Star Trek I: "Starfleet doesn't fire first!"

When Emotion brings us ghosts from the past, only Logic can root us in the present.

Sarek of Vulcan, Star Trek: Discovery

If there is one element that ties together the different incarnations of Star Trek, it is victory against all odds - albeit sometimes won with a stern price, but victory nonetheless. Discovery, the latest addition to the Star Trek universe, begins its story with something very rare in that universe:  failure.

Discovery, set about ten years before the original series*, introduces us to Lieutenant Commander Michael Burnham of the USS Shenzhou, impressively and aggressively played by Walking Dead alumni Sonequa Martin-Green.  While on a repair mission to a subspace communications relay, the Shenzhou encounters a Klingon incursion at the edge of Federation space.  Burnham, adopted and raised by Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan after the death of her parents in a Klingon raid, attempts to persuade the Shenzhou's captain to follow Vulcan protocol and preemptively fire on the Klingons:  the "Vulcan Hello" of the first episode's title.

Captain Georgiou refuses to compromise the principles of the Federation by attacking without provocation, which leads Burnham to commit an act of mutiny in hopes of saving her ship, her crew, and her captain.  She fails, then tragically fails again in an attempt to pull victory from defeat.  The ultimate result of her actions is the near-destruction of the ship, the decimation of the crew, the death of the captain, and war with the newly united Klingon empire.

My apologies for the spoiler, but I'm disappointed beyond words that Captain Philippa Georgiou, Michelle Yeoh's character, did not survive her debut.  My past experience with Star Trek is that it takes at least a season (if not more) for things to sort themselves out in terms of what works for the characters, but Yeoh's nuanced performance as Captain Georgiou was an understated work of art: intelligent, clever, funny, commanding and direct, but emotional and even vulnerable.  We can always hope to see her again in flashbacks, but that would be a sad substitute for watching the ongoing growth and development of the character.

However, her death and the death of most of her crew sets up an unexpected situation for the premiere of a new series.  At the end of the episode, Burnham pleads guilty in front of a Starfleet court of inquiry, and is stripped of her rank and imprisoned.  In her final words to the court, she poignantly describes her situation:

From my youth on Vulcan, I was raised to believe that service was my purpose. And I carried that conviction to Starfleet. I dreamed of a day when I would command my own vessel and further the noble objectives of this great institution. My dream is over. The only ship I know in ruins. My crew... gone. My captain, my friend. I wanted to protect them from war, from the enemy. And we are at war and I am the enemy.

This also summarizes the state of the series: almost all the characters that were introduced are dead and the protagonist is in prison. Where do we go from here? Presumably the story will be one of redemption, and I'm aware that Jason Isaacs has yet to make an appearance as in his role as Captain Lorca, but he's going to need a really good reason to drag a disgraced Starfleet officer out of her cell and make her part of his crew - what will that reason be?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see - it's going to be a process of, well, discovery.

- Sid

* I'm curious to see if there's going to be some specific reason that they decided to set this in Star Trek's "past" (for want of a better way to describe it). Three changes to the script and they could have moved the whole concept fifty years into The Next Generation's future, and then there wouldn't be all those comments about how advanced the bridge of the Shenzhou looks compared to Captain Kirk's, not to mention the revelation of Spock's human sister and the complete lack of velour turtlenecks, pointy sideburns and short pants on the crew.

I think I'll pass, thank you.

Yeah, funny thing...we never actually saw anyone get off this ride at the PNE...

- Sid

"And the weatherman says something’s on the move…."

The climate is what you expect; the weather is what you get.

Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Texas is currently dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which made its landfall late on Friday with winds of 130 miles an hour and torrential rains. So far eight fatalities have been reported, and the region has been devastated by the combination of wind, rain and flooding.*

This kind of catastrophe seems to be the new normal of climate and weather in the new millennium, and it may well be that as time goes on, unchecked global climate change will continue to worsen the situation.  Hurricanes could become stronger, and the gaps between them shorter, until ultimately an constant stormfront gnawed sullenly at the Eastern coast of the United States.

What option would the future United States have when faced with an opponent of this magnitude? 

Retreat.

In that future, the United States finally abandons the East Coast, moving everything and everyone 100 miles inland.  However, the US economy depends on a ceaseless flow of seaborne cargo, so the waterfront must remain open.  The result:  Festung America - its ports bunkered emplacements of concrete and steel, like a Maginot line around a beleaguered country. And, like the Maginot Line, ultimately a futile gesture, outflanked as tornadoes brutally march across the American Midwest, and temperatures in California continue to climb above this year's record high of 125° F.

Remember when this sort of thing was more like science fiction?

- Sid

P.S. For some excellent reading in which weather conditions are part of the plot rather than the background to the story, I strongly recommend that you pick up Heavy Weather, by Bruce Sterling, and The Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

* It's getting harder and harder to say anything that doesn't sound trite in terms of support and sympathy, there have been so many disasters in the past few years that it feels like everything has been said. I guess the simplest things are still the most true: good luck.  You are all in everyone's thoughts.