Logline
Commander Una Chin-Riley faces court-martial along with possible imprisonment and dishonorable dismissal from Starfleet, and her defense is in the hands of a lawyer who’s also a childhood friend with whom she had a terrible falling out.
Written by Dana Horgan
Directed by Valerie Weiss
“I regret that you had to witness that outburst.”
Best line in the show!
Yeah Spock makes this show much better
I really like this Spock, don’t get me wrong, but I’m finding his increasing “humanness” a bit distracting. I mean, making a joke in court? That was a bit far-fetched.
One of the problems that this show has to grapple with is that we already know Spock very well from Leonard Nimoy’s portrayal. I’d go so far as to say that - notwithstanding a few gaps - every major event of his life is known to the audience, and we are very familiar with how he’s “meant to be”.
What then is an actor to bring to such a part? Ethan Peck can’t just replicate Nimoy’s performance - for one thing, it would be boring. The writers take advantage of this series being a prequel to do the only thing they can: show how Spock became the Spock that we know from TOS. They use his appearance in the TOS pilot “The Cage”, where he was visibly more emotional and “human”, as a touchstone, and make his journey towards emotional control and “Vulcan-ness” part of his character arc for this show.
I went into it a little in another post, but I think Spock’s manner is more familiar and “one of the guys” because he’s allowed himself to become emotionally attached to the rest of the crew, and that bleeds into his personality, making him more liable to use humour and jokes to relieve tension. A few years later, when Kirk takes command and many of these officers have moved on, he decides that he will be more emotionally guarded, letting his guard down only with Uhura and Chapel - and only in brief, relaxed moments.
While it was played as a joke, the whole “was she hiding something” had me on first watch going “but everyone is hiding something, surely”
Spock was highlighting this with his trademark precision.
I took as needling the Vulcan Jag…which he couldn’t resist. The set-up was his uncontrolled outburst in the Enterprise mess.
I really enjoyed it. Star Trek is at its strongest when it gives itself time to mull over philosophical, ethical, and social issues. This episode really knocked it out of the park. Just really well-written overall.
This was a fantastic episode. One thing I liked in particular was that they had an actual lawyer defend Una, and not just have Pike do it.
Oh yeah, an actual lawyer and one who was not assigned by Starfleet. Una was also spot on with her complaint that her original counsel was paid by those prosecuting her. 👏
They kept the tradition alive by having a starship captain handle the prosecution, though.
But in contrast, this lawyer (Neera) won by mainly by being a good lawyer (albeit in a tv legal drama kind of way). Setting things on fire with the first witness to create a bunch of fog and doubt about the premise of the case, realising that other important regulations impinge on the case and setting up testimony to substantiate the effect of those regulations.
My memory of most other officer-lawyers is that their methods tend to focus more on the moral “issyew” (Picard’s pronunciation of “issue” in Measure of a Man).
“issyew”
/ˈɪsjuː/ is very common in RP. You hear it all the time in parliament.
This was an absolute gem. I don’t have much of substance to add just now (except that those dress uniforms are very nice), but after being on the whole disappointed by the season opener I am extremely pleased with this episode. Definitely one of the strongest in the show so far, which is no small feat.
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Loved it. Star Trek has always been handwavy with legal rules in favour of a compelling debate and this was no exception.
As a Canadian, I instantly started thinking about the metaphor in terms of laws the Canadian government had against indigenous people practicing or teaching their cultural practices.
On the other hand, as a gay man, I was thinking about when homosexuality was considered a criminal practice and how sometimes gay men will stay in the closet to avoid discrimination.
One of the things that’s most interesting to me is how many minorities groups Una’s experience maps to in some rhyming way.
I thought trans people were a good fit for the metaphor, given the body alterations that can be involved.
I’ve heard a number of people interpret it about themselves, which is really good, the allegory was understandable while still being a cohesive story.
Measure of a woman
That was a beauty! I love this crew! Seeing them all back Una up made me quite emotional. I’m a soppy git.
