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
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The way it is done is very much Trek, though. Geordi didn’t get his blindness “fixed”, even though Pulaski gave him options to do so. In contrast to the genre of cyberpunk (which you brought up in a different comment), Trek is not about overcoming what it means to be human, but fully embracing the full human nature. Disabilities are not meant to be overcome or erased (but to what degree this is true could of course be debated), but accepted.
Likewise, I guess the process overcoming trauma is considered as the goal, because you learn something from it. Of course everybody could just take a happy pill every day, but likewise, they could create genetically enhanced superhumans that try to take over the universe. But this is not what Star Trek is about, and it never was.
But I agree that the psychological treatment is a bit subpar in this episode, and it is weird that they did not introduce a trained psychiatrist/counselor, but instead a Lieutenant who bears her own share of trauma. Definitely educational, but solely from a therapeutic perspective, probably lacking.
Ake did say the cadets had been attending counselling sessions, and that they weren’t working (actually, I think she said that they “weren’t enough”).
Maybe they could have included a scene or a montage of those ineffective settings - IIRC, the most comparable “classic” episodes, “Family” and “It’s Only A Paper Moon” showed them, however briefly.
Yeah, I remember she said something to that effect, but it is a bit hard for me to believe that trained specialists in trauma therapy did not achieve anything, but Tilly with the power of drama did.
I am also not one of these specialists, but some methods used by Tilly seem… Counterproductive? Like cornering a traumatized young adult emotionally seems like it could backfire heavily.
I won’t pretend to be an expert, and I do hope that someone out there will get an actual therapist to guest on a podcast or soemthing to talk about the episode, but I do know that therapeutic confrontation is a real thing.
Geordi basically got super vision from his choice to integrate technology. He did not simply stay blind. What are you talking about?
If you could offer an effective, affordable and safe tech solution to people’s disabilities, the vast majority would use it. Nobody is out here ‘accepting myself’ if a fix exists. We know this because we already fix disabilities when able and nobody is choosing no. All of medicine is fixing disabilities or preventing them, from a broken finger to avoiding diabetes.
The modern process for overcoming trauma is the best we have right now. That it’s the same in 1000 years is bad science fiction, especially when medical science in the same world is lightyears more advanced. Why is mental health processes and treatment no better than 2025?
‘Taking a happy pill’ is, again, the modern equivalent of technology in mental health treatment. People in 3100 might, I don’t know, have advanced since now? The point of science in the fiction is to envision how it might have advanced. If you think mental health treatment is going to be talk therapy or CBT for the next thousand years, that seems pretty unlikely, particularly for severe trauma which has physiological affects on the brain that could potentially be modified.
Some stuff just does not advance that much, even in long timeframes. By that logic, you could criticize the series for not everyone linking to a supercomputer and share information immediately instead of “talking” which has been the way to share information for millenia now. Or you could criticize TNG for not having come up with a solution to this yet.
Geordi chose the equivalent of a wheelchair that constantly kicks you in the balls. His VISOR gives him actual pain. Polaski gave him alternatives, even curing his blindness, and he refused. There’s also that DS9 episode with the alien that comes from a low grav planet and has to rely on a wheelchair for anything. Bashir could have “fixed” her, she refused.
Also, I am not saying I agree on every view that is brought up in Star Trek. There are (even today) many ethical discussions on what constitutes as a disability, and whether it would be ethical to cure it or not (or at what stage of life). I am just saying that in the world of Trek, the process of things has always been evaluated more important than the solution. That’s the spirit of the series.
@buerviper Excellent point. The contrast with Counselor Troi on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise in The Next Generation (#TNG ) is stark.
But then again, I can’t think of any TNG episode that brings up trauma. Picard seems to be left alone with his Borg trauma, at least it’s never brought up again (except for the visit at Chateau Picard).