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*runs into the room, slides across the floor* Hi, hello, mind if I just ramble about SNW latest episode real quick? Good because I'm going to anyways. (its long so ... read more)

So like ... this one honestly fascinates me so much. I frackin' love Vulcans okay. And I have been adamently screaming about the fact that Vulcans have probably the deepest and strongest emotions within the franchise for YEARS. Like, they are a species that feels things so strongly that had to turn to logic in order to stop being so violent basically. Logic is what saved Vulcan from extinction essentially, they were a planet tearing itself apart (while also in space already) and it was only with Surak's teachings that they began to find peace. Having said that ... logic - as Janeway said - can be used to rationalize anything. And in this episode we are blatantly told the serum is based off Spock's perception. This becomes clear from the moment Uhura, Pike, Chapel, and La'an immediately start the "four and a half" stuff with Spock. The boy who grew up constantly ridiculed for being half human would of course have that perception inside him that he is not enough Vulcan (nor enough human) to be counted.

It's not a new thing - these types of biases have been in Trek since TOS. Spock is the original example of it. He grew up ridiculed for his human half, we have it from TOS to the animated series to the movies to the books he is in. It's a part of his story, and has always been a part of his story. Data was treated differently for being an android and thus not human enough. Bashir had to lie about his augmentation and hide aspects of himself in order to blend into the society around him ... all because of what his parents did, he was't good enough for them nor acceptable enough for society after. B'Elanna's father walked out on the family because it was to difficult to raise a half Klingon child. Even ENT has examples of it (however we also have Phlox and T'Pol having to deal with things from the crew they are with as well - as its a time of humans getting used to being around aliens).

My point is this: the prejudices and preconceived biases coming out within the episode are not new to Trek. Multiple previous characters from past shows (before Discovery even aired I deliberately left anything new out) have included it. It's always been within Trek as a constant way of confronting what is part of society. A reminder to always check yourself at the door on a daily basis. That being said ... Spock's perceptions are not inherently bad, he is still healing. He is still dealing with what he went through. Spock left Vulcan due to the things he was going through - we just got told this in the previous episode. To me it makes a lot of sense for us to get the "i tried to dig the human out of my skin" aspect of his story right before the "oh the serum is based on his perceptions" story. We are seeing how he still perceives it all, how he is still healing. How he still internally views that he is not WORTHY of either human or vulcan. Remember, TOS is where we see a more middle grounded Spock, and even then in the first movie he doesn't even complete the Kolinahr ritual due to V'ger.

The serum Vulcans ... Pike, Uhura, La'an, and Chapel ... also tell us a lot about Spock when you think about it. Because it appears the serum was able to impart the training Vulcans have to go through in order to maintain the teachings of Surak. The whole thing mentioned above in regards to philosophy of logic over emotions. They clearly were doing HOWEVER ... they clearly also didn't have control of everything.

Pike had an extreme reaction to senses. Arguably, for all four of them they would have been heightened, but it appears Pike dealt with it the worst. Possibly, he already had a more heighten ability there who knows. However, we see him cleaning after Batel already did so - his eyes seeing things she couldn't. He comments on smell - something other Vulcans have done in previous series - to the point where she has to check herself. His voice becomes progressive louder as he talks, almost as if he isn't sure he can be heard (is the ship itself to loud or is everyone and everything to loud?). He things SALT is to much on food ... the man who cooks and enjoys cooking suddenly finds the basic of seasonings to be too much. It makes me wonder if the uniforms have different fabrics and if he changed his because the standard human one was too much. Uhura .... the woman of communications who could not for the life of her figure out how to tell someone what she needs or wants as a human ... opted to mindmeld with someone as a Vulcan in order to get what she needs/wants. Its the "if I could just share my brain with you then I wouldn't have to try to figure out the words" ... just .... I love Uhura and relate to that so hard but like ... no. We can't do that. Chapel is the social girl of the crew. This is the woman who has been balance romance, friendships, work, etc as a human like its the simplest thing in the world. Only for her to become a Vulcan a suddenly her mind is hyper focused on science. Just science. Everything else is a waste because she can just be doing science. She cut sleep out. Friends out. Her fiance off. I fear she probably cut down on food because she could have found a logical argument to cut meals into supplemental routines or something (similar to what Seven was doing just after she became human again, meals could just be a quick supplement then back to work. Social interaction is a waste of time arguments) And La'an ... now I know the show brought up her DNA specifically. However, I want to remind everyone that the show SPECIFICALLY mentioned katra's as well. That they were reaching for everyone katra and that that was the real them. Not some DNA coding or whatever but the katra is what couldn't be changed. The SOUL. You could manipulate and change DNA all day long but you could not change a persons soul is what they were saying - in other words, you could change a human to a Vulcan but their soul would not be changed from however THEY identified as. Now, to get into hers... The thing with La'an is ... she is an augment. Specifically, she is an augment from Khan's line. We've previously seen what augments can do within Trek - and what bad augmentation can do due to DS9 episodes - and I won't say that this episode did a decent job with the La'an aspect of it all. However, I do think they weren't trying to blame it on the augment all together. I believe she essentially became an augmented Vulcan. One with Spock's perceptions as well. Could honestly probably do a whole post just on her alone (really all of them). But we know Spock can retreat when the emotions get to much, has smashed a computer, and so on. Its not really all that susprising that an augmentedVulcan influenced by aspects of Spock (and also influenced by the idea of trying to hide away already) would suddenly be deep diving into what they know ... which is weapons and fighting.

[shippersparadise]

This!

Some of y'all world really only have been happy if "what is starfleet" had ended with the conclusion that "YES STARFLEET IS AN EVIL COLONIZING EMPIRE!"

and that was never going to happen because it isn't true, and if you THNK it is true, you need to go outside and touch grass and quit reading tumblr discourse passing off as geopolitics.

ANYWAY. nobody dismissed beto. They pointed out he was biased. That so many people claimed that pointing out bias is a dismissal really does explain 99% of all of the unfact-checked propoganda tumblr passes as "news".

the conclusion that "the people make starfleet" is absolutely accurate; we see that IN Startrek. One ship may peacefully be exploring the deltra quadrant, while another ship is tossing sentient beings into the warp corp to survive. Kirk and company may be out here living peacefully and seeing the Horta point of view; other starship captains are living out roman conquer fantasies and murdering people. Soval may think humans need a good spanking; T'pol thinks pecan pie is better than plomeek soup ever was. Every bitchy admiral who plots genocide that we see in the 24th century? this applies to, because they are stopped by pepole who didn't want Starfleet to be an empire. it is absolutey the people who make starfleet starfleet.

Y'all. get fucking serious.

tl;dr: if this was a TNG episode with the exact same plot and exact same speech given by Picard's lily white ass, y'all would be creaming your pants about it being revolutionary storytelling.

EDIT: HORTA, not Hydra LMAO.

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Terrarium Images

Congratulations to all Mortegas fans! Looks like she's finally getting her own episode.

Hey girl! I see those arms!

Probably before she flies off and ends up stranded.

La'an leading rescue mission?

Damn, she's so hot.

Worried about her bestie? And the Ortegas that she should be dating.

[shippersparadise]

I was thinking about La'an and Spock dancing scene in Four and a Half Vulcan

I read a comment that said the dancing was not making sense but I think that was a clever, human way to bring back La'an's soul

Dance is for her very important, a catalyst in the intimate relationship with Spock and a way humans have to unlock their emotions, express them, let them out in a functional and healthy way

While she was fighting this intimacy, this deep understanding with Spock with aggression because vulnerability, for some, can be a weakness surrounded by fear and horror

Spock decided to respond not with a fight but acting as a guide for her emotions: he guides them towards a functional expression, he gives them a healthy direction and conclusion. He does not even try to stop her, he simply flows with her and gently directs her towards a breach in her inner walls. The fight becomes a dance, symbolically showing us La'an's vulnerability coming to surface.

There was a specific point in the scene where they change location, while talking about her fear, and they find themselves in what I believe were Spock's quarters (places of first intimacy between them) showing us that Spock understands what she's not telling.

I'm afraid of commitment, I'm afraid of love, I'm afraid of vulnerability, I'm afraid of my own trauma, I'm afraid, I'm afraid, I'm paranoid, help me help me

Those were, also, her out of control obsessions when Vulcan because she did not have the proper training and disciplines of real Vulcans.

