So I sort of hated this week's Strange New Worlds

[lizbee]

Honestly, there's no "sort of", the only thing I like less than the episode is how rapturously it has been received. I haven't really been vibing with the series at all (all the episodes so far have been fine, I just liked them better when they were Voyager or Enterprise stories and I don't understand why you'd cater to people who are nostalgic for the most mediocre end of the Berman era), but this genuinely offended me.



I guessed this was going to be an Omelas knock-off from the very first preview scene, but I was like, well, okay, we'll just see how the mystery plays out.

I did not expect the mystery to be resolved by the aliens revealing their secret to Pike and then knocking him out. That is ... well, a choice. Much like the choice to tell a story which was groundbreaking in 1973 -- but "hey, it's really sad these children have to die, but we can't actually do anything to stop that" lands differently in 2022, two weeks after the Uvalde massacre.

I'm kind of an outlier in my hatred for this episode, and lots of people have responded with, "Wow, this really makes you think!" And not to be THAT leftist (I am barely a leftist at all compared with my friends) but if it took an episode of Star Trek to get you thinking about the atrocity of children being sacrificed to the second amendment or the economy, that's ... kind of on you.

Anyway, I did start wondering how the other captains would deal with this situation, and I came up with ... this.

Kirk: look, that prime directive was broken when he found it. Spock mentions non-interference, but he's already logicking his way out of this. Bones says it's a damned atrocity, Jim. Kirk makes a speech shaming the aliens into doing better.

Picard: is probably gonna let the kid die, but then Beverly takes matters into her own hands and Geordi and Data save the planet so instead he makes a speech shaming the aliens into doing better.

Sisko: cannot save the child himself, but turns a blind eye as Miles and Julian lead a HEIST to kidnap the boy, Garak launders a new identity for him, and Dax saves the planet. Sisko denies all knowledge and has the kid over for regular home-cooked meals.

Janeway: could go either way, to be honest. One version: she lets the kid die over everyone's objections, and because she's a woman, fandom declares this the worst and most immoral thing she has done since that whole Tuvix business. Darren Mooney posts a review pointing out how this is typical of Star Trek's moral-nihilism-wearing-a-liberal-hat in this era, and I'm like, he's right but he shouldn't say it. The other version: Janeway grabs the kid and his dad and warps for home; Seven and B'Elanna save the planet, but that is secondary to Seven's strong opinions about how children should not be exploited. Janeway goes on to have a low-key romantic connection with the dad, who also has a professional rivalry with the Doctor, which is mostly played for laughs.

Archer: it genuinely depends which personality he has that week, and that's why he's pixiedane's trash captain

Michael: she is not here for this binary choice. She is going to find a way to help the planet save the kid themselves or die trying. Meanwhile, Culber dadsplains parenthood to the kid's father, and it should be obnoxious but it's kind of amazing. Sonequa Martin Green interacting with children is a joy and a delight forever.

Freeman: If she wanted to [bleep]ing watch kids die, she wouldn't have joined [bleep]ing Starfleet, would she? Mother-daughter kidnapping adventure, GO. In the B-plot, Boimler wants to improve his fitness so he adopts Ransom's work-out routine.

Picard, later era: he'd save the kid (who is played by Isa Briones) from the planet (who is played by Brent Spiner) and there'd be a lot of flashbacks to his childhood, even though you'd think this would be Seven and Raffi's story.

Dal: that kid is a regular now.

Bonus rounds

Lorca eats the child. A worrying number of fans hail this as Real Leadership. Liz declares that this shocking sapiovorism is not sexy in the least, in a way which makes at least two friends worry she thinks it's a bit sexy.

Prime Georgiou: she has already made contact with Saru and helped him leave his pre-warp planet. She's saving the kid and dropping him off on Vulcan for Sarek to raise. His dad, too. Yes, it's an awkward co-parenting situation, but it's hilarious so let's go with it.

Rios: we already know he will adopt every child he meets, regardless of the law. I give it a week before he's married the dad and is raising that boy as his own.

Comments

[shewhostaples]

I love all of these but particularly the Freeman edition.

[sabotabby]

I 100% enjoyed this list more than the episode itself. I figured out the dad tried to kidnap the kid right away and then figured out that it was Omelas about halfway through and groaned.

I could not enjoy any science fiction at all if I had a problem with "episode of TV does a really old, really obvious story for the millionth time" but what I did have a problem with was the comment that children live in squalor in the Federation. Um. No. They don't. The Federation is a post-scarcity society that has abolished class and capitalism. To me, that signalled that someone hadn't done their editing and was favouring making a point (that had been made better in 1973) over worldbuilding. Given what I've absolutely loved about this show was how Star Trek it is, this stood out rather painfully.

