I have some questions about Una in SNW - what do you expect her arc/role to be next season? I think Una can be a difficult character for the writers, because her role as first officer is difficult to flesh out. She can only be "in charge" when Pike isn't. While Pike is on the bridge, she can just give general advise, without having specific responsibilities. She is neither Science Officer like T'Pol and Spock, nor a diplomatic link like Chakotay and Kira. And a really big problem is that her personality is kinda really similar to Spock's. So getting a triumvirate dynamic is going to be very hard. How would you tackle that?
Based on what your assumptions/judgement seems to be, I feel the urgent and STRONG need to defend Una and how she’s been dealt with thus far before I get into what I think the plan is for her next season.
I don’t get the inference she’s been difficult for the writers to handle or flesh out, I just think they’re saving the juiciest stuff for next season (for reasons I will soon explain). We already know a significant amount about her.
She’s only in charge when the captain is not because that’s how it always works with first officers. The captain is down on the planet getting into trouble, first officer is up on the ship unraveling other major plot threads (like in Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach & Ghosts of Illyria and so on). She frequently takes a helm or weapons systems position. She’s a unique diplomatic tie because she is a closeted Illyrian, which will undoubtedly now bear its consequences. She challenges and serves as a foil Chris’s placating nature by being the more stern and ferocious between the two of them. Although she is deeply gentle with the people closest to her, La’an, Joseph and Chris in particular.
She has a different relationship map from Spock or Chris. Spock’s closest relationships are Chapel and Pike, Chris’s are Spock & Una, Una’s are Chris & La’an. Spock has other friendships that get explored such as Hemmer & Uhura, while Una deepens her relationships with La’an & Joseph. Chris, because he is the Captain, is closest to his best friend (and possibly ex?) Una and his surrogate baby brother Spock. Those relationships cast her personality in different lights, lights very different from Spock’s tumultuous identity crisis. She’s tackling the increasing difficulty of hiding her true colors, acting as friend and mentor to La’an, and clearly still grappling with the romantic feelings she likely still has for Chris that were established in The Cage & Short Treks.
Pike is Pathos, Una is Ethos, Spock is Logos
I don’t think she’s much like Spock at all. Other than the fact she is suppressing a hidden nature as he often does. If anything she’s a little closer to who Spock will become more than who he is now in many ways. Whether that is because of her somehow still remains to be seen. She is a tactical thinker yes, but she is as emotional of a person as any non-Vulcan aboard. She takes a very hands on investigative role in Ghosts of Illyria & Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach, it almost got her killed in Memento Mori as well. If Chris is compassion, and Spock is logic, that makes her action.
Every triumvirate has had a Ethos-Logos-Pathos dynamic within it. On Kirk’s Enterprise, he is the ethos to Bones’s pathos and Spock’s Logos. On Picard’s Enterprise, he is the Logos to Riker’s Ethos and Deanna’s Pathos. The SNW triumvirate is a lot more similar to Picard’s Enterprise. Una & Riker are similar as they are both the Ethos or Action in their triumvirate as well as first officer. Although the roles are swapped as Spock remains Logos, but Pike is absolutely Pathos. There is plenty of room for growth in that!
How the TOS Triumvirate Evolved
I feel like people forget how little screentime Bones gets in season one of TOS before they realized Kirk & Spock needed someone to balance the dynamic. DeForest Kelley wasn’t even in the title cards until season two! Kirk had a relationship with Bones and a relationship with Spock, but Spock & Bones didn’t get into the meat of their fascinating character dynamic until the second and third season.
I think it stands to reason that season one put particular emphasis on Chris and Spock’s relationship, and Chris & Una’s this season because those relationships were extremely important to gratify for the needs of the finale, in which Chris gives into his fate to spare Spock, and gets Una unjustly taken away from him. That and, since it is the first season, the writers probably wanted to focus on the characters that were brand new and of plot importance like La’an. As well as characters that were huge draws to the show because of Discovery which means, Spock & Pike.
Since Kirk is going to be featured at least once next season, I’m sure at least some focus is going to be pulled away from the Spock & Chris dynamic for that. If Una is still there (and I’d bet money she will be) that gives much more room for her to develop more complex relationships with Spock and Chris. We also don’t know if La’an or Una will still be gone when the other returns, without the La’an & Una dynamic that’ll give more interesting avenues for either of them to grow. On top of that, I’m hoping next season will feel less need to focus on the two characters we’ve already gotten introduced to (Pike & Spock) in favor of better exploring the rest of the cast, Una included! Who knows what the next Chief Engineer is gonna do to the character relationship map of this series too!
Predictions For Una’s Return
As much as it’s a little bug of anxiety in the back of my brain, and I don’t love the fact that penal colonies are still A Thing. I doubt the story would just throw Una in jail and be done with it, whether it’d take a whole episode of nonsense to lock her up or not. I don’t think it would befit the message Star Trek generally tends to promote which is “prejudice is bad”. Una being a Starfleet officer arrested and removed from duty pretty exclusively based her species would severely undercut the message of Star Trek as a whole, including the darker ones like DS9 & Discovery.
My biggest concern other than the very low likelihood they’d be like “Una’s in jail forever now” after all the amazing plot material brought up by Ghosts of Illyria & Pike’s “this isn’t over” comment is what comes after the trial. I really hope she’s reinstated as first officer and gets no punitive action taken for her standing up for herself and her people, like being unable to rejoin Starfleet. Even if it’s something like she decides she has a higher calling and leaves to advocate for Illyria joining the federation, that would feel kinda abrupt and ooc for her knowing how much she cares about Starfleet and her career. Considering how much promo material had herself, Chris, and Spock advertised as the main trio, I doubt this would be the decision either.
I also just wanna say I DO NOT think anyone snitched on Una, especially not La’an (Ghosts if Illyria was deliberately framed as a learning experience for her, she and Una have a bond, and one of her core tenets is “knowing when yo bend the rules”). What I think is gonna be the big reveal is Batel was sent to confirm suspicions after the events of Ghosts of Illyria, and used schmoozing Chris as a way of clandestinely downloading information that revealed Una’s true species. We’re gonna get a good ol’ fashioned court martial episode in the front half of SNW S2, right down to the betrayal/bitterness of a captain’s former lover like Court Martial & Measure of A Man.