Tuesday means Star Trek feelings
Feb. 6th, 2018 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbeeWhich is good, because I have a cat bite which is slightly infected (yes, I'm going to the doctor this afternoon, and he's going to the vet this evening -- originally to get tested for FIV, but also to discuss his mental health), and I have this new thing where I'm really dizzy for the first few days of my period.
(At first I thought I had too much sun at the football on Sunday, but then I remembered this has been happening for the last few months.)
(Hey, you know what's great? Women's AFL. It turns out that I really enjoy sportsball if it's full of women. RELATED: I also really enjoyed this week's Disco.)
Way back around episode 3, I complained that once again we had a Star Trek with just two women in the ensemble, albeit one was the protagonist and it was a smaller ensemble.
Eleven episodes later, we have two regular women plus a pretty considerable array of recurring female characters of various levels of significance, plus Recent Events have left us with only one straight white male in the cast -- and he's encased in latex.
Which means we got to have scenes like the following:
- Michael, Philippa, Kat and Sarek debate Philippa's future
- Michael seeks advice from Philippa
- Kat consults with L'Rell about the nature of Klingon and Federation cultures (which felt weirdly like something from Voyager, not for the specific content, but I don't think we've had women discussing these big, abstract, Trekkian concepts since Janeway and Seven)
- (I have in fact wondered whether Kat is in some ways a reaction against the less-good writing of Janeway back in the day -- there are certainly a bunch of ex-Voyager writers involved with Disco -- or if it's just that our idea of how a woman in power behaves has evolved)
- ANYWAY
- Michael brings a proposal to Kat
- Tilly and Michael discuss death and forgiveness
I'm trying to think of a scene that didn't have at least one woman in it. The only one that comes to mind is the encounter between Ash and Paul in the corridor.
This pleases me deeply, because I'm currently rewatching TNG, and, guys, I love TNG, I think it's a really good show, but so much of it is about Men Having Feelings.
(I mean, Ash Tyler has enough Feelings for two men, and one of them's a Klingon. But, you know.)
(Sorry.)
There's a whole episode ("Redemption") where Crusher and Troi don't appear at all. Disco has female Starfleet officers from a cadet to an admiral, plus the outsiders: the Klingon prisoner, the deposed emperor posing as her benign Starfleet counterpart, and Burnham, caught (as usual) between both worlds. And that gives us room for a story where women are making all kinds of bad decisions for good reasons: bringing Georgiou into our universe (Michael), giving her command of Discovery (KAT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING), guilting Michael into speaking to Ash (Tilly, you are so young, one day you will understand).
(Kat's whole life right now is a series of bad decisions, and I'm gonna argue until further notice that she's got the PTSD subplot we thought Lorca was getting. She's not entirely responsible for Operation Outsource Our War Crimes, but she apparently has oversight of the mission, and is the one lying to Discovery's crew, and I swear to God, if she takes the fall while Sarek gets off scot-free, I'm gonna throw things, or vapourise a bowl of fortune cookies, or something.)
Anyway, well done, show, I'm sufficiently pleased with these developments that I'm prepared to overlook your extremely dubious pacing for the time being, good luck wrapping this up in a week.
(At first I thought I had too much sun at the football on Sunday, but then I remembered this has been happening for the last few months.)
(Hey, you know what's great? Women's AFL. It turns out that I really enjoy sportsball if it's full of women. RELATED: I also really enjoyed this week's Disco.)
Way back around episode 3, I complained that once again we had a Star Trek with just two women in the ensemble, albeit one was the protagonist and it was a smaller ensemble.
Eleven episodes later, we have two regular women plus a pretty considerable array of recurring female characters of various levels of significance, plus Recent Events have left us with only one straight white male in the cast -- and he's encased in latex.
