Chris Snellgrove | publishing
In the nearest Star Trek: A Strange New World Embedded reporters raised a nominal question, “What is a starfish?”. Thanks to a dark-looking mission, he began to question whether Starfleet was a trusted explorer or a savage warrior organization. The inevitable happy ending, though, feels like airlight, because the answer to this question (“it is the people” and “what is the Starfleet”) evades what Shady Starfleet has been doing all the time.
The head of “What is the Star Man?” is that we are watching a cosmic documentary created by the riders riding on Captain Parker Enterprise. The document of his life becomes juicy when the ship receives orders to clash between two major planetary powers. This led our former journalists (brother of corporate pilot Erica Ortegas) to question whether Starfleet was a truly benevolent organization or a military division of a well-marketed empire: the Federation.
Pike and crew finally stop weapons to arm the frustrated aliens and let him euthanize himself in the nearby sunlight, and the episode ends. This led to a montage of friendly crew shooting (including our captain hosting another cool party and interrupting on the guitar), while Ulala insisted that Starfleet was shaped by those who served, not the other way around. The ending is urgent (especially annoying when it’s the shortest episode A strange new world Have made it), but the real problem here is that the final scene seems to be a big fan of Starfleet’s decision.
That’s because there are a lot of criticisms about Starfleet: Not long ago A strange new world At the beginning, we see Starfleet willing to blow up the entire Klingon Homeworld to end the war with these radical aliens. Oh, the entire universe is under jeopardy, thanks in large part to Article 31, the creepy Starfleet Wetworks division that operates without any oversight.
In other shows, there are many examples of bad interstellar churn behavior. In the next generation, Captain Picard was surprisingly cold as the local colonists were forced to relocate to appease the Kadadas. On Voyager, Captain Janeway’s verdict Tim Vicks (Tuvix) is ruthless or remorseful. Oh, Captain Sisco is a co-conspirator for the murder of the Basil Senator Deep Sky Ninebut he can “live with it” because it is what it takes to ultimately bring those sharp aliens to the Dominion.
I can go on, but you get it: Starfleet’s greatest hero does not hesitate to make horrible decisions with greater benefits. Picard wants to avoid the war, Sisko wants to end the war, and Janeway wants two of her crew to come back. But the willingness of this dirty desire shows that the Star Man is very different from the squeaking novels they show to the Milky Way.
That’s why “What is starfleet?” is disappointing: It raises the tough questions that Star Trek fans have been asking for years, but never really answered them. Instead, we get a weird, resonance-based ending, which means Starfleet isn’t because the corporate team is so cold. It seems like the show hopes we forget any possible criticism of this powerful and influential organization, as Captain Parker plays the guitar when he feels it.
As one of the fans of Starfleet’s sketch decision, I feel like “What is Starfleet?” is trying to burn me. Starfish is a good conclusion because our protagonist is cool, and it’s totally crazy in the face. Many franchise bad guys are cool (including Q and Gul Dukat), but that doesn’t stop fans from correctly criticizing their horrible behavior.
That doesn’t mean “What is Starfleet?” is a bad plot: it has great mysteries, funny heads and a crisp philosophical question. But the documentary itself feels like a little cosmic propaganda, with the aim of anyone watching any act that has ever criticized Starfleet. Telling a critical audience to stop criticizing the character and enjoy riding is so effective that Section 31 may create it.
