Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x02 - "Ad Astra Per Aspera"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
It's odd because they use the language of 'passing', for obvious allegorical reasons, but it makes it seem like the modifications are random, completely at the whim of the parents, and can have completely unintended results. It almost makes it feel like 'magic' or something from a fantasy novel.
The argument made seems to be 'she was a victim who was forced to be augmented against her will by her parents and then suffered massive persecution because of it, hence why she needed asylum'.
Of course, now that I think about it, it seems odd you can get asylum from your own "country" because it's contextualized within the prejudices of the Federation itself. It would be like a Trans person and their family feeling from Florida and requesting asylum in New York due to the evil laws being passed there, which I would totally understand, except both states are within the USA...
I will admit that the one part of the episode that I had to suspend disbelief was that the Starfleet Uniform Code Of Justice was a book and not on a Padd. That took it from a 10 to a 9 
I wonder if this Vulcan dickwad will be significant later in the season.
He actually doesn't, because episode 10 showed us that contrary to what Discovery tried to claim time isn't fixed.
What the fuck did I just watch? This has got to be the single best episode of Star Trek in … what, twenty or so years. Certainly the best of the show yet. Everything in this was pitch perfect – the dialog, the acting (Yetide Badaki especially was brilliant), the sets, the costumes … heck, even the music was on point – I don‘t think I would change one thing about it. It‘s good to know that this show is gifted with a set of writers that gets that Trek can deliver some of its best, most engaging and most meaningful stories even without any kind of action scene or special effect spectacle. Everything in this story rings true for me and I like how very obviously it‘s an allegory for the treatment of trans people in the US right now, right down to mentioning how anti-trans legislation leads to more open hatred and violence towards them in the general public. Scary just how topical all of this unfortunately is.
10 / 10
More of this, please!
10 / 10
More of this, please!
Let's not go too crazy.
It's likely something that developed so that Starfleet captains could have the power to grant asylum to people and groups they encounter while out in space without having to travel all the way back to the Federation to have an asylum tribunal.
You just said the same thing twice.
Generally the music has been pretty good on the show so far. But I noticed two stings in this one that were particularly good. Sounded like the composer tipping their hat to original series scores.
An episode in the fine tradition of "Measure of a Man". And the tribunal got it right... the Federation's laws against genetic modification are like their policy of surface reconnaissance on pre-warp planets: as Picard said, "a controversial decision... I believe it prevented more problems than it created". Allowing unrestricted genetic modification would (1) risk creating Khan 2.0, and (2) risk creating a society where you practically had to be genetically modified to be a success. However, like Robert April's (and others later) sidesteps of the Prime Directive, there is a time to apply exceptions to the rules.
Simply being Khan's descendant is not a crime. La'an can't be held responsible for that. You don't get to choose your relatives.
If she had personally had genetic enhancement done on her own self, then THAT would be verboten. But she didn't do that.
(side note: I wonder if the mother of Khan's kid(s) was Marla McGivers?)
But Una didn't personally decide to augment herself either. The episode said her parents did it at birth without her consent (never mind that doesn't make any sense, that's apparently how it works for them).
^ No, but she did lie on her application to Starfleet Academy.
It's like Simon Tarses from TNG. The problem wasn't simply that his grandfather was Romulan, the problem was HE LIED ABOUT IT.
It's like Simon Tarses from TNG. The problem wasn't simply that his grandfather was Romulan, the problem was HE LIED ABOUT IT.
Took me awhile to recognize Chiv, but it hit me: Eugene Clark! He was Detective Colby Burns in one of my favorite TV cop shows, Night Heat.
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10/10, would cry and clap again.
A really quite good episode. And I don't compare it to "Measure of a Man", because I don't consider it a good one. People like it because it tackled some serious issues and was less worse of what went before, but all the story doesn't make a inch of sense (We discussed it in the TNG forum and almost everyone agrees that if you scrutiny it just a little bit it immediately falls apart).