Star Trek: Thoughts about Pike on Talos IV
Jan. 9th, 2021 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiThough I am not overall a fan of Discovery, I do wholeheartedly give S2 credit for reintroducing Pike's Enterprise into the ST universe and ultimately getting it greenlighted for its own spinoff. Thanks to COVID, Strange New Worlds is progressing slowly, so I may be jumping the gun by a few years, but I find myself hoping that the end of that series, or maybe a post-series special/movie, will devote some time to Pike's life on Talos IV. I think this has some great potential to be excellent Star Trek, excellent sci-fi, and excellent human drama, and I'm going to ramble on about it.
Spoilers follow for ST:O's "The Cage" and "The Menagerie" and light spoilers for the Taelons in Earth: Final Conflict
In the unlikely event anybody needs a refresher, Pike's Starfleet career ends with his being horribly eradiated and stuck immobile in a chair with no way of communicating but a beep to indicate yes/no. This fate, however, is some remediated when Spock risks his career to transport Pike to Talos IV (previously visited in "The Cage"), where the Talosians give him the illusion of an able body. He apparently stays there for the rest of his life, along with fellow severely disfigured human, Vina, who has been there for decades.
Cool things a movie or mini-series could explore about Pike on Talos IV:
(A note on Federation technology: One place where this scenario suffers from originating c. 1966 is that it is no longer plausible that Federation tech wouldn't be able to interface better with Pike's brain; we can practically do so now. But I think the drama of his only being able to beep must be kept. If he were paraplegic but could communicate ably, I think he wouldn't go to Talos IV; he would not give up his freedom to roam the galaxy without an overriding reason. Thus, I'd tech-wank an answer for this: maybe that this "delta radiation" stuff can only be counteracted by injecting him with some substance that interferes with their microchip tech or something. Similarly, it would be wise to up the ante on Vina's disfigurement. Based on what we see in "The Cage," they'd just give her reconstructive surgery in the Federation. I'd make her profoundly disfigured and probably fused with old Federation prosthetic tech from her ship that her body can't be disconnected from without significant damage.)
The Science Fictiony
We're well used to the idea of virtual bodies and environments. Where the Talosian scenario has originality is in its mixing of the virtual and real. In "The Cage," Vina is a physically present person with an illusory appearance, and she and Pike spend time both in virtual environments and the real Talos IV caves. Moreover, the elements can be mixed freely, as when the Talosians create the illusion (in a real landscape) that phasers have not blown open their real doors. This provides fodder for lots of exploration of the nature of reality, authenticity, and identity.
Those Illusory Bodies:
The Talosians are an interesting concept in that they are extremely highly developed telepathically but not technologically. They have lost most of their technological knowledge to a combination of nuclear war and addiction to telepathically generated illusion. This means Pike and Vina's illusory bodies are maintained by brain power, not computer/machine power, and that's an unusual conceit with interesting implications, especially for Pike.
Vina is actually moving around in her own body; she just has a sort of "glamor" on her. Pike, however, would presumably not be bound to the location of his chair, which means his apparent body really is an illusion. He's not where he appears to be. While he could do anything in a purely illusory scenario, in the real world Talos IV, he would not be able to physically interact with inanimate things. For example, he could not send a video message to Starfleet because his apparent body would have no interface with a camera. It only appears to be there if you're close enough to be "tuned into it" through a Talosian brain. In fact, he couldn't even operate a computer, though he could dictate instructions to Vina or a Talosian. This would matter because I can guarantee Pike would not want to spend the rest of his days in an illusion. He would go insane in a month if he didn't have real work to do, presumably some sort of work helping the Talosian civilization, and that involves actually working with the real environment. The challenges are interesting.
