Spirk is the air I breathe

Just plain old TOS Spirk - (Side account of zwiebelbaguette. Find me on AO3: Taaya)

[spirkedbaguette]

SNW 4x01 thoughts and therefore spoilers

Seriously, you have been warned.

The new episode leaves me with the same ick I felt about Season 3. They completely ignore the message, the overall moral for the sake of the adventure and, sometimes, fun.

Because what do you mean Pike allowed the genocide of a sentient species on a HUNCH?! (That then turned into the genocide of two sentient species as well as innumerable flora and fauna on THREE different inhabited planets.)

And even if it had not been on a hunch, even if he had known for sure this would have to happen for humans to exist.... Fuck our species. We're not more important than TWO others. That's a really bad, kinda right-wing point of view that humankind deserves to exist even if it means that others have to die for it. We're not more important than other civilisations.

And I also don't like that Pike said he would have done the same as Cassell. No! At least Pre-Batel he NEVER would have committed genocide. Especially not when he had just been presented with new means of trying to communicate with the enemy and find common ground. But even without means of communication we have seen him search for other ways time and again. Heck, we have seen him react to a WILLING sacrifice of a single child to keep a society alive. How many children have now been sacrificed unwillingly for the sake of the Federation? That he now claims he would have done the same, once again, seems like a legitimisation of genocide.

And yes, for a short moment he seemed to struggle with his guilt of allowing it to happen. But then everyone else tells him he did the right thing and that was it?!

Okay, in a way that does fit in with TOS, like they wanted. But unfortunately with the worst sides of TOS, where Kirk destroys civilisations. Admittedly not JUST because they don't fit his weird, capitalist "people have to struggle and show constant growth" mindset, but also because Vaal attacks the Enterprise and Kirk has to act in self-defence. But still he has no moral problems with destroying a system where people were happy. (Not so much with Landru, there was an opposition on the planet already.)

I really hope this is just a fluke and SNW will find his way back to morals and to actually having episodes that stay fun even if you look deeper than the bare plot and actually think about themes and meanings.

But at the moment it seems in line with Season 3s very weird and offensive themes. I wish we could go back to what made S1 good and S2 at least okay (except for the nonsense of Charades).

[radioactivetribble]

How would you "save" Star Trek / make it mainstream again?

Do you prefer it to be super niche?

(Please don't answer "I'd make it less woke", or something along those lines. I'm tired.)

[spirkedbaguette]

I actually prefer it to be niche, because hope and a utopian future just AREN'T mainstream. (Unfortunately.)

I think, I'd lean deeper into what Trek means. Showing humans be their best selves. And not constantly throw universe-threatening stakes at them. That stuff is boring and overused. Show us humans trying to be their best while having to deal with their cultural differences, different abilities and disabilities. And then throw in the big philosophical questions that arise from the diversity. Star Trek never was at its best when it had to fight the Borg, but when it debated if Data was property or a person with his own rights. Or if you're allowed to explore your gender. (At least to me, for the big fighting stuff there are lots of other shows out there, but not for the human and philosophical bits.)

But I'd diversify their writing team (because so far disabled voices aren't heard enough, most of their disabled "representation" is hit and miss to harmful and they lack sensitivity coaches for the things that aren't openly about disability but can be seen as metaphors, like Vulcans being autistics).

And what I'd also do is MAKE MERCH ACCESSIBLE. Work with international retailers. Interact with the fandom not just in the US, but worldwide.

Because as a European, so far Paramount and Star Trek as a franchise treat us as second class fans at best. We don't get most of the merch, not all of the tie-in books, all give aways, all big events, everything is US only,... And that breeds frustration. (And lowers the willingness to throw money at Trek, even if we COULD.)

And I'd try to get the community involved. Not in the shows themselves - except maybe for a test audience reading the scripts to check for canon inconsistencies, because fans are better at spotting those, writers are too close to it, which is not meant as a criticism, I'm a writer and editor myself. You need outside eyes every now and then. But I'd promote fanart, make virtual watchalongs,... Unfortunately they CAN'T acknowledge fanfiction, because that would open them up to lawsuits of people claiming the writers stole ideas from fanfiction. (That's not without precedent, and that is part of the reason some shows ended THAT badly, because writers had to come up with something that was NOT in fanfiction yet.) But everything but fanfiction could be much more celebrated to make fans feel seen and motivated to spread the word, spend money on merch, and just overall keep the fandom and thus franchise alive and going.

