Star Trek Discovery season 2 megathread

[Worffan101]

Did I mention that Spock is now basically the possibly-autistic kid from "The Wizard" (the '80s kids movie with the PowerGlove)? Yeah. That's what they turned Mr Spock into. A grown-up Magical Retarded Kid. A trope that's at least 30-40 years out of date by now. A trope that I, a person with multiple neurological disorders, find deeply personally offensive and quite a lot of other people seem to, too.

Fuck STD. Even when they try to fix their goddamn mess they fuck it up even worse.

Wait waht? She just targeted Spock because he's the only one with the brainwaves or whatever to be able to pick up what she was saying coherently. Given the fact that they have telepathic capability, and it's understandably linked to the socially evolutionary effect of their logical cadence, there's a considerate narrative transformation in the writing. This might resonate with people that have that condition, but it's not blatant autism metaphor.

Yes. His disability is his superpower.

That, today, is basically what Chakotay was 20 years ago.

[Fianna]

I'd think him being half-human/half-Vulcan would be the easier way to explain it.

[clearspira]

Did I mention that Spock is now basically the possibly-autistic kid from "The Wizard" (the '80s kids movie with the PowerGlove)? Yeah. That's what they turned Mr Spock into. A grown-up Magical Retarded Kid. A trope that's at least 30-40 years out of date by now. A trope that I, a person with multiple neurological disorders, find deeply personally offensive and quite a lot of other people seem to, too.

Fuck STD. Even when they try to fix their goddamn mess they fuck it up even worse.

Wait waht? She just targeted Spock because he's the only one with the brainwaves or whatever to be able to pick up what she was saying coherently. Given the fact that they have telepathic capability, and it's understandably linked to the socially evolutionary effect of their logical cadence, there's a considerate narrative transformation in the writing. This might resonate with people that have that condition, but it's not blatant autism metaphor.

Yes. His disability is his superpower.

That, today, is basically what Chakotay was 20 years ago.

As I say, its this generation's magical native. In the past producers just dressed someone up in beads and chant some gibberish into an open flame; now they make their actors just act like they were raised underneath a rock. I still think that Tilly is just as bad - she is clearly what an able person THINKS an autistic person acts like.

[Artabax]

Season 1: Chuck says regular Trek is about the Gang, DIS focuses on Michael, unless you care about Michael...
Season 2: has episodes aboot the Rest of the Crew. Until ep 10, Michael is no longer focus of the show, she is focus of the whole frakking Galaxy.

[MixedDrops]

I still think there's a difference between something like the recent Predator movie's "autism gives you superpowers for solving math equations" and Discovery's "Spock has a reading disability which made him uniquely suited to receiving an otherwise nonsensical message from the future". I can understand the distaste for it regardless, though. Here it's just used as a Chekov's Gun and not much else.

But I don't understand why people (including Chuck actually) keep saying Tilly is autistic (or even has Asperger's Syndrome if you want to go that route). The show's never really said anything to that effect, they've only shown her being socially unaware/awkward. I mean, maybe that's the intent, but they've never said she has any sort of condition, in the show or otherwise. The only special needs that were brought up with her was her need for some kind of special mattress while sleeping.

[Yukaphile]

Maybe they should just come out and say Tilly is autistic? On the one hand, that flies in the face of what Troi said in First Contact, but on the other hand, that hasn't stopped STD before, so... just make her autistic or give her Aspergers. It'd actually be full representation similar to what Dax was for trans/bi people in the 1990s, and her only flaw was that she didn't date and sleep with women as well as men. Other than that, Trek really hasn't been that progressive on LGBT rights or any other liberal causes they claim to champion, so... as someone who isn't watching STD, why not go all the way and just make her what people think she is? And people can then handwave this as, "This is the 23rd century, not the perfect 24th century, so she can be allowed to be disabled" or whatever crap they'll spew. Hell, DS9 actually included someone in a damned wheelchair and the struggles they face, so... why won't STD? That's my question. And Aspergers is a real syndrome. I myself might have it. Haven't been diagnosed yet, but my doctor is working on it.

[MixedDrops]

I mean, based on the reactions here, I think officially saying Tilly is autistic would be met with people criticizing her as being a stereotype. I'm not sure how true that would be personally, but I'm not autistic or otherwise have anything even related to ASD so I can't really comment on that. I've worked with various ASD people in my line of work and behavior can span a massive range based on what they actually have though, so I don't know how Tilly would slot in.

Wheelcheer-wise...there's actually people in wheelchairs on Discovery in the background, so there's that at least? (When you think about it's weird that'd be a thing in a society where you can get half or more your body replaced with robotics if you're disabled, but hey, whatever, maybe they just didn't want to)

I agree that Trek's arguably had a glacial pace in terms of actual progressivism, especially LGBT representation, but at least they have a real gay couple on the show this time around (and they're not stereotypes! If anything they were too bland), so I'll give them that at least. They did the bury your gays thing though, then brought Culber back to life, so I guess that's...three-quarters credit? I dunno. As far as that goes they've thrown in something pretty interesting this season IMO. Culber has come back to life which is always stupid but at least it has had actual consequences. He's having serious identity issues and is actually pretty traumatized from being dead, which is something I feel like Trek should've explored more often given how often characters...well I mean, we all know Lazarus of the Week is a standard prize from Chuck.

[Yukaphile]

Jadzia still remains my favorite.

[clearspira]

Maybe they should just come out and say Tilly is autistic? On the one hand, that flies in the face of what Troi said in First Contact, but on the other hand, that hasn't stopped STD before, so... just make her autistic or give her Aspergers. It'd actually be full representation similar to what Dax was for trans/bi people in the 1990s, and her only flaw was that she didn't date and sleep with women as well as men. Other than that, Trek really hasn't been that progressive on LGBT rights or any other liberal causes they claim to champion, so... as someone who isn't watching STD, why not go all the way and just make her what people think she is? And people can then handwave this as, "This is the 23rd century, not the perfect 24th century, so she can be allowed to be disabled" or whatever crap they'll spew. Hell, DS9 actually included someone in a damned wheelchair and the struggles they face, so... why won't STD? That's my question. And Aspergers is a real syndrome. I myself might have it. Haven't been diagnosed yet, but my doctor is working on it.

How was Dax representative of trans people? She isn't trans herself she is all woman. She just has the memories of men. I wouldn't say she was bi either as again that kiss was due to her male memories for a previous girlfriend, she herself only likes men.

[Yukaphile]

Because she could easily be seen as a woman inside a man or a man inside a woman allegory. And Trek, imo, thrives on allegory and metaphor and subtle symbolism.