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Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x02 - "Ad Astra Per Aspera"

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Una’s parents lived in a colony that was admitted to the Federation with the agreement it would cease genetic modification. Her parents didn’t agree. They could have gone elsewhere.
Have to agree here. I assumed the case would go down a "sins of the father" route.
 
To be fair, it's actually not legally unsound.

Here's the A, B, C.

1. A starship captain can grant asylum unilaterally.
2. You just have to request it to the captain directly.
3. The revelation Pike knew ahead of time means that he could, in fact, grant asylum to Una.
4. Pike did grant asylum by accepting her on his ship.
5. This eliminates like 90% of the charges against Una.
6. They decided not to pursue the lying on her application charge because it was a minor offense to sedition.

1. The Trial of Quinn the Q. A Captain can grant temporary Asylum before a tribunal decides if the federation wants to ratify that temporary asylum.

ANEWAY: Stop! You want asylum? Fine. We'll have a hearing.
Q: A hearing? You would have me put his future in your delicate little hands? Oh, so touchably soft. What is your secret, dear?
JANEWAY: When the captain of a Starfleet vessel receives an official request for asylum, there is a clear procedure to follow. I suggest to end your deadlock, and to save my ship, that we follow it to the letter.

BURNHAM: Okay, I found something. I searched Starfleet General Orders and Regulations. Protocol allows a captain to grant political asylum in extreme circumstances. That would bring you under Federation law. Your cases would go under immediate review and your sentencing would likely be commuted.

Meanwhile Janeway only pretended to give Asylum to her Nazi Boyfriend Kayshak in Counter Point. If she said all the words that she was supposed to say, but it was only an insincere offer of asylum because in her heart she was fibbing, then the Captain's word on this issue means nothing.

If Chakotay can offer asylumn

CHAKOTAY: I don't have time for a debate. You asked for asylum. Fine, I'll consider it. But only if you answer my questions. What movement? Contact the Varro authorities. Let them know we've found one of their people, then take him to the Brig.
Then any officer, or maybe First Officer, can offer asylum, and Una may have been able to offer Asylum to herself, after asking herself.

2. Indirectly asking for asylum if not asking for asylum. She asked Chris to join an illegal conspiracy that could bring down the federation, and get every one on that ship fired. Then she persuaded the Captain to do the right thing, as a trick and part of a trap that would take 6 months to unfold. Super-intellectuals are assholes. Una got lucky. In that time travel episode last year, she was still in jail 6 years later because she was unlucky.

3. But he didn't. And he didn't set up a hearing either.

4. No. He chose to lie illegally to Star Fleet.

5. No. Starfleet does not grant Asylum. The Federation does. Federation law is not going to protect Una from Federation law.

TAHNA: My name is Tahna Los. Request political asylum. Kira?
(after the opening credits, medics are wheeling Tahna away)
KIRA: His name is Tahna Los. We fought together in the underground.
O'BRIEN: Commander, the Cardassians are hailing us.
KIRA: Now they want to talk.
O'BRIEN: They're hopping mad.
SISKO: Open the channel, Mister O'Brien.
GUL DANAR [on viewscreen]: Federation Commander, you've taken aboard a known criminal. You will turn him over to us.
SISKO: He has requested asylum.
GUL DANAR [on viewscreen]: You have not granted it.
SISKO: To be honest, I haven't decided yet.
GUL DANAR [on viewscreen]: He is Kohn-Ma! Even the Bajorans would not grant his kind asylum. He has committed heinous crimes against the Cardassian people and I demand you release him to our custody.

Criminals do not immediately receive explicit asylum.

6. The prosecution buckled in the face of sophistry. It's more than likely that they were looking for a reason to let her go, than that they got outsmarted and beat.
 
Again the question is is the law correct? It wasn't within the scope of this episode to fix this problem. It does make the Federation look bad as do many other episodes going back to TOS.

Is the UFP too big? Is it out of touch? Does it react too slowly?

The law based on something in the early pre-war Earth would seem out of date, not relevant to new technologies, and clearly leads to misery. Other planets have superior intellect and biologies that did not inspire supermen.

Starfleet, UFP(writers!) ...repeal this outdated law in the next 25th century show!

i could probably make an argument for keeping it. Why does Una have these particular augmentations? How does having super strength and super immunity adapt her to this particular planet, as opposed to a change in her respiratory system that allows her to breathe its air? Genes that are augmented for intelligence and strength disadvantage others without them, on purpose. Eventually everyone would have to do this or risk having their kid shut out of jobs or Academy appointments, etc., as in that movie Gattaca. They weren’t banning people like La’an who inherited DNA passed down by historically augmented ancestors. Una wasn’t charged with augmenting herself, since she didn’t choose to do it, but with lying about it. Her parents deserved to be charged.
 
Well, didn't the Denobulans dabble in genetic engineering??
Very "homo sapiens only club" to base a law on something that happened on 1 planet. I would change the law where it was it was frowned upon, maybe a point to join the federation would be no active genetic engineering beyond diseases etc. Maybe? I don't know a bit of a grey area.
I would defenatly change the rule if they had no choice in the matter, parents made a decision and was born or modified early, then the child wouldn't be held accountable.
 