That said I'm enjoying the shit out of the season and the actors' charms cover a multitude of sins.

Lorca eats the child. A worrying number of fans hail this as Real Leadership.

HAH.

[lizbee]

...but what I did have a problem with was the comment that children live in squalor in the Federation. Um. No. They don't. The Federation is a post-scarcity society that has abolished class and capitalism

Yes! That felt like it was making a gotcha point AT THE AUDIENCE (for whom, again, this is not entirely hypothetical)!

...the actors' charms cover a multitude of sins.

Oh they do, this is a delightful cast and I really love the characters, I just wish they had better stories. Or a longer season that won't end right around the time the writers get the hang of it.

[sabotabby]

To me that was just sloppy writing. If they'd really needed to hammer in the point (which they didn't—most of the audience has read Omelas), it could have been, "Chris, look back at your own people's history? Your Federation may have surpassed suffering now, but its foundations are built on someone else's misery." Or whatever. Not the line that they used.

I watched the Jessie Gender review and she also pointed out that the fact that they lived in magical floating cities on a lava planet that didn't make any sense was a vital piece of worldbuilding that could have been seeded earlier so that the plot actually made sense.

[lizbee]

she also pointed out that the fact that they lived in magical floating cities on a lava planet that didn't make any sense was a vital piece of worldbuilding that could have been seeded earlier so that the plot actually made sense.

RIGHT?

But also, these guys have space travel, they could FIND ANOTHER PLANET like their MORALLY UPRIGHT BRETHREN DID

[sabotabby]

It's almost like you can't take an allegory and make it literal and have it actually make any goddamn sense.

[lizbee]

The other thing I keep thinking is that, when Gene Roddenberry wanted legit sci-fi cred for his show, he hired cutting-edge SF writers to work on it. And when Akiva Goldsman wants legit sci-fi cred, he rips off an iconic short story that was published just four years after TOS was cancelled.

[marinarusalka]

This was the first episode of SNW I disliked. I think there should be a commandment for science fiction writers — Thou shalt not retell Omelas unless you can offer a solution. (I feel the same way about the Cold Equations, but that doesn’t seem to get redone as often.)

[lizbee]

I entirely agree, and not that NK Jemisin's take on Omelas was titled "The Ones Who Stay And Fight". Interesting thought experiments have their place, but we don't need to return to the same thought experiment after fifty years and offer the exact same "solution".

[sabotabby]

The thing I heard about Cold Equations is that he had a bunch of different solutions and the publisher nixed them all. So you get an extremely convoluted set of circumstances just so you can be an edgelord and have the kid chucked off the ship.

[garpu]

I figured out it was Omelas in like the first 10 minutes or so. SNW is entertaining, but I'm not loving it the way I'm loving Discovery. SNW feels a lot like they're rebooting TOS without telling people they're rebooting it. And I frigging loved Pike when he was on Discovery, too. :(

[lizbee]

SNW feels a lot like they're rebooting TOS without telling people they're rebooting it.

I dunno, I feel like they've made it pretty clear. My podcast co-host was at the premiere, and Akiva Goldsman talked about joining Discovery for season 2 thinking it was what amounted to a TOS reboot, and when he found it was his own show, he "fixed" it by adding Spock and Pike. And now he has his own show.

And I frigging loved Pike when he was on Discovery, too.

Same, but mostly as a mentor to Saru and Michael. I like him in his own milieu, but it's not the same, and his platitudes and inspirational speeches are getting old.

[kore]

Akiva Goldsman talked about joining Discovery for season 2 thinking it was what amounted to a TOS reboot, and when he found it was his own show, he "fixed" it by adding Spock and Pike. And now he has his own show.


O RLY. Well that explains more than a few things about that season of Disco for me.

I seem to have an outlier problem in finding Anson Mount really bland. Most of the other actors are great and the Spock actor sounds right, but Pike just sort of bores me. I know this is a totally subjective thing, so I'm hoping the other actors will get their roles built up as the show goes on, but in six episodes....?

[kore]

I love every single one of these, especially the Lorca one.

We saw a couple of episodes and it was....fine? I'm not enjoying how many (male) critics are singing its praises while simultaneously trashing Discovery even more. "True ensemble work!" "Great plots!" "Real characters!" blah blah blah.

It looks like after most of Discovery and some of Picard, they may be turning back to the nostalgia crowd? idk. I just know I really don't like the "this is the REAL trek unlike the CRAPPY Discovery and Picard shows!" stuff.

[katherine]

Finished the episode, re-read The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, then got to read this which I'd been saving in a tab. Thank you! Especially the Janeway part of the list.