Spock showed us he's a gentle, understanding, compassionate, emotionally intelligent and leading partner. A protector.

(and I'm having a BLAST that he's actually the only real Vulcan here and therefore the only one we should actually consider in this episode as rappresentative of the good side of his species. Also, one day, I will talk about Vulcans as romantic partners because I have so much to say)

He grew up so much after his relationship with Chapel.

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As a Combat Vet. This scene rocked me. Good on Pike for shutting that shit down.

I trust my crew, they trust me. Sometimes that’s all we have.

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS S03E07 | What is Starfleet?

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Im glad im not the only one to relate in this way.

You know one of the SNW writers is a Tumblr Trekkie bc not only did they lean into the "Vulcans are allegory for neurodivergence" in this episode, they also gave the serum Vulcans 8 different relatable flavors of neurodivergence that Tumblr already headcanoned Vulcans as.

Like the food sensitivities? (Salt is spicy to Vulcans?) Hyperfixating to the point of ignoring everything else? The overwhelming need for order and routine? (Hi, Pike.) Simultaneously having flat affect and ultra-intense emotions that are channeled into special interests? Sure, it was exaggerated for comedy, but I found Pike especially to be very relatable.

(La'an too, but more for her intimacy issues and cold defense mechanisms.)

Plus, Pike admits right here that he didn't understand Vulcan food sensitivities (esp their dislike of salt) until he turned into one. He literally walked a mile in another person's shoes and gained new perspective/empathy on different ways of processing/experiencing the world.

Also, does anyone have that post-credits clip of Spock teaching Pike about how humans work? That is my peak ND experience + literally how me and my brother do silly skits

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I need a book published about these parallels! This is fantastic! I never even knew about the Spock/Uruha bit! It wouldn't surprise me if this was all intentional. The SNW writers seem intimately familiar with TOS lore. I doubt its a coincidence. So yeah, you're right, i do find this profoundly... fascinating.

Im losing my mind at how many parallels there are between Spock's TOS love interests, what they impy about what he wants in a partner, and his SNW relationship with La'an. Maybe I'll finish the essay once I finish my TOS binge, but here's my quick and messy Tl;Dr for now:

1. Uhura: the original Spock love interest. Envisioned as a "feminine counterpart to Spock." Shares Spock's passion for music. Was originally going to be taught the Vulcan lyre by him. Has a deleted scene in "Elaan of Troyius" where Spock plays Uhura a "mating song" that is supposed to "stimulate the fury of the mating time" (aka pon farr).

—La'an: also a "feminine counterpart to Spock," narrative draws parallels between augments/Vulcans and Spock/La'an. Dance is their love language, compliments Spuhura's shared love of music. Their dance is the very sensual tango. In "Four and a Half Vulcans" the dance takes on a feral/slightly animalistic vibe as Spock guides La'an to channel her "fury" into the dance to calm her down.

Just for fun, here's Nichelle Nichols thoughts on the TOS Spock/Uhura romance:

Here's the deleted scene w/the lyre

And here's the deleted "mating song" line from said scene:

2.) Leila Kalomi: Appeals to Spock's human side, spores are a narrative tool to remove Spock's shame/repression and allow him to indulge whimsy/playfulness that Spock wants but will not seek on his own merit.

— La'an: Bonds with Spock via dancing, which intimacy/trust/vulnerability. Spock eventually stops seeing dance as strictly physical exercise and uses it as an outlet for their emotions.

3.) Droxine: Human woman who is curious about Spock's Vulcan upbringing. Sees value in the Vulcan lifestyle and tries to meet Spock halfway on Vulcan logic/sensibilities.

—La'an: Human (augment) woman who accepts Spock for his hybrid nature instead of wantjng only one side. Similar thought processes in logic, intimacy (issues), and seriousness. Embraces some Vulcan customs, like joining Spock for meditation.

4.) Zarabeth: Intimate, passionate, seeks comfort in her shared loneliness and trauma with Spock. Spock nearly breaks away from Starfleet to stay with her in his emotional state. Mourns her in a very Vulcan way after returning to the present.

