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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I found this episode of The Ready Room made me feel less good about the main episode. For example, at the end they’re recapping why eugenics is banned in the Federation, and they say it’s because of “potentially violent impulses”. But in Doctor Bashir, I Presume it’s established that it is not just because of the eugenics wars, but because if you allow genetic augmentation it creates a medical arms race where parents feel compelled to genetically augment their children to keep up. Is that being retconned or was just it just a badly written summary? We really don’t need Star Trek to be making the case for eugenics, you guys…


  • I agree with this. It was clear from when the lawyer called the eugenics laws “race laws” that Number One was going to get off somehow, but I really missed seeing in the courtroom somebody make the case that genetic augmentation is meaningfully different from genetic modification – in particular in the case of Illyrians, that they modify themselves to exist harmoniously with their environment and not to breed superhumans. Eugenics is bad, and genetic augmentation is also bad and I think corrosive to society, as is covered in Doctor Bashir, I Presume.

    Overall, I thought it was good Star Trek, but missing a robust engagement with the issue at hand which was disappointing. A better episode than last week, though.

    Oh also – it was very exciting to see a Tellarite! We barely see any of them, especially compared to the other three founding members.

    EDIT: Thinking about it more, I do actually think it’s a bit objectionable to call anti-eugenics laws “race laws”. I get that Starfleet is fictional, but in our actual universe, “race laws” have tended to go hand in hand with eugenics, so it really feels a bit … unfortunate. And based on this episode’s Ready Room, they seem pretty comfortable with the idea that Starfleet and the Federation are in the wrong about genetic augmentation, and I don’t feel like they drew the line in the episode or in the Ready Room episode between augmentation and modification.







  • I’m sorry you didn’t like it, Iiii obviously didn’t particularly either. It makes me remember how they were all talking about already filming s2 when s1 came out. It is disappointing. I hope they will get back to the SNW of s1. What is most frustrating is that Lower Decks is consistently good Trek specifically, so they do still know how to do it, they just don’t seem to want to put any money into it? Even though their shows keep eventually petering out because the core audience of Star Trek is – weirdly enough – Star Trek fans. I am concerned that they will not listen to negative -> lukewarm feedback because they will just be like oh now you don’t like the good one either, we can’t please you! But, like, you can! It’s so easy! You’re already doing it with Lower Decks, all you have to do is make good Star Trek that isn’t some weird action movie/soap opera mash up with Star Trek theming.