Two months ago I did a post asking for the opinion of Discovery and the comments were mixed. https://startrek.website/post/29577558
The commander disobeing order to the captain in the first and also attacking her? Xenophobic military propaganda? I didn’t like it and that I like Deep Space Nine.
Now I’m watching Lower Decks, is very funny and has a lot of references to other Star Trek series, is really good, I don’t understand how a comedy who is almost a parody catch more the Star Trek vibes more than a serious production. I hope Strange New Worlds have something good, because I was already disapointed by the three seasons of Picard and the first episode of discovery.
Granted, it’s a relatively extreme case. But there are also real consequences to Burnham, which persist through the whole season, as opposed to the usual slap on the wrist or less. Most shows will have the protagonist thumb their nose at orders and convey that it’s a good thing. Personally, I like that it blows up in the protagonist’s face for once. But I’m also the sort who kind of resents Trek IV letting everyone off so easy after the whole Enterprise hijacking incident.
Honestly, I think what we have yet to truly see in Star Trek is someone in Starfleet who saves the day but ultimately cannot be absolved of their wrongdoing and cannot avoid the consequences if they’re not going to take the necessary steps for redemption - doing one important thing does not give you the moral license to do whatever you want.
They got close in TNG:”Ethics”, but ultimately the only “discipline” Russell gets is getting yelled at by Dr. Crusher - no investigations or anything.
I’d almost want to have an allegory for how we should deal with sexual harassment in the sciences, basically showing the senior staff handling the situation correctly and doing what should have been done with creeps like Richard Feynman, and maybe examining the negative tropes of past Trek. Then again, TNG has so many clumsy sexual harassment episodes that I’m worried it’d be hard to do the issue justice.
Although I’ve never watched Black Mirror, from what I’ve heard of the episode, maybe USS Callister did better than Star Trek ever could on this matter.