[quasi-normalcy]

Favourite Star Trek "antagonist" faction?

Romulans

Klingons

Ferengi

Borg

Cardassians

Dominion

Kazon

Hirogen

Suliban

Xindi

Gorn

Someone else

Voting ended onMar 14

[spirkedbaguette]

To be honest, I like none of them as antagonists. I love Star Trek, but to me it is at its best when the only antagonist is nature, coincidence... Or a misunderstanding where they end up parting ways with the former antagonist in a pieceful way at the end of the episode. I do get that from a dramaturgy POV one needs to spice things up every now and then, but I don't enjoy those stories as much as I do those without a real antagonist.

(I do find the Romulans most interesting on a cultural level, though, I really want to know how tf a culture of pure scheming and mutual mistrust can exist and survive. And looks-wise Cardassians are cool.)

[spirkedbaguette]

SPOILERS FOR THIS WEEK'S STARFLEET ACADEMY

I mean it.

You have been warned!

I do have some criticism about the show, but this week's episode has been my favourite so far.

I would've liked a lot more background on Thok, that tiny bit wasn't enough for me yet. And yeah, Klingons are a bit headstrong in their ways. But this week they showed respect for cultural differences while also showing that it's okay to be different.

I have seen criticism that up until last week Starfleet Academy was showing rather cultural assimilation instead of diversity and last week that really was an issue. (Honestly, Vulcans playing silly pranks? Heck, that's not even common among ALL of humanity in our time, though the cultures where that doesn't happen or to a lot lesser degree, are the minority.) Last week we've seen people from so many different worlds all behaving like some not just human but American cliche.

This week however, the show recovered and actually showed that differences exist and that they can lead to problems, yes, but these problems can be overcome with understanding the POV of the others, without forcing them to give up who they are.

I'm sure with deeper introspection and more rewatches one can also find a few bits that weren't that good, definitely. (Nobody is perfect and Star Trek in the last few years had the issue of creating episodes that are fun and good on the surface level but have some at worst even harmful narratives in them, if one looked deeper. It's a problem of the still not entirely diverse writers room, for example the lack of disabled writers they had for a while, but also a result of the fact that humans are flawed, no matter how much we strive to become our best selves. We all make mistakes.).

But this week? So far, after a first watch only? This is Star Trek how it's supposed to be. Showing diversity and challenging points of view. Challenging people to reach out and try to understand each other. (Where that can lead to the benefits of people and not to anyone's detriment.)

And I also like the slight middle finger to totalitarianism with the quote of Satie. (It's also a nice nod to a TNG episode that, while I don't like it for being massively uncomfortable, is SO important especially in our time.)

And kudos to polyamorous Klingon throuples. ❤️ But now I do want to see a polyamorous Klingon wedding and how the story of the strong beating hearts, so fierce they scare the gods, is adapted for three. 😁

[trekkie-polls]

You can befriend one star trek character. You still live on earth in the present but now they hang out with you sometimes.

James T Kirk

Spock

Data

Elim Garak

Jadzia Dax

The Doctor

Kathryn Janeway

Beckett Mariner

Lwaxana Troi

Nyota Uhura

Rom or Nog

Other in tags

Voting ended onFeb 3

Obviously there isn’t enough room for everyone so I went with some personal faves & ones I think of as popular. No offense intended if your favorite isn’t here!

[spirkedbaguette]

This is the most evil question ever.

From age 4 on I said I wanted to marry Spock. But Data always felt a bit like a brother (he was more my kind of autistic person, curious why the heck humans are like humans are and why they refuse to make sense). And then there's Pike. 🥺

I think I might choose Pike. Because he REALLY needs a disabled person to take him by the hand and give him some perspective. (I mean, we all know what will happen in TOS, but on the one hand that's also in no way better, on the other hand HE doesn't know that yet. And he should learn both that disability doesn't mean the end of the world, AND that if he stands up for disabled people's rights and more research about his upcoming disability now, it might make things better for people like him in the future.)

[trekkie-polls]

Which star trek tv series makes the best use of humor?

