2.02 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Ad Astra Per Aspera

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Commander Una Chin-Riley faces court martial, imprisonment and dishonorable discharge from Starfleet.

IMDB score: 8.9 Runtime: 57 minutes

 

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The title of this episode is the motto of Kansas, "To the Stars Through Hardships." Not that ST is in Kansas any more, or that it has been through smooth sailing. Quite the opposite. From the beginning of ST Enterprise, things had been rough. Not just for the Federation, but for all the people living under their banner.

We, the audience, don't know a time in the ST history when there has been just peace and prosperity. In fact there has always been turmoil and them leading to quite exquisite court episode, where one or more series crew members are on verge of losing their lives. The Original Series as well as the Next Generation have many of them. Some of them being famous Q episodes.

Thing is, Una's capture and trial was always on the cards in the first season. The Number One could not keep her nature hidden, and the Feds couldn't keep sitting on their hands, even if it had been beneficial to all parties.

I really assume that Captain is going to save her. Although I do expect her to do the same. Which is the case? Let's see...

Man, seeing Una's childhood drama, with open wound, broken leg was heartbreaking. Even more some for hearing her parents discussing how they were going to be prosecuted, if the hospital crew found out that she was a genetically modified mutant.

That's how I see her powers, and it makes me wonder why the great Khaaaaaaaan didn't have them? The easy answer for that is budget issues. Not that the Fed's have such an issue, as you can see from this pompous interview room.

The ones I've visited have been cramped, lifeless rooms with no windows. So the Feds tried an easy route first by trying to make Una accept dishonourable charges and sealed records for losing her wings. Not that it's a bad place, as we saw in the Picard with the case of Beverly Crusher. Even her defence lawyer was suggesting that "it was a good deal."

Her defence goofed as Una said to the prosecutor, "How can this be a fair deal when he works for you?"

Captain weren't willing to let her go without putting up a fight, with a proper councillor. It was slightly stupid move as Pike left his hotel without putting an extra oxygen charge or two in his pockets. So it was slowly death through suffocation or getting in business with the Illyrian councillor. A genetically modified Federation citizen.

She wasn't willing to take on Una's case. Not even as her "friend." So the captain twisted it with "this will be good for your other clients," routine. And Neera turned in Una cell, willing to discuss the case. After hearing Una's side, her advice was to take the Fed's offer and go home.

Una rejected that and wanted to her day in court. Which made the prosecution seething with anger as she went to vent to the dear captain, "Do you know how hard it was to get that deal approved?"

Pike's reply was classical, "Maybe you should have thought about that before you arrested her."

Touché Mr Captain. With the councillor scoffing the remark off, Pike finally let out his anger. But he didn't show his killer eyes. Not until she said, "She broke the law." Then it was all off and I was certain that the prosecuted was going to end with a knife in her ribs, on her way to the trash compactor.

Maybe that how it should have gone as the next day the prosecutor changed the case and wanted her to sit 20 years in a Federation prison colony. Amongst other things.

"Twenty year for lying in an application?" Una shouted. The defence claimed that "they want to make an example," as if something out of the norm. Not that they are ever willing to do anything else than maximum possible.

Why? I don't know because in the sentencing fair is never fair enough. But in the case of genetic modifications, Spock is a prime example, only he was done naturally and not in the test tube. Half Human, Half Vulcan is a genetic storm, a freak or abnormality in the eyes of normal humans.

The fact is that Borg's do it as well through their technology. The prosecuting started her case by bringing up the Eugenic Wars and claimed that genetic modification nothing more than an attempt of playing God.

Why is it that I can hear Q chuckling in the corner? So the defence slapped back by bring up slavery and apartheid. That the Federation had moved on with the times but also remained the same old Earth system with its flaws, and inability to move forward, because of the fears.

I loved that the Prosecution's first witness was the Admiral and when he was pushed, he claimed that he would not have sponsored Una in the StarFleet Academy. So the defence slapped her with the breaks in the Prime Directive,

Marvellous defence that ended with the head judge seething in anger. But the defence wasn't willing to douche the fire as she made her case and said that the StarFleet captain struggle every day with the judgements and all the lapses as looked through the fingers. Maybe the reason is that the brass can't reverse them. Only accept the new reality with the fleet that is breaking the protocol ... always.

