{"id":82748,"date":"2020-10-30T05:11:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T09:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=82748"},"modified":"2020-10-29T21:01:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T01:01:11","slug":"star-trek-discovery-that-hope-is-you-and-far-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2020\/10\/star-trek-discovery-that-hope-is-you-and-far-from-home.html","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek: Discovery – “That Hope Is You” and “Far From Home”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I am long overdue to blog about the return of Star Trek: Discovery<\/a>. I would have done so sooner if it had been clear that the first episode, called \u201cThat Hope Is You, Part 1,\u201d was not really the first episode of a two-parter in the traditional sense. The second episode of the season, \u201cFar From Home,\u201d is simply the introduction to the season from a different perspective, with both in essence picking up where the previous season ended. I will explain that further in what follows, which includes spoilers.<\/p>\n

The new season sees Michael Burnham successfully reach the year 3188 in the future, and her\u00a0overjoyed reaction as life signs are detected. Control had not wiped out all biological life. Their plan seems to have worked.<\/p>\n

Now in the future, however, and unable to reach the Discovery, she finds herself in a challenging situation. Her phaser is referred to as an \u201cantique.\u201d She is challenged on the ripping of holes in\u00a0in spacetime by making her own wormhole. \u201cYou think that\u2019s a good idea?!\u201d The Federation, we learn, is gone, and Burnham is categorized (due to her wearing of a uniform) as one of the\u00a0\u201ctrue believers who get worked up about the old days.\u201d Or as it is also put to her,\u00a0\u201cYou believe in ghosts.\u201d\u00a0 The Federation\u00a0collapsed a long time ago in something called \u201cThe Burn\u201d when \u201cone day the galaxy took a hard left.\u201d As more details are provided we discover that dilithium unexpectedly and suddenly destabilized and exploded. All this is history but not ancient history. It happened roughly 100-120 or so years earlier. To this\u00a0Burnham responds by saying that the Federation is not warp drives but a vision and belief in it. Her new acquaintance named\u00a0Book nonetheless tells her to take off her badge. True believers who act like the Federation is still around attract unwanted attention and trouble, it seems.<\/p>\n

Book has a remarkable ability to communicate with other life forms. As he shows his ability in this area Burnham asks him, \u201cWere you praying?\u201d His reply is, \u201cSomething like.\u201d It turns out that he is himself a different sort of\u00a0\u201ctrue believer.\u201d He is saving members of a species called transworms. There is no Federation to enforce the endangered species act. But\u00a0Book has a connection to living things and empathy for this cause. His family are poachers, killers, but he explains that in what might be attributed to the universe trying to balance things out, every so often someone like him turns up in their gene pool.<\/p>\n

The mention that \u201call time travel technology was destroyed after the temporal wars\u201d makes one wonder where that might lead. Is that a connection with Enterprise, perhaps? Having connected with the pilot and brought back Capt. Christopher Pike, it would be great to see Enterprise be next, not least because Discovery began in between Enterprise and the original series.<\/p>\n

At the end we find out what something we saw at the beginning indicated, which I didn\u2019t mention because when viewers first see it we don\u2019t know what we are looking at. There is still a system set up to monitor for signals. It is what is left of a Federation subspace relay. The person who monitors it only detects two Federation ships. There is no sign of Discovery. He goes on to admit that he is not a Starfleet officer, for the simple reason that there was no one left to commission him. He is not an official member but a \u201ctrue believer.\u201d He asks her to do him the honor of commissioning him. She says that they need a communications officer and asks him to do her the honor of accepting the commission.<\/p>\n

Many things about the episode are reminiscent of David Brin\u2019s famous story that became the movie The Postman<\/em><\/a>. Like the U. S. Postal Service, here Starfleet is the thing that no longer exists officially yet is still an incredibly powerful idea. Some of the phrases used to sum this up right at the end are powerful and inspiring:\u00a0\u201cHope is a powerful thing.\u201d \u201cSometimes it\u2019s the only thing.\u201d \u201cOur numbers are few. Our spirit is undiminished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Episode 2 of the season is called \u201cFar From Home\u201d<\/a> and not, as we had been led to expect, \u201cThat Hope Is You, Part 2.\u201d It picks up the thread of Discovery, which comes through the wormhole and crashes on a planet that we learn \u201cnever had a proper name.\u201d There the crew of the Discovery, out of communication with Burnham just as she was in the last episode with them, discovers that the galaxy is now something like a \u201cwild west\u201d in the absence of the Federation. They too exemplify its values even if the organization is but a memory. They too encounter people who live in hope, as well as others who scoff at \u201ctrue believers\u201d as well as time travelers who show up as a relic of a bygone era.<\/p>\n

The episode ends as Discovery and Burnham manage to get in touch with one another, and we learn that Burnham actually came through the wormhole a year earlier than Discovery\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

I look forward to seeing where this season takes things, having shifted of members of Starfleet from a time before the original series into a future with more advanced technology than on any other Star Trek series and yet in which the Federation is at best a shadow of its former self. It may provide a perfect opportunity to do what the show has been doing since its first season: bringing the values and vision of Starfleet into the center of focus. For those like me who are interested in the intersection of religion and science fiction, the aspect of being a \u201ctrue believer\u201d in the values of a Federation that is no more deserves attention. It has long been clear to many of us that Gene Roddenberry\u2019s humanist vision of the future and also the fandom of Trekkies that embrace the values of Starfleet and seek to live by them deserve to be considered at the very least quasi-religious. Now we\u2019ll get to see those features explored further within the fictional narrative of Star Trek itself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am long overdue to blog about the return of Star Trek: Discovery. I would have done so sooner if it had been clear that the first episode, called \u201cThat Hope Is You, Part 1,\u201d was not really the first episode of a two-parter in the traditional sense. The second episode of the season, \u201cFar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":83018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[2715,3381,14905,11819,11831,13158],"class_list":["post-82748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-star-trek-science-fiction","tag-discovery","tag-federation","tag-michael-burnham","tag-star-trek","tag-starfleet","tag-united-federation-of-planets"],"yoast_head":"\nStar Trek: Discovery - "That Hope Is You" and "Far From Home"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I am long overdue to blog about the return of Star Trek: Discovery. 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