The original series

The original animated series

The next generation

Deep space nine

Voyager

Enterprise

Discovery

Picard

Lower decks

Prodigy

Strange new worlds

Starfleet academy

Voting ended onFeb 3

Honestly I think they’re all funny at times, even the series I liked less. It’s hard to beat two different episodes with a robot writing poetry about his cat. But then I think lower decks, and the Klingon bachelor party on ds9, and geez threshold. Janeway and Kirk being time travel menaces. Odo learning to stir. Even Riker and Picard being an absolute geriatric menace on Picard. Rhys Darby as a baby q wedding planner. Mpreg on enterprise. Pike saving the day with a dinner party. Tig Notaro & Gina Yashere. Good stuff.

[spirkedbaguette]

For me it's SNW (S1 and 2, the humour in S3 is too often only funny if one isn't marginalised or doesn't think deeper about the narratives hidden inside the jokes). While LDS wants to be the funniest and goes all out for that, it's just not my kind of humour. (I don't find it bad or offensive - most of the time - and I like most of their plots. It's just the jokes that don't make me smile or laugh.)

(But the best single scene is Ode to Spot. That's a masterpiece. And honestly so well written by Data, it deserved more than the reactions from the crew it got!)

[barelyacidyke]

is strange new worlds just the straightest star trek show or am i crazy ??

[spirkedbaguette]

I mean, they made Chapel canonically bi or pan and there was a cool non-binary space pirate and some cross dressing (as well as some lesbian vibes), but all in Season 1, with just a hint between Una and an old friend in early Season 2. Ever since... Yeah, pretty much.

(There MIGHT be some poly rep in there, though, depending on how one reads it. Spock and T'Pring only said they take time apart, not that they break up. And he NEEDS to still be canonically engaged to T'Pring, since they are estranged but engaged in TOS. Going back to their more loving relationship to then suddenly be estranged again to the point where nobody of his friends knows about her, doesn't make much sense from a writing POV.

And both Pike and Batel have dated other people during their relationship. Now, that could've been friends with benefits first and grown into a committed non-poly non-open relationship later on, but if so they forgot to clearly communicate that.)

But yeah, you really have to DIG DEEP to find any hint, while most other shows were a lot more on the nose with it.

[stra-tek]

First clip of Strange New Worlds' fourth season.

[woman-of-many-fandoms]

I know this is an unpopular opinion and it makes Spock an even more ‘special boy’ but I wish theykept the lore of Spock being the first Vulcan in Star fleet.

[spirkedbaguette]

Wasn't it just first Vulcan to attend the academy? I would assume Starfleet also takes people coming from other schools, since even in TOS there was the Intrepid who only had Vulcans serving on it. (But somewhat agreed, I wish they'd at least speak about it. But maybe Spock WILL, since the Vulcan woman in the scene seems unable to read the room. So maybe there'll be some "You have not gone through 3-4 years of Academy with humans first, so let me give you a crash course in how humans work".

[stra-tek]

First clip of Strange New Worlds' fourth season.

[spirkedbaguette]

I'm intrigued.

I just wish they hadn't taken notes from Disco S1 in terms of camera movements. I hope that was the only scene of that kind, otherwise it'll once again be a painkiller and anti-vomiting med-heavy season for me, those camera movements unfortunately trigger both my migraines and my motion sickness.

But plot-wise looking forward to it. (My money would be on them either having time or universe travelled in that ep. Probably more universe, they already had a good number of time travel episodes. Hopefully not the mirrorverse, we already know that too well, but exploring a strange new universe would be cool.)

[spirkedbaguette]

Okay, I have complained a lot about S3, both here and on other platforms.

But there is one thing that was REALLY good this season: The ship designs. Okay, granted, the Klingon shuttle doesn't really fit into their usual brute force-designs. It's way too delicate. But SO PRETTY. And the scavenger ship was impressive, and the functional mouth part... *chef's kiss* (Too bad they had to destroy it. In-universe that must have been a masterpiece of engineering.)

The designing team outdid itself this season.

(Also massive kudos for the Jikaru.)

[jimkirkette]

this is so funny 😭 i mean, at least they know it wasnt great. admitting it is always the first step

[spirkedbaguette]

Though I find it kinda sad that their takeaway from this is to be more serious.