So how would Pike's perceptions work? For example, if his apparent body is standing at real-world Point A and no one else is, (how) could he see from the vantage point of A? His physical eyes aren't there, no machine sensor is there, and no other person's eyes are there. One solution would be to have him actually perceive from a different vantage point than his apparent body—but that would be confusing and easier to carry off in written sci-fi than on camera. I'd be inclined to allow tech for this one. Maybe the Talosians do have some little flying sensors that can interface with a Talosian brain, and one of them would fly around inside apparent Pike. While this does go against the lower tech theme, I think it would work if it's made clear that this is left over from their ancestors. Maybe they used to have millions of these dealies and now have two or three. In fact, the scarcity and age of such tech could be a source of urgency in the work on rebuilding their civilization. It could also occasionally crap out, leaving Pike experientially catapulted back into this real body—or a default fantasy—and apparent Pike's body unable to navigate (if still visible).
Talosians in your head: One of the prices you pay for life on Talos IV is presumably that a Talosian is always in your thoughts. I imagine it takes some continual input from at least one Talosian to generate these bodies and any associated fantasies, living quarters, food, clothes, etc. Implication 1: their brains really are amazing! Implication 2: they're putting in a fair amount of effort to keep Pike and Vina reasonably happy. Implication 3: P and V are never alone. I think the horror of this, however, is mitigated by the alienness of the Talosians. It's not the same as having a human looking over your shoulder 24/7. The judgments are not the same. And for all their telepathy, the insights are not the same either. Still, it would be an unsettling way to live, especially when it's new.
Implication 4: If something did happen to the Talosians (ex. an energy surge knocked them unconscious), it would be profoundly stranding. Pike would be stuck without even any way to call for help besides beeping, and Vina—in her real body—would be running the whole show. For drama's sake, I'd like to see this. It could work on both action and interpersonal levels to see Vina have to troubleshoot what's going on and Pike helping but only able to do so with his very delimited beeps. Maybe he could Morse-code out a couple of key words.
What is the nature of the self? This is just good spec fic. Are the illusory bodies the illusion or the reality? There's no simple answer to this, and it could be a good recurrent theme across various incidents and conversations.
The Illusory World
Getting trapped in fantasies destroyed the Talosians. Pike and Vina both know this. Vina has had decades to cope with it herself, and I'm inclined to think they'd have a pretty balanced view of when to indulge pure fantasy (i.e. sometimes) and when to keep it mostly grounded: ex. illusory bodies and probably rooms, food, garden, etc., but basically living on Talos IV and probably maintaining physical routines like cooking, dressing, etc., just to stay in touch with physical reality. I think one of the trickiest questions, though, is what to do about memories: Pike's home, his horse, people he's known, etc. Are those things to indulge in?
I can only speak for myself here, but as profoundly as I love my home, and as totally as I can never go back there because the fires of 2017 destroyed what it was, I would not want to see it in fantasy. It would make me too acutely aware of the separation, the unreality. Ditto people I've known. I'm inclined to think Pike would land in a similar place. There's something a little too seductive, too unbalancing in forgetting the difference between the fantasy and the fact. And if you don't forget the difference, it would be a site of grief. Vina may be a bit different: she's had nothing but Talos IV for so long she may well have developed a set of "memory rooms" that help her feel at home and safe. Different again, I think, would be memories of places seen in passing: planets the Enterprise has visited and so on. This would be psychologically safer. And I could imagine some fun times spent (re-)experiencing such places.
The Talosians
The Talosians themselves are a neat concept, which Roddenberry expanded on somewhat with the Taelons in Earth: Final Conflict. There's potential for a couple of good, differentiated Talosian characters, as E:FC had Da'an and Zo'or. Their telepathy raises interesting questions about identity. What does it mean to be a differentiated Talosian? How alike are they to each other? How different? What kinds of internal conflicts, à la Da'an and Zo'or, might they have? (I have no bright ideas here but imagine such conflicts might drive an A plot and produce a reasonable antagonist.)
