This is the logical answer, but I don't like it, since the writer's intent was to foreshadow her arrest at the end of the episode. This really can only be something that Pike does differently after experiencing the events of the finale, but I can't think of anything that should have affected the trial's outcome.
La'an: Missed Opportunity?
- Thread starter Death Ray
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This is the logical answer, but I don't like it, since the writer's intent was to foreshadow her arrest at the end of the episode. This really can only be something that Pike does differently after experiencing the events of the finale, but I can't think of anything that should have affected the trial's outcome.
You called it the Butterfly effect. It could have been something so insignificant that you wouldn't think of it.
Because Pike had seen Spock die in the alternate future, he engaged him in conversation for a few minutes in his ready room, telling him that he was special.
In the other reality, he went straight to the bridge and had the ship set a heading for somewhere else. The Cuyahoga took longer to catch up with them and make the arrest, by which time Enterprise was embroiled in some mission such that the ship didn't make it back to Starbase One for its refit and therefore by the time Pike met with Una and then went to find the lawyer she was not in her office, not on the planet, committed to other litigation and not available, period.
Because Pike had seen Spock die in the alternate future, he engaged him in conversation for a few minutes in his ready room, telling him that he was special.
In the other reality, he went straight to the bridge and had the ship set a heading for somewhere else. The Cuyahoga took longer to catch up with them and make the arrest, by which time Enterprise was embroiled in some mission such that the ship didn't make it back to Starbase One for its refit and therefore by the time Pike met with Una and then went to find the lawyer she was not in her office, not on the planet, committed to other litigation and not available, period.
Two things that puzzle me:
Singh is one of the most common names on the Indian sub-continent. Pretty much every Sikh man has Singh as part of their name, rather than women. If La'an has such a chip on her shoulder or if everyone judges her by her name, why not just use Singh on its own or use a different family name like Carol did in Into Darkness? Was engineer Singh in TNG related to Khan? Almost certainly not.
If they are adhering to canon, and Kirk doesn't mention to Khan that he has descendants, does this imply that La'an is dead? Or maybe that breaching the temporal time directive has consequences and La'an might end up being recruited out of the time stream?
As an aside - every one seems aware of the temporal time directive but in TOS, they sent the Enterprise back on a reckless historical observation mission. Seems incongruous.
Singh is one of the most common names on the Indian sub-continent. Pretty much every Sikh man has Singh as part of their name, rather than women. If La'an has such a chip on her shoulder or if everyone judges her by her name, why not just use Singh on its own or use a different family name like Carol did in Into Darkness? Was engineer Singh in TNG related to Khan? Almost certainly not.
If they are adhering to canon, and Kirk doesn't mention to Khan that he has descendants, does this imply that La'an is dead? Or maybe that breaching the temporal time directive has consequences and La'an might end up being recruited out of the time stream?
As an aside - every one seems aware of the temporal time directive but in TOS, they sent the Enterprise back on a reckless historical observation mission. Seems incongruous.
I would guess since her parents obviously used the full Noonien-Singh name, La'an still uses that in memory of them, despite the unfortunate baggage associated with the name.
Even in comparison with the rest of TOS at the time that was out of place, as it's the only indication that Starfleet ships travel through time on a routine basis for run of the mill missions. Really though, this was just a conceit to insert the Enterprise and the TOS cast into the Assignment Earth pilot script. Best not to analyze it too much.
This is my assumption as well. It's simple and makes emotional sense and is something a real person might do.
She might have felt differently had she not lost her entire family when she was young. But yeah.
My theory, Neera said no to Pike
But then also lives in anger because of it, and has used that as a reason to cultivate her own prejudice against augments?
Doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Welcome to people who experience trauma. It isn't rational.
The trauma itself is not rational. La’an’s despair is entirely from her choosing to tell the world that she is descended from Khan. No one would know otherwise. Her parents would have suffered the same problem (specifically, her father—her mother and her mother’s family were apparently down with marrying into the Space Hitlers.)
I’m sorry, but unless the story gives us another reason for La’an’s childhood woe, all she has really done is create a rod for her own back.
And again: Khan was two hundred years ago. No one would care. Did Starfleet care?
If anything, La’an should REGRET not being augmented. It might have protected her and her family from the Gorn.
This is also another case of trauma duplication. La’an’s genuine agony is her family’s death at the hands of the Gorn. On top of this, the show has added “picked on for being a Khan”, a baloney trauma. Are we going to find out that she had to wear a lazy eye patch too?
It's almost like she wants to remember her family and that name, despite the grief, represents that connection. So, again, not rational. And maybe she feels she deserves to suffer for surviving.
That's the impression I get of her is that she feels like she must suffer but yet must survive to honor her family's sacrifice.
I find using the Eugenics war as an excuse for so much angst and prejudice to be unconvincing. World War II was only 50 years before the Eugenics wars and wasn't World War III something that came afterwards? It's 250 years since the Eugenics Wars. It would be like someone hating on Germans for WWII in 2245.
Uh, have you met Humanity? Them people hold a grudge.
According to Spock the Eugenics Wars were WWIII. And WWIII takes place in the 21st Century.
That is all well and good, but it does not explain why her family themselves kept the name and the lore for so long.
You see, the show is trying to have its cake and eat it too. They want La’an to appear to suffer the slings and arrows of a minority group… but she isn’t actually a minority. Only her family name is her burden, which would have been her parents’ burden, and theirs… for what reason?
If La’an were a part of an augment-descended community, for example, THAT would be a terrific idea. Then the rest of society would accuse them of trying to breed a superman or something. But La’an’s family alone keeping the Noonien Singh name going? Um… just drop the “Noonien” and problem solved. (I mean, she might still be accused of cultural appropriation…OH! Maybe that is why kids picked on her!
)
Yeah looks like they thought smooshing them together would justify the continuing prejudice.
Nooooooo, I’m sorry. My last name is German, and with the fairly recent history of WWI and WWII, and the Nazis declaring Germans to be supermen, I ought to be called “monster” and “augment” when I walk down the streets too!
Well, no. She is going through a story of her own suffering, some self inflicted, some external and trauma informed.
In other words, a very human story.
And in fact, the characters in SNW have said explicitly since episode one that the Eugenics War is WWIII and that it takes place in the mid 21st century.
So that's settled, until it isn't.
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