A visiting instructor arrives at the Academy and uses an unorthodox method to help our cadets process the emotions of recent trauma. At the same time, a cadet faces an unexpected challenge that will alter the trajectory of her life forever.
Written by: Gaia Violo & Jane Maggs
Directed by: Andi Armaganian
There is no spoiler protection in the episode discussion threads, and spoiler tags are not necessary!
I agree that I felt this was the weakest. This felt like actors writing an episode for actors about the healing power of ACTING! Just…calm down and see a real mental health professional.
Caleb and Tarima have negative chemistry, and I wish the writers would stop trying to make that happen, but here we are.
The stuff with SAM was great and should have been the A-plot.
Overall I’m still liking the show but this week was a slog.
I think it’s clear that, much like Nog in “It’s Only A Paper Moon”, the cadets (particularly Tarima) have not been receptive to conventional therapy, which is extremely predictive of whether said therapy will be effective.
Fair point. I’m sure my thoughts on this episode will soften over time (they always do), but I think my dislike of both the character of Tarima and the way she is played are making it hard for me to be invested in her story lines.
I didn’t expect this one to be quite as divisive as it seems to be!
But yeah, I can see why it would clang if you’re not feeling the characters involved. I’m sort of in the same space with Darem right now.
Tarima is messy, but it’s a very familiar kind of messy to me. Zoe Steiner is definitely taking a unique approach to the character, but it’s mostly working for me. I thought her scene with Caleb in the botanical lab was quite well done, and not an easy task.
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I would find some sort of magical “mental health technology” not only unrealistic, but rather insulting.
Why?
That’s the perfect scenario for science-fiction. It’s theoretically possible to do so, trauma has a physiological footprint, it manifests in physical reality that can be altered by technologies. It’s entirely plausible for some effects of trauma to be healed medically instead of solely through something like talk therapy, or in this case, theatre therapy.
*I had deleted my comment prior to your post, as it was intended for the poster one level up in the thread.
I don’t agree at all - it sounds rather soulless to me, stripping the humanity from the story.
That’s a pretty common part of science fiction, particularly cyberpunk, though. What does it mean to be human in a world of advanced technology? Data from TNG was this very question, that character existed to explore what it meant to be human and confront the realities of our relationship to technology. This hologram character could have been similar. If little to no part of the story is the relationship between human beings, technology, and scientific knowledge, it isn’t science -fiction.
I think that’s the crux of the hate for this series and discovery, of this Kurtzman era of trek. It’s isn’t science-fiction at all, it’s drama set in a techno-fantasy world. Those are two very different things and neither is Star Trek.
Sam wasn’t present for the theatre classes that are being criticized here, so I’m not sure what the relevance is.
This, however, is hot nonsense.
Alright, you clearly can’t understand anything i said so theres no point.
What you said doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, so I’ll grant you that.