How many of them are left? I'd like to imagine not many, maybe about a thousand, getting toward a concerning population bottleneck. It may further be that the majority of them are still spending their lives lost in illusion. In fact, it might be this segment of the society that actively sustains the illusions of Pike and Vina, which is another site of interesting conflict: pulling them out of their stagnation in illusion would degrade, if not destroy, P and V's quality of life.
In keeping with the original Talosians and the Taelons, I'd go on casting them with women and voicing the with men (or voices shifted lower), and I'd keep them an androgynous species. It's an interesting thing to explore. (How) do they reproduce? (In E:FC, sterility was a major issue. That feels clichéd, but it also feels like a natural thing to explore. It's hard to imagine the Talosians being embodied enough to have kids in what is probably an ancestral humanoid way, but it also seems unlikely they retain the tech to grow offspring in vats or something. It would be interesting to posit that the Talosians are sufficiently physically degraded that they die under the strain of giving birth, which means they can only replace their population at a 1:1 ratio. Given that they are very physically secure on Talos IV, and if they are very long-lived, this might keep them going a long time, but it's not sustainable, and it could be a good site of both personal and species-level drama.)
There's also the question of how good/bad/other the Talosians are. "The Cage" itself sends some weird mix messaging. Vina is basically a zoo specimen who gets tortured when ornery, yet ultimately she chooses to stay on Talos IV, where the Talosians basically offer to take good care of her (with a comforting smile). They clearly do want the humans to be more-or-less happy; they're willing to work to make that happen. But they are also disdainful, assured of their superiority, wildly powerful (scary in itself), and just very alien. For example, they are fundamentally baffled by Pike not wanting to be imprisoned in a zoo. This tension between magnanimous and malevolent is an interesting basis for both interpersonal drama and larger philosophical exploration.
The Spirit of Star Trek
What would it mean to "rebuild" Talosian society? Fix reproductive problems? Address their addiction to illusion? Ecologically reclaim their planet? All of these? Is it possible to bring them into the Federation or into reasonable diplomatic relations with the Federation? Or will they always be too dangerous with their massive powers of illusion?
These are good Star Trekian questions. They show concern for a species' right to exist, compassion even for a species that is kind of scary and has engaged in some pretty dicey behavior. Figuring out how to coexist with the Talosians, how to help them without being hurt by them, is a core thematic Star Trek question.
Human Drama
This scenario also creates a lot of opportunity to explore the lives and thoughts of Pike and Vina. There's an opportunity for good representation of disability, as long as the illusory bodies don't erase the very real limitations of their lives, not least of which is being stuck on Talos IV. I think Pike will do a lot of soul searching over whether he's made the right decision. Vina, I'm sure, has too across the years.
It also strikes me that illusion aside, they are both physically infirm and both getting older. (I think they're maybe in their 60s or so by this time?) While I'm sure the Talosians are adept at completely blanking out real physical sensations and replacing them with illusion, there is something to be said for keeping in touch with real sensation. For one thing, it's a good measure of the condition of the physical body sustaining your life. And it would be interesting to explore the aches and pains drifting the through the illusion of youth and vigor and the kind of maintenance their physical bodies might need.
Vina has been tortured by the Talosians. Even if they have lived equably together the vast majority of the time, a little "punishment" goes a long way, and she's clearly carrying trauma. It would be interesting to see how this manifests. She probably has some symptoms of CPTSD, like many survivors of abuse. She probably has deeply mixed feelings about the Talosians: gratitude, camaraderie (at least with some), fear, dislike, distrust. While I would emphasize her resilience and hard-won maturity, the scars of trauma would be interesting to sprinkle in. Pike, being emotionally tuned in, would immediately pick up on them, which would be a good source of drama in itself, as he has to be filled with his own fear at putting himself in the hands of the Talosians, even if we assume the Federation is going to check on his welfare from time to time.
