{"id":2691,"date":"2020-11-06T21:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2020-12-26T17:34:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T22:34:23","slug":"the-problem-with-star-trek-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/the-problem-with-star-trek-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem With Star Trek: Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Guess who’s the most important person in the universe?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As\nyou probably know, I\u2019m a huge Trekkie. Star\nTrek: The Next Generation<\/em> (TNG<\/em>) is\none of my favorite series of all time. The TNG<\/em>\nseries finale is DEFINITELY my favorite series finale of all time\u2014I dare you<\/em> not to cry when the main cast\nall sit down to play poker for the last time! I\u2019ve been lukewarm about the Star\nTrek series that came after\u2014Voyager, Deep\nSpace Nine, Enterprise<\/em>\u2014but I\u2019m still in love with the Star Trek universe\noverall and its science-heavy storylines and themes of hope. So I was super\nexcited when they announced a new Star Trek series, Star Trek: Discovery<\/em>. I even subscribed to CBS All Access so I\ncould watch it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

And\nI was super into it! \u2026For a while. But something about it felt\u2026off. I started\nto lose interest halfway through the second season. It wasn\u2019t that I didn\u2019t\ncare about the plot or characters, though the characters did start grating on\nme (especially Tilly\u2026every time she starts babbling a deus ex machina<\/em> solution to the episode\u2019s tech problem, I wanna\nreach through the screen and slap her\u2026sorry Tilly fans). It was that it didn\u2019t feel<\/em> like Star Trek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After thinking about it for a while, I finally realized the problem. It\u2019s the same issue that plagued the final seasons of Game of Thrones<\/em>: the writers are trying to turn a sociological story into a psychological one<\/a>, and the results are less than ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My rationale won\u2019t make sense without some basic knowledge of the show\u2019s plot, so here it is in a nutshell (no spoilers in this section…okay one minor<\/em> spoiler if you’re hardcore about that sort of thing): The series is centered on Michael Burnham, the human female adopted sister of Spock. Weird how she was never mentioned in any other Star Trek story featuring Spock or Spock\u2019s family\u2026the show tries to explain it away as a \u201crift\u201d between her and Spock, but it\u2019s all very convoluted and ultimately you just have to roll your eyes and accept the obvious retconning if you want to enjoy the show. Anyway, Burnham is hot shit in Starfleet until she disobeys her commander\u2014an awesome Michelle Yeoh (one character I absolutely love, especially\u2014minor spoiler<\/em>\u2014her evil double)\u2014in a misguided attempt to stop a war with the Klingons. It\u2019s a decision that ultimately ends up killing her commander and starting the war. Doh!<\/em> (A war between the Klingons and Starfleet is part of Star Trek cannon\u2026now we know how it all started! Dammit, Burnham!<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nBurnham becomes the first person in Starfleet ever to be convicted of treason.\nWay to blaze that trail, girl! Fast forward about a year, when she\u2019s granted\nparole to serve on the starship Discovery in their super-secret mission to\ncreate the ultimate weapon to win the war against the Klingons. And so the\nfirst season goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare some interesting twists and turns, with an awesome secret reveal toward the\nend of the season that paints everything that came before in a new light. The\nending was a bit too saccharine for me, but Star Trek has always been a hopeful\nshow, which was one of the things I liked about it, so some sugar shock is to\nbe expected as the new series works to find the right balance between conflict (the\nengine of all stories) and hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsecond season follows a similar trajectory, but here\u2019s where the show\u2019s\ncritical flaw becomes obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Spoilers follow!<\/em> Skip ahead to the second sign to remain unspoiled.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So the big twist in season 1 is that the leader of the Discovery, Captain Lorca, is actually from an alternate universe where the Federation (known as the Terran Empire in the \u201cdark\u201d universe, as established in the episode \u201cMirror, Mirror<\/a>\u201d from Star Trek: The Original Series<\/em>, aka TOS<\/em>) is eeeevil!!<\/em> He\u2019s been pretending to be the \u201clight\u201d universe Lorca–who died in the event that brought dark Lorca into the light universe– in order to use the Discovery\u2019s tech to get back to his own universe (the Discovery\u2019s big war-winning tech is that it can teleport to basically any other place in the universe in an instant\u2026turns out it can also teleport to other universes). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe dark universe, Yeoh\u2019s commander is alive and also the Emperor of the Terran\nEmpire, and Burnham is her adopted daughter\u2026Wait, what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026Okay.\nSeems like a pretty far-fetched coincidence, like Burnham just happening to be\nSpock\u2019s adopted sister and also just happening to be the one who started the\nwar with the Klingons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnham\nalso pretty much single-handedly ends the war with the Klingons by giving a\n\u201cCan\u2019t we all just get along??