Funny wasn't the issue (at least to most people I've seen who criticised this season). We've always had funny. Some of the best episodes (Tribbles, give me all the tribbles!) are funny. It was what they chose to joke about, and that they failed to identify where the issues could be (ostracising neurodivergent and mixed race fans) and to then get sensitivity coaches of the groups in question and work on a way to make it fun for everyone and not at the price of hurting some people.

(Also maybe get a few disabled people into the writer's room, because they REALLY have a problem with ableist undertones, to the degree that even Anson Mount himself already spoke up about it. Which, if you don't know, is a big deal, because most productions have their actors sign contracts not to talk bad about any aspect of the production for a few years after the production is finished. So either Trek didn't or Mount actually risked a fine to speak up about it.)

Anyway, back to the point. It doesn't feel like the writers understood what the problem was. In a time where Threshold and Sub Rosa are BELOVED for being silly and kinda objectively bad but also fun, no, "not serious enough" was not the issue. And that feels a bit like they're trying to dodge having to talk about the actual problems.

[jimkirkette]

this is so funny 😭 i mean, at least they know it wasnt great. admitting it is always the first step

[spirkedbaguette]

Though I find it kinda sad that their takeaway from this is to be more serious.

Funny wasn't the issue (at least to most people I've seen who criticised this season). We've always had funny. Some of the best episodes (Tribbles, give me all the tribbles!) are funny. It was what they chose to joke about, and that they failed to identify where the issues could be (ostracising neurodivergent and mixed race fans) and to then get sensitivity coaches of the groups in question and work on a way to make it fun for everyone and not at the price of hurting some people.

(Also maybe get a few disabled people into the writer's room, because they REALLY have a problem with ableist undertones, to the degree that even Anson Mount himself already spoke up about it. Which, if you don't know, is a big deal, because most productions have their actors sign contracts not to talk bad about any aspect of the production for a few years after the production is finished. So either Trek didn't or Mount actually risked a fine to speak up about it.)

Anyway, back to the point. It doesn't feel like the writers understood what the problem was. In a time where Threshold and Sub Rosa are BELOVED for being silly and kinda objectively bad but also fun, no, "not serious enough" was not the issue. And that feels a bit like they're trying to dodge having to talk about the actual problems.

[sarcasticace]

If I'm being fully honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Marie Batel's fate in the finale of Strange New Worlds S3. Not that I think her sacrificing herself or becoming the beholder was bad. Necessarily. I just... don't like how they got to that point. You're telling me because she's a hybrid of a human (mostly), gorn, illyrian, and a flower she can now... sense... evil. That she was a combination of all the races (exactly 4) that held the genetic memory of how to combat the forces of evil.

That just sounds lazy to me.

It would've been one thing if like... she inherited specific traits that, combined, allowed her to uniquely battle or even see the Vezda. Like the Gorn's compound eyes and the Illyrian's immune system, manipulated by the chimera blossom, gave her some sort of edge. Which is I guess what they might have been going for. But watching the episode it's just like.... yeah, humans, gorn, illyrians, and this flower. They have genetic memory for combating evil. Not Vulcans or bajorans or andorians or orions or klingons etc etc etc. Just those three and a weird flower. Also she gets magic powers because... reasons.

Personally, I kinda would've preferred if she had just like amicable broke up with Pike and lived out her life as the new Star Trek Judge Advocate General.

[spirkedbaguette]

I wonder if they wanted to hint at the... The ancient species that "seeded" their genes into most other species (TNG and Disco), that they CAN'T mention yet because Professor Galen and Picard haven't uncovered them yet. And that with combining three of the species with the help of the blossom it added enough of these ancient genes together that she got the knowledge that was programmed into it! (Still not entirely sure that would be enough, since last time it was Humans, Romulans and Klingons, but it's been a while since I watched the original episode, so maybe any three species with that background would be enough.)

But yeah, the writing wasn't particularly good for that part. Also the whole "I never feel like I fit anywhere" - great, so why have we never seen that, neither on screen nor mentioned, before? Totally out of the blue, too. Like they HAD to find a way to write her out and wrap it up and press it into such short time that they didn't even really know until this episode what they're going to do. Otherwise they could've foreshadowed it better. It felt way too hurried, as MUCH as I like getting rid of Batel. (I also hate that after two seasons of her being the absolute WORST girlfriend one could picture for Pike, with absolutely no chemistry - he even had more with Alora - and them ONLY fighting, they suddenly started to actually give them tender moments, give her a real character and let them have chemistry in the very last few episodes. They should've started with that, so that we had time to grow fond of her and get emotionally invested in this relationship. Yet another layer on which the writing seemed now hurried to force us to suddenly feel something about her, when they could've done that from 1x01 on.)

