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Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x06 - "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"

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Sci said:
2) At the end when Alora asks Pike if he can honestly say that Federation society does not require the suffering of a child growing up in poverty or despair to function, Pike should have said, "Of course not! We abolished poverty and classism long before we even founded the Federation!"
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That's entirely missing the point though. It doesn't matter what the fictional Federation and the history leading up to it did. That's the beside the point of the episode. So what if Pike said that Earth and the Federation abolished all forms of child suffering? That has no bearing on anything of importance.

It's a rhetorical question for the audience to get them thinking about the real world. Any answer, particularly about a fictional society, just short circuits that process. The episode doesn't want viewers pondering how the Federation handles it. If you're upset about a single child being harmed in a TV show, damn, you've got a lot of things to be pissed off about right now in the real world!
 
Yistaan said:
I think Raffi in Picard basically established that "no poverty" means every Fed citizen is guaranteed a replicator and a trailer home. That's literally it. They don't give a beep if you're miserable outside of that.
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Yep. Even on good ol' Earth.
 
Alora: Look at young Geordi la Forge. He has to wear a visor that causes him constant pain just to see electromagnetic spectrum wonkiness! On Majalis he'd be completely cured!
 
If Earth and the Federation were a paradise where people stopped being prejudiced and narrow-minded assholes then Barclay wouldn't have been mercilessly teased for much of his career. Ben Finney would have gotten the help he needed before he tried to resort to violent revenge and mass murder. And Admiral Norah Satie wouldn't have been, well, Admiral Norah Satie.
 
Sci said:
That's a totally fair interpretation. I just wish Pike had said there is no poverty in the Federation for the audience's benefit tbh. I think that basic idea -- that there is no poverty -- gets lost sometimes.
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One of the reasons I like the 23rd century over the 24th is that the TOS era seems more relatable to the modern day. In that way I never imagined the TOS era was one without poverty and greed- That's a 24th century thing.
 
Norsehound said:
One of the reasons I like the 23rd century over the 24th is that the TOS era seems more relatable to the modern day. In that way I never imagined the TOS era was one without poverty and greed- That's a 24th century thing.
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Exactly so.

We're shown too many people in TOS who clearly are not the products of that superficial Utopia for that premise to hold up. And SNW apparently takes its cues from that. It's a more humane future where people have made progress, not a perfect world

Belz... said:
The new and improved CynicalTrek!
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Nope. Not cynical at all. Like TOS.

Alora specifically asks about the Federation, BTW, not about Pike's home planet or about "Earth:"

Can you honestly say that no child suffers for the benefit of your Federation? That no child lives in poverty or squalor, while those who enjoy abundance look away?
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In tone and obvious intent it's meant to be a rhetorical question on her part; she knows enough about the Federation to know the answer. And while Pike may be disgusted to have her offer the fact of the Federation's shortcomings as an excuse for the deliberate celebration of cruelty that she embraces as a member of her culture's elite, Pike just as clearly cannot answer "No, this is not true of the Federation, anywhere."

Next week it looks like we get pirates and maybe Orions, an idea probably derived from "The Cage's" portrayal of Pike's universe as a good wilder and less domestically middle-class than even Kirk's, never mind Picard's.
 
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This was the first “meh” episode of the series for me. It just felt too much like a mediocre TNG S2 episode. I didn’t dislike it at all, but it was massively forgettable and the very definition of run- of-the-mill.

The M’benga story elevates this above average, though.
6/10
 
Also, Pike’s hair has become a distraction.

I’m sure that’s been mentioned already in some way, but I had to say it.
 
Vger23 said:
Also, Pike’s hair has become a distraction.

I’m sure that’s been mentioned already in some way, but I had to say it.
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Well, certainly no one has looked particularly disheveled after sexy fun times - everyone's hair is still perfect. Maybe Vulcans don't move around enough to mess up their hair? But, as hair goes, Pike's hair did not distract me from the story overall. I think if you were engaged in the story it might not have. But you weren't so hair is a good reason to feel meh about a story of child sacrifice.
 
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