\u201d speech in the final episode of season 1. Then\nshe\u2019s pardoned and given a permanent post on the Discovery. That was easy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nplot of season 2 revolves around a mysterious force from the future leading a\ntrail for the Discovery to follow to what turn out to be major galactic events,\nand also warns them of an upcoming apocalypse. This mysterious force turns out\nto be\u2026Burnham\u2019s long-presumed-dead mother! She used time travel technology to\navoid being killed by Klingons\u2014thereby retconning the first season\u2019s\nexplanation for why Burnham was an orphan (sigh)\u2014but then got stuck in the\nfuture. ONLY BURNHAM can bridge the gap between her mother and the Discovery to\nsave all life in the galaxy\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*End of spoilers*<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This\nis the point where I rolled my eyes, said, \u201cBitch,\nplease<\/em>,\u201d and lost interest in the show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s\nthe thing: Star Trek has always been a sociological\n<\/em>series, as in it\u2019s a series that looks outward<\/em>\nto tell stories within the context of a shared system all the characters reside\nwithin. In this case, the system is space exploration (as a metaphor for\ncultural exploration). That\u2019s why there have been so many spin-offs; the Star\nTrek universe exists separately from any individual character, including the\noriginal gang of Kirk and crew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nprevious Star Trek series, the idea was that the universe was alive with\nactivity happening irrespective of what people on the Enterprise were doing. A\ntypical episode would center on the crew we know and love venturing into one of\nthese already-in-progress situations and reacting to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, by making Burnham the main character at the center of a season-long arc (rather than a one-episode arc, which is the typical Star Trek format), the show took a sociological story and turned it into a psychological one. Psychological stories are based around a person and their inner growth and goals; these stories look inward<\/em>. They\u2019re much easier to write than sociological ones because they have a clear beginning, middle, and end; they fit into the preferred Hollywood storytelling format. This is probably why Discovery<\/em> (and I hear Picard<\/em>, though I haven\u2019t caught that one yet) have eschewed the sociological roots of the Star Trek universe for the psychological\u2014Hollywood writers these days don\u2019t know how to tell stories any other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with turning a sociological story into a psychological one is that the central character, instead of being a focal point to introduce us to a complicated system ala Ned Stark in GOT<\/em>, then becomes the center of the entire story. Their inner journeys are mirrored by their external journeys, and everything in the story has to connect back to their growth or goals somehow. Everybody in the story is a reflection of that person\u2019s strengths or weaknesses (the \u201ccharacter web\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\nStar Trek is a universe-spanning series about space exploration, what\neffectively happens by making Discovery<\/em>\na psychological story is that not only is Burnham the center of the show, she\u2019s\nliterally the center of the universe<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis why we keep seeing Burnham improbably traipsing through major Star Trek\nevents Forrest Gump-style, and interacting with major characters in obviously\nretconned ways. Star Trek has always been a series based around the ethos that\nwhen people work together, whether they be different races or different\nspecies, they can achieve great things and overcome any obstacle. But when you\nhave one character who\u2019s the center of it all, that person ends up being\ninstrumental to solving every problem, which ends up contradicting the\n\u201cteamwork\u201d theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery<\/em>\u2019s detractors have accused Burnham of being a Mary Sue<\/a>, and I think they\u2019re right. Sometimes sexist assholes use the term to gripe about how a GIRL couldn\u2019t possibly do the same things their male counterparts can do, the most recent example being Rey vs Luke in the latest Star Wars trilogy\u2026Rey is NOT a Mary Sue<\/a>, BTW (I won\u2019t get into it here, this post is already hella long\u2026and I just wrote about Star Wars and don\u2019t want to write about it again dammit). But in this case, I\u2019m using the original meaning of the term to describe someone who\u2019s inexplicably desired by everyone and unrealistically good at everything they do, even in the context of the story they\u2019re in (Gary Stu\u2014the male version of the Mary Sue\u2014exist too, they\u2019re just not called out nearly as often as the female versions). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Interesting fact: the term \u201cMary Sue\u201d originated from <\/a>TOS<\/a><\/em> fan-fic!<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnham is a Mary Sue, but not because the head writer fan-girled herself into the narrative. Burnham was obviously written to be your typical hyper-competent Starfleet officer with some relatable flaws–which, it should be noted, describes almost every Star Fleet officer ever dreamed up. But by making her the star of the show, she comes off as a Mary Sue. Her Mary Sue status is the result<\/em> of the show around her, not the cause<\/em> of the show\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s what the hell is off with Star Trek: Discovery<\/em>. I\u2019ll probably finish the series at some point. The third season just came out, I might as well see how it all connects back to Burnham somehow\u2014maybe she\u2019ll go back in time and it\u2019ll turn out she\u2019s the original human, or she\u2019ll give birth to Captain Kirk, or she\u2019ll become Q<\/a>. We\u2019re all still in (mostly) quarantine, and the holiday break is coming up and probably nobody\u2019s gonna travel. I know I\u2019ll be sitting at home getting quietly smashed off moonshine eggnog while my kids scream at me that they\u2019re bored and I ignore them. Can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you probably know, I\u2019m a huge Trekkie. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) is one of my favorite series of all time. The TNG series finale is DEFINITELY my favorite series finale of all time\u2014I dare you not to cry when the main cast all sit down to play poker for the last time! … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Problem With Star Trek: Discovery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[494,503,497],"tags":[708,709,705,707,684],"class_list":["post-2691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-other-stuff","category-plot","tag-bitch-please","tag-burnham-center-of-the-universe","tag-mary-sue","tag-sociological-vs-psychological-storytelling","tag-star-trek"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Vyi8-Hp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2827,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions\/2827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}