#pike’s reach | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ichayalovesyou · 2 years

Text

The Needs of The Many

The First Servant, COVID-19, Pike, Spock, and SNW’s Overarching Themes

So, yesterday’s episode of Strange New Worlds was very… heavy.

Strange New Worlds overarching themes this far have been fate, perspective, and sacrifice.

Even the audience knowing who lives and who dies based on having seen TOS actually SERVES that narrative! Uhura, Spock, Chapel, M’benga, even Pike, they have no idea that they can’t die until after TOS and it’s films. While Samuel Kirk has no idea he’s going to die by the end of TOS’s first season. They don’t know, but we do, and even then, crazy things could still happen. Nothing is set in stone, nothing is exactly as it appears.

The pilot’s most blatant message is that the future is what we make it. That we can choose whether we live (warp drive) or die (warp bomb). As well as that growth can be found even in the most inhospitable and unknowable environments like the vacuum of space.

Children of the Comet declares that just because we know something will happen, doesn’t mean it’ll do so in the way we expect. Whether or not it will br at immense cost to ourselves is undefined (Mahanit does not perish destroying Persephone 3 thanks to Enterprise’s intervention).

The Ghosts of Illyria establishes life after being forcibly changed shape, and the message we leave behind when we go where others cannot follow. What appeared monsterous was only there to help the crew survive what they themselves did not. It also establishes Rukiya, who in some ways is going through something similar to Pike. Instead through the outside perspective and grief of Dr. M’Benga, her father who is desperately trying to save her life, sacrificing much in doing so.

Memento Mori celebrates a Starfleet holiday where those who were killed in action are remembered, and La’an takes her first steps toward actually acknowledging her grief over what happened to her and her family on the Puget Sound at the hands of the Gorn. We also get Hemmer’s Aenarian perspective on death, and Uhura being uncertain what her purpose is in the face of it.

Spock Amok forcibly changes Spock and T’Pring’s perspectives on each other’s lives through an accidental body swap. The R’Ongovians are won over to the side of the Federation by Pike using their own radical empathy tactic. Neither Spock or T’Pring’s lives, or the R’Ongovians, are what they appeared to be to the other side.

Now, Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach, asks us whether the sacrifice of a small child enduring a slow and painful death at the hands of a machine beyond its creators’ comprehension is worth the comfort and stability of an entire civilization.

In this case, do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one?

In this particular case, I think the answer is no.

I believe this will profoundly change how Pike perceives his own, seemingly, inevitable sacrifice and the reasons that he does it for. I think with every passing episode of Strange New Worlds, it’s going to prepare him for that moment in its own unique way. Hopefully, by the time he reaches it, he will be sacrificing himself with a sound heart and mind (which is something he does not have right now but we’ll get into that later).

If we can extrapolate from the dialogue and facts of the episode, Magellus isn’t at all the enlightened utopia that it pretends it is. The guard that Alora kills calls their society a hell. They refuse to help others in need with their technology, including colonies of their own desperate people. The blood of generations of small children is on the hands of everyone who is complicit in The Ascension of The First Servant. The whole thing is very Those Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K LeGuin. At least in this case, those who are walking away (namely, The First Servant’s father) intend on returning with reinforcements.

All I can think of is our culture’s attitude toward front line essential workers and disabled people even now as the pandemic rages on. How our culture and our government is so desperate to return to a sense of “normalcy” that in the US we have the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths in the world to date.

Our normal was never good, and in our insistence to return to it, immunocompromised people die in droves, the comorbidity of being a minority, for the greater “good” of our civilization. The victims are in the minority, and no matter how much we call it a noble sacrifice to our sense of normalcy or our economy, it is unprecedented, horrendous, and worst of all unnecessary. Most of all because the people who die from COVID don’t choose to, just like raffling off a child to become The First Servant. They don’t consent to their deaths, the society that sustains the bloody cycle does.

It is not the minority that should be sacrificing itself, but the majority that should change so that everyone can live, no deaths required. Whatever the discomfort may be, it’s better than the alternative. The Magellans could leave their city, their so-called paradise if they really cared that a child had to be murdered every few years to sustain their way of life. But they do not and have not, and may never unless a great unrest takes place.

Now how does all of this apply to Pike’s journey?

I keep mulling over in my head the key similarities and differences in the Magellan edict and Pike’s mantra from Through The Valley of Shadows.

Science, Servitude and Sacrifice VS Service, Sacrifice, Compassion, and Love

What the Magellans lack that Pike (and in turn the Federation) does not is the additions of compassion and love. Which is why the First Servant’s sacrifice is in vain, as it is to a unloving and unsustainable culture. It is also, ironically, what Pike lacks regarding, not other people, but himself.

It’s something we have seen him struggle with since the very beginning, as in The Cage. As in Dr. Boyce saying “damnit Chris you treat everyone on board like a human being except yourself!” When he says he serves the living and the dying, he is absolutely referring to Chris, who lives like he’s dying.