Una wasn't breaking the law personally when her modifications were done in the test tube before incubation. Back then, she wasn't even a person in the eyes of the law. Yet, the law dictates that is the case, because she was born Illyrian.

The prosecution had to build her case after Admiral's testimony was struck from the records. And to my eyes, she didn't get anything together by calling in Una's shipmates, who all testified on her behalf.

Strange thing that they kept bring up was Lt Noonien Singh relationship with the Great Khaaan. To my understanding Khan thing hasn't happened, because it's in the future, and yet, they kept going on about him as if Khaan is known pop culture.

So on the next turn Una was called in the box, and she gave the Ad Astra speech before she was asked about her childhood. The answer she gave back was a harrowing tale of Federation become nazis, literally forcing Illyrians to practice their traditions in secret. The dirty secret Feds wanted to keep hidden as they secreted non-Illyrians from Illyrians.

"Yet, after all this strife, you still want to be a StarFleet officer?" the defence asked.

"Yes," Una said. Then she revealed that she turned herself in because she was sick living a lie, and all she wanted was her crew to know who she really was.

On the verge of losing the case, the head prosecution turned fraud to conspriracy by bring in the captain and his knowledge of Una four months before she turned in. The defence was prepared for it. And she brought in the asylum clause in the Federation law that twisted the case to Una's win.

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Very, very nice episode. Bravo.

 

[REBerg]

This was a somewhat lengthy and convoluted route to getting Number 1 back on board.
As trial dramas go, it wasn't bad -- delivering multiple positive messages about prejudice and legal flexibility.
Last week, La'an Noonen-Singh; this week, Una Chin-Riley. The gang's back together. Time to ...
"Hit it!"

 

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Time to ...
"Hit it!"

Yea. Show us Captain Pike what the Enterprise can do and "burn some rubber" on the way!

 

[Dave]

As trial dramas go, it wasn't bad -- delivering multiple positive messages about prejudice and legal flexibility.

I'm not a fan of court dramas either. 12 Angry Men is the best play of that type that I've watched. Compared to that, or even to TNG: Measure of a Man this didn't really measure up, but yes, it was a very subtle analogy to prejudice and race discrimination that continues today. Starfleet (like any organisation) is a product of it's history, but it is also heavily Earth-centric.

Last week, La'an Noonen-Singh; this week, Una Chin-Riley. The gang's back together. Time to ..."Hit it!"

So, two episodes to get the crew back together and to fill in the missing Department Heads. Will we move forward nest week and actually Engage!

 

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Weiss wanted the Illyrians to celebrate who they are in this episode, even though in the Federation's perfect world they're treated like second-class citizens.

"They evolve and adapt and are very successful in their niche," she noted. "So I asked [costume designer] Bernadette Croft to make sure the clothes had bright colors when Pike is walking through their city and it’s all cloudy. With Neera's clothes and nails, everything was very sharp, because I wanted it in juxtaposition to the Federation's round courtroom. I wanted her to stick out like a fish out of water. The whole team was amazing, and I’m really proud of what they did."

Weiss had dinner with showrunner Henry Alonso Myers her first night in Toronto, and she talked to him about the history of the script's evolution, what they hoped to accomplish and how proud they were of the show.

"Then I did a deep dive into the predecessors like 'Court Martial,' 'The Menagerie' and 'The Measure Of A Man' to understand the dynamics. What they all have in common is this idea of dignity. If we're going to share this Earth with others and ask them to be part of this same universe, don't we at the very least owe them dignity, and being seen and heard and evaluated fairly? This is a conversation about genetic engineering being illegal and being tested. In 30 or 40 years we might have a court case about artificial intelligence."

Director Valerie Weiss on her engrossing 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' courtroom drama (exclusive)

Rebecca Romijn's Number One goes on trial in the superb 'Ad Astra Per Aspera' episode.

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