Sorry for adding a novel to your thoughts, OP, only to say that I agree and that even if they wanted to imply what I think they did, they weren't good at it.

[championoftheoppressed]

[spirkedbaguette]

One more day to go until 4 and a half Vulcans, and I have to say I'm nervous. I hope SNW will surprise me once again.

(I had expected last week's episode to be a lot darker and more painful for us fans. And while I do think we need to have that discussion one day, I am glad they didn't do it here. I think the discussion we need to have fits more into the tone of shows that also have S31 episodes or a downright war and focus more on how to KEEP one's humanity in the face of darkness, rather than into a show that's more focused on hope, light, family and belonging as SNW is.)

Anyway, I worry they're going to play it for the laughs and once again, like in the Kherkov episode, ignore, that the Vulcan culture and abilities are not merely genetical. We know Miranda Jones was able to learn some of the Vulcan mind techniques as a human. And so was Burnham, even though she didn't pick up the telepathy bit. And we also know both from TAS and Voyager, that Vulcan kids, too, need to learn how to control emotions. So Spock should NOT have lost that many of his abilities. Especially since we know that Vulcan emotions are actually stronger, rawer than human emotions. So the whole episode didn't make that much sense. (It would've made sense had they scripted it as neurodivergent overload, with the more structured brain gone due to human physiology, and therefore suddenly less filters to help keep himself and the sensory stimuli in check. But a sensory overload usually does NOT look like that.)

I do hope they won't just continue on there. Especially since the trailer showed Pike and the others not only suddenly being more controlled, subdued without having to go through years of mental training that Vulcan kids go through, but also being downright nasty towards Spock. As if the serum made them FORGET that they have a friendship-ish bond with him.

So, I hope they address that this serum does NOT just change biology and the genetical setup of a person, but that there's something else going on. I hope they don't just play it for the laughs, ignoring the logic holes if they keep claiming they only change the biology, but actually go into the depth of how that serum might be dangerous and has effects that can't be explained by mere biology.

And that they look into the psychological aspect of going through the change and suddenly being downright mean to people one cares about. Of having one's personality changed without having control about it.

As I said, I hope SNW will surprise me again and handle the topic a lot better and more nuanced than I fear. I hope, tomorrow at this time my worries will be proven to be for naught.

(Forgive my ramblings, please. This has been brewing ever since they released the trailer last year. This is the one episode I really fear this year.)

[staringdownabarrel]

I think the thing with the Spock/La'an discourse is that nobody would care as much if La'an got the kind of development her character deserves.

I mean, she's a descendant of Khan Noonien-Singh, she was once a captive of SNW's main recurring villains, and she's also in Starfleet. This means that there's a lot of avenues to tell stories about her specifically which firstly, couldn't have been done on previous Star Trek shows and secondly, could really be done with other characters; at least not as effectively.

You know, it'd be very easy to do a story where they go in depth about where the line is in regards to genetic engineering and joining Starfleet. Una Chin-Riley was put on trial for being genetically engineered in Starfleet, but that's genetic engineering that was done to her specifically. Would that standard also carry on to her kids and grandkids if she had them, or would it only apply to her? Is it a matter of degrees?

Stuff like that might be a bit difficult if the only genetically modified character on the show was Una, but they also have La'an. Because she's descended from one of the most infamous cases of genetic engineering, it'd be simple enough to have a storyline where it's like, "It's illegal if you've had it done to you, but we think it gets bred out after so many generations."

It also allows for storylines where authoritarianism and what it means to be a descendant of a dictator gets discussed. This gets touched on in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, but only gently, when La'an sees her infamous ancestor in the flesh as a little boy, but they could go a lot further with that.

Given that she was also a captive of the Gorn for a while as a child, they could also do stories focusing specifically on her trauma and how she copes with it. It's been pretty clear that this is meant to deeply inform her character and the way she responds to the Gorn, so it'd make sense to have an episode which focuses on it almost exclusively.

