Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay today. I'm back for my review of this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Ad Astra per Aspera", which is the second episode of the second season. I'm planning on making this review very light on spoilers just because it is a heavy episode and the outcome was already spoiled due to the fact that Rebecca Romijn is still on the show as Una. So without further ado, let's get into it.
Star Trek is always at its best when it becomes a mirror for the way our society, in whatever decade the show was made in, handles things. And this episode is no different. While the episode is about Una Chin-Riley, the first officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and her breaking the law in order to get into Starfleet simply because as a genetically modified species, the Illyrians aren't allowed in Starfleet, it's really about our own prejudice, hatred, and racism. In particular the systemic racism, hatred, and prejudice that our own governments can be capable of, and have been capable of, through the lense of the Federation's fear of genetically engineered people, due to Khan Noonien Singh and the Eugenics Wars. Which of course is a very strong connection to Una's friend, and Enterprise chief of security, La'an Noonien Singh, who happens to be a descendant of Khan.
I loved this episode. From the courtroom scenes to the conversations between Pike and Captain Batel, who is Pike's girlfriend, and even La'an's fears that she's the one who inadvertently turned Una in by leaving an entry in her personal log back in season 1 after she discovered that Una was an Illyrian in episode 3. In fact one of my favourite scenes is at the beginning of the episode when Batel barges into Pike's quarters, complaining that Una didn't take her plea bargain offer, with Pike knowing full well that Una would never take that sort of a deal. Which is something that Batel should've known by now given how long she and Pike have been together for. Then again it's possible that she didn't know because Una was missing when Batel left for her ship's next assignment during the pilot episode. And we don't see her again until the season 1 finale, when she arrested Una at the end of the episode.
I loved the fact that Una's friend, Neera Ketoul, had planned to use Una's case as a platform for her own ends rather than to help Una, but when Una confronted her about it, after she basically roasted Admiral April in public, she changed tactics. While I applaud her for trying to hold Starfleet and the Federation accountable for their actions, that just as easily could've hurt Una's chances of being found not guilty in the long run even more than it already did since April was ready to defend her.
I'm not familiar with the actress who plays Neera though. Yetide Badaki has several credits to her name, including Bryan Fuller's American Gods series, though she's not in anything I've ever seen or have been interested in watching. I really liked her though and I hope we see Neera again in a future episode, be it this season or in a later one.
Overall I really enjoyed this episode. It was powerful, engaging, and reminded me of so many other classic episodes of Star Trek that featured trials similar to this. Including the TNG season 2 episode, "The Measure of a Man" and the TOS season 1 episode, "Court Martial", both of which executive producers Henry Alonso Meyer and Akiva Goldsman mentioned that they took inspiration from when they came up with this episode, in their interview for the aftershow, The Ready Room on the official Star Trek website.
Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for this week. I'll be back next week with more reviews. The season finale of Superman & Lois airs on Tuesday, so I'll be doing a full season review which will come out on Wednesday. Friday is of course my weekly Star Trek: Strange New Worlds review, and I have other ideas for next week as well. So until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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