#Oh no do not feed the Milippa monster

[onaperduamedee]

1, 2, 6, 8, 10 for any/all Star Trek :)

Hello again and thank you for your asks!

This got long so I am giving an out to my follower :

1. What originally drew me to it:

Okay, needed background here: I have tried to get into Star Trek in the past, both the original series and TNG. It didn't impress me. I didn't have time for this many men on a ship and the world itself wasn't enough to keep me invested. Here comes Discovery, with her Captain Georgiou and her First Officer Michael Burnham... Yeah, now you have my attention.

Even if Philippa didn't stay long, I was so drawn to Michael's story (and the terrible injustice she suffered, but that's for another time) it didn't really matter that the worldbuilding wasn't as compelling to me as Doctor Who or other sci-fi shows. Women fronting the show got me into Star Trek, and now I started watching Voyager and feel way more generous toward TNG.

So, whenever I see people complaining about the changes made to an adaptation or reboot that supposedly betray the author, I want to say "hello, those changes were for me. They got me into this fictional world, they helped me appreciate the greatness of these stories I had dismissed before. How can it be bad?"

2. What I like most and least about it:

I like that the show is essentially about a system that holds at its core humanism or universalism. It's about the people in this system and how human and alien and different and similar they all are. In a way, it is an office drama set in an administration, except the civil servants in this story have to fly across an asteroid field while leaking oxygen every once in a while.

I don't like the veiled military propaganda and how globalised the vision sometimes feels. It isn't always the case, but it does at times feel like an American utopia where the US expanded and unified an infinity of worlds under the Federation. It's probably a bit difficult to explain to North Americans, but it's a franchise that feels very American and it can be at odds with the proclaimed universal ideals.

6. A character I'd like to frame and hang on my wall and admire like a work of art:

MICHAEL BURNHAM

I used to want to know so much more about her and the way she ticks, how she is the way she is, what she is? She has always been layered and fascinating, but these past seasons she let go of so much guilt burdening her. Seeing her blossom as captain has truly been the most joyous experience, to the point where I could almost (but not quite) forgive the show for the hoops it made her go through. She is a joy of a character, both because she is incredibly entertaining (adrenaline addict much?) and because she is an endless source of questions and mental essays to me. Also, she's played by Sonequa Martin Green.

8. The character with the greatest wasted/unexplored potential:

Philippa, both prime and mirror, always and forever. I still can't believe the show had Philippa Prime and went "nah, this one's boring alive." Mirrorgiou is another matter since what we got was extremely enjoyable and I thought we were getting more, yet I am not holding my hopes up for a Mirrorgiou spin-off anymore. I fear a morally dubious Asian queer ex-spy in her sixties does not seem marketable enough to the higher-ups.

10. A ship I would gladly go down with... and then become Davey Jones, so I can continue to captain said ship for eternity

Milippa, both prime and mirror/prime.

A gift of a ship, with a dream of a blend, mixing duty, remorse, familiarity, devotion and banter, with a delicious twist of monsterisation when Philippa comes back as the Emperor. What do you do when the person who was your safe place, your rock, you blueprint for seven years comes back as something twisted and cruel? Do you kill her? Do you let her run free and tarnish the legacy of your beloved? Do you resent her? Pity her? Do you despise yourself for still feeling so much for her? If Philippa is Michael's Patroclus, Mirrorgiou is her undead Eurydice and I am here for that. The thing is, while both are completely different dynamics, they feed of each other so deliciously. It's like a perpetual angst machine.