Anika and Liz beam up through an ion storm and discuss the third episode of Strange New Worlds, “Ghosts of Illyria”. Topics we cover include…
This is a pretty mediocre episode and the character stuff is very hit or miss
Do we need a log at the end to tell us what the moral is?
We love La’an and we want to know everything about her, but her story makes no sense here
“I never think of you as a child,” in the context of a character first encountered as a child, is a terrible line
Somehow … Palpatine has returned (to our conversation)
Has no one told La’an that she can just … change her name? People can do it all the time! Anika did it!
Don’t sleep in your eye make-up, guys. This is an Antimatter Pod PSA.
So first of all, picture me on Saturday morning, enjoying a leisurely lie-in, looking at my phone and chatting to @pixiedane on Discord.
“I kind of wish we were recording today,” I said, “because I feel like I have a lot to say about ‘Ghosts of Illyria’.”
Several moments of the three dots which say she’s typing. Then: “We’re NOT recording today? Because I definitely can’t record next week.”
Twenty minutes later I was at my desk in my PJs, with some water and a mug of tea. And we record over Zoom these days, so she had to actually SEE my pyjamas and bed hair.
Anyway, I did not love this week’s episode and so far I’m finding SNW pretty boring and predictable, but I really enjoyed talking to @pixiedane about it, and inserting the Law & Order noise every time she mentioned SVU.
I go on an extended rant about no adults looking after La'an’s (and other theoretical children of Khan’s) emotional needs. I am truly so angry on her behalf! How dare!
Anika and Liz had such strong feelings about episode 7 of season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, Monster, that they organised a quick out-of-schedule catch-up to rant.
Accordingly, this episode (and its show notes!) contains much fresher spoilers than usual.
We discuss:
Our concerns about the Yvette Picard plotline came true, with a fun domestic violence fake-out twist!
Multiple ableist tropes: the tortured artist whose creativity depends on their mental illness; the “having a mentally ill parent is SO traumatic” story
Imagine being a bipolar Trekkie right now
Brief mention of suicide from 8:14 to 8:26
This is not AS egregious, but they got Freud all over our Picard/Crusher
With the next Big Twist still up in the air, I’ve seen a number of people say we should wait before we judge this episode too harshly.
And I agree that there are several things the writers could do that won’t leave us with the image that Maurice Picard Did Nothing Wrong. (Although, despite the appearance of an old Yvette Picard in TNG, my suspicion of what the Big Twist might be is very similar to the one mentioned here )
But even if the writers turn the greater storyline around and have the general lesson not be egregiously horrific, the fact that we are left on this note at the end of episode 7 (after 6 episodes of build-up to this Surprising Twist) is still tone deaf at the very least. More like outright malfeasance.
One thing: while I have found that growing up with mentally ill parents can actually leave pretty deep marks that take a lot of work to overcome, I still agree that the media trope is deeply harmful. Not because it’s always untrue, but because it’s the only perspective we ever get on this issue. In the overwhelming number of media depictions of mentally ill parents, these parents are only props for their child’s trauma and development. Very rarely are they people with a life that extends beyond their illness. So while, in my experience, having mentally ill parents (especially of the variety who resist treatment) can be somewhat harmful, the trope is extremely reductive. There are tons of mentally ill people who are great parents (or are shitty parents due to factors unrelated to their illness). And even the people whose mental illness interferes with their parenting deserve to not be reduced to props in their children’s stories.
The way Yvette Picard is depicted as of S2E07 is the worst possible combination of a lot of bad tropes.
So yeah, this episode is definitely worth a listen!
Anika and Liz meet the 10-C, shout enough to scare Grudge, and contemplate…
What can Book’s fate possibly be? Liz has a theory!
Tarka is WORSE THAN GUL DUKAT, YOU GUYS
A VERY brief digression into matters Picardrelated (note spoilers)
“Why is Star Trek about feelings all of a sudden?” We cannot believe this is even a point of discussion, but since it’s come up, we have a rant we prepared earlier!
We do enjoy a nice puzzle…
Some WILD SPECULATION about the possibilities for season 5
Wait, why haven’t they just chucked a spacesuit on T’Rina and sent her out to mind meld with the 10-C?
I love having a Star Trek podcast because it’s a place where I can say I’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, and feel like that makes me really uncool.
Prodigycomes in for an almost flawless mid-season finale! Anika and Liz take a good, long look at Zero, and then discuss:
The sheer joy of watching a carefully planned story, competently told
IfLower Decks andPicardare sequels to TNG, and Prodigyis a sequel to Voyager, will the Section 31 series be a sequel to DS9? (Liz has suggestions and they involve casting Alexander Siddig…)
We talk a lot about how the Diviner is a child slaver, but he also has the regular kind of slaves AND THAT’S NOT BETTER!
How the Diviner is like one particular Australian scam artist…
We have some qualms about the Diviner’s fate
Protecting Rok-Tahk is SO important
The Shipping News (Liz has a lot of Janeway/Chakotay feels)
Anika and Liz had such strong feelings about episode 7 of season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, Monster, that they organised a quick out-of-schedule catch-up to rant.
Accordingly, this episode (and its show notes!) contains much fresher spoilers than usual.
We discuss:
Our concerns about the Yvette Picard plotline came true, with a fun domestic violence fake-out twist!
Multiple ableist tropes: the tortured artist whose creativity depends on their mental illness; the “having a mentally ill parent is SO traumatic” story
Imagine being a bipolar Trekkie right now
Brief mention of suicide from 8:14 to 8:26
This is not AS egregious, but they got Freud all over our Picard/Crusher
