Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.03.
The first Number one centric episode, also making a case for Una/La'an as the latest (fanfiction) pairing in Trekdom.
I dimly remember Number One being genetically engineered was either popular fanon or based on something Gene Roddenberry said at some point somewhere. In any case, given that Rebecca Romijin's take on Mystique is hardly forgotten, there is more than one meta aspect on Una having the secret augmentation backstory, only, unlike with Julian Bashir, it's established early on, and she's not from Earth. It also puts an interesting wrinkle/tension in her relationship with La'an; in the pilot we could see La'an might even hero worship her a bit, but La'an has also been taunted for her biological descent from Khan and so the reveal that Una is an actual real life augment hits her badly, even without the disease of the week factor. Both the fight and the reconciliation scene later felt straight out of fanfic, in a (to me) pleasing way.
DS9 and Enterprise both took on the Federation's ban on genetic engineering as the result of the Eugenic Wars and made drama out of it, with mixed results. I liked Doctor Bashir, I Presume?, but the Jack Pack episodes suffered from the fact that the fact these characters are in genteel prison when the majority of them came across as medically able to live on their own was never adressed. The Augments two parter on Enterprise was suspenseful enough, but couldn't decide whether it wanted ot make a statement about prejudice or redo Space Seed since most of the Augments did go bad. What I found most original in SNW's take so far isn't that our genetically engineered person here is Una, i.e. a sympathetic regular who uses her powers for good, but her statement to her later deleted log at the end - the question whether Pike's and by implication everyone else's acceptance and defense of her was based on the fact she saved the ship, and whether there would also be acceptance for Illyrians who simply were. I.e. heroism should not be the basis for acceptance.
(I was reminded of the immigrant dubbed "Spider-man" for his method of people rescuing who got offered French citizenship by Macron after said heroism, and how that partly evoked a "yes, but..." response in some comments, as in "Yes, but does it need to be extra good to get the same rights as everyone else"?)
Otherwise, this was a solid suspense episode which allowed us to get to know several characters better - we saw Hemme's inventiveness and coolness under fire (in both the good and the bad sense), the sardonic repartee he had with Una, and learned M'benga's secret. (Seems Scotty wasn't the first to use the pattern buffer of the transporter as a (temporary) life saver.) This being an optimistic show, I think chances are good M'benga will eventually discover a cure for his daughter. That he has a child is another reminder of how DS9 changed the pattern that main characters of ST shows can, in fact, be parents, and not just in the "one episode miracle kid" sense.
But really, La'an/Una, am I right?
I dimly remember Number One being genetically engineered was either popular fanon or based on something Gene Roddenberry said at some point somewhere. In any case, given that Rebecca Romijin's take on Mystique is hardly forgotten, there is more than one meta aspect on Una having the secret augmentation backstory, only, unlike with Julian Bashir, it's established early on, and she's not from Earth. It also puts an interesting wrinkle/tension in her relationship with La'an; in the pilot we could see La'an might even hero worship her a bit, but La'an has also been taunted for her biological descent from Khan and so the reveal that Una is an actual real life augment hits her badly, even without the disease of the week factor. Both the fight and the reconciliation scene later felt straight out of fanfic, in a (to me) pleasing way.
DS9 and Enterprise both took on the Federation's ban on genetic engineering as the result of the Eugenic Wars and made drama out of it, with mixed results. I liked Doctor Bashir, I Presume?, but the Jack Pack episodes suffered from the fact that the fact these characters are in genteel prison when the majority of them came across as medically able to live on their own was never adressed. The Augments two parter on Enterprise was suspenseful enough, but couldn't decide whether it wanted ot make a statement about prejudice or redo Space Seed since most of the Augments did go bad. What I found most original in SNW's take so far isn't that our genetically engineered person here is Una, i.e. a sympathetic regular who uses her powers for good, but her statement to her later deleted log at the end - the question whether Pike's and by implication everyone else's acceptance and defense of her was based on the fact she saved the ship, and whether there would also be acceptance for Illyrians who simply were. I.e. heroism should not be the basis for acceptance.
(I was reminded of the immigrant dubbed "Spider-man" for his method of people rescuing who got offered French citizenship by Macron after said heroism, and how that partly evoked a "yes, but..." response in some comments, as in "Yes, but does it need to be extra good to get the same rights as everyone else"?)
Otherwise, this was a solid suspense episode which allowed us to get to know several characters better - we saw Hemme's inventiveness and coolness under fire (in both the good and the bad sense), the sardonic repartee he had with Una, and learned M'benga's secret. (Seems Scotty wasn't the first to use the pattern buffer of the transporter as a (temporary) life saver.) This being an optimistic show, I think chances are good M'benga will eventually discover a cure for his daughter. That he has a child is another reminder of how DS9 changed the pattern that main characters of ST shows can, in fact, be parents, and not just in the "one episode miracle kid" sense.
But really, La'an/Una, am I right?