I don't do numerical ratings, but suffice it to say that was a home run for me, folks.
I like that they are emphasizing Pike as someone whom we can quite vividly picture allowing himself to be cooked alive by delta rays in order to pull cadets to safety. Besides playing upon our foreknowledge of how he eventually ends his career (or foreshadowing it, for those who aren't so familiar), it also makes for a nice contrast with Lorca. (And I say that despite Lorca having been among my favorite characters in S1.) Season Two definitely has a different groove than Season One (which I loved), and while I was a bit jarred by the opener, this one really carried me along. I'm enjoying the balance of episodic storytelling within the serialized format, and agree it feels very "
Star Treky" as others put it. (Not that I ever agreed the first season didn't.)
I also like that with little touches such as the fortune cookie last episode and the way Pike speaks to Jacob about
"knowing what it's like to live with doubt" in this one, they seem to be making subtle allusion to his Talosian experience. I expect he's the sort of person who, when he hits the mattress at night, or when his mind is wandering, might still wonder if he never actually got out of that cage, and has been living an illusion ever since.
As others, I too find myself thinking about the Preservers from "The Paradise Syndrome" (TOS). Whether it was intended to be of significance or not, it's worth noting that Burnham caught a glimpse of one of their obelisks when Mirror-Lorca revealed to her the spore drive for the first time in "Context Is For Kings" (DSC):
Cute how in both name and nature Terralysium is reminiscent of Terra Nova from its titular ENT episode, Terratin from "The Terratin Incident" (TAS), Elysia from "The Time Trap" (TAS), etc.
They could have at least saved Jacob, who was the sanest of the bunch, who instead is now doomed to live with the knowledge he has amidst this religious weirdos.
They should have taken Jacob with them.
I found the subversion of that expectation an effective beat, myself. It's entirely possible they might well have granted him such a request (like Saru), if he'd wanted that. But Jacob himself said he was satisfied with having been granted the answer to a question his forebears had long pondered. He seemed content to stay, and his deactivation of the distress beacon and subsequent use of the power cell to re-illuminate the church, brighter than ever before, all seemed symbolic of his choosing
not to reject his society's ways and beliefs, even having had his perspective on them altered. He didn't feel a need to be "rescued" from them, despite having momentarily given in to temptation at the prospect of seeing Earth for himself.
Weirdly, at first, I wasn't very comfortable with Michael coming close to outright calling the New Eden residents' beliefs irrational (maybe I was just afraid of how they'd react), but then I felt more perturbed that Pike was so determined to preserve their ignorance, even going so far as to basically gaslight poor Jacob. I did ultimately like the episode, though; the colony of transplants from Earth and Prime Directive quandary felt very "Star Treky"; I just came close to having a more negative opinion of the story until the scene were Pike let Jacob know that he wasn't crazy.
I loved that it took you on that ride, questioning whether they were really doing the right thing at each step, like so many great Prime Directive quandary episodes of series past. In contrast to some, I've always loved those kinds of stories. This episode upheld a proud
Trek tradition well.
If I had any minor quibbles it would be this: Pike was so steadfast about obeying General Order 1. Obey. Obey. Obey. At all costs. I won't even get into the fact that I think the Prime Directive is one of the most self-righteous rules in the history of up-your-own-ass-ness. The fact that he then went and broke it for......what exactly? First of all, didn't they all see a 23rd century phaser go off? Ok, forget that. Didn't they see three people beam away in a flash of light? Even in a semi-religious community, most people are going to be like "hold on, God doesn't do that". Ok, putting ALL that aside then...
Couldn't they have just stolen the helmet they needed, extracted the footage, and put it back without revealing who they were?
Pike broke GO1 because he wanted to. Let's just be honest.
Perhaps not God himself, but Angels clearly
do, in these people's experience. Burnham told them they were going to the church to pray for deliverance, so naturally everyone but Jacob believed they received it. In "Who Watches The Watchers" (TNG), Picard abhorred the idea of reinforcing the Mintakans' false beliefs of him, firmly rejecting it in favor of a different sort of corrective interference despite the anthropologist's advice to do exactly that...