What I'm trying to get at with all of this is that I think to some extent, La'an should be the main character of Strange New Worlds almost to the exclusion of every other character, similar to how Burnham was in Discovery. There's enough to the setup of her character that you could potentially do that and have this really nuanced show that has a lot going on, and it'd be the kind of thing that absolutely makes sense in a Star Trek show. I mean, realistically what I'd prefer is that SNW have twenty-ish episode seasons where they get to make full use of the ensemble cast, but with ten, you're kinda forced to make some decisions about who the lead is and I think La'an would make sense as the lead.

When it comes to the Spock/La'an dynamic specifically, I sorta wonder how much of the backlash to it has been about how La'an isn't getting as much attention as her setup implies she should get. If she was the main character and she also had a romantic or semi-romantic fling with Spock, I don't think anyone would care as much as they do. People would probably treat it as another note in an ongoing symphony.

[spirkedbaguette]

I disagree a bit.

At least for me one of the bigger problems with the La'an/Spock dynamics is how they once again show autistic and asexual people - to which Spock has been THE identification figure since the 1960s - that they're not really wanted in the franchise. They've done it with every neurodivergent or asexual (or both) seeming character in basically every show. OG Spock got mocked, Data needed to want to be more "human", Odo had to change who he was for love, Tuvok got mocked by Neelix (but otherwise he was the best we ever got in acceptance for who and what he is), Seven had to go through stuff that's similar to ABA, T'Pol got a brain illness AND a drug addiction on top to then be able to forego the Pon Farr cycle so that they could "finally" have her have sex, Burnham turned from "FINALLY THEY LET A HUMAN SEEM AUTISTIC" to the complete opposite within a season, Zero of course also had to want to be more human and corporeal, and now Spock again. (Not to mention that he already had his "Oh no, I rid myself of logic and embrace emotions" arc in Disco, it seems repetitive to have him go back to logic only to then make him fall for every woman he comes across again to then turn him back to logic in TOS and back away from it to a degree in TMP,...) (He also already had the same arc as a kid if we count TAS into the canon.)

And on top of it we know it can't end well. And yes, of course, not all relationships have to be endgame. But those are two characters we care for. Two characters who have been through A LOT of trauma. With La'an only carefully, tentatively starting to open up after about two decades(?) of shielding herself. Best case they notice it won't work and can stay friends, but we already see that Spock is REALLY bad at that. (Which is also annoying, honestly, bc as a scientist he should be so much better at all the romance bit, ESPECIALLY in knowing that the first 6 to 8 months light up on brain scans in the area of psychosis and only afterwards does the relationship actually become a normal emotional bond in the proper brain area. So him being so careless is massively wrong from a writer's POV.)

So we can assume this will not end in the best case ending and that two of the characters we really like will get hurt and in La'an's case maybe even regress in her development.

So even IF she were the lead (which, as a Pike fangirl, I'd find a bit sad, but yeah, agreed, she does have the development for it), and we were to explore that plot and how a bad relationship will make her regress, and how she then will grow beyond it, heal,... It would have to be done with a character we don't care for THAT much. A character we can then hate a bit for doing that to our girl, even if we rationally know that relationships don't always work out.

We already see it with Chapel. She was SUCH a good character, but now she only comes across as annoying, even though she rationally did nothing wrong. She was bad at communicating with Spock, sure, but he wasn't good either. But we see him suffer, sympathise and need to put these emotions somewhere, so Chapel suddenly comes across as less likeable than before.

Now doing the same with La'an and Spock? Yeah, no, not a good idea and to me it also wouldn't work if the show were about La'an.

[spirkedbaguette]

I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I wish they'd let Pike have his hair all messy more often.

To me this over the top styled hair screams midlife crisis. I know most people love it, but to me it makes him look SO MUCH OLDER than he has to. And it gets worse and higher and more.... Cemented instead of natural with each passing season. I don't know if something is wired the wrong way in my brain (I mean, I do know, but my autism is not to blame for THIS HERE).

If only they'd at least go back to early S1 where it looked almost natural and more soft and fluffy instead of overflowing with product. 😕

Well, at least they have episodes like Thursday for people like me. So that's a plus.