Star Trek: Discovery's ethics and morality?

[Prax]

Picards supposed to be in his 60's, right? Two times might be acceptable for him. He's not a sexual tyrannous rex.

 

[Mudd]

Picards supposed to be in his 60's, right? Two times might be acceptable for him. He's not a sexual tyrannous rex.

Seriously?

 

[Mudd]

Federation morality ain't perfect but I gotta tell ya I'd probably pick it over modern america.

Modern America is populated by people. These stories revolve around adventure fiction stereotypes.

 

[The Memetic Susurrus]

I actually think the whole moral thing is a deliberate choice. Star Trek is about us, America and western civilization to be exact. Now they’re in a war and morals are starting to slip, just like with us. Some of the crew is actually questioning this because it is how Starfleet and the Federation traditionally behave. I think this is all going somewhere.

But going...where?

I mean, okay, if it's an allegory for public morality slipping during the conduct of war...where's the parallel to here, today? Hardly anyone in the West is actually fighting the war. Less than one percent of the U.S. is in the armed forces. Unless this is a commentary about the surveillance state's growing equities but, if that's the case, we would've seen stories about, oh, Tyler (as Security Chief) having to play Big Brother. But we haven't. So that's not the issue.

So what is this leading up to? If it's just the usual "war-is-hell" trope than it's substantively nothing new. Just sloppy Hollywood writing about things they've never experienced (war) and yet they fervently believe to be true (military solutions--even if they are brought on by external contingencies (like Klingons attacking to unify their own, internal political scene)--are never good). It's just...bleh. If that's where this is heading, then it's addled, blinkered thinking at it worst.

In any case, how could it even be about "...morals are starting to slip"? Whose? Lorca's? He's a soldier and soldiers fight with all the tools they are given, within the constraints of the Laws of War. The only people who are scandalised by that are those who are, reflexively, anti-war. But it cannot be that because, as they are telegraphing, it's not even our Lorca so that cannot be the focus of the "...morals are starting to slip." So...what gives? What are they trying to say?

I just don't think there's a unified voice, here. I think Fuller had an idea and it was a short-term one, since he was planning for an anthology. I think the writers did what they could with what they had but there were mistakes and there is no supra-thematic narrative for this. Perhaps it'll be different next season or, perhaps, not.

Heck, at this rate, we might end up with two or three returning characters and that's it!

 

[KittyHAWK]

Iffy iffy. BUT it plays out like it was "black ops."

Maybe it's one of those "black ops" ships.