I guess there's a long tradition of courtroom drama episodes in ST. This one was okay, but a bit boring. Some good character moments, though.

I loved this episode. Right up there with TNG's Measure of a Man.

The only thing I didn't like:

It was a tough ep to get through and I found myself spacing on it. That said, Number 1's childhood friend Neera Ketoul (Yetide Badaki, "American Gods") was Badass, her outfits were bangin', and she was smokin' hot.

Great episode. Anson Mount needs to play Pike until he is dead. He is amazing and the best hire ST has ever made.

Not gonna lie, I started to get bored with the episode until it ramped up there at the end and I would be lying if I said I didn’t get a little misty eyed there at the end.

Loved Ortega’s voices mocking Spock and Pasik’s meeting and Spock’s subsequent comment “sorry that you had to witness that outburst.” 🤣🤣🤣

That was great

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I know it's not action/adventure, but I have generally enjoyed the one-off law/court episodes they have done throughout the various Trek shows. This was no exception.

That was great.

The Ortegas scene, where she's with M'Benga watching Spock and the Vulcan admiral, was funny, but with what saw of her in "A Quality of Mercy," and how she was hostile and angry towards Spock gives that scene an ominous angle.

I also found this episode kind of upsetting in the way the Federation was depicted. I get the metaphor they were trying to make, but, good lord, it's like the Federation was setting up a Warsaw Ghetto and building up to a Kristallnacht.

But still, Starfleet and the Federation have always been shown as at least striving toward creating a Utopian society and being someplace most of us would want to live. But now, they're apparently some kind of apartheid state.

Though I can't fault this being a NuTrek thing since some older episodes showed the Federation in an intolerant and less-than kind light like "The Measure of a Man," "The Drumhead," and that one TNG episode where they were stealing a planet from the Indians.

I mean, "The Measure of a Man" is one of my all-time favorite episodes, but it gets darker each time I watch it. It's actually downright frightening when you realize how close the Federation came to stripping Data of his rights, agency, and humanity.

And, speaking of "The Measure of a Man," this episode did something that always bugged me about that episode. In TMoaM, Riker was forced to be the prosecution in that episode, which was kind of baffling. I can't imagine any kind of court would allow that to happen, where the someone is coerced into prosecuting their friend and co-worker, and don't why Maddox didn't object.

Likewise, we had Batel in this episode, who has been shagging the friend and commanding officer of the accused, on the prosecution team.

Do they not recognize conflicts of interest in the future?

I thought this episode was great. Star Trek at its best for an allegory of society. The situation with Una felt very on the nose. At the forefront it harkened to prejudice of race, but it made me reflect on events of today about gender identity and also immigration challenges.

It reinforces that how far we progress as a society, unfortunately the same situations seem to reoccur with different context.

Welp, i guess The Usual Suspects are crying about s2ep2 being "woke" . Someone in one of the Trek Groups im in created this. 😀

So boring.

where is Paul Wesley?

I was mostly annoyed that no one talked at all about why the genetic engineering ban was necessary. Like you can make a case for it that's not based on prejudice.

I thought it was all based on the arguably legit fears left over from the Eugenics Wars? That would be common knowledge for them right?

Isn't there a huge logic hole in there, where we see that when Una was a child her parents wouldn't take her to be treated for a broken leg because they would be able to tell she's a genetically-enhanced Illyrian, but then she goes and signs up for Starfleet, spends twenty-five years moving up through the ranks to the rank of Commander, and nobody discovered her little secret? Did she not have any kind of physical exam or injury requiring medical attention in that time?

(And, great googly-moogly, that's a long sentence I wrote up there, but it still makes sense.)

Yeah, they covered it in this episode, last season when La'an found out, and even as far back as Deep Space Nine. They can't expecting everyone watching SNW to be familiar with episodes and plot threads from a thirty-year old series, but this stuff was touched on last season and in this episode.

If anyone is interested. "A Strange New Pod" podcast did a show abou s2ep2 and they brought in "The Legal Geeks" who are real life Lawyers and Trek Fans to talk about this court room ep. I haven't finished it yet but its pretty interesting so far.

https://www.strangenewpod.com/

By all accounts, Starfleet doesn't do in-depth medical tests on its officers since we run into the issue again on DS9. The solution in this episode did not create a plot conflict so kudos to the writers. I loved this episode.

I'm a real life lawyer and Trek fan, you can just ask me any questions about this episode.

Yep! Had you in mind while listening to the show and posting the link. Lol

Last season aired a year ago at least. They should've gone into it here, in this episode.

The discussion about La'an's heritage in this episode was sufficient to convey to the casual viewer that the Eugenics wars were terrible and that one of her ancestors was a known figure who was involved. Anyone who has ever watched Wrath of Khan knows the rest of the story, even those who don't also know what happened in Space Seed. I love how the writers create scripts that are fresh and able to be viewed without knowing all of Trek history, while also containing interesting nuggets that flesh out that history.

I won’t comment too long because a new episode is now out. But this was a great episode. Way better than the premiere. Good courtroom drama and also goes into civil rights. The actress who played Una’s lawyer was fantastic.

I know some fans over the years have asked for a Star Trek JAG series but I think it would lose its impact because Trek has not done courtroom episodes that often so when they do, they really swing for the fences and this episode was no exception. I could not fathom a way they could get around that rule and instead they used another rule against it. Some of the best rules-lawyering this show has ever seen.

And I agree that Ortega's racism is a bit concerning. I wonder if she's due for a reckoning in an upcoming episode.

I hesitate to bump this after over a year but I'm finally getting around to watching season 2. The whole thing with Una would be more meaningful if they didn't have Khan's great grand daughter serving on the bridge under her real last name.
And what about Denobulans? They engage in genetic engineering