Rewatching the show's 4 seasons. It has many interesting aspects to it. It's more anthropological than previous incantations, and emotions are allowed. Yes, you struggle to be logical, but emotions help you bond with people and clarify your values. And you honor how you feel because it's important for you to do that.
I don't think Star Trek is liberal leaning because there are also attractive to conservatives safety obsession and other congenial ways of conservative being. It's both liberal and conservative. If you're a conservative who hates any kind of liberal ways of being, you could say it's liberal, but you have to understand your own political bias, and not just be enraged by the other way of being when both and none are present.
Michael's story is a kind of Dickensian setup, she's trained really hard as a Vulcan, but not accepted by Vulcans, and then she works really well, but to follow her logic makes her maybe aggressive, not because she's a megalomaniac, but because she understands a lot and wants to save people. But somehow she's dangerous. And she gets a second chance.
It's also cool to give Spock a sister. You know, like giving Mozart a sister or Shakespeare a sister, or the new movies where Sherlock has a sister. Or like putting trans and gay women into Chinese history like Shelly Parker-Chan. Or Queen's Gambit that imagines a chess genius who is female, where one didn't exist, but you watch the show and then are surprised that it isn't true.
The Klingons are next level in the first season. They've come a long way from the Klingons when they've first been introduced. More diverse and they speak the most Klingon ever. Reading subtitles is interesting on a Star Trek show.
The evil timeline is what we're stuck in right now with all these people who enable a president who tells the Saudis to raise oil prices to sabotage the USA. (They are doing it again in 2024.)
There are all kinds of little details, like a Empire TIE fighter noise at one point. Michael quoting Alice in Wonderland.
There are times when the communication is so kind and empathetic, friendly. Sometimes it feels hokey, but I'm hoping to use some of the scripts in my life. Philippa Georgiou provides a necessary counter balance to the touchy feeling nature of the friendships and culture, aboard the Discovery. She's the macho, don't need feelings, dim view of everything skepticism.
At times it's too much pepew, missed punch, ships flying and exploding action. That's a general criticism I have for most science fiction movies. I don't mind an action scene at the denouement, or in small doses, but in general I feel like there's too much action and not enough dialogue, plot and character development.
The first two seasons make a block, and then the second two seasons make a block where they are thrown into the future. Not only are their multiple universes, there is also time travel. The time travel sends the high functioning sensitive ship into a warring future of even more adversity. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Every sci-fi show must have the obligatory coming home to earth visual, to give you a pull of loyalty to the planet you live on, meanwhile imagining so many more possibilities.
People say maybe Shakespeare needed to go to Italy to write plays about Italy, but most people think he's putting the plays outside England to look at things in England. The political times in America have shaded towards lying, and I find the Qowat Milat episodes fascinating (S3E7). The darker universe is the one where grift and graft are rampant.
Anyone notice the similarity between the way Sarru walks and Jane Krakowski in Schmicago, with the hand flowing behind like grass waving in in the wind, but also timed and accentuating the walk.
Season 3 is about discovering the cause of the burn. It reminds me of the story of how the Borg started, it's was initially about protection and survival.
Season 4 is about another troublesome physics anomaly, a roving black hole of sorts, with other sub plots like getting the Federation back and running after the burn and various character developments.
The show is pretty therapeutic, the level of attention to relationships and mental health is concurrent with out times. There's a fair amount of swashbuckling, but also emotional recognition of trauma. They're all responsibility hoarders who take on the world's problems. Introduce the egotistical brilliant scientist to show how to deal with intellectual hubris.
The swashbuckling and pace of the show makes it hard to do other things while watching. My drug of choice is watching TV and playing chess or other games on my phone or looking at social media. This jams my sensors and I can't worry or have painful memories from the past. It's hard to do that with this show.
Links:
Short video on Saru's Kaminar pin (2:24). I wonder what sort of pin I would wear about growing up on the west side of Madison Wisconsin mostly or my summers in Newnan Georgia and Hayesville North Carolina? I thought I could get a Madison Forward soccer jersey.
My old review of season 2
I'm rewatching it again ahead of season 5. It's by far the best first season of Star Trek. DS9 and Voyager took time to get off the ground and so did Enterprise. I'm struggling to get into Strange New Worlds and Picard. I love it that Michael gets natural hair, gets rid of her silly hair in the 3rd season.
The 4th season is more like Star Wars with galactic government and going to a sleazy bar to get illegal goods. Book becomes Han Solo.
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