Okay, well, it’s that time again. We’re talking Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the brand new episode, titled “What Is Starfleet?”
I think you’re going to be interested in how they go about answering that question. But maybe not as much as you’ll be interested in how they ask it.
What’s up, my know-it-alls. We’re going full spoilers, though I don’t exactly do a blow-by-blow anymore. This is thoughts and opinions on the whole thing.
This Episode Is the Documentary
This season introduced us to Umberto Ortegas, brother of Helmsman Erica Ortegas, and a documentarian who was, I guess, the equivalent of hired to make a documentary about Starfleet.
“I just had a very interesting conversation. What are the chances that I have Starfleet’s public relations? They may commission a feature-length documentary of Starfleet.”
He’s been given full access. We saw some of that in previous episodes, where he’s allowed fully declassified access. They declassified all of the missions the Enterprise was going to be on so he could follow along.
The fun part is that this episode is that documentary. This is what he made, and it’s titled “What Is Starfleet?” A fascinating look at our ship and crew from an outsider’s perspective.
It’s funny, because at times it felt redundant, mainly because we’re already watching the show, so it feels a little off. Plus, because of the nature of how his drones work, the drone shots were always a little bit forced. This is almost like Strange New Worlds doing its own impersonation of a mockumentary, but without the comedy.
Still, you can tell the cinematographer was having fun playing with that aesthetic, because they use every version imaginable. The tightening, close-in camera moving around each person’s view. Somebody making eye contact with the lens every now and again. Then your solid steady shots that are supposed to be stylized. There’s one where Una is way over to one side, another one built around Uhura, super close-ups, the whole bit. And they integrated his camera angles with the onboard ship cameras, the natural security footage that already exists in that world, when it was needed.
The Word That Knocked Me Out of It
The way it’s edited, in universe, you see all these really dramatic moments before we get to the question. And what you find out is that he is constantly and consistently questioning their orders.
The orders are to transport a living bioweapon. There’s one species that’s been fighting another species out in space, and I’m positive there’s some sort of real-world allegory happening. Maybe I’m just that clueless about world events that it doesn’t solidify for me exactly what they’re going for. Maybe they’re commenting on American involvement in wars. I get the sense it might be a Russia and Ukraine type of comparison. It might be on the nose for me, but whatever.
I’m much more aware of the messaging now than I used to be. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t hyper dialed in to the political side of things until very recently, and I feel like I’m noticing more and more and more of it, especially as the so-called woke era of Hollywood seems to be dying a slow death and we’re not supposed to be getting forced storytelling anymore.
And then you have this one line.
Umberto is talking to Uhura after a fairly traumatic moment. He’s supposed to be checking on her. But he’s been having his little drone cameras looking around corners, very shady-like, and she happens to peep one.
“Are you recording this?” “I am. Yes, that’s my job. Just like your job. You’re delivering a weapon, or taking, or maybe both. You’re all just following orders. None of you like it. So I just want to know why, because it feels like the actions of a colonizer who takes.”
It was such a modern reference to something people talk about in today’s parlance that it took me off guard.
And look, I understand using Star Trek for allegory. I get it. Wars, negotiations, how we should talk to each other more, any number of political discussions you want to have inside Star Trek, I understand they’re there. Trust me. The reason I’m bringing up this whole line of thought is that it was blatant enough that even I noticed, and I’m somebody who tries very hard not to see these episodes through the lens of our modern world. I try to look at them on their own merit. I got judged and attacked for that last week in the comments, by the way, and totally valid. It was a wonderful argument and a wonderful discussion, and yes, I do very much thrive on those discussion points.
But when a reference to colonizers comes up, and suspiciously out of the mouth of a Spanish character, and I myself am Puerto Rican, which totally validates me talking crap (I’m kidding), it kind of made me go, what?
Because this is the one thing I feel like the writers have forgotten. In their desire to do modern storytelling, they are so lacking in general creativity that they just literally lay the message on there.
Remember who this character is supposed to be. Umberto Ortegas is supposed to be a 23rd century Earth person who has lived his whole life in a veritable utopia. Issues like race have been done away with. Money and the acquisition of wealth have been done away with. Sure, there may be a measure of Earth-first pride in there. Hey, we’re from Earth, we started the Federation, whatever. But I feel like they would have healed by now, or should have. And clearly, by this comment, they haven’t.
It was enough to bring me out of the show for a brief moment, and that’s going to ding it in my score.