–La'an: Has common ground w/Spock in terms of loneliness, similar trauma, and parallel struggles with emotional volatility, intimacy issues, and fear of vulnerability. Both seek comfort in each other and encourage each other to open up and intimate through small acts of vulnerability

@tinderbox210 @shippersparadise @starship21zedna9 y'all might find this interesting

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I have seen too many posts saying "What Is Starfleet? doesn't know what it's trying to say" when it says it very clearly

Structures like Starfleet and the Federation need to be held accountable, they need to be scrutinized, they need to be questioned, especially by the people living under them reaping the benefit of their power. The thing that separates the Federation from being a reaching imperial power is the officers on the front line of exploration, discovery, and diplomacy, making decisions and trying their best to be their best selves and have the least amount of casualties.

This doesn't always work, as we've seen many times, and more often than not no matter how many people are out there doing good there's some admiral or group of them somewhere doing something shady, illegal or exploitative. When that happens it needs to be exposed and rooted out. When it isn't we get situations like in Picard where the federation has become insular, distrustful and intolerant.

It's important to speak truth to power, but the people to blame are not the members of the Enterprise out here trying to help where they can, it's the admirals in the back offices that tried to make them traffic an augmented and brainwashed intelligent space dragon to fight a war the Federation wasn't even involved in. Which part was unclear?

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The fact that a REDDIT discussion thread about this weeks episode is several orders of magnitude more positive about it than this site is telling.

My block function is getting a workout this week, lol

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Exactly. If you know the characters, you can immediately pick up that these are all traits/flaws that were already inherent in them. Tbh, that's what made La'an's case so heartbreaking to me.

Yesterday's SNW episode is becoming a litmus test for one's ability to understand and retain narrative information. They literally explain how the fucking serum works in the first 5 minutes and ppl still miss the fucking point.

Vulcans are not "born logical," IT TAKES LITERAL YEARS OF INTENSE SOCIAL CONDITIONING FOR THEM TO DEVELOP THEIR SELF CONTROL.

Vulcans are not "naturally racist," the crew are acting like this bc THE SERUM IMPRINTED SPOCK'S MEMORIES OF HIS VULCAN BULLIES ONTO THEM.

How the fuck do you misinterpret something this bad? It was literally spelled out for you.

Star Trek has officially reached Steven Universe-levels of "piss on the poor" media illiteracy. The bar is on the fucking ground when you can't apply in-your-face narrative exposition to the story

[shippersparadise]

This! Especially since there were ACTUAL Vulcans in this episode, like Doug, that were a complete contrast and contradiction to our "Serum Vulcans." Doug, especially, challenged Spock's preconceived notions by showing an active and genuine curiosity about humanity and Spocks link to it. Pike, Uhura, La'an and Christine, as i can imagine, all came out with a deeper understanding of Spock and Vulcans in general that may have directly opposed any inherent biases they may had.

The point the episode was making was RIGHT THERE. The clues were SPELLED OUT. I missed the explanation on the first watch, though, because i was distracted, but even then, it only took a small amount of reading between the lines to catch on to what they meant.

Yesterday's SNW episode is becoming a litmus test for one's ability to understand and retain narrative information. They literally explain how the fucking serum works in the first 5 minutes and ppl still miss the fucking point.

Vulcans are not "born logical," IT TAKES LITERAL YEARS OF INTENSE SOCIAL CONDITIONING FOR THEM TO DEVELOP THEIR SELF CONTROL.

Vulcans are not "naturally racist," the crew are acting like this bc THE SERUM IMPRINTED SPOCK'S MEMORIES OF HIS VULCAN BULLIES ONTO THEM.

How the fuck do you misinterpret something this bad? It was literally spelled out for you.

Star Trek has officially reached Steven Universe-levels of "piss on the poor" media illiteracy. The bar is on the fucking ground when you can't apply in-your-face narrative exposition to the story

[shippersparadise]

Im also enjoying this season. Is it perfect? God, no. There are plenty of valid criticisms to be had. But when you go into discord chats and people are complaining that they are ashamed of Trek now, and how offensive this episode is, im like, I almost feel bad for liking it and I have to stop myself. I can't let that tarnish my enjoyment. This is not an episode meant, in any way to be analyzed or taken seriously. Its hilariously ridiculous, and we love that shit in this house. So, im gonna stick with they ones who are enjoying this show. Fuck it.