Pike, like many other captains we know, has a serious Martyr/God complex. He’s depressed on an existential level, he is looking for reasons worth dying for rather than for reasons to live. He’s even treating his eventual disability like death so he doesn’t have to think about living! Even though he will very much still be alive after the radiation takes his voice and mobility away from him. “If I don’t save them who will? If I don’t die for a cause who will? Surely, I am the only person who can do this, this is the only way I can do this, and there’s no unforeseen consequences to this action I’ve yet to take! Sounds convenient!”

He’s clinging to terminal deadlines because he doesn’t want to think about the future, the real future, the one he’s a part of. He’s constantly, constantly looking for a good enough reason to die so that the people who love him will stop arguing with him about it. Pike is using his paragon of martyrdom persona and his captaincy to hide that he is incredibly depressed. He doesn’t want a future that he can’t imagine, so he’s decided it’s going to end with the only answer he’s received, regardless of it’s context.

He puts very, very little value on his own life. Constantly hurling himself into immediate danger throughout his time on Discovery, out of guilt and out of principle, and out of his own unaddressed emotional struggles. I think the only reason he’s (mostly) stopped doing that in Strange New Worlds is that he is holding out for the big one. He has to live so he can “die” later. He’s got “I give my life for you” down pat, has learned to tolerate “you give your life for me” but severely lacks in “nobody gets left behind.”

Spock ends up following this pattern too under a veneer of logic, and as much as both of these characters preach that the needs of the many outweigh their own, and that that mantra holds truth and nobility to it, that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of saving as well.

Spock puts himself at great risk to ensure Pike lives a full life in The Menagerie (messy/problematic metaphors aside), Kirk and the Enterprise crew risk their lives to bring Spock back from the dead in The Search for Spock. Nobody gets left behind, the needs of the few motivate the many to change themselves, often for the better. ‘You gave your life for us, we give our lives for you’ ensures everyone lives, not that one person dies. Even when that one person believes their purpose is to die for others.

My hope is that tragedy Pike witnessed in Magellus puts things into perspective for him and that other episodes continue to do so. So that when the time comes, he doesn’t sacrifice himself because he doesn’t think his life is important, or at least, that it’s only important because of that moment. Hopefully before the end Pike figures out the most important things to him about living. Learning to value himself before the accident permanently changes him and his capabilities. That when he does sacrifice himself it’s because he loves life, and loves who he is as a person, and gives of himself in spite of that. Or perhaps something else may come into play…

Given the overarching themes of perspective in Strange New Worlds, I don’t think his fate, or where his storyline appears to end in The Menagerie, are exactly as they seem. And I am greatly looking forward to seeing that narrative spun if SNW continues to move in this direction.

96 notes · View notes

cannibalisticskittles · 9 months

Text

okay wait actually instead of falling into their camp, she probably lands in some random spot in the shadow-cursed lands bc its connection to the feywild is currently all fucked up

makes her way to the last light inn because it seems like the best place to find more information -- the only spot that might have actual, living people, really. meets jaheira. "oh my gods it's jaheira, hiiiii jaheira i love your work"

immediately involves herself in their problems because she Just Can't Fucking Help Herself. she hears that some refugees got snatched up by cultists, and that's all she needs to know; point her in the general direction, and off she'll go

so symon and company rock up to moonrise towers and start exploring until they're stopped by some half-elf guard who's really insistent that they don't go beyond this door they're guarding and come into the room with them, and the party is secretly ready to come to blows over it bc hey, they need to do shit here, when the guard stops and just says "wait -- dad???"

opens the door, pulls off their helmet, says "oh, thank gods, i was sick of wearing this face." swipes a hand across their face, dispels their disguise, and there's a bloody little tiefling standing there instead

"i have been looking for you EVERYWHERE, what happened?? actually wait, let's talk about this later, there's more important business right now"

opens the door and there's a small pile of burned bodies that she's been trying to drag out of sight

"the people i'm looking for are a floor down but i was, um, a bit less discreet than i meant to be and i haven't been able to make my way down there yet. could use some help with this, if you've a moment to spare. either hiding or storming the rest of the castle, i'm not picky! :)"

#when they ask her how she heard abt the kidnapped tieflings #she says 'a very charming tiefling girl told me about them!'#they think she's talking about alfira but no. she means mol.#mol scoffed about how useless the adults have been and the assholes at the tower #and how mol's gotta focus on taking care of Her Kids #and amity went 'hmm. okay! how abt this: i'll kill every one of those bastards who dared to get in your way + the way of the kids' safety'#'and i will bring you their heads on pikes. how does that sound? would you like that? :)'#and thus a partnership was forged. tiefling solidarity forever.#amity tag #bg3 blogging #also she does Not have further protection from the shadows so i guess she just.#commits to taking the fucking necrotic damage.#Messages her mom #'hi mom no pressure but if i die of a curse you'll never be able to use me in your grand design :) just thought that was interesting :)'#coerces a blessing out of her mom for free #or more likely she gets help from her fey patron #hard for them to reach her there tho so it's not the strongest ward #also the door she's guarding might be the way to the kitchen #she made friends with the gnolls and killed the cultist in there for being an asshole #an impulse decision that she's now struggling to keep covered up #this is where/how you'd find amity if she was a companion