Here’s the part I want to be clear about: I never mind messaging. Messaging is literally the reason and purpose behind fantasy and science fiction existing. Show me our world’s problems through the lens of this alternate universe, this different world, so that I can step outside myself and my personal circumstance, see what’s happening, and ask where I stand morally. We can have moral conversations. We can engage on that level. That’s an important part of what made Star Trek so seminal.
I did trip over that line. It’s also the only thing I trip over in this episode.
The Creature That Wants Out
The whole time, he’s questioning Starfleet taking this creature, this thing engineered by one species to be a weapon, and delivering it to them. It’s like us delivering a weapon of mass destruction to somebody. Except this one is intelligent.
Spock melds with it by accident after it defends itself from another species, fights that thing off, and for a brief moment you see Spock connect with it. That’s all we need to validate having a conversation with it. So they do. And you find out this creature hates the fact that it was engineered to be a weapon. It wants to be unalived, and it wants assistance unaliving.
I had no clue assisted unaliving was going to be a thing I had to deal with today in Star Trek. But here we are. And again, I’m fine with it. I get it, in terms of how Star Trek is supposed to work. I didn’t bump into that one much at all, and I don’t think you will either.
Then Pike and them have to make a decision, because the creature has asked for help. Pike equates it to having to put down a horse, because he comes from a ranch and farming world.
“You know, when I was 14, I had a bronco that fell so hard. She broke a rib straight into her lung and she couldn’t breathe. I didn’t like what I had to do, but I did it.”
I dug that connection, even though he’s using the justification of putting down a horse. The difference is that a horse doesn’t telepathically tell you I am in pain. This is an intelligent creature. That’s where the horse comparison falls apart for me.
They do end up helping it, and that felt very Star Trek. Having to do the moral thing, good, bad, or indifferent, because you felt it was the best thing for the creature.
You Came Here Angry
Where the episode really earns itself is when Uhura makes Umberto realize he’s biased. Ortegas was hurt and almost killed, and as a result he’s angry at Starfleet.
“I believe you think that’s what you were trying to do, but you came here angry. You had a point to prove.”
And he has to really think that through. And he does. He goes to everybody with it. Have you ever disobeyed an order? Have you ever questioned one? Have you ever killed anyone because Starfleet told you to?
Pike gets a wonderful moment out of that, asking whether he’s ever seen someone dead. Pike plays it very apolitical, but you can feel him being the wise father figure.
“Have you ever seen somebody die? I don’t recommend it. And if it ever does happen to you, I don’t think you would enjoy being questioned about it.”
And you’re going, right on. Yeah.
There’s also the species that engineered the creatures, after Starfleet finds a transplant world inside Federation borders that can serve as its asylum planet. The aliens bluster, what if we want to stop you, and Pike goes:
“We have other warships in the area. You threaten one of us, you threaten all of us. Trust me when I say you do not want the Federation as an enemy.”
That was the line from the opening that made me go, really, you guys are going to do that? Now that I’ve heard it in context, I went, okay. From that context, I see what they were doing.
Space Is the Exploring
One more thing I liked. Umberto pushes Ortegas on it. Aren’t you supposed to be explorers? And she basically goes, yeah man, we’re out here, we’re in space, what do you want?
They’re not exactly running exploration missions, and I literally pointed that out two episodes ago. But her point, and I concede it, is that they’re in space. It’s all exploring. Is it a five-year mission into uncharted regions? No. But it is exploratory, because of the things they encounter and find all the time. Like this creature.
There you go. Now you know.
The Verdict
I liked the episode overall. It’s a solid story episode. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, and the in-universe documentary is a fun creative way to do it that allowed for a new perspective on the show. But a couple of glaring points, like the colonizer thing and some other little notes I bumped into, kept catching me.
Look, writers, you need a slightly more subtle hand to write science fiction.
And I know these are not inherently science fiction writers, which is going to be the main problem with modern Star Trek forever. The original writers, on the original series and on Next Generation, were people who had written novels and lived in sci-fi space. As a result they came at Star Trek with a different sensibility. These writers come at it from a TV sensibility. Very different methodology. Is that right or wrong? Time will tell and mete it out. So far I’ve seen more good than bad, but the bad has been really bad.
Take that with a grain of salt and do with it what you will. My score for this episode is a 7.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
What did you think? Am I right, am I wrong about that one line? The discussion lives in the comments on the video above, and I absolutely love having these conversations.
