majicwalrus

I think we can also say that Starfleet (or the Federation) is better while still allowing the stories to be allegorical and topical. I mean, it was unfair that Richard Bashir went to jail for genetic tampering because it's a bad law, but 2 years on in a Federation prison is just not quite the same as what we have now.

But, to that end, Starfleet has always looked a little bit like this. They tried to treat Data as property. They tried to do racism against Crewman Tarses. And imperfect officers break the rules and sometimes forge evidence to sway a Romulan senator - or murder them.

Allowing for that nuance is interesting - and holding Starfleet to a higher standard also lets us understand where we as regular people need to be held to higher standards. I would love to break canon by doing prison abolition before global catastrophe.

This may also be a commentary on modern policing in America where the vast majority of those accused of crimes are never given an opportunity to plead their case because they can choose to plea down to a lesser offense and avoid jail or risk a trial that might risk 20 years. It sucks though.

To your comments about the floating nacelles - what's even supposed to be the point? I can't imagine how having nacelles detached offers that much of an advantage.

You are correct. We can't really infer much about Una's citizenship status and so letters of recommendation or sponsorships aren't of concern. But with that being said - if Una can be a citizen and be modified then so could Dal. Albeit the restriction on genetically modified people serving in Starfleet seems to stick all the way through to the late 2370s and early 2380s at least.

In fact, unfortunately, we still see a fair amount of bigotry towards modified people persisting into the 2370s, but perhaps by then the difference between a modified Ilyrian and a modified human are more substantial. Dal, being a non-human (I guess?) might face less bigotry in his era than Una faced in hers.

It's the no warp thing that really limits its ability. The saucer can 1. limp back home. or 2. stay put while the rest of the ship does something risky and then hope they don't have to resort to number 1.

I could see the saucer section being left in orbit to assist with evacuations while the stardrive section "goes for help" but even this seems like a bit situational.

This is a good point and perhaps there is unused footage that mentions Alexander in more detail which would understandably be cut out if they weren't willing to lean in on it. It's easier for us to forget Alexander existed and to wonder "maybe he died" than to waste lines on that kind of backstory - at least in some writer's opinion which I could see an argument for.

I don't think there's anything that would prevent Dal from obtaining citizenship in the Federation. He could not however serve in Starfleet. Lying about it to Starfleet could be criminal, but probably just being modified isn't. Even Una says that she lived on a provisional colony where segregation existed between modified and unmodified Ilyrians suggesting that those Ilyrians would eventually be able to be granted citizenship in the Federation despite their status as modified.

Una had to be sponsored to join Starfleet which suggests that the colony didn't actually ever join the Federation entirely - whether it granted her citizenship status or not is unclear, but since she was sponsored into Starfleet she's probably not a Federation citizen as such.

I would really like to see Prodigy take cues from SNW here and address Dal's genetics. Janeways says Starfleet will never allow him, but maybe he's just the right person to further change the law and Starfleet policy.

I would like to believe that as well, but we are left with very little to make us believe that other than good will towards Worf. It seems like a particularly glaring oversight to have the season of Picard featuring Picard and Beverly's long lost son, Geordi's daughters, memories of Thaddeus Riker's death, and the first time we've seen Worf in a long time not explicitly mention at least once that Worf is also a member of the parent club.

Instead what we do see are exclusively episodes where Worf's relationship with his son is not treated as a core part of Worf's character - even attempts to reconcile go basically no where.

A single line to Enterprise-D crew about how Alexander is the commander of an entire Klingon battle fleet now and that fills Worf with great pride would have solidified that the characters reconciled. Hell, it's kind of weird that no one asks about Alexander since all the Enterprise-D crew readily know that Worf has a son. But instead, just like the writers, Worf has apparently forgotten that he has a child and so is written as though he doesn't have one.

That post is actually what made me consider how well Discovery managed to do what the OP mentions in their first season. Answering the question of "why send all the senior staff" by making the main players not senior staff just works.

The decision to not even drop his name in this season of Picard really hammers how bad of a father Worf really was. This is absolutely something that should be explored in a Worf-centric story. There's a lot of context for how Worf was raised by Humans, but Alexander was not.

DS9 tries very hard to deal with this, but they actually make it worse by mistake.

Worf: "I cannot fix the mistakes I have made, but from now on I will stand with you. I will teach you what you need to know to be a warrior, and you will teach me what I need to know to be a father." Alexander: "Let's see if you mean it."

And clearly he didn't. He was too caught up in his own warrior's journey to consider Alexander. Alexander left, remained Klingon on Klingon ships and continues to be estranged from his father.

undefined> Zipping around the battlefield has virtually no tactical advantage.

This is really the correct answer. If you aren't moving at warp, you might as well not be moving for all the good it will do you. If you are moving at warp you're moving in a straight line so quickly that unless the other ship is following you at warp, it doesn't really matter.

I think this can quite easily be pulled off. Lower Decks is an example of this to a degree, but for an even better Beta Canon example look at the Star Trek Resurgence narrative game. The story takes place from two perspectives Petty Officer and the ship's First Officer. Each of these characters has relationships which will impact the story and for the most part they work separately from one another, but still work together and it makes a lot more sense when the Captain sends the Petty Officers to go on the hull and do dangerous work than sending the chief of any department.

Consider that Deep Space 9's primary cast of characters includes an enlisted person and several non-Starfleet personnel or straight up civilians. Porting that to a TV show would not be that difficult and I think there has even been some success with that in Lower Decks which features lower deckers along senior staff just fine, even interweaving their stories; and Discovery which, particularly in the first season, creates characters by proximity to the story not by bridge positions. Tilly is important because she is Burnham's roommate, not because she's the chief of anything. Despite this Tilly's character is a fan favorite. Unfortunately, I think Discovery fell into the impulse of giving audiences more of what they want and that meant creating stories where a random cadet was a valued member of the team - and team was still mostly senior staff.