(Spoilers
for Star Trek: Discovery in
general and Monday's episode Choose Your Pain
in particular. Also trigger warning for discussion of sexual abuse
survival).
I am rapidly
coming to adore Star Trek: Discovery.
I love the look of the show; the plot is interesting; there are some
great actors and fantastic character interactions; and, to be petty
about it, the show is doing things that annoy people I hate.
Also,
there are gay people in the show now and they aren't there for one
episode epic tragedy storylines. They're an actual couple who both
have names and speaking roles jjust living their lives and being in
space. Up to now the best representation of LGBTQ+ people in Star
Trek was Sulu's silent husband in Beyond
and before that we only existed to facilitate the aforementioned
epic tragedies about how we faced ostracism and horrible
consequences.
Which,
don't get me wrong, were important stories to tell but there comes a
point where it just wears you down only seeing yourself in terms of
your oppression.
And
let's also address some other interesting aspects of representation:
we have a male sexual abuse survivor in Lt. Ash Tyler. I know we're
all meant to crow about how subversive Cadet Tilly saying “fuck”
was but this is so
important. Hopefully it will be dealt with sensitively but even where
we are now, with the huge cathartic moment of Tyler getting to beat
on his abuser in what he thinks is the last moments of his life, has
some significance.
Also,
not going to lie, the f-bomb moment was actually pretty funny and
shocked me and both my housemates into silence.
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