Tone deaf much? Ridiculous.

Mitigating circumstances and all that. Her job is figuring out if even obscure laws fit the situation. Una apparently didn't know. Pike didn't. She's the expert.

Do you like the TOS episode "Managerie"? Go watch it.

I would have fire bombed Talos four after they brain washed that court.

She lied.

She goes to Wellington.
 
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Una’s parents lived in a colony that was admitted to the Federation with the agreement it would cease genetic modification. Her parents didn’t agree. They could have gone elsewhere. Instead, they broke the law. The better analogy would be Mormons who believe in polygamy and kept practicing it even though their state was admitted to the U.S. under the condition they ban polygamy. Carried to the extreme, like underage marriage, polygamy is child abuse. Una’s parents also demonstrably abused her, even though she does not see it that way.

Given they're subject to violence and exile for their religious beliefs, I think the indefensible position of the Federation is, well, indefensible.
 
I would have fire bombed Talos four after brain washing that court.

She lied.

She goes to Wellington.

I'm trying to also figure out when the Federation stopped with prison reform. The Federation in TOS didn't have prisons for punishment, they had them for rehabilitation. I'm trying to figure out what the purpose of punishment is for Una.
 
Well, didn't the Denobulans dabble in genetic engineering??
Very "homo sapiens only club" to base a law on something that happened on 1 planet. I would change the law where it was it was frowned upon, maybe a point to join the federation would be no active genetic engineering beyond diseases etc. Maybe? I don't know a bit of a grey area.
I would defenatly change the rule if they had no choice in the matter, parents made a decision and was born or modified early, then the child wouldn't be held accountable.

Henry Archer passed on crazy genes to Jonathan Archer, that Adrik Soong said he could fix in one treatment. John Archer will go crazy, and his children will go crazy. They have or will have a genetic quirk that is illegal to fix, and doom their family line to being crazy.
 
Well, ep is a bore to me because I already knew pretty much what was going to happen. Well, at least an effort was made to provide Una with legal counsel. But, who needs legal counsel or lawyers in a perfect world where the government would NEVER violate your rights. Right. Only good scene was Spock "fighting" with the Vulcan JAG officer. Love to know that backstory.
stsnw202.jpg


What does the title mean? Roughly translated…

"To the stars, through difficulties."
"Through hardships, to the stars."
"Through adversity, to the stars."

Take your pick.

"Commander Una faces court-martial along with possible imprisonment and dishonorable dismissal from Starfleet, and her defense is in the hands of a lawyer who’s also a childhood friend with whom she had a terrible falling out." - TrekMovie.com

No Samuel T. Cogley in sight. Yet.

[/QUOTE]
 
I'm trying to also figure out when the Federation stopped with prison reform. The Federation in TOS didn't have prisons for punishment, they had them for rehabilitation. I'm trying to figure out what the purpose of punishment is for Una.

If she has 5 babies, and does not illegally genetically modify any of them, then it's fair to say that she is reformed, and they can let her go. Once out, everytime she modifies a child, put her back in jail, until she has another 5 children that are all left unmodified.

Sterilization wouldn't work, since she can still modify other people's babies, and frankly if the government sterilized her, upgrading the entire human race 50 billion strong would not be an over reaction, and that's the end to the original 4400.

(I watched 4 seasons of The Handmaid's Tale last month.)
 
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Yes, a direct reference to complaints against modern analogies of LGBTQ being "unnatural". A powerful allegory.

Yes, by definition genetic tinkering isn't "natural" but it takes evolution out of the hands of chance and makes it work for beings on their terms. Evolution is no longer natural on 21st century Earth, why should we think it would be in the 23rd??

Intelligent beings, through evolution now use this gift bestowed by nature. We have a right to use it in a considered and regulated fashion.
So you think parents have the right to assign attributes to their children? To modify the characteristics of that person when they’re in no position to give consent to it.

That’s where the analogy falls apart.

For every Illyrian like Una, there’s probably someone that feels like Bashir did about his parents.
 
Earrings and circumcision.

Well, ep is a bore to me because I already knew pretty much what was going to happen. Well, at least an effort was made to provide Una with legal counsel. But, who needs legal counsel or lawyers in a perfect world where the government would NEVER violate your rights. Right. Only good scene was Spock "fighting" with the Vulcan JAG officer. Love to know that backstory.
stsnw202.jpg


What does the title mean? Roughly translated…

"To the stars, through difficulties."
"Through hardships, to the stars."
"Through adversity, to the stars."

Take your pick.

"Commander Una faces court-martial along with possible imprisonment and dishonorable dismissal from Starfleet, and her defense is in the hands of a lawyer who’s also a childhood friend with whom she had a terrible falling out." - TrekMovie.com

No Samuel T. Cogley in sight. Yet.

