This actually brings to mind a very good question. How DOES Alora know that the kid suffers? It doesn't seem like there's an opportunity to unplug one and ask them. For all they know the machine floods the kid with dopamine and other feel-good drugs.
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x06 - "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I worked in TV casting for 15 years. It's ugly -- there's a reason I got out of it -- but what I describe is standard operating procedure. There's also some other points in nuTrek that point to the same kind of thinking -- Marina Sirtis being the only returning cast member to get shitty billing on "Picard", Blu Del Barrio and Ian Alexander starting as recurring despite being featured with all the regulars in the key art for seasons 3 & 4 respectively.
Do I know for sure that's what happened with Horak? No, and I'm not claiming to. All I'm saying is I've been behind-the-scenes on A TON of situations that, to the viewer, look exactly like this one, and in my experience 100% of the time the truth of the situation was exploitative business affairs people, or producers who unconsciously regarded the more marginalized actors as being worth less. There were always more benign explanations that were theoretically possible, but those were never the reality.
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Whatever the truth of Horak's situation is, I appreciate your perspective and you citing your experience. Way too many people on the internet (both here and elsewhere) throw weight around and don't cite any experience to back up why their viewpoint is supposedly so obviously superior to everyone else's. I appreciate using past examples and actual reasoning.
I can imagine that putting on all that make-up every time would be hellish, especially if you have no substantial scenes, and so the actor might be fine with being cut out of some episodes. I would often feel bad when Worf or Odo or Neelix would be in an episode for less than a minute back in the day.
I am wondering if the planet's "hell" is a myth. Maybe the colony founders felt they had to use a child for the very reason that it's shocking to the conscience. Stop your petty squabbles, because a child is suffering for you to have the world you are in. I guess since Alora was searching for an alternative, that makes it unlikely, but it feels kind of like the scapegoat - put all your sins on the goat and then sacrifice the goat.
I am wondering if the planet's "hell" is a myth. Maybe the colony founders felt they had to use a child for the very reason that it's shocking to the conscience. Stop your petty squabbles, because a child is suffering for you to have the world you are in. I guess since Alora was searching for an alternative, that makes it unlikely, but it feels kind of like the scapegoat - put all your sins on the goat and then sacrifice the goat.
The only "science"-y reason might be is that a child's brain is more flexible (they learn languages quicker than adults, etc.) than an older person's would be.
Hmm in regards to alternatives, I'm surprised the planet hasn't cloned their own "First Servants" repeatedly. Yeah they're still individuals who have a right to a life free of suffering, but it'd provide the illusion of more morality to the people. Even the Jedi over at that other star franchise had no problems using clones as slaves.
Pike didn't respond to her own accusations about his society, which sounds like her comments hit the mark.
That doesn't sound quite right. Seems more likely that he got billing because he's going to be there more often than not, and they don't want him to be just a secondary character.
I suspect it's simply not the case that a child is needed (anymore?) because a civilization with such advanced medical technology seems like they'd be able to create clonish brains with no ability to attain consciousness. Obviously many, many reasons they haven't can be come up with.
It can be. I mean, I've literally done it more than once on shows I've worked on, upgraded the billing between shooting and airing.
It's not that common and there would be no need to do it on a show that is run well and run perfectly ethically (but I never encountered a show that was both those things), but it does happen.
What is common is to do a whole big casting search for a great regular role, and if the winning actor is someone totally green or authentically disabled or someone who just really needs a job or whatever it might be, when you turn it over to business affairs to make the deal they light up when they learn the actor has no profile or limited other options, because now we can hire them for nothing, turn that series regular deal into a recurring guest star contract, etc.
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So? I wasn't counting. Sorry, Captain Contrary.
I legit think this post was more depressing than the Trek episode. Ouch.
Horak not being part of the main cast is something I'm 100% fine with. In a perfect world, actors would only appear in a given episode if there was a story reason for them. That's why I think a lot of the frequent recurring characters from DS9 (Garak, Nog, Martok, etc.) are so highly regarded - they only appeared when there was a story reason for them to be there, and the writers never had to construct "filler scenes" for contractual reasons.
Another fresh take on some classic Trek tropes. I think my brain is broken in that I knew the alien woman was 'bad' the moment they beamed her aboard, but I guess when you watch too much Star Trek you kind of just get primed to expect these beats. lol
So far the series has been firing on all cylinders and might be the first season where I genuinely think every episode is good.
So far the series has been firing on all cylinders and might be the first season where I genuinely think every episode is good.
Sorry! It was a depressing field. You would really connect with the actors, then one of them would win a role that should have paid a life-changing amount of money, and then my next conversation is with an attorney who's practically having an orgasm on the phone because the actor has no power so we can just hire them for the union minimum -- UGH. I hated so much of it.
Since I now have casting on the brain -- damn that child actor was great! All those technical lines for a child, that role must have been a nightmare to cast, but they really nailed it with this kid.
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The "Omelas" story did sound like "The Beast Below", but this episode reminded me of "The Rings of Akhaten".
Just saw this on IMDB:
"This is a new script based upon an unused TOS script by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry."
"This is a new script based upon an unused TOS script by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry."
IMDB not the "strongest" source...
Has anyone official verified that though? It's going to be messy now saying that Gene got to this before Le Guin did in 1973, although I think the concept predates both of them.
I thought at first when the episode started that this was going to be a redressed Kitumba script.
It's also hard to believe given how many unused TOS/Phase 2 scripts were used in TNG's first two seasons out of desperation for anything and then even later on when stories were needed. This story had been sitting around for over 50 years and never got used in all the times they were desperate for a story to make an episode?
At this point the only way to clarify is to ask one of the showrunners/writers on twitter and see if they answer.