Which means we got to have scenes like the following:
- Michael, Philippa, Kat and Sarek debate Philippa's future
- Michael seeks advice from Philippa
- Kat consults with L'Rell about the nature of Klingon and Federation cultures (which felt weirdly like something from Voyager, not for the specific content, but I don't think we've had women discussing these big, abstract, Trekkian concepts since Janeway and Seven)
- (I have in fact wondered whether Kat is in some ways a reaction against the less-good writing of Janeway back in the day -- there are certainly a bunch of ex-Voyager writers involved with Disco -- or if it's just that our idea of how a woman in power behaves has evolved)
- ANYWAY
- Michael brings a proposal to Kat
- Tilly and Michael discuss death and forgiveness
I'm trying to think of a scene that didn't have at least one woman in it. The only one that comes to mind is the encounter between Ash and Paul in the corridor.
This pleases me deeply, because I'm currently rewatching TNG, and, guys, I love TNG, I think it's a really good show, but so much of it is about Men Having Feelings.
(I mean, Ash Tyler has enough Feelings for two men, and one of them's a Klingon. But, you know.)
(Sorry.)
There's a whole episode ("Redemption") where Crusher and Troi don't appear at all. Disco has female Starfleet officers from a cadet to an admiral, plus the outsiders: the Klingon prisoner, the deposed emperor posing as her benign Starfleet counterpart, and Burnham, caught (as usual) between both worlds. And that gives us room for a story where women are making all kinds of bad decisions for good reasons: bringing Georgiou into our universe (Michael), giving her command of Discovery (KAT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING), guilting Michael into speaking to Ash (Tilly, you are so young, one day you will understand).
(Kat's whole life right now is a series of bad decisions, and I'm gonna argue until further notice that she's got the PTSD subplot we thought Lorca was getting. She's not entirely responsible for Operation Outsource Our War Crimes, but she apparently has oversight of the mission, and is the one lying to Discovery's crew, and I swear to God, if she takes the fall while Sarek gets off scot-free, I'm gonna throw things, or vapourise a bowl of fortune cookies, or something.)
Anyway, well done, show, I'm sufficiently pleased with these developments that I'm prepared to overlook your extremely dubious pacing for the time being, good luck wrapping this up in a week.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 01:56 am (UTC)- Sarek and mirror!Georgiou arguing over which is the better parent
- Kat Cornwell blasting Lorca's fortune cookies out of existence
- (not a metaphor)
- more of the Kat 'n' L'rell Morality Happy Hour
- "Do you wanna commit a war crime? (It doesn't have to be a war crime.)"
- Michael is just so amazing and isn't even making the worst choices in the galaxy this week
no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 01:59 am (UTC)*sidles over to [redacted] site that certainly isn't a download site of course not why would i even*
no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 04:59 am (UTC)EVEN THOUGH oh my god Katrina NO DON'T DO THE THING WHAT ARE YOU DOING. *clings to her so so tightly*
And I really do see Janeway resonances with Kat here, and in a good way. <3
no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 05:03 am (UTC)This is going to be a week of KAT, WHAT ARE YOU [and Sarek and the Federation Council] DOING?
Oh, good. I mean, sometimes I do rather go through life with a ... Janewaycentric view of the world. (If you agree, does that make it more likely that I'm onto something, or just that we have similar biases?)
no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 07:19 am (UTC)Yes, yes it is. And I thought I was stressed out last night before I saw 1x14!
(I also thought to myself, "Oh gosh, 1x13 was so fucking brilliant there's no way they can top it," and then THIS HAPPENED, so. *throws hands up in air*)
Janewaycentric view of the world
That woman was...was...look, I know the writing was uneven. I know Voyager has flaws. I know I haven't even seen the entire run of the show! (DS9 is where I'm more completeist.) But any Trek that does not include Kathryn Janeway does not include me, all right.
(Also Kira Nerys. Also, now, Katrina effing Cornwell. Oh, hey, women with variations of Katherine for names! HMM)
no subject
Date: 2018-02-06 11:45 am (UTC)I think there is canonical evidence that they're going that way. Much as I loved her vaporising the fortune cookies, that was not the most, um, stable of actions.
I mean, I bet it was cathartic and I cheered, but I'm sure that must be against regulation use of firearms, and expressing your feels with your sidearm* is generally frowned on.
* Unless at the firing range, though not in the Mirror Lorca! manipulate-and-bond-thru-paintball sort of way.