Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x03 - "Ghosts of Illyria"

[The Emissary]

Then, there is the idea of enforced regulations of genetic engineering, thanks to ONE planet's bad experience with augmentation, resulting in some seeking to re-bioengineering themselves in order to become acceptable enough for ONE world's benefit.

I've always thought that the Federation's rules/laws against Augments were stupid ever since the treatment of Bashir and his parents.

But they even impose this on other worlds? I can understand there is some type of collective trauma from the Eugenics Wars and they don't trust humanity to augment themselves. But other worlds aren't allowed to either...?

I'm glad this episode at least pushed back on this and highlighted how utterly foolish it is to spread this ban on other worlds.

I also liked how Una reflected on if she would be celebrated for being Illyrian if she had not saved the day.

 

[Noname Given]

Looking at it from a meta perspective, the writers played a very good bait/switch on us. We were all expecting that La'an would be the augment, and although she might have some fractional augment ancestry, that's clearly not salient. Instead Una is...and apparently an alien too? Or are the Illyrians (since it's the name of an ancient country in what's now Yugoslavia) some lost human colony?...

She's an alien..in the same way the Rome-ulans, (With an Empire made up of Centurions and led by Praetors) ...err Romulans (one of the first major 'Adversaries of the Federation™' shown on TOS) are indeed true Aliens - and an offshoot of Vulcan society after the final major war of Vulcan - where Surak started the race on the 'Path of Logic™')

 

[G. Boney]

Both those people are me, so I may be the only one wondering why this apparent change was made.

I'm curious as well.

 

[Trekker4747]

I give it a 9. Honestly, I wouldn't say the "weakest" of the series so far but probably the best. (I've given all the episodes a 9, so they're all some decimal of 9.)

I dunno, I'm just really digging this.

 

[Noname Given]

Similarily, the proscription on genetic alterations is odd in light of TOS, where the augments weren't seen in a bad historical light.

From TOS S1 "Space Seed":
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/24.htm

SPOCK: Your Earth was on the verge of a dark ages. Whole populations were being bombed out of existence. A group of criminals could have been dealt with far more efficiently than wasting one of their most advanced spaceships.

^^^
Is this your idea of: "...in light of TOS, where the augments weren't seen in a bad historical light"??

 

[cooleddie74]

And also, mass murder and massacre aren't necessarily the same thing. Ted Bundy was a mass murderer but he never had crowds of people of one gender, ethnic background or economic status gunned down in an act of reprisal or to instill terror in the wider community. Massacre implies dozens, hundreds or thousands dying in a planned event. Mass murder can simply mean a large death toll over time.

 

[JoaquinSlowly]

Another very solidly entertaining episode.

‪‪Romijn did a great job as they gave the original Number One the focus, and made use of some of her literary Trek backstory, which is fun to see integrated into the onscreen canon.

‪‪I was a little surprised to see Una and La’an talking about Khan so frankly, and while that connection isn’t something ‪‪I was particularly excited for, I like that they aren’t trying to play it close to the vest and being secretive for no reason.

‪‪I’d missed M’Benga last week, so him getting to share a little bit of Una’s spotlight this episode was a pleasant surprise. Hoping we get to see M’Benga able to help Rukiya eventually.

 

[Noname Given]

Wait until we see the rocks falling from the ceiling

^^^
They also need to bounce (like Styrofoam/Foam Rubber) when they hit the floor for the FULLT TOS effect.

 

[Noname Given]

Oh, I think STID is probably the worst Trek film yet made. But I do love 2009 and BEY.

STV:TFF, ST:GEN, ST:INS and ST:NEM would like a word...

 

[Mr Awe]

I gave this one an 8. It's a weak 8 though, not quite up there with the previous two but still pretty good.

The plot itself was a fairly typical virus/plague type story. The rush is to find the cure before everyone dies. It has few nice scenes on the planet surface with Pike and Spock. But nothing stood out as amazing. But definitely enjoyable. The issue with Una was interesting. Kind of retreading old grown though with Bashir. But, OK.

I seem to have dim memories of reading a novel way back about the Pike and Una time and it too indicated she was genetically engineered. Are my dim memories correct?

There are some nits to pick with the science. Seriously, a virus carried by light? Also, not sure how M'benga's separate transporter affected the bio filters on the others. Also, it seems like if you can store patterns in the buffer like that, they'd have dedicated facilities. It would a thing for people with currently incurable diseases. Yeah, it M'benga would want to be close to his daughter but it's risky, as we've seen.

 

[Mr Awe]

If they don't recognize it, they filter it out!

Take that, Disco

I noticed that too! And darn right!

I wonder if they knew they torpedoed Discovery with that?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

. Is the Enterprise a TARDIS? Given some of the sets, this ship definitely feels bigger on the inside than it does the outside. The engineering set is too frickin' big, IMO, too wide open, and too exposed. The bridge is also too large, but far better than some of the other stuff we've seen in JJ-Trek and Disco.

The SNW Enterprise is longer than the TOS Enterprise.

I do wonder, if the Illyrians are augmented only to adapt to worlds, why is Number One so insanely strong? Not sure her story holds.

I wonder if Rebecca Romijin is just incredibly fit on top of being incredibly beautiful / former Super Model.
Rebecca Romijin is 5'11" tall, so she's a tall lady.

Look at how she just towers over La'an in that brief fight scene.

She casually picked him up like he was a doll. That's not something a normal human male can do, never mind a female.

Someone who has a more Amazonian like build could.
Rebecca Romijin is 5'11" tall.

 

[Belz...]

- IF Hemmer could use the Transporter to lock onto, and beams up a piece of the planet's mantle - they SHOULD have been able to beam Pike and Spock back earlier as well.

The ion storm didn't cover the whole planet, but it did cover Pike's and Spock's location. Mantle is BIG.

Assuming, as the episodes to date demonstrate, that Una is highly toned and highly trained, a fireman's carry shouldn't be so hard. Maybe she's naturally stronger due to genetic engineering? Why not

My point is that mad strength isn't just "adapting to new planets".

She's an alien.

Nothing so far suggests that.

From TOS S1 "Space Seed":
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/24.htm

^^^
Is this your idea of: "...in light of TOS, where the augments weren't seen in a bad historical light"??

That's a bit of cherry picking, mind you. The rest of the discussion was quoted earlier in the thread where they laud Khan specifically. The point is that if some of the crew were going out of their way to admire Khan and his actions, then he can't be seen as a mere monster by history, contrary to how Trek has portrayed it since then.

And also, mass murder and massacre aren't necessarily the same thing. Ted Bundy was a mass murderer but he never had crowds of people of one gender, ethnic background or economic status gunned down in an act of reprisal or to instill terror in the wider community.

You're confusing mass murder and serial murder, here. The two are not the same thing.

 

[Belz...]

I noticed that too! And darn right!

I wonder if they knew they torpedoed Discovery with that?

Torpedo what, specifically, in Discovery?

Someone who has a more Amazonian like build could.
Rebecca Romijin is 5'11" tall.

Being tall doesn't make you automatically strong. Have you ever tried to pick an unconscious person up like that? Good luck.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Did she actually lift him or was it a special effect?

 

[Verteron]

I find it really interesting that La'an is likely a granddaughter or great-granddaughter of Khan Noonien Singh, so is potentially one quarter 'augment', but she's allowed to openly serve in Starfleet. Because I'm sure some of the genetic enhancements survived. She seems stronger and possibly faster/smarter than a baseline human of her stature would be, particularly noticeable during her fight with Una when she was thrown across a room several times and didn't appear to be injured.

I wonder where Starfleet draw the line. What percent augment is low enough to be allowed in?

It might also go some way to explaining some future characteristics of Humans in the 24th century if there are some augment genes still floating around. Example: could Shalaft's Syndrome, which doesn't exist in our world, be a recessive augment trait that was supposed to enhance hearing? Perhaps it doesn't play nice if you don't also get the gene tweaks that enhanced the auditory processing centres in the brain...