Vina would also likely be a bit peculiar from 30-plus years in a Talosian "zoo." Again, I'd play up her strength. Perhaps she has pulled herself back from the brink of insanity and, by this time, developed a lot of systems and failsafes for staying coherent and balanced. But in addition to seeing her positive coping mechanisms, it would be interesting to a see a smattering of weirdness. Maybe she talks to herself quite a lot. Maybe she has little rituals around distinguishing real from illusion.
And then there's Pike and Vina's relationship. If one chooses to follow "The Cage" narrative closely (which is not a must), the Talosians chose Pike to be Vina's mate because he matched her "dream man"—and that's a little awkward because she's not his dream woman. He likes her. I think they could make good companions, but there's an initial asymmetry in the relationship. And however close they might get, there's always the reality that they're stuck together. They are the only two human beings on the planet. They will never really have a free choice about whether or not to be life partners. They've been defaulted into those roles; it's the only available course that makes sense. But it will be tentative, at least for a long time.
And if they decide to have a sexual relationship—and sooner or later they will—they will have to figure out what it means to be physically intimate in a non-physical situation. As far as I can make out, Pike and Vina having sex would consist of Pike not really being there and Vina's physical body being completely effaced (visually, tactilely, etc.). And I think that would feel emotionally odd. It's one avenue of those questions on the nature of the self and the relationship between mind and body. (And also the Talosians are watching them.)
Religion: One of my favorite things about Discovery Pike is the implication, albeit lightly insinuated, that he comes from a Christian background. That's really unusual in Star Trek, which is intentionally set in a secular, largely non-religious human society. In fact, it's rare in general in our popular culture to see a positive representation of a Christian character in a story that is not a "Christian story." I think, in terms of what one sees on screen, less is more here. But in my head, I imagine that if Pike is a man of Christian faith, that faith is probably central to helping him cope with his injuries and his choice to make the best of it on Talos IV, and I think just alluding to that, even once, could be very powerful.
Finally, there's a universal relevance in the questions this scenario raises about how we confront limitation, loss, age, and death, which we will confront. It might, on this level, be Star Trek for the older folks, but coming straight out of our 1960s nostalgia, maybe that's not inappropriate.
In sum, I think there's potential for some of the best of Star Trek here. Good sci-fi, good Federation quasi-utopianism, good character drama and philosophical exploration. I'd be curious what y'all think.
Spoilers follow for ST:O's "The Cage" and "The Menagerie" and light spoilers for the Taelons in Earth: Final Conflict
In the unlikely event anybody needs a refresher, Pike's Starfleet career ends with his being horribly eradiated and stuck immobile in a chair with no way of communicating but a beep to indicate yes/no. This fate, however, is some remediated when Spock risks his career to transport Pike to Talos IV (previously visited in "The Cage"), where the Talosians give him the illusion of an able body. He apparently stays there for the rest of his life, along with fellow severely disfigured human, Vina, who has been there for decades.
Cool things a movie or mini-series could explore about Pike on Talos IV:
(A note on Federation technology: One place where this scenario suffers from originating c. 1966 is that it is no longer plausible that Federation tech wouldn't be able to interface better with Pike's brain; we can practically do so now. But I think the drama of his only being able to beep must be kept. If he were paraplegic but could communicate ably, I think he wouldn't go to Talos IV; he would not give up his freedom to roam the galaxy without an overriding reason. Thus, I'd tech-wank an answer for this: maybe that this "delta radiation" stuff can only be counteracted by injecting him with some substance that interferes with their microchip tech or something. Similarly, it would be wise to up the ante on Vina's disfigurement. Based on what we see in "The Cage," they'd just give her reconstructive surgery in the Federation. I'd make her profoundly disfigured and probably fused with old Federation prosthetic tech from her ship that her body can't be disconnected from without significant damage.)
The Science Fictiony
We're well used to the idea of virtual bodies and environments. Where the Talosian scenario has originality is in its mixing of the virtual and real. In "The Cage," Vina is a physically present person with an illusory appearance, and she and Pike spend time both in virtual environments and the real Talos IV caves. Moreover, