HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

I don’t know if you were expecting to watch Law and Order: Star Trek, when you turned on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode two of season two last week, but I certainly wasn’t. Arguably, though, I should have. Trek has a long history of using legal proceedings as a story conceit to discuss major issues. “Measure of a Man” put Data’s sentience on trial. “Tribunal” puts Miles through his paces. “The Menagerie” uses a court martial as a framing story to tell us the story that gives rise to Strange New Worlds. In “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” Strange New Worlds uses Una’s life experience to call out Starfleet’s hypocrisy without forgetting all the very real good that comes of the organization, which is admittedly an interesting twist. Not all of the legal chicanery quite works, but enough of it does to make “Ad Astra Per Aspera” some of the best legal writing we’ve ever seen in the franchise. However, despite Yetide Badaki’s masterful performance as Neera, the legal maneuvering isn’t the source of the episode’s impact. Rather, it’s how the episode uses the fictitious law to explore very real issues.

Plot Ahoy!

We find out where Pike has been during the events of the previous episode; he’s gone to an Illyrian-occupied planet where the very air is toxic to unmodified humans to beg Neera Ketoul, one time friend of Una’s, to take her case as her current counsel is a member of Starfleet and recommending that she accept dishonorable discharge. After some convincing, Ketoul agrees, and she meets with Una. After that meeting, they reject the deal, which means Una will go to trial.

At the trial, Ketoul initially seems to undermine what would have been the first pro-Una witness, Admiral April by pointing out how often he has flouted the Prime Directive. Her other character witnesses are Spock, La’an, and Dr. M’Benga, all of whom perform beautifully for Neera, but Neera’s strongest witness is Una herself. Una testifies regarding the prejudice she experienced as an Illyrian and also that she notified Starfleet herself, much to La’an’s relief.

Neera uses Una’s testimony to turn what had been a disciplinary tribunal into an asylum tribunal, offering Starfleet an easy way to both maintain its dignity as an institution without losing both a valuable first officer and captain. The tribunal grants Una’s asylum, and Neera can return to her poisonous planet having made a small step toward gaining acceptance for Illyrians.

Analysis

There’s a lot to unpack here, and while I think the legal aspects are fascinating, I want to discuss a bit about the episode’s underlying themes. Modern Trek has invested some real screentime exploring what to do when your institutions fail you. In Discovery, the answer was to rebuild them Six Million Dollar Man-style. In Picard, the show seems to advocate circumventing those institutions while placing faith in the “good people” who make them up. Admittedly, thematically, the show was a bit of a mess. For Lower Decks, the show seems to recommend asking whether the institution really is the problem so much as just plagued by the flaws inherent to any bureaucratic organization.

Interestingly enough, Prodigy comes closest to tackling the same situation that “Ad Astra Per Aspera” does. Like Una, Dal is, through no fault of his own, genetically modified and therefore banned from serving in Starfleet despite having striven to be the best Starfleet officer he knew how to be. Dal also faces backlash from the same prejudice against the genetically augmented that drives Uma to conceal her true nature for twenty-five years. Admiral Janeway has to advocate for him the same way Neera Ketoul does for Una, and in the case of both Dal and Una, the solution is custom-made for them rather than anything resembling general progress.

The Federation’s, and therefore Starfleet’s, laws and attitudes toward genetic modification evolve out of fear, inspired by the devastation wrought by the Eugenics Wars. The assumption underlying this entire legal schema is that genetic modification created these monstrous Augments who then in turn started a war. Well, that’s just a big over-simplification because this thought process ignores the very real human component here. Yes, genetic augmentation made Khan Noonien Singh powerful enough to act on his darker impulses, but it didn’t create those impulses. Khan made the choices he did, not his genes. “Ad Astra Per Aspera” actively wants to reframe this narrative to reincorporate Khan’s autonomy. That’s one of the big points made by having Neera Ketoul explain to La’an that her genes don’t make her a monster. Her own choices, however, do. Unfortunately, she’s been brainwashed by Federation society to believe otherwise. Ketoul’s discussion with La’an exposes the real core of paranoia forming the basis of the Federation’s stance. That core just happens to be an inexplicable prejudice and fear of Augments and Illyrians that seems so out of place in a society that prides itself on its inclusivity.

Una comments that she believed “Ad Astra Per Aspera” indicated that one could seek redemption by working hard to make it to the stars, and yes, there’s definitely an undercurrent of religious thinking there. However, I think the real point the episode writers want to make is less about the literal journey to the stars but more about striving for the ideal of living in a spacefaring society in which all species can come together. Creating that kind of body requires that we face our prejudices and work to overcome them, even if we believe those prejudices have some validity. Generally, Starfleet has been pretty good about implementing IDIC as a foundational philosophy, and that cooperation and tolerance inspired Una to join Starfleet. Unfortunately, her belief is not enough to undermine years of irrational fear, but Ketoul’s demand for asylum creates the first crack in that foundation.

Starfleet isn’t immune to institutional bias, and prejudice is often insidiously difficult to recognize in oneself, especially when it’s a prejudice that has been deemed socially acceptable. That imperfection doesn’t mean that Starfleet as an institution is inherently problematic. What it does mean is that both Starfleet and the Federation have some work to do. Ketoul and Una force their superiors to start doing that work.

Rating:

Five of five Time Crystals

Stray Thoughts From the Couch

1. I loved how they brought back and updated the TOS dress uniform for this.
2. Oh, La’an, I feel for you.
3. I wonder if we’ll see Pasalk again. He was really keen on getting Pike for treason.
4. Neera Ketoul’s costumes are fantastic visual metaphors for her differences.