 

[Noname Given]

Noname Given said: ↑
She's an alien.

Nothing so far suggests that.

That WASN'T the point of my post which you quoted. You LEFT out the most relevant part of my statement IN that post:

She's an alien..in the same way the Rome-ulans, (With an Empire made up of Centurions and led by Praetors) ...err Romulans (one of the first major 'Adversaries of the Federation™' shown on TOS) are indeed true Aliens - and an offshoot of Vulcan society after the final major war of Vulcan - where Surak started the race on the 'Path of Logic™')

If you're going to cherry pick something just to play a 'gotcha' with your replies - please don't include me in that type of BS. You intentionally and COMPLETELY misquoted me in your reply.

 

[Verteron]

Una is...and apparently an alien too? Or are the Illyrians (since it's the name of an ancient country in what's now Yugoslavia) some lost human colony?

A species with the same name that looked different appeared in ENT and were native to the Delphic Expanse. They were the species from whom Archer stole the warp coil. However it could just sound similar, and they might not be the same people. It's unclear from the show at this point although in beta cannon the Illyrians are indeed an alien species (one which Una was long rumoured to be a member of, or at least raised by).

 

[Fateor]

No the problem is: Such Genetic manipulation is illegal in the Federation; and they DON'T allow their citizens to even go to a world outside the Federation to escape said restriction -- the BAN is that stringent.

That said, it also appears there's a kind of 'we won't ask if you don't tell' aspect. The ONLY reason Bashir got in trouble was because he lied about it on his application to join Star Fleet (a criminal offence) - and BECAUSE he was going to be a EMH template, Star Fleet Medical was left with a big egg on its face for not detecting this sooner -- so yeah, it blew up so big SOMEONE had to go to jail -- and it was his father who shouldered the blame because the family also had it done before Julian was of an age to be legally able to consent (IE - His father made the choice for him, so yeah the Federation isn't going to hold him personally responsible for a choice 'forced' on him.) The only conceit in the episode is that Star Fleet allows Julian to remain once everyone knows his status. He should have been dishonorably discharged for lying on his application to Star Fleet - but he he's a regular on the show, so yeah Star Fleet is lenient.

Wrong.

The Darwin Genetic Research Station was a Federation research station studying genetic enhancement.

Chakotay had Sensory Tremens that he had genetically deactivated.

Miral Paris had genetic modification to fix a deviated spine before she was born.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Being tall doesn't make you automatically strong. Have you ever tried to pick an unconscious person up like that? Good luck.

Depends on how light the person is.

Did she actually lift him or was it a special effect?

It looked practical, no VFX. But I could be wrong.

Update:
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-rebecca-romijn-una-illyrian-episode-3

Now that Una’s genetically altered capabilities are out of the bag, it also might mean that we’ll see her undergo further feats of super-strength, such as the moment when we saw her hoist Hemmer (Bruce Horak) over her shoulder like a sack of tricorders.


It’s not surprising to find out that the version of Hemmer she lifted was a dummy (and a very heavy dummy at that, according to Romijn). The dummy was realistic enough, however, that Romijn accidentally assumed it was the flesh-and-blood Hemmer between takes.


“Bruce and I, our cast chairs for when they were doing lighting setups and everything were on the set of Pike’s quarters, which is where Pike's bed is,” Romijn explained. “And so when I walked in, the dummy was on the bed, but I thought it was Bruce because the dummy looked so good — I thought it was Bruce taking a nap. So I was tiptoeing around for like an hour. I was like, ‘Wow Bruce is really tired. What was Bruce doing last night? He's exhausted!’ I was trying to be really quiet … finally Bruce walked in and I was like, ‘Oh, I see what's happening! Okay, got it.’”

So it was a super realistic dummy that was "Really Heavy" that Rebecca Romijn thought was the real person.