• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x02 - "Ad Astra Per Aspera"

Hit it!

  • Total voters
    232
Hell, Areel Shaw had a past relationship with Kirk before TOS so really shouldn't have been the prosecuting attorney in his Ben Finney wrongful death court martial and Una's attorney is a fellow Illyrian who grew up with her. I'm more concerned about the conflicts of interest as well as Captain Batel being the main prosecutor in this trial not being an overriding issue than I am with Una's attorney not having a history with the JAG office.

In other words: I just don't care enough to do much nitpicking. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and it landed effectlvely. Screw the small details which can sort of be handwaved away by saying this is about 250 years from now and jurisprudence has changed somewhat.
 
Serveaux said:
It's pretty obvious how this has to go down.
They're going to overturn Starfleet's regulation against genetic engineering.
We'll see tomorrow whether that's what happens, or not.
Click to expand...
Nope!

The regulation is very much intact. A trial can't overturn the law so that obviously wasn't going to happen in this episode. Plus, we know it was still an issue for Bashir in DS9.
 
Wow! That was a great episode! A rare 10 from me!

I'm not the biggest courtroom drama fan in general. And it's tough to do an effective trial because it's mostly people talking. But this one hit all the right notes in terms of characters, emotions, and the substance of the case. Very effectively and cleverly written. It also serves as a great allegory.

The trial's conclusion was a creative pulling together of the various threads earlier in the episode. Just when you think it takes a serious turn for the worse when the case starts to include Pike--that becomes part of the resolution.

There are several potential legal nitpicks (e.g., you don't seek asylum after a 25 year Starfleet career), but they pale in comparison to all the good stuff!
 
Mr Awe said:
Wow! That was a great episode! A rare 10 from me!

I'm not the biggest courtroom drama fan in general. And it's tough to do an effective trial because it's mostly people talking. But this one hit all the right notes in terms of characters, emotions, and the substance of the case. Very effectively and cleverly written. It also serves as a great allegory.

The trial's conclusion was a creative pulling together of the various threads earlier in the episode. Just when you think it takes a serious turn for the worse when the case starts to include Pike--that becomes part of the resolution.

There are several potential legal nitpicks (e.g., you don't seek asylum after a 25 year Starfleet career), but they pale in comparison to all the good stuff!
Click to expand...
I see the grant for asylum as a way for Starfleet to save face, and use it as cover to protect their own posteriors from any further systemic change they're not ready or willing to make.
 
Stronger writing than last week and, again, this cast bounces off of each other really well. Uhura standing up to La'an was a big heart-eyes moment - they grow up so fast! And oof...I feel like a counselor could have a field day with La'an immediately presuming that she somehow had a hand in ruining her friend's career; that lady carries so much guilt. Also really appreciated how the writers managed to land Una staying in Starfleet while still having the augment prejudice still enshrined in law.

The only bit that sticks out for me is that I do feel like the Federation's general complacency wrt the persecution/exclusion of the genetically augmented worked better when we had the sense that it was something that they never had to look square in the eye - it was something only dealt with at a remove or once in a blue moon, so it was easier to ignore the implications. Like when we'd hear "Oh, the So-And-So applied for Federation membership, but they use Random Gene Technology, so we turned them down" or when you had the rare one-off case like Bashir or Dal. A case like Una's feels like it should have been the next step in having the Federation face some uncomfortable questions about this particular boogeyman, as opposed to a backfill story that means the Federation did so little soul searching in the meantime that it still has that law on the books a century later. But such are the perils of prequels, and I still had a really good time with this one.
 
Now this is the most Star Trek Star Trek I've seen probably in almost two decades.

Minor quibbles - did it over egg it at time? Of course. I could have done with about 50 less reaction shots.

But man this fired on many cylinders.

Those getting themselves in froth of excitement over drugged-up Chapel smashing Klingons are probably entirely the people that won't like this. It's talky. It goes nowhere (physically). It's what would have been a bottle show back in the day.

And it echoes the old bottle shows like the Drumhead and of course it closest match The Measure of a Man.

But it did the world building. It had the ensemble cast doing their thing. It had the touches of humour amongst the seriousness (the Vulcan scene is Trek of old, just giving you time with characters that doesn't have to have some massive purpose - it just lets you get to know them). When it wasn't over egging it was turning a lens to our society in myriad ways. And it was also opening up some new lines of interest.

