Spoilers Star Trek: Short Treks 2x04 - "The Girl Who Made the Stars"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
This was beautiful.
She was a kid and that's not how memory works.
I have a sneaking suspicion we'll meet the aliens from the story in Discovery season 3.
Not that surprising as coherent storytelling and Alex Kurtzman are polar opposites
Except that is how memory works and it's hilarious how he wore a badge that indicates Secret Organisation in public
Funny how this animated Short Treks webisode ripped off Prometheus' orrery scene and ET, while doing a Pixar impression yet without any of the charm, wonder or standards
They were on a Section-31 research station out in the middle of nowhere, I'd hardly call that "wearing it in public", and it was apparently a required part of the S-31 uniform at one point as seen in an early DISCOVERY episode.
It kinda-sorta helps to remember that Section-31 wasn't always a completely secret part of the Federation/Star Fleet.
I wouldn't remember something my dad wore when I was 5.
I remember from back when I was about 5, one of my Aunt's picking me up from my playpen.
It's vivid in my brain cause I remember she had to shoo our two boxers (Duchess & Beenie) out of the playpen (they were my constant companions as a very young child) and she had really bright red hair.
But I can't for the life of me remember what she was wearing or even what she said to me after shooing the dogs away.
I assume the Black Badge means something more than "Section 31". Like, Starfleet R&D or need-to-know Intelligence or something. Basically, "Black Badge" means "Move along, crewman, this guy's working on something you can't question."
Section 31 repurposed the black badge for their own secrecy, but it's used far beyond them, just like the three colored divisions (red, gold, blue) are used in varied specialties with sometimes little connection to each other.
In the first episode, Michael saw Black Badgers, but didn't respond when Stone was asking about it. Not because she knew they were Section 31, but because she knew they were guarding something not to be looked in on. In S2, she states that the black badge means Section 31 when shown with Tyler and Georgiou, but that could be inference based on eliminating other positions that use the badge, and she wasn't corrected by them.
Section 31 repurposed the black badge for their own secrecy, but it's used far beyond them, just like the three colored divisions (red, gold, blue) are used in varied specialties with sometimes little connection to each other.
In the first episode, Michael saw Black Badgers, but didn't respond when Stone was asking about it. Not because she knew they were Section 31, but because she knew they were guarding something not to be looked in on. In S2, she states that the black badge means Section 31 when shown with Tyler and Georgiou, but that could be inference based on eliminating other positions that use the badge, and she wasn't corrected by them.
Section 31 is a legitimate branch of Starfleet in Discovery, not the secret conspiracy of DS9.
I liked this short a lot, but it's just so jarring with the rest of Trek that it connects to. It seems like a kid-friendly animation and you would assume the sequels would be kid-friendly as well, and then you remember that Mike Burnham ends up brutally killed by Klingons not too long after this short...
That's a very good explanation! 31 was hidden, but still part of Starfleet Intelligence in DS9. So if departments like SI and Internal Affairs all have that black badge, and 31 is simply a more secretive group within the larger black badge group of people, it makes perfect sense. Finally I can accept the badges XD
That creates a lot of issues, since the fable is clearly intended as fiction and the visuals meant to be baby Michael's imagination. It would imply Michael's dad was telling a true story about things that actually happened, which would be really ridiculous.
That could mean that the alien girl isn't even from a 'real' Trek race, but just something Michael made up in her head.
How many heads would spin and explode with that little fact.
That could mean that the alien girl isn't even from a 'real' Trek race, but just something Michael made up in her head.
How many heads would spin and explode with that little fact.
A couple ideas:
- the alien takes the form of Michael's imaginary childhood alien, and is actually noncorporeal or just even weirder looking. We see similar events in "Imaginary Friend", "Catspaw", "The Child", and even Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- Michael based the fantasy alien on some other mythical alien she heard of (Iconians? Preservers?), and that's the aliens she runs across.
- the Short Trek is not completely in Michael's head. All we know is that she was told the story by her dad, but the details shown to us aren't necessarily the same details she imagined. Thus, when the Short Trek ancient alien shows up, even if it confirms some of Michael's fable (that it visited Earth and, I guess, lit up the sky for awhile so some random village can fight night predators), Michael won't recognize the alien from the story, even if we do.