RIKER: Masquerading as a god?
PICARD: Absolutely out of the question. The Prime Directive...
BARRON: Has already been violated. The damage is done. All we can do now is minimize it.
PICARD: By sanctioning their false beliefs?
BARRON: By giving them guidelines. Letting them know what the Overseer expects of them.
PICARD: Doctor Barron, I cannot, I will not, impose a set of commandments on these people. To do so violates the very essence of the Prime Directive.
BARRON: Like it or not, we have rekindled the Mintakans' belief in the Overseer.
RIKER: And are you saying that this belief will eventually become a religion?
BARRON: It's inevitable. And without guidance, that religion could degenerate into inquisitions, holy wars, chaos.
PICARD: Horrifying... Doctor Barron, your report describes how rational these people are. Millennia ago, they abandoned their belief in the supernatural. Now you are asking me to sabotage that achievement, to send them back into the Dark Ages of superstition and ignorance and fear? No! We will find some way to undo the damage we've caused. Number One, tell me about this group's leader.
RIKER: Nuria. Exceptionally clear-minded, sensible. The Mintakans trust her judgment. If we can convince her that you are not a god...
PICARD: She might be able to persuade the others.
BARRON: And how do you propose to convince her?
PICARD: She believes the Picard is a magical figure. I'm going to show her how the magic works. I'm going to bring her aboard.
Yet, that too was his own personal inclination, and prerogative as captain. Also, it should be noted that here, the initial beliefs of the New Edenites were neither wholly demonstrably false (they
were in fact delivered from doom by beings who might as well have been gods, even by Federation standards, for all that was known about them), nor had they already been discarded in the course of natural development by the point Our Heroes™ arrived.
They could have given them a choice. They didn’t have to leave if they didn’t want to.
Plus, isn’t diverting that meteor also breaking the rule? By that logic they should have let them all die.
Not a bad episode. Interesting having a new take on the prime directive. Apparently since they came from Earth a few years before first contact then they are still considered pre-warp and subject to the prime directive.
But it's inconsistent with TNG "The Masterpiece Society": "RIKER: The Prime Directive doesn't apply. They're human. " and voyager episode "The 37's"
But the cited exchange from "The Masterpiece Society" (which for the record was
not dealing with a colony of
pre-warp humans anyway) goes on from there...
PICARD: Doesn't it? Our very presence may have damaged, even destroyed, their way of life. Now, whether or not we agree with that way of life, whether they're human or not, is irrelevant, Number One. We are responsible.
RIKER: We had to respond to the threat from the core fragment didn't we?
PICARD: Of course we did. But in the end we may have proved just as dangerous to that colony as any core fragment could ever have been.
As with so many Prime Directive conundrums, the very point of the scenario is to illustrate that it's not so simple, and very much open to interpretation. Pike, Kirk, Picard, Riker, Sisko, and Janeway would each see a given set of circumstances in their own way, and make decisions accordingly, each influenced by their own morals and prior experiences, and chosen counsels kept. DSC is keeping with that. As Burnham says, it's
"a choice only a captain can make." (Great stuff in this one between Burnham and Pike!) And upon that captain, let the consequences fall...
"The Return Of The Archons" (TOS):
KIRK: Landru must die.
SPOCK: Captain, our Prime Directive of non-interference...
KIRK: That refers to a living, growing culture. Do you think this one is?
"Too Short A Season" (TNG):
JAMESON: It wasn't my golden oratory that saved them, Captain. I gave Karnas the weapons he wanted.
PICARD: You did what?
JAMESON: I gave exactly the same weapons to his rivals. My interpretation of the Prime Directive, let them solve their problems with those arms on an equal basis.
PICARD: And that decision plunged them into forty years of civil war.
"The Drumhead" (TNG):
SATIE: Captain, do you believe in the Prime Directive?
PICARD: Of course.
SATIE: In fact, it's Starfleet's General Order Number One, is it not?
PICARD: Your point, Admiral?
SATIE: Would it surprise you to learn that you have violated the Prime Directive a total of nine times since you took command of the Enterprise? I must say, Captain, it surprised the hell out of me.
PICARD: My reports to Starfleet will document the circumstances of those instances.
SATIE: Yes, we're looking into those reports, Captain, very closely into those reports, after which I'm sure we'll have more questions for you about your so-called commitment to Starfleet Prime Directive.
"Battle Lines" (DS9):
SISKO: I told them we'd transport them off this moon.
BASHIR: Isn't that a bit like assisting a jailbreak?
SISKO: I don't need you to interpret the Prime Directive for me, Doctor.
"Caretaker" (VGR):
TUVOK: Captain, any action we take to protect the Ocampa would affect the balance of power in this system. The Prime Directive would seem to apply.
JANEWAY: Would it? We never asked to be involved, Tuvok. But we are. We are.
"Prime Factors" (VGR):
JANEWAY: It's the first time we've been on the other side of the fence.
PARIS: What fence?
JANEWAY: The one that's made of binding principles. We have our own set of rules, which includes the Prime Directive. How many times have we been in the position of refusing to interfere when some kind of disaster threatened an alien culture? It's all very well to say we do it on the basis of an enlightened principle, but how does that feel to the aliens? I'm sure many of them think the Prime Directive is a lousy idea.
PARIS: Even we think so sometimes.
CHAKOTAY: I know of many times when Starfleet personnel have decided on strong ethical grounds to ignore it.
KIM: Still, there's a reason why it's Starfleet's General Order Number One. On the whole, it does a lot more good than harm.
Insurrection:
PICARD: How can there be an order to abandon the Prime Directive?
DOUGHERTY: The Prime Directive doesn't apply. These people are not indigenous to this planet. They were never meant to be immortal. We'll simply be restoring them to their natural evolution.
PICARD: Who the hell are we to determine the next course of evolution for these people?
"Counterpoint" (VGR):
JANEWAY: I'm still counting on getting this ship home.
KASHYK: Are you sure you'll be welcome when you do? I came across something else in your database, the Prime Directive.
JANEWAY: The Federation's cardinal protocol.
KASHYK: It seems you violated it when you rescued these telepaths.
JANEWAY: Well, let's just say I usually go with my instincts and sort it out later at the Board of Inquiry. Those admirals and I were on a first name basis, you know.
In "The 37's" (VGR), they were ultimately dealing with a society already aware they had been brought there by an advanced alien race, and already with some knowledge of their ships and technology. Apart from Earhart and the other sleepers they encountered first, that is, and Janeway wrestled with waking
them from the get-go, openly admitting she was swayed in favor of it by the possibility that
Voyager might be able to use whatever means had brought them there to get home, much as the helmet cam footage here provided an added incentive. Just as captains before and after him would, Pike exercises his own discretion in navigating the situation, based on the individual circumstances of the mission at hand, as they develop. Again, that is the purview and responsibility of a starship captain.
And don't forget the distress beacon. Even in all his cautions and misgivings, Picard would not refuse a call for help in "Pen Pals" (TNG):
WORF: There are no options. The Prime Directive is not a matter of degrees. It is an absolute.
PULASKI: I have a problem with that kind of rigidity. It seems callous, and even a little cowardly.
PICARD: Doctor, I'm sure that is not what the Lieutenant meant, but in a situation like this, we have to be cautious. What we do today may profoundly affect the future. If we could see every possible outcome...
RIKER: We'd be gods, which we're not. If there is a cosmic plan, is it not the height of hubris to think that we can or should interfere?
LaFORGE: So what are you saying? That the Dremans are fated to die?
RIKER: I think that's an option that we should be considering.