Like the homogeny being created by the Federation, and the impact it had on a society. This is hugely thought provoking stuff and could be explored more.

Also nice that it draws from the tapestry of Star Trek and this is how you do it. Having a Tellerite for example. If this were Picard it'd have been "Shamus Janeway" who gives a speech about how he wants to empower women to be captains one day. But SNW avoids all that nonsense and world builds.

9/10.
 
post-credits scene

Pasalk: Although my Vulcan heritge forbids frustration and anger at failure, if I were human I would be punching walls at the Enterprise crew getting away yet again with flaunting our rules and regulations.

Batel: Then if you were human, you'd be very happy to hear what I found. Dr. M'Benga accidentally dropped this very interesting green vial while he was testifying in our courtroom. I foresee another court martial involving the Enterprise in the very near future.

Pasalk: :vulcan:

Batel: :evil:
 
A strong episode that holds up the proud tradition of Star Trek trial shows being great. I found the backstory a little frustrating, but also I think that's the point: Starfleet and the Federation, while an ideal, is not perfect and is still prejudice. So that the episode made me squirm isn't necessarily a bad thing. There also seemed to be more to Neera and Una's relationship than simply "besties". Una Chin-Riley confirmed Bicon? In pride month, no less? A girl can dream.

Also, I love how this show incorporates Enterprise into the TOS era with the same subtle conviction 90s Trek had with TOS, compared to the way some other shows beat you over the head with references. SNW continues to be the best written Trek since DS9.

8/10
 
Considering the importance we now attach to Captain Batel...what is her full name, please?
 
Serveaux said:
I care that DS9 invented a stupid law with the justification that it was necessary to placate hillbilly humanity.
Click to expand...
I liked this episode (liked it much better than the 1st one) but I wish the episode would have made the two arguments a bit more even handed, and the prosecution's reasoning for the ban a little bit more than just screaming Eugenics Wars.

The explanation for the ban in DS9 that Sisko gives was not only the specter of Khan, but also the idea that parents would be violating the agency of children who are modified before they're even born. And, in that way, parents that assigned genetic attributes to their children would be the equivalent of parents who forced a gender and sexual orientation on their children. That reorients the discussion as to whether the Federation is practicing apartheid or protecting the choices of children to be who they are without a parent forcing an identity upon them. That's seen in DS9 through Bashir resenting his father for not accepting him for who he was, and feeling the need to force a new version of Julian onto the child Julian used to be.

Because of things like that, I had an issue with this episode trying to draw an analogy between augments and being gay, trans, or a racial minority.

Una and Neera say it's an Illyrian custom, as a way to say that the Federation and Starfleet are discriminatory for opposing an Illyrian cultural identity. But in certain parts of Earth in the here and now, female genital mutilation is a cultural ritual. And the governments of the world have a place in prohibiting its use on children.
 
Citiprime said:
I liked this episode (liked it much better than the 1st one) but I wish the episode would have made the two arguments a bit more even handed, and the prosecution's reasoning for the ban a little bit more than just screaming Eugenics Wars.

The explanation for the ban in DS9 that Sisko gives was not only the specter of Khan, but also the idea that parents would be violating the agency of children who are modified before they're even born. And, in that way, parents that assigned genetic attributes to their children would be the equivalent of parents who forced a gender and sexual orientation on their children. That reorients the discussion as to whether the Federation is practicing apartheid or protecting the choices of children to be who they are without a parent forcing an identity upon them. That's seen in DS9 through Bashir resenting his father for not accepting him for who he was, and feeling the need to force a new version of Julian onto the child Julian used to be.

Because of things like that, I had an issue with this episode trying to draw an analogy between augments and being gay, trans, or a racial minority.

Una and Neera say it's an Illyrian custom, as a way to say that the Federation and Starfleet are discriminatory for opposing an Illyrian cultural identity. But in certain parts of Earth in the here and now, female genital mutilation is a cultural ritual. And the governments of the world have a place in prohibiting its use on children.
Click to expand...
The DS9 episode was dumb and narrow-minded. They should have known better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top