Is it me or is SNW the best looking trek ever? Everything just looks so cool. I bloody love it.
I largely quite like SNW, but this episode had some extremely questionable eugenics apologia laced into the narrative.
I think the broadest problem with nu-trek (though it’s strongly reined in in SNW) is the heavily maudlin over-scoring and the bathos-laden dialogue. When almost every exchange between two characters sounds “perfectly written” and is dripping in score, it’s hard to take seriously.
If SNW employed like, 20% more restraint in that regard, it would sing.
What a beautiful episode. The message was great and it wasn’t ambiguous enough for people to really misinterpret or miss it while still remaining an indirect allegory for current times. The allegory was clearly about either homosexuality or undocumented immigrants and I appreciate that people from either group can likely relate to this episode. As a gay guy I have to say I definitely did.
Also, the scene with Spock’s “outburst” was hilarious and I loved seeing the (on the surface) emotionless Spock once again.
Overall I loved the episode and I’m very glad to see one I love after personally disliking the previous one.
The allegory was trans people. Hence all the talk of needing to ‘pass’ to be accepted and the wonderful lil touch of Unas child cast being the colours of the Trans flag
It is not unlikely that this is the allegory they had in mind primarily, but so much of the bigotry and hatred depicted applied to gays, blacks, jews, women and probably more groups, too.
We’re rhyming history, every generation we’re trying to overcome prejudice, oppression and hatred against a new minority, only for some to conjure up a new distinguishing feature to define a minroty to be ostracized. It feels like treading water sometimes, can’t we just cut through the bullshit in one go, but no, we have to go through all the steps, while some new group (or a subgroup of a previous group) has to endure all the pain this brings. Sometimes it feels like we’re not really getting better. But maybe we are. But it’s still too slow, it still repeats itself, and nowadays we might experience multiple such cycles in our lifetime, when at some point it took generations to get that kind of progress?
There were also parts of it that could easily be interpreted as Jim Crow era politics. Passing was a thing for Blacks as well. Splitting into two different cities reminded me of both redlining and “separate but equal.” Of course, history repeats itself, and this allegory could also be applied to Jews, Native Americans, and any other persecuted minority, including gay and trans people. Una’s whole situation could pretty easily be mapped onto a “don’t ask, don’t tell” situation as well.
Ah, I’d missed that detail. I was on the fence about whether or not it was a trans allegory because it didn’t initially feel like there were as many similarities in her story to being trans as there was to homosexuality and being an undocumented immigrant but upon further consideration I have to agree. Though it does seem to me like it is also about those other groups I mentioned. I suppose it’s a bit of a catch-all (which worked great).
The way Illyrians were segregated into Illyrian and non-Illyrian cities except for people who could pass echoes the Jim Crow era of US history, with black people being segregated and some of them trying to pass for white.
The refusal of service to those who were found to be Illyrian is like antisemitic attitudes in pre-war Nazi Germany, or the refusal of service to homosexuals. Most of what happened can be compared to any persecuted minority, racial or sexual.
That’s the beauty of a good metaphor. And the ugly universality of bigotry.
I really like the look fo the dress uniforms. Surprised that they never got Pike to the stand, especially after Una confessing that she told Pike 4 months ago.
Now that the cast has been reset, I’m ready for them to explore some strange new worlds.
I think this episode was really good…if the issue of discrimination was over literally anything other than a social practice of genetic modification. Star Trek’s hardline stance on linking social genetic modification to eugenics is one of the things that I’ve really appreciated, especially as corrosive “thought experiments” about it have sort of entered back into the discourse. I don’t think you can practice genetic manipulation on a society wide level without it going very bad very fast. At least I don’t think humans can, and the episode doesn’t really make a case for why the Illyrians are better at it.