Idk why people are hate watching Strange New Worlds? They rip apart every episode, i can't follow the tag bc it's filled with so much hate.

Even a lot of the positive posts start with "i know everyone hated this but i didn't" bc that's the general vibe of the fandom. When did fandom go from being critical to just outward vent posting so hard that you almost feel bad if you liked something?

This is a fun prequel show. I'm *personally* so sick of trek becoming like ultra serious and about war, death, religion, space racism and holocausts. You guys remember how campy and kinda of awful tos was right? This is trying to lead up to that. Like, enjoy it for what it is, a fun show that's 10 episodes a season for some streaming reason and isn't going to go that deep.

Let us have young spock, all his girlfriends, a weird captain and his strange girlfriend, dino gorn in spacesuits and a super lesbian-coded cocky pilot. You want serious trek about themes? Watch a different show

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Ah what an enjoyable new episode of Strange New Worlds, it surly wasn't prefect but it was entertaining. Let's take a look at the tags on Tumblr and- oh.

What a lovely community we have here :)

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Yeah, it took me another watch through because I definitely missed it the first time

So, I just read an interesting perspective of this episode on the Strange New Pod discord. @redhotchilies might find this interesting.

This person stated that they believe the modified serum turned our characters into the stereotypes that the Karkovians thought Vulcans were, due to their relatively brief contact with Spock, and, because of this, the episode wasn't commenting on Vulcans on the way that our characters were behaving, but on the one actual full Vulcan who was a kind, caring, and inquisitive person.

It gave me an 'ah-ha' moment because it was mentioned that the serum was based on Spock's perception, experience, etc with Vulcans, it makes sense that they would behave like jerks because Spock, himself, has admitted that even he thinks that Vulcans can be jerks.

Idk if that makes sense, but i thought it was a really interesting perspective.

[shippersparadise]

It does! It was such a blink, and you miss it line of dialog, but knowing that makes how everyone behaves make so much more sense. The interaction with Doug is such a contradiction to what Spock is used to with Vulcans. I remember feeling joy at Spock encountering a Vulcan who is genuinely interested in learning about his heritage instead of scoffing at it or looking down their noses at it. Doug's curiosity and intrigue into Spocks dual cultural identity is the celebration of IDIC that Vulcans, unfortunately, dont always abide by. I was happy for Spock, and i hope they kept in contact with each other. With this in mind, the episode was even more enjoyable upon rewatch when coming at it with this perspective.

I honestly think that this is an episode that will be looked at more fondly as time goes on.

So, I just read an interesting perspective of this episode on the Strange New Pod discord. @redhotchilies might find this interesting.

This person stated that they believe the modified serum turned our characters into the stereotypes that the Karkovians thought Vulcans were, due to their relatively brief contact with Spock, and, because of this, the episode wasn't commenting on Vulcans on the way that our characters were behaving, but on the one actual full Vulcan who was a kind, caring, and inquisitive person.

It gave me an 'ah-ha' moment because it was mentioned that the serum was based on Spock's perception, experience, etc with Vulcans, it makes sense that they would behave like jerks because Spock, himself, has admitted that even he thinks that Vulcans can be jerks.

Idk if that makes sense, but i thought it was a really interesting perspective.

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This was a live action "What if SNW did a ridiculous Lower Decks episode" ,and I LOVED it.

I expected to hate "Four-and-a-Half Vulcans" but I loved it. It's utterly stupid, it's goofy, it's ridiculous, it's cartoonish, it requires more suspension of disbelief than normal... but it was so much fun.

[shippersparadise]

So, I just read an interesting perspective of this episode on the Strange New Pod discord. @redhotchilies might find this interesting.

This person stated that they believe the modified serum turned our characters into the stereotypes that the Karkovians thought Vulcans were, due to their relatively brief contact with Spock, and, because of this, the episode wasn't commenting on Vulcans on the way that our characters were behaving, but on the one actual full Vulcan who was a kind, caring, and inquisitive person.

It gave me an 'ah-ha' moment because it was mentioned that the serum was based on Spock's perception, experience, etc with Vulcans, it makes sense that they would behave like jerks because Spock, himself, has admitted that even he thinks that Vulcans can be jerks.

Idk if that makes sense, but i thought it was a really interesting perspective.