4 notes · View notes

samnotsammy12 · 1 year

Text

The side eye Una keeps giving Pike when they’re talking to Alora lmao

She’s like “bitch you didn’t tell me about this”

#star trek strange new worlds #star trek #una chin riley #chris pike #alora #1x06 Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach

8 notes · View notes

rubyjean-jacket-blog · 2 years

Text

thoughts on "lift us where suffering cannot reach"

i've seen a couple different reviews of this episode, some positive, some not. i'll tell you my opinion right off the bat: superb.

i want to talk about some of the common criticism that i've seen regarding the episode and my thoughts on those points.

continuity issues with the prime directive

so i've seen this a couple times now. some people are saying that pike should have saved the first servant bc a life is more important than the prime directive. (think the beginning of star trek: into darkness. i bet the trek fans upset with this episode would HATE the comparison lmao.) bending/breaking the rules for the sake of a moral cause is kind of star trek's bread and butter. it happens. it happens all the time, actually. crews find ways to circumvent the prime directive in order to achieve their own (selfless, usually!) goals. in the tng episode "pen pals", data goes AGAINST the prime directive to save an alien child from a planet that's about to be destroyed.

so, let's recap. spoilers ahead.

a shuttle under attack hails the enterprise and asks for help. enterprise attempts to deescalate the situation, but the attackers fire on the enterprise, and the enterprise is forced to fire on their ship, destroying the attackers. the first servant is transported to the enterprise for medical care. the enterprise holds an investigation of the attackers. during this time, the first servant is almost kidnapped, but spock finds him and they return the first servant to majalis, where he undergoes the ascension. pike realises that the ascension is basically torture for the good of society and attempts to stop it, but he is overpowered. pike is told that attempts to remove the first servant from the device will kill the first servant. pike stares moodily out of the window, and the episode ends.

(this leaves out ALL of the poetry, but you get it.)

i get why this episode rubs people the wrong way. it doesn't feel very heroic. in many ways, pike has caused the suffering of this child by interfering with the kidnapper's attempts. but how is he supposed to know that? no one told him! the story would be VASTLY different if the kidnappers had come to pike and told him, or if the investigation revealed more information, but it didn't. pike is doing his best to keep this child safe! how the hell would he know that the first servant is destined to be a human battery?

in essence, it seems like people are mad that pike is... *checks notes* doing his job? i don't know.

the whole point of this episode is that sometimes succeeding can lead to a larger failure. in this case, a moral and ethical one. it's very much a "we did it. but at what cost?" moment.

2. cynicism and unhappy endings

this one i understand. i get it. so far, snw has been pretty feel-good. "spock amok" was a delight, and this episode is a hard left from that. but it's not unheard of for star trek to have bummers. ds9 is full of uncomfortable truths and allegorical storytelling that doesn't always work out for everyone.

for example, the episode "cardassians" revolves around determining who will gain custody of rugal, a cardassian child born on occupied bajor and raised by bajorans. it's not a hijinks-bodyswapping story. sisko is confronted with the option to a) send rugal back to bajor with his adoptive parents who love him but hate cardassians, therefore teaching rugal to hate himself or b) send him to live with his biological father (who is a war criminal, right?) on cardassia with cardassians, who ruagl has learned to hate. it's a great story, but not a fun one. and honestly? i don't think sisko makes the right choice by the end of it. i don't think there's a right choice for him to make.

also, remember when spock died in the end of wrath of khan? yeah, that was a very similar situation. the suffering of one, given for the lives of many.

i don't want to tell people to suck it up and get over it, because that's neither helpful nor kind, but if you're telling stories about the world now and what it could/should/can be, there can't just be laughs. there needs to be introspection and cautionary tales and emotions of all kinds.

also, this story is inspired by "the ones who walk away from omelas" which is NOT a happy story.

3. pike's romance subplot and saviour complex

i honestly don't get the problem with this. i thought that pike and alora's relationship was handled really gracefully.

the major issue, i guess, is that the pike/alora romance somehow cheapens the epsiode? but even that i don't understand. giving pike a personal connection to alora prompts him to help as much as he does, leading to the first servant's willing ascension and unwitting suffering.

and there's a tragedy in that. pike's desire to help makes things worse. because pike lacks cultural context and understanding, he fails to address the institutionalised violence and horror inflicted on the first servant. that's a very poignant lesson, and an important one, especially when looking at the world around us.

also, it's a tragedy, and i LOVE a good tragedy.

#star trek #snw #strange new worlds #star trek snw #snw spoilers #captain pike #christopher pike #lift us where suffering cannot reach #episode analysis #spock #i do love a good tragedy

50 notes · View notes