LaFORGE: Consider it considered and rejected.
TROI: If there is a cosmic plan, are we not a part of it? Our presence at this place, at this moment in time, could be a part of that fate.
LaFORGE: Right, and it could be part of that plan that we interfere.
RIKER: Well, that eliminates the possibility of fate!
DATA: But Commander, the Dremans are not a subject for philosophical debate. They are a people.
PICARD: So, we make an exception in the deaths of millions?
PULASKI: Yes.
PICARD: And is it the same situation if it's an epidemic, and not a geological calamity?
PULASKI: Absolutely.
PICARD: What about a war? If generations of conflict is killing millions, do we interfere?
[Everyone looks uncertain]
PICARD: Ah, well, now we're all a little less secure in our moral certitude. And what if it's not just killings? If an oppressive government is enslaving millions? You see, the Prime Directive has many different functions, not the least of which is to protect us, to prevent us from allowing our emotions to overwhelm our judgment.
PULASKI: My emotions are involved! Data's friend is going to die! That means something!
WORF: To Data.
PULASKI: Does that invalidate the emotion?
[Everyone looks uncertain again]
LaFORGE: What if the Dremans asked for our help?
DATA: Yes. Sarjenka's transmission could be viewed as a call for help.
PICARD: [shaking his head] Sophistry.
PULASKI: I'll buy that excuse. We're all jigging madly on the head of a pin, anyway.
WORF: She cannot ask for help from someone she does not know.
DATA: She knows me.
RIKER: What a perfectly vicious little circle.
DATA: We are going to allow her to die, are we not?
PICARD: Data, I want you to sever the contact with Drema IV.
[Data moves to a control panel and begins tapping in commands]
COMPUTER: Isolating frequency...
SARJENKA: [over comm] Data! Data, where are you? Why won't you answer? Are you angry with me? Please, please, I'm so afraid! Data! Data, where are you?
[Data prepares to sever the contact]
PICARD: Wait... Data, your whisper from the dark has now become a plea... We cannot turn our backs.
In short, Worf is wrong. The Prime Directive is never an absolute. It's exactly what it purports to be, a
directive, a guiding principle. Its specific
application is always a matter of interpretation and finesse. Whatever of it is written in black and white—and as of the 24th century, this includes no fewer than 47 sub-orders per "Infinite Regress" (VGR)—there's inevitably a lot of grey area left between the lines. And Starfleet well understands that, which is why they give their starship captains the leeway to make such calls based on the totality of factors and facets in a given scenario.
Pilot license at 12, for a starship?
Might have been a hovercraft
Maybe for a Cesna, Beechcraft, or other craft that is a 23rd-century analog to those.
She probably got a shuttle licence early.
T-16 Skyhopper for the win! All your womp rats are belong to Detmer.
Detmer's clearly got moves (even if this one made it look as if
Discovery had a dingleberry)! I am overjoyed to see both her and Owosekun beginning to get some further development as
actual characters. With Detmer having been afforded only the scantest hints around the edges in S1, and Owo denied
any at all, it was overdue. (And still is in the case of Ariam, so I hope they get around to developing her soon, too. I wonder if the recast has anything to do with that? Who knows, perhaps there will even turn out to be some link between Ariam and Nilsson?) I'd love to see all three of these ladies (and Doctor Pollard makes four—is she the CMO, I wonder, or merely Culber's replacement on call?) as featured characters within the ensemble as the show goes on.
*Family ties override privacy regulations as far as I'm concerned, so Sarek, Amanda, and Michael should have been told about Spock being checked into a Psych Ward regardless of what he wanted
If you prearranged some time off work to check yourself into a hospital for psychiatric treatment, of your own free will, for your own personal reasons, you think they should be able to notify family members you
haven't had contact with for years without your consent? And not only without affirmative consent, but
over your expressed objections? Sounds like a major breach of trust between doctor and patient, to me, man.
-
MMoM
(the two girls pictured above) from:
