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Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x08 “The Life of the Stars” (startrek.website)
submitted 5 months ago by [M] to c/startrek@startrek.website
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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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[–] 20 points 5 months ago (1 child)

Since we didn’t really get to see, I wonder how Sam’s personality is going to change in next week’s episode. A whole 17 years, having an actual childhood, being added to your life could make for an interesting transformation.

Kasq looks like a location straight out of No Man’s Sky. What a creepy vibe it has.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    I wonder how Sam’s personality is going to change in next week’s episode.

    I was thinking the same thing. In theory, she shouldn't have any memories of her time at the Academy to date...maybe the Doc was able to describe it to her in excruciating detail.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    The Makers stated that she would retain both sets of memories.

    Not sure how that would work but she’s not an organic being. Perhaps her original memories would have been encoded and available for access as she matured.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    A second watchthrough is on my to-do list this weekend, there's always something I missed the first go-around...

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    The others in the household weren’t up to watching yesterday so I expect to get a rewatch with them very soon.

    I suspect there are more layers in there that will hit during rewatches.

    For example, what’s with the black Borg cube-shaped home of the Makers?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    The gurl is a bot, and can read and relate to all earth plays in a day of gleeful scanning. Pretty sure she can experience growth from child to teen, then download and integrate a year at the academy and process that input with the new perspective, then move forward still being the same person, just being more complex as a result of the upgrade.

    The biggest issue with her 17 year childhood is that she appears to be alone with one other hologram on a starship, which wouldn't exactly allow her to experience and process many normal experiences for people living in communities with mortal folk and pets n such--unless they added life like simulations, other school students, neighbors of varying ages and attitudes, pets that die...

    She needed opportunity to deal with real world stresses as they typically increase in severity with age, but she just seemed to get a very performative and sheltered 17 year biological development cycle added to her program.

    Seemed to miss the mark by a mile.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago

    I was wondering about her socialization as well, although I guess the Doctor/The Makers could have created an entire holographic world for her. But then imagine the trauma of all your childhood friends and memories being 'fake', so I don't know if that would be good either!

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    To be pedantic, Ake was there, too. (She said the Doctor and Sam were not the only ones who spent 17 years on Kasq.)

    But to be not pedantic, I thought the exact same thing. What kind of resilience building experiences could she have had in that environment? Falling and hurting her knee? I feel that one is the biggest tantrums (some) kids have are over food, and Sam doesn't even eat. Reading does increase people capacity for empathy, so there is that opportunity for her, but even so, there's a vast difference between sympathy and resilience.

    I hope they actually fill this in in a reasonable way. Even though this episode was beautiful in some ways it still had some glaring problems.

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