we really doing another take on Wesley Crusher???' all the way up until she revealed that she was Admiral Tal and the penny dropped. I'm excited to hear about how a teenage human ended up joined. (Presumably it's not that easy to go and find a Trill if your host is dying in these times, and maybe future tech makes it more possible for a human to at least carry one even if they can't access all the memories.) I'd been waiting for members of one of the longer-lived species to show up with memories of the time before the Burn, and a Trill is a really good way of introducing that element to the show.
Captain Saru may be my second-favourite Star Fleet captain of all time <3. (I mean, as far as I am concerned there will only ever be one person in first place, but I am absolutely delighted that Saru is staying in the chair. And I hope he stays there in spite of Discovery's rotating captain tradition. He's truly grown into the job in the most amazing way over the past couple of seasons, and I don't want him to become an Admiral just yet even if the rebuilt Federation is probably going to need some.)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 04:36 pm (UTC)Re: humans being able to carry Trill symbionts for longer than just a few days now, I assumed this was due to futuristic medical technology and/or evolution - after all, there was bound to be lots of intermarrying between varous compatible Federation members, surely, before the burn?
no subject
Date: 2020-11-01 02:45 am (UTC)That sounds ideal. (I am crossing my fingers that Disco gets at least five series. Given how short they are compared to the nineties Treks, surely they have enough things to do in the future to keep them busy at least that long.)
Also, the captain’s chair better not be the equivalent of the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher job.:)
I hope not, but given Georgiou, Lorca and Pike, Saru will be breaking hell of a streak. But if anyone can defy the odds, it's Saru!
Re: humans being able to carry Trill symbionts for longer than just a few days now, I assumed this was due to futuristic medical technology and/or evolution - after all, there was bound to be lots of intermarrying between varous compatible Federation members, surely, before the burn?
Indeed - DS9's Children of Time had a mostly-human descendent of Jadzia's inherit the symbiont, so it's clearly possible.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-01 06:13 am (UTC)Georgiou was the Captain of the Shenzou, though, never of Discovery, and with Pike it was always clear he‘d return to Enterprise as his fate is canonically fixed. Also for now he‘s alive and well. Which makes Lorca the only Discovery Captain to have died, since he‘s also the first. (Primeverse Lorca might still be alive somewhere, but Primeverse Lorca never was Captain of the Discovery, he was switched before that.)
Mind you: it occured to me that Captain „Killy“ was Captain of the (Mirrorverse) Discovery, and she evidently was blown out of the sky by Klingons no sooner than she arrived in the Primeverse...
no subject
Date: 2020-11-02 05:40 am (UTC)(Clearly the trick is to become Emperor and then go to the Primeverse. That way you'll be fine!)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 12:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 04:45 pm (UTC)I also really appreciate that the narrative validates Saru standing up for his princples, and doesn’t present him as deluded or unable to survive in a rough universe. I mean, presumably Gorgiou isn’t entirely wrong that Micheal - who has always lived as part of a community and command structure - liked working outside it better than she thought she would. And the show doesn’t present being Starfleet as the only way of having a meaningful life. But it shows why it is a good way through Saru and the crew here, and that’s great.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 01:01 pm (UTC)Can't watch, so can't read, but your intro made me very happy 😀❤️
no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 03:07 pm (UTC)And I think Saru is actually my favourite Star Fleet captain, but then he has been since he rallied the Discovery crew In the Terran Empire episode. "We are Star Fleet."
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Date: 2020-10-30 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-31 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 05:39 pm (UTC)I kept the Trill reveal from T (not hard, he never reads about TV, lol) and his jaw DROPPED. It was great.
CAPTAIN SARU <33
I'm also just thrilled to fucking pieces for this season they cast NB parts with NB actors. That makes me really happy.