Community Answers

1. 

   949

   

   4-2-18

   Keiran MacDuff says:

   1. I like the idea that Julian asks the computer to confirm that, yes, it is time for your alarm to go off. Most of my mornings are like that, although as we later find out there’s good reason for Julian to question it!

   2. “You do what you have to to survive” is not the best things for Julian to say in a briefing where the man doing the questioning is trying to imply you might be collaborating with the enemy.

   3. This believing one thing while doing another sounds like a cool ability, but isn’t it also something you can program? I mean, Geordi la Forge did it in The Mind’s Eye. Did he just happen to have that ability? Seems like this was something specific to Julian’s enhanced brain.

   4. I agreed with Sisko, the march along the promenade was ridiculous. Well, computer Sisko.

   5. Judge, jury and executioner. We actually see it with the guards when they first lock Julian up. They’ve all made up their minds already.

   6. The best bit of writing in this is when it’s suggested that Julian might have sympathy for the Jem’Hadar because they’re genetically modified like he is. That’s why he tries to cure them, seasons before it’s actually written that he himself is genetically modified. Terrific piece of ret-con.

   7. Surprise, fear, confess… I had a good laugh when I realised Sloan was picking things out of the Spanish Inquisition sketch from Monty Python.

   8. This is all very Future Imperfect. None of it is real, it’s all a holodeck, and the focused character figures it out when there’s a mistake in the programming.

   9. Section 31 enters the fray. I find myself wondering if Admiral Marcus was involved in it in the prime timeline. Clearly he never had the same backing like he did after Nero’s attack, and maybe he went under the radar because of that, but I’d love to know what prime Marcus was up to in his time.

   10. So we all sit around discussing how awful it is that Section 31 can go against morals and everything Starfleet stands for… and then follow this episode up with In The Pale Moonlight? Nice.

   I do enjoy this episode, although it does get a little bit silly at times. Bashir was clearly under stress and didn’t pick up on some of those aspects, but it’s not enough to knock this episode for me. It’s a good four out of five. Almost a five, but not quite.

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2. 

   695

   

   4-28-18

   TakaranGolem says:

   Hey! I’m back. It’s been hard to pull myself away from the dizzying adventures of government accounting, but I never forgot my roots.

   Anyway, you’re spot on for this episode being better remembered for its ending rather than the rest of the episode. I’ve been watching TNG with my wife and son lately, and I found quite a few great episodes that take a while before the good parts get going. Here, that’s most of the episode. And it’s the perfect kind of episode to be better remembered than watched because the plot is solid and all of the right plot beats are there, but it’s just slow and details are forgettable. And it has a solid ending, which means a lot to me because I’m a sucker for solid endings, which is why I end every workday by setting off a firework and slamming the door.

   Speaking of Section 31, it’s been hard to put myself in the mindset of this time in Trek. I’ve said before that DS9 works largely because the framework of Trek morality has been firmly established and DS9 was really good at challenging it. Section 31 is arguably the biggest counterpoint to the idea that the Federation is a wholesome, benevolent government system. To my mind Section 31 exists to be contrarian, to make us, the audience, take a moment to consider the possible benefits of a deep state, unaccountable, amoral, authoritarian government that’s on our side.

   But I think it’s ultimately there for the audience to reject it for what it is. A possibly useful but also dangerous liability. I mean they did infect the Founders, quite possibly exacerbating, if not pushing The Founders to the level of desperation/apathy that lead to the war. Hell, just look at how covert US interventions in other countries have backfired. And that’s not getting into how we should factor in how their actions harm others even if it doesn’t backfire.

   I feel like S31 had the unintended consequence seemingly validating the type of cynicism and pessimism that Trek has always tried skirt around, if not outright challenge. It’s one thing to have Section 31 think itself an essential part of the Federation. It’s another thing to believe as an audience that the Federation can only exist with a sinister evil organization pulling the strings or otherwise protecting their interests. To me, that’s the same mindset that says all government is evil and to be distrusted. Or it’s the same thinking that the best government is one that is amoral, authoritian, and unaccountable, but is “on your side.” Or somehow paradoxically both. I think you get where I’m going with this.

   That’s not necessarily a criticism of the show and certainly not this episode, but for me S31 has taken on some uncomfortable baggage in how it’s framed as the reason the Federation can be the way it is. And the way I see S31 is that it isn’t a necessary part of the Starfleet. But it continues to exist either because it’s hard to stamp out, or because they don’t want to. Which is the ironic tragedy of the situation.

   Anyway keep up the podcasts. I’ll try to post again sometime.

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