This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x02 Ad Astra Per Aspera.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

  • ikesau@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    Absolutely. The prosecution wasn’t given any opportunity to justify the laws whatsoever. It’s hard to imagine such a black & white stance on the issue being believable, but they just completely sidestepped it, again.

    I enjoy science fiction as a way to critique the social issues of our day through recontextualisation. Because this episode didn’t get into the technical details of eugenics, it served far more obviously as an allegory for our present day discrimination - which probably makes it difficult to write compelling opposition that then doesn’t just read as racist/transphobic apologetics or whatever.

    I mean, I still think it would be possible to do. But I can see the constraints the writers are working with and why they chose to not get into the weeds. It’s a shame.