Star Trek

Hm... I suppose I might get downvoted, but I thought that the episode was just okay. Don't get me wrong, I love Star Trek episodes that aren't action-oriented and have actual good drama, but we have done courtroom dramas already multiple times. TNG had it with Measure of a Man, which was superb at the time. Battlestar Galactica had that one space court drama that was well executed too. While this episode was maybe emotional and had the allegory on modern society, I thought the episodes borrowed too heavily from so many courtroom drama clichés (objections/"you may proceed, but treat carefully", making someone who would otherwise be on your side be the prosecution, having the defendant lawyer make their own client look bad at the beginning, making prosecution read off a law in front of the court).

Thoughts as I watch the episode:

• Previously on Star Trek: Una is an augment, and Starfleet greatly dislikes that.

• Oh, Kid Una!

• “How can he council me when he works for you?” Good point!

• This was the ready room scene last week.

• Illyrians hiding on a poisonous planet is a nice touch.

• So, this is an allegory for Don't Ask-Don't Tell and similar anti-gay and discriminatory policies, isn't it? Hiding who she is, for example. Timely.

• Damn, Batel's boss is an asshole.

• Damn, that took awhile to get to credits.

• Oh, more case law for Starfleet!

• “I know you hate giving inspiring speeches.” Heh.

• Ortegas imagining a Vulcan conversation is hilarious.

• “I regret that you had to witness that outburst.”

• Seriously, that outburst, it was so horrifying. Not sure if I can ever emotionally recover from it.

• Oh, those dress unis! Look so much like the TOS ones while still being all modern.

• Hahaha, she's using all the times they ignore the Prime Directive to show the hypocrisy of rules.

• The stuff about her being tried for stuff her parents did calls to mind the stuff with the DREAM act.

• Hang on, wouldn't the fact that La'an has Khan blood flowing through her veins kind of give a possible method of pointing out how much hypocrisy there is to the law?

• “An affinity for Gilbert and Sullivan Musicals”

• Good point about how family isn't destiny and also how the discriminated against can be led to self-loathing.

• I just noticed that the mural/engraving behind witness stand seems to show a bunch of humans, tellarites, andorians, and so on... wonder if it's meant to show the founding of the Federation or great legal scholars of the Fed species.

• Oh shit, she turned herself in.

• “Starfleet is not a perfect organization, but it strives to be.” We all should try to live up to that.

• My Badmiral Sense is tingling.

• Ah, so an asylum loophole! Clever way of allowing her to stay in while still keeping the anti-genetics stuff still in place come Bashir and Dal's time.

• Pike Hugs must be the best hugs.

I was initially a bit bummed at the prospect of a space court episode but this was really well done. So far this show is the best new trek show other than lower decks.

I really enjoyed it even knowing the laws wouldn't change in the end since Bashir was still persecuted in ds9 but it's always fun to get a court room trek episode

A heavy-handed civil rights allegory. Like, no subtlety to the metaphor at all, at any point.

It's beautiful. Feels timely in our current day and hammers home the deepest aspirational themes of Star Trek.

I really want Pikes haircut

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.

Absolutely loved this episode! I don't think I have much to add to the discussion that hasn't already been said.. but yeah, loved it!

I was worried before whether or not the first episode would be similar to the rest of the season or was just showy by virtue of being an opener. Whoever picked this to be the second episode read my mind. I really liked how the other comments mentioned that Una's story can be so easily tied to many people's own struggle as living as an "other" with the ability to blend in.

It's almost sad that in the future we may find yet more ways to divide ourselves that will make this episode feel as relevant now as Measure of a Man decades ago.