The core message of this episode is so important, especially at this current moment, and the right of people to self determination and to safety and security in their identities and differences is right at the heart of Star Trek, so I’m glad to see SNW continue to affirm it. But…just…there are reasons, real reasons, with lots of horrific history behind them, for why normalizing genetic manipulation in the name of improving or “fixing” populations of people is still a real third rail for me, and I wish the episode had figured out how to engage with that specifically a bit more. This episode does not actually convince me that in the far future utopia of the Federation the dangers of genetic modification as a practice have been addressed, and in absence of that “It used to happen and its bad, but stuff is better now and can’t we relax a little” is a bit…hollow
I think you could fix this for me if you made it so that Illyrian genetic modification was something that members of their species voluntarily entered into in adolescence or early adulthood. Make it more of a practice that people voluntarily keep up and less of a program that their society runs and the whole thing works way better for me. That also makes the loose analogy to transgender people in our current time, and really just the right of bodily autonomy and self determination, way more coherent.
Thank you! Came on here because the episode left such a bad taste in my mouth. I’m a queer person with multiple disabilties, one of which is known to be genetic. Using genetic engineering as the metaphor for marginalized groups felt like a trojan horse to garner public sympathy for genetic engineering.
And through making genetic engineering acceptable then we’re opening up the world to letting parents engineer the gay out of their children and to engineer the neurodivergence out of their children.
Instead of being a story about accepting marginalized groups to me it feels like they’re actively pushing for a technology that can be used to wipe out marginalized groups. Why did the writers do this? They literally did not have to set this up or write it this way.
Also the references to the Eugenics Wars as though they are somehow irrelevant today just did not at all sit well with me as somebody who is high risk for covid. This whole pandemic the drumbeat has been “only those with pre-existing conditions will die” and we have been fighting for our lives to get the most minimal public health measures and the ableds just keep putting their conviences over our lives. Eugenics is still here, it’s still going strong, but we’re just not calling it eugenics anymore.
But…just…there are reasons, real reasons, with lots of horrific history behind them, for why normalizing genetic manipulation in the name of improving or “fixing” populations of people is still a real third rail for me, and I wish the episode had figured out how to engage with that specifically a bit more.
Other episodes did, and I hope we’ll see more of that. Specifically, it’s about Illyrian culture: Genetic modification is deeply ingrained, required in their ethics: “We don’t terraform planets, that’s disrespectful of nature, we transform ourselves”, as heard previous season (I’m sure someone will fill in the episode number). As such the practice doesn’t root in a desire for dominance or superiority, but gentleness towards the universe.
That is, the issue with the eugenics wars wasn’t genetic manipulation itself, but that humanity was war-like and out for dominance and superiority. The augments’ attitude of supremacy simply reflect cultural attitudes back then, they were not caused by genetic modifications, but enabled. (Alternatively: The bad idea of imbuing augments with such a sense was due to bonkers scientists influenced by cultural attitudes).
Or maybe more like entheogens: Drugs that kill one society are used responsibly and for benefit by others because they have cultural practices regulating them, rites (regulations) saying when and where and why they should be used.
If the federation ever gets around to legalising genetic manipulation having regulations written by Illyrians and Denobulans sounds like a very good idea.
What I can’t get out of my head this morning is actually Bashir’s plotline with his parents on DS9, because it captures what’s so insidious about even “benevolent” genetic modification. He’s not angry at them just because they broke the law, he’s angry at them because they decided they didn’t like who he was and chose to transform him into someone else, someone he feels is a different person. And this is actually the fundamental argument against a social program of gene management in real life; it allows society to police what types of bodies and what types of minds are “normal” and flattens species diversity and experience diversity in favor of whatever the norms say is “better”. The danger isn’t just the risk of Khan like supermen, its a moral argument against determining how people’s bodies and minds are going to develop before they can even consent, even before they’re born.
As strongly as I feel about this, I do think you could create a case for why what the Ilyrians do is meaningfully different, the “adapting to other planets rather than making them adapt to us” idea is interesting and complicated, but it felt extremely cursory in this ep
The tricky philosophical line here for me is - what are we allowed to say parents can’t do in regards to what they see as improving their children’s life? https://sopuli.xyz/comment/525354
is one comment I made, that I’ll try not to repeat here, but will add to. Genetics is not destiny. However, before a person exists it’s hard for me to see how adjusting that person is not liking who he was. To me, this is like saying you don’t like your new car (when you don’t have a car yet) and deciding to buy the SUV instead of the Pickup - and people saying you changed the car. This may be a weak analogy but the point is - Bashir didn’t exist, he never “was” something else.
And what about schooling and other cultural influences? I would say we can make cases similar to yours about religion, about schooling, and more today. People are certainly changed from some ideal form of “what they might have been” - we’re culturally a blank slate, something is going to fill that. We’re fighting about laws that limit what people can be before they can consent right now in anti-trans laws in Florida, but somehow I feel like you might not be so pro bans in that case, even though it’s basically the same argument - we shouldn’t let parents decide to treat kids before the kids can legally consent (at 18) so we should just “let nature take its course”.
I’m also stuck with the idea that society shouldn’t “police what types of bodies and what types of minds are “normal” and flattens species diversity and experience diversity in favor of whatever the norms say is “better”” I thing that’s bad from a government imposed stance, but from a personal choice stance you seem to be doing the same thing, you’re just imposing variations rather than conformity. But why is one better imposed by the government than the other? I also feel like policing norms, and heck, creating norms, is kind of a definition of a society. We might not like the extremes, but if there are no norms or policing, you have a large collection of individuals and anarchy, not a society IMO.
The tricky philosophical line here for me is - what are we allowed to say parents can’t do in regards to what they see as improving their children’s life?
Eugenics, parents can’t do fucking eugenics
For an episode whose argument hinged on genetic engineering being a cultural practice for the Ilyrians it is strange they never actually had anybody testify as to what significance it has in Ilyrian culture. Or how it is done and why.
If the genetic engineering is done to adapt to their inhospitable atmosphere why are they doing it to every child? They could just edit the germline once and be done with it.
Altogether it felt like the writers just got very attached to the idea of genetically modified individuals as a metaphor for real world marginalized groups that they lost track both of the in-universe practicalities of the metaphor and the real world implications for the metaphor. This was just outright sympathetic to eugenicists, an ideology that has led to the deaths of millions of marginalized people.
@varda @ValueSubtracted Maybe I missed something but I thought the Ilyrians were all about augmentation, both genetic and technological. I think there’s a huge difference between taking something, making it better and the pursuit of a perfect race. I too would like to know more.
There’s no difference actually. You seem uneducated about eugenics
@bulbasaur “the study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable.” Very different from augmenting oneself with current tech, like vaccination.
Vaccination does not modify your genes, so it’s completely irrelevant to this conversation
While I agree I am curious as to the why/how from an intellectual place, I don’t think it bears relevance to the decision based on federation bias. Reminds me of a Canadian “barbaric practices” hotline that was created years ago in a <opinion> misguided </opinion> attempt to assimilate immigrants to Canadian culture. Could there be cultural practices inconsistent with federation values? Maybe. Is this one of them? Not in my opinion
Eugenics is actually disgusting and horrific and totally inconsistent with the values of anyone who isn’t a nazi
It is a bit tiring watching my space escapism but it’s actually just highly contemporary societal issues, I know I shouldn’t expect it not to be, because this series has been highly contemporary from the very first episode, but it’s frustrating.
Almost everything about the show, from casting, effects, costumes, practical effects, vibe, directing, camerawork is all excellent.
The writing however is a straight 4/10. Not for the contemporary issues, though they contribute, but half the conversations in this series simply don’t make sense. Has anyone else noticed this?
Star Trek has always been contemporary issues wrapped in the veneer of space aliens. It’s not meant to be pure escapism.
This was my first Star Trek Series, I’ve now realised it’s a theme. It’s certainly my least favourite aspect of the show.
The episode about child sweatshops in particular felt very accusational to me, the message seemed to be that by existing I’m causing child suffering akin to child murder, through cobalt mines and clothing sweatshops etc.
