Star Trek is boldly going exactly where we’ve been
The show: Star Trek: Discovery, Season 1, Episode 1 The moment: The echo through time
In 2256 (10 years BK, Before Kirk), a Starfleet ship spies an unidentified object in deep space.
Lt. Saru (Doug Jones), who is, I don’t know, something pink and not human, recommends they leave it alone.
“We see something we don’t understand and instantly cast judgment?” Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) counters.
Capt. Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) says it’s moot; they don’t have a shuttle that can manoeuvre it. “I’ll go,” Burnham says. “All I need is a thruster pack.”
“It seems a waste of the ship’s resources,” Saru argues. “What will be gained?”
If we risk nothing, we learn nothing, Burnham replies. She straps on the jet pack.
Eons ago, during the original Star Trek’s run, my brother’s job made him late for every episode. “What happened?” he would breathlessly ask.
My dad’s answer was always the same: “Kirk got into trouble and Spock got him out.”
The motto of this new iteration might as well be, “If it ain’t broke . . . ” Despite a few updates — most notably, this lead is a Black woman — we’re right back where we were in 1966, debating reason vs. emotion while espousing interracial harmony to a torn and weary world. The powerful Klingons here may have Black skin and the ostracized ones white, but we get it, we get it.
Unfortunately, back on Earth, we’re stuck in a time warp where that message is even more pertinent than it was 50 years ago. This series is boldly going exactly where we’ve been, because we haven’t come nearly far enough. Star Trek: Discovery airs on Space and streams on Crave. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.