A Tide Taken at the Flood (Pike, PG-13) 3/3
Author's Note: When I first got the idea to write about Pike, I assumed that the nerve of an able-bodied person writing about disability could be mitigated by appeals to The Future or to canon. Unfortunately, other than the fact that he's in a wheelchair at Kirk's ceremony, the movie gave us nothing about Pike's condition. The movie script mentions that his hair has turned grey overnight from "trauma," but it's not clear what the trauma is. Physical injury? The horror of his torture? The knowledge that he was forced to betray Starfleet? PTSD? Can't we hope that by 2258, there will be highly effective treatments for all of those things, spinal cord injuries most of all? And if not, or if people would prefer not to use them, can't a wheelchair-using person serve effectively in Starfleet? On that last question, Star Trek's record is somewhat equivocal. As
kitty_wake has nicely documented, there have been a number of Trek episodes dealing with disability, but most are heavy-handed "message" stories. To the best of my knowledge, we've never seen a non-able-bodied or non-humanoid member of a regular landing party. The Federation is made up of hundreds of planets, yet humans dominate Starfleet. If we give Starfleet the benefit of the doubt, we can say that he had to option to continue to serve, but chose not to for a variety of reasons. That's the route I chose here. Different opinion? Discuss! .
kitty_wake has nicely documented, there have been a number of Trek episodes dealing with disability, but most are heavy-handed "message" stories. To the best of my knowledge, we've never seen a non-able-bodied or non-humanoid member of a regular landing party. The Federation is made up of hundreds of planets, yet humans dominate Starfleet. If we give Starfleet the benefit of the doubt, we can say that he had to option to continue to serve, but chose not to for a variety of reasons. That's the route I chose here. Different opinion? Discuss! .