I’m reminded of that bit in The Good Place where the judge says “There’s a chicken burger that, if you eat it, means you hate gay people. And it’s so gooood! It’s not fair!” (Referring to chik-fil-a)
It’s more than a theme, it’s the entire cloth the show is cut from. It’s meant to be a vehicle for progressive, egalitarian, humanist ideals. It dares to see the world as a better place without the chains and vices of greed and capitalism and bigotry.
It’s not popcorn sci-fi. It’s a surprisingly deep show meant to make you confront biases and prejudices you may not have even realized you had.
Yes I get that, I simply find it doesn’t achieve that goal and that its attempts to do so are without subtlety and overly contemporary, I’m now watching Discovery and in S01E03 or so, Captain Lorca cites Elon Musk as a great innovator.
The show is already dated and it’s only 5 years old, that’s a major downside.
I think it’s primarily the shallow depth of the prejudice confrontation that causes the problem, I don’t remember any episodes so far which didn’t feel like primary school level metaphors for racism etc. A more tactful and/or deeper writer would perhaps cause me no issues
The Elon comment kinda comes back around, you’ll just need to keep watching and it’ll make sense. Also, that image I used above was from a TOS episode about racism being stupid all the way back in the 60s. It’s not trying to be subtle, and it never was.
And there’s STILL people who think it’s a show that glorifies and celebrates white, western colonialism and American exceptionalism. It has to be blatant because people miss the point regularly.
You’re free to stop watching.
What you’re saying is that you hate actually having to acknowledge that you consume stuff that causes pain and suffering and would rather just ignore it.
Correct. How do you propose I live in the modern world without a phone that uses cobalt?
There is a phrase that describes this situation: “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism”
There is nothing I can do while living in the modern world without benefitting from exploitation or encouraging evil, that’s the point of the The Good Place quote I included.
I’m already depressed about it, I don’t really want to be berated for it when there’s nothing I can do about it. I already buy all my clothes second hand, fight my phone and laptop for basic privacy rights, vote for the least evil politician I can, I don’t own a car.
You can fight the system
A mediocre episode whose saving grace was the message. I get what they were going for and I agree with it, as an episode though… meh. It would have been nice to see the Federation fight back a little bit, just for drama purposes. The vibe I got was that even the prosecution was not 100% on board with the law but since it was a law they had to uphold it; imo it would have been more interesting to have a more passionate prosecution. Measure of a Man had Riker, Drumhead had Satie, both good opponents for the heroes. Who was the antagonist here? The bald Vulcan guy who spoke for 2 minutes?
Also the flashback made me feel like the director thinks I’m some sort of idiot who can’t remember what happened a few minutes ago. What was the point of that?
I also feel like the episode squandered the opportunity to explore the theme of genetic engineering itself. Why is it so dangerous anyway? Would’ve been nice to hear that side of the argument.
As a sidenote, I don’t like how bigoted the Federation appears to be; this whole ban on augments never sat right with me, not in DS9 and not now.
The antagonist was pretty clearly the bald Vulcan guy. The prosecutor didn’t think the law was just, but it was her job. Kind of like Riker being forced in Measure of a Man.
I think it was made clear in DS9 and reinforced here that the whole Federation POV was entirely because of the scars on earth of the Eugenics Wars. I feel like it’s maybe analogous to the Patriot Act - passed because of a traumatic event, but now decades (or centuries on) kind of hard to justify for anyone, but getting rid of a law is hard.
And the entire point of the episode was the Federation is bigoted against augments, and no - there’s no good reason for it. It’s about as good as the argument that because Mao and Stalin were atheists, we should ban atheism - as if THAT’s what made them horrible people. And there’s nothing in the canon to imply that Khan and the other augment war lords were war lords and fighting the wars because they were augments.
I’ve said other places I think this hypocrisy of the Federation is actually pretty justified in earlier Trek, we may not like it - but it’s not because of nuTrek IMHO. Of course, because Prequel, they also can’t fix it.
The Patriot Act is evil, laws against eugenics are good
