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

[Hythlodeus]

Can you be more specific? The "treatment" "worked" but considering how horrified Riker is about to the whole situation I can't see how you get the episode sanctioning brainwashing from that. Brainwashing "works" sometimes in real life too.

it "works", but it doesn't really work, does it. the fact, that it works in The Outcast should be the biggest red flag. I get that they had to tie the episode up quickly, but the writers sadly did it in the worst way possible, by lending credence to a bogus and dangerous idea.

but the episode had of course other problems too. from Worf's sudden chauvinism ("It's a woman's game"...) to Beverly's very binary explanation of gender. Males are strong and women are pretty, thank you Dr. Crusher.

I get what they tried to do, but this episode clearly needed better writers. (and a less obviously female actor for Soren)

 

[Tuskin38]

IIRC, the Illyrians are not even mentioned in ENT, only in the script

also true.

 

[Jaimito]

"An affinity for Gilbert and Sullivan musicals."

Yetide Badaki as Neera Ketoul was excellent. She's a fine actress.

This episode has a bit of the Data trial episode "The Measure of a Man" feel to it.

 

[Tuskin38]

Jörg thinks they replaced the USS Federation plaque for the Court Room redress.
https://twitter.com/gaghyogi49/status/1673413318533341185

 

[Citiprime]

Is the fact that children are being arrested in this manner not sinister enough?

To play Devil's Advocate....

The Federation's position seems to be that to do this to children is child abuse. And if you step back from this episode, parents not accepting children for who they are and deciding to fiddle with their child's genome is a bit extreme and why I think tying it to an allegory about being gay or trans crumbles and falls apart.

Also, trying to justify it as a cultural practice by the Illyrians doesn't work either. There's a LOT of cultural practices that are both stupid and abusive, and the governments of the world have a place in banning them.

Una calls it arrest, but the Federation would probably classify it as putting a child in custody in the same way that children are taken into custody in the here and now from parents that abuse their children.

 

[Captain Jollydark]

Also, trying to justify it as a cultural practice by the Illyrians doesn't work either. There's a LOT of cultural practices that are both stupid and abusive, and the governments of the world have a place in banning them.

No one has banned the circumcision of newborn baby boys because it is a cultural practice. So I was thinking that the genetic modifications to an infant are like a kind of ritual enhancement of a specific gen sequence, such as glowy immune systems or enabling adaptations to specific environments In fact, I thought that was a beautiful and noble way to live on a new world, how Illyrians adapted to the environment rather than altering the environment to suit the needs of a colonizer.

 

[AlanC9]

So...you don't think it sanctioned the brainwashing therapy to which Soren was subjected? Because it kinda did.

Honestly, this is the first time I have ever heard anyone read the episode that way.

I'm not saying it's an impossible interpretation, but I find it hard to believe that it is a common one.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Una and her parents were passing for human living in the human half of a segregated colony.

Chin-Riley means a Chinese person married an Irish person and dropped some babies, or that's a fabricated history that she is selling. It also makes me wonder if she is related to, or pretending to be related to Kevin Riley which means she may have narrowly avoided Kodos the Executioners death squads, even though Tarsarus IV is not Colony 9-A...

I wonder if segregation turned Colony 9, into Colony 9-A and 9-B?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Honestly, this is the first time I have ever heard anyone read the episode that way.

I'm not saying it's an impossible interpretation, but I find it hard to believe that it is a common one.

If gay conversion therapy actually worked, then so would straight conversion therapy.

 

[Yistaan]

It also makes me wonder if she is related to, or pretending to be related to Kevin Riley which means she may have narrowly avoided Kodos the Executioners death squads, even though Tarsarus IV is not Colony 9-A...

Unlikely. Una was in Starfleet for 25 years as of 2260, starting her Starfleet career in 2235. The Tarsus IV massacre was in 2246. Everything indicates Tarsus IV had no real Starfleet presence until after the massacre (presumably Starfleet came in the form of the too-late relief ships)

 

[UssGlenn]

No one has banned the circumcision of newborn baby boys because it is a cultural practice.

But female circumcision is banned (at least I'm pretty sure it is), and is widely criticized in the places it is still practiced.

 

[jackoverfull]

But female circumcision is banned (at least I'm pretty sure it is), and is widely criticized in the places it is still practiced.

indeed. And the same should go for male one as well, honestly, that’s child mutilation is still widely accepted befuddles me.

 

[Pauln6]

Una and her parents were passing for human living in the human half of a segregated colony.

Chin-Riley means a Chinese person married an Irish person and dropped some babies, or that's a fabricated history that she is selling. It also makes me wonder if she is related to, or pretending to be related to Kevin Riley which means she may have narrowly avoided Kodos the Executioners death squads, even though Tarsarus IV is not Colony 9-A...

I wonder if segregation turned Colony 9, into Colony 9-A and 9-B?

The dialogue established that they were divided into Illyrians who gave up genetic manipulation and Illyrians who still practised it. They're all still Illyrians which is why it's odd that Starfleet Medical never noticed before.

 

[Captain Jollydark]

But female circumcision is banned (at least I'm pretty sure it is), and is widely criticized in the places it is still practiced.

I was pointing out a double standard of moral tolerance. Because FGM was (is still) a practice in Africa and the Middle East and primarily associated with Islam.

 

[Ensign Mas]

This was nothing like a soap opera

I'm not referring to this episode as such, but the series. Rather than an episodic format, the episodes have a clear interconnected and open narrative and yes, I do find the episode melodramatic. I do think a show mustn't forget what has happened earlier, but if they're piling on and on it becomes a soap opera.

 

[Ensign Mas]

Me thinks he's more into the "pew pew" of it all. Anything without 'splosions every 5 minutes is a boring soap opera.

Do you have anything to contribute or are all your posts nonsense? I've noticed that this community has a very low tolerance for people expressing a dissenting view. If I was to post that I didn't like an episode of "The Mandalorian" over at the TheForce.net, I wouldn't be jumped by trolls such as you..

 

[fireproof78]

Serialized is so much my preference to episodic. Ignoring past events aggravates me. Soap opera

Soap operas didn't invent serialized format.

 

[fireproof78]

Do you have anything to contribute or are all your posts nonsense? I've noticed that this community has a very low tolerance for people expressing a dissenting view. If I was to post that I didn't like an episode of "The Mandalorian" over at the TheForce.net, I wouldn't be jumped by trolls such as you..

Because it's vogue to bash Mandalorian now. No longer the favorite child. I remember prequel bashing on TFN. I don't miss it.

 

[HotRod]

or are all your posts nonsense?

Mostly.

I've noticed that this community has a very low tolerance for people expressing a dissenting view.

Meh. You're free to have whatever opinion you like. Others are also free to think your opinion is dumb.

trolls such as you..

How did you know I live under a bridge?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

we already knew she would be back in uniform

Speaking of which, Una doesn't have the uniform with the black stripes up the sides like she used to. Guess she just decided to go old school!