Where "Star Trek: Discovery" Goes Boldly: Season 2 Explores Feminist Boundaries



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"You'll know you're scared," says Michael Burnham, citing an allegory, "because it speaks very fast and very loudly. If that's how fear works, recognizing it is easy. "

Burnham saw this wisdom in the last moments of the premiere of the series "Star Trek: Discovery" and speaks of a place where one knows its truth and learns from it in the final of the first season. At that time, the public saw the many faces of Burnham, transformation that the actress who plays, Sonequa Martin-Green, continues with confidence.

Burnham, who was first officer and mutinied soon after, is a warrior and survivor, embodying bravery fueled by deep-rooted memory, honor and fear.

She is as changeable, a very different personality in the new season than encountered in the first episode, where she has presented herself as human with a Vulcan compbad so devoted to the logic that she betrays her captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) to commit an badault in his opinion. to be right.

Towards the end of the season, fear and betrayal came up against him repeatedly – by respected allies, by a lover and a friend, by the captain who gave him a second chance where no one would, by hazards visited during the time spent in darkness. mirror universe. Its principles are still valid because they are the principles of the federation.

Once I know the fear, Burnham asks – again, quoting the story – how can I defeat it? The answer is to refuse it. Saying No Here, in these new episodes, Burnham has earned the restoration of his officer status, as well as the determination to say yes.

"Star Trek: Discovery," which launched its second season last week on CBS All Access, has landed on a platform dominated by fans eager to see a new vision of the universe, a vision that captains Kirk, Sisco, Picard or Janeway had not traveled yet. And Bryan Fuller, who determined the plan of the series before leaving production, presents this vision in the form of a story told from the point of view of a Starfleet traveler who does not occupy the captain's chair.

The result of the first season was a long "Vulcan hello", an explosive crime that disrupts a universe based on principles of exploration, non-interference and peacekeeping – Gene Roddenberry's vision of evolution positive of humanity.

"Discovery" is a story born a decade before the events of the original series and Burnham is the product of a universe that exists under a totalitarian threat. But she and Georgiou, her leader and maternal figure, as well as the youngest Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), also ended up representing a feminist point of view of this somewhat singular universe compared to that of Trek and television entertainment in general. .

Perhaps the public will appreciate it more fully in the new season with executive producer Alex Kurtzman taking the reins of the showrunner. Kurtzman co-wrote the 2009 movie "Star Trek" as well as "Star Trek Into Darkness" and immediately connects the story of the USS Discovery to the more familiar chronicles of the USS Enterprise: Anson Mount joined the story under the name of Christopher Pike, the captain of the Enterprise. before Kirk. In addition, one of the main drivers of the season involves Burnham's burning desire to communicate with his adoptive brother, Spock.

But I wonder if the appearances of this character in this first episode say less about the underlying directive of this season than the insignificant behavior of his scientific officer, a man of knowledge who, even in these advanced and progressive times, refuses to believe a woman black woman) could be more skillful than him. The series treats the fan of this character with a lot of humor and a predictable result that still deserves a little laugh. Yet hail has been made and received – lack of respect based on bad is not tolerated.

Each era of the "Star Trek" catalog is articulated around progressive ideals, visible in peaceful cohabitation and respect for the traits and varying abilities of the dozens of races and worlds that make up the United Federation of Planets. The best ones also meet the real-world deadlines in which they exist. The Klingons of season 1, obsessed with maintaining purity and dominating other worlds, were written to resemble a certain tension of political fanatics.

The first episode of this new season requires Burnham to make calculations that Captain Pike is reluctant to do. It allows Tilly to inherit the duties of the ship's chief scientific officer. and a technologically brilliant survivalist.

Instead of taking lives, they save them and perhaps even adapt a familiar journey of this universe. They guide the way and are essential to the journey as a person occupying the main chair.

This, along with the injection of lightness and the introduction of other family relationships, makes me optimistic about the direction that will take these new episodes.

After season 1, we need a change of tone. I enjoyed the first season of this series, but so late in 2017 and 2018 needed a stimulating dose of positivity for women, "Discovery" did not initially provide it. First season, Burnham, a convict, is free only to the extent that Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) of Discovery allows it. It's only when the ship is launched into an alternate universe that the story really puts a test of resistance on the common definitions of female power and humanity, while Burnham finds himself face to face. face with Philippa, murdered in his universe by Klingons.

The Philippa of the Dark Universe is a cruel and deadly leader who values ​​above all strength and strength, traits that bleed through the universe. (This, in turn, contradicts the common but very false badumption that if women rule the world, it would be a utopia, it is true that if good women rule the world, we could just as easily obtain a ruthless ruthless who burns planets and eats on the flesh of his enemies.)

And yet, Burnham is still able to connect to a certain level of mercy and love in her, which she exploits after the return of the couple in the time set by the Federation to prevent their planets from being destroyed by the Klingons .

In this sense, the first season has played several times, rebaduring the audience by recalling the best in humanity, and testing its propensity to violence, which plays a central role in a story series Trek. In addition to the usual complaints about the club's ruin by the ladies, other supporters have criticized the emphasis on violence and explosions, which contrasts with the previous series' approach.

But it is also a season with an autocratic vision for two different and natural purposes: During the first half of the season, the Federation is forced to abandon its exploration activities to be on the war footing. which compromises his principles.

The second half shows the worst of what could happen when humans, centralized as heroes of this universe, twist their will to survive until they attack the most devilish tendencies. of their kind, empowered to inflict pain on others and to ignite by submitting anything that they deem to be less than them.

Desperation, in other words, laid out the path of discovery at that time, requiring action, which can be exhausting at a given moment.

According to what can be deduced from the opening of the second season, Burnham is a guide, not a pawn, a character who imposes the same respect as the captain, and sometimes even more . Tilly is bright, confident and embraces her intelligence with all her heart. Through their efforts, "Star Trek: Discovery" seems to be joining Explorer's path – a sweeter path, perhaps, but no less invigorating and perhaps a little more free of fear.

In case the darker side would be more appealing to viewers, CBS All Access is developing a spin-off for Michelle Yeoh's character, which, let's remember, is the coldest version of Philippa. If this continues, she will play the role of Starfleet Section 31 member, making her Black Operations Specialist within the Federation.

Who knows what Roddenberry would think of such a story? It does not matter; In 2019, the realists would say that if the utopias are wonderful, someone gets dirty hands to preserve the splendor of paradise.

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