[/QUOTE]

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Given they're subject to violence and exile for their religious beliefs, I think the indefensible position of the Federation is, well, indefensible.
There’s a tremendous social stigma, yes, but you can’t necessarily ban that. There is a law against what they have done, which they knowingly violated. I’m not sure what happened to Neera’s cousin Ivan and his family. They were possibly ordered to leave the colony since they hadn’t abided by the law or possibly merely fined. If the Federation put a kid in a penal colony, of course that would be going too far. On Una’s colony, the government established one city for Illyrians and one for non-Illyrians to stop civil unrest. Doing so might have saved lives on a colony planet with limited resources and a small population. But I don’t know that societal prejudice against people who have knowingly violated a law against genetic modification is reason to end that ban either.
 
Are we to believe that with all the warp capable civilisations in the Federation,humans are the only ones to experiment with genetic engineering?Really?
Also there is an emerging trend starting in Picard and continuing with Una’s testimony,that most Fed planets and colonies are pretty awful crapsack worlds.
This makes me wonder if all the Starfleet crews we’ve admired down the years are just privileged jerks zooming around the quadrant.
 
Henry Archer passed on crazy genes to Jonathan Archer, that Adrik Soong said he could fix in one treatment. John Archer will go crazy, and his children will go crazy. They have or will have a genetic quirk that is illegal to fix, and doom their family line to being crazy.

The Federation apparently does eventually amend the law to allow genetic modification to correct an illness.
 
So you think parents have the right to assign attributes to their children? To modify the characteristics of that person when they’re in no position to give consent to it.

That’s where the analogy falls apart.

For every Illyrian like Una, there’s probably someone that feels like Bashir did about his parents.

Actually, you've touched on where the metaphor becomes literal.

The question is whether augmentation should be designated medicine or cosmetic surgery. Because do parents have the right to improve their children's immune systems unilterally without their consent? Yes, absolutely they do. They're called vaccines and they should be mandatory. NOT doing it is child abuse.

I'm also neuro divergent and was under heavy medication for it much of my childhood (that was miserable and painful as a result).

So I know both sides of this.
 
The Federation apparently does eventually amend the law to allow genetic modification to correct an illness.

Citation please.

This?

TNG Genesis.

CRUSHER: Yes, Reg. What you've got a mild case of Urodelan Flu. It's nothing serious. Most humans have a natural immunity to it, but the T-cell in your DNA that would normally fight off the infection is dormant.
BARCLAY: So you mean I have bad genes?
CRUSHER: You have one dormant gene out of a hundred thousand, and I can activate that gene with a synthetic T-cell let the body attack the infection naturally. You should feel better in a couple of days.
BARCLAY: Thank you, Doctor. I feel much better.

There's no mention of reversing the genetic modification ban, illegal or criminal behavior, or the Eugenics war in the script, written by Brannon Braga. Braga is infamously ignorant about the original series. feels like they were just trying to use new present day tech on star trek to seem fancy, and screwed the pooch.

Considering the disaster that followed, the Genie should have been put back in the bottle and Bev should have gotten struck across the shoulders with a bamboo cane 40 times, to educate her on the dangers of randomly re sequencing human genetics, especially if what she did to Reg was criminal and forbidden.
 
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And that Vulcan admiral.What’s his beef?
Christ,if he’s a Romulan plant with his own agenda I will put my boot through the tv.:vulcan:
 
She blew the doors off Samuel T. Cogley

Well, ep is a bore to me because I already knew pretty much what was going to happen. Well, at least an effort was made to provide Una with legal counsel. But, who needs legal counsel or lawyers in a perfect world where the government would NEVER violate your rights. Right. Only good scene was Spock "fighting" with the Vulcan JAG officer. Love to know that backstory.
stsnw202.jpg


What does the title mean? Roughly translated…

"To the stars, through difficulties."
"Through hardships, to the stars."
"Through adversity, to the stars."

Take your pick.

"Commander Una faces court-martial along with possible imprisonment and dishonorable dismissal from Starfleet, and her defense is in the hands of a lawyer who’s also a childhood friend with whom she had a terrible falling out." - TrekMovie.com

No Samuel T. Cogley in sight. Yet.

[/QUOTE]
 
Are we to believe that with all the warp capable civilisations in the Federation,humans are the only ones to experiment with genetic engineering?Really?
Also there is an emerging trend starting in Picard and continuing with Una’s testimony,that most Fed planets and colonies are pretty awful crapsack worlds.
This makes me wonder if all the Starfleet crews we’ve admired down the years are just privileged jerks zooming around the quadrant.

To be fair, the way that Trek has dealt with all technology since the dawn of the series (other than things like warp which are integral to the setting) is that things are invented once, and only once, and then no one else anywhere in the galaxy ever invents them separately.

I mean, there's at least a dozen episodes where the plot is "oh no, X has invented some dangerous technology for the entire galaxy!" By the end of the episode, the crisis is solved. Never mind the thousands of species across the galaxy, and presumably millions upon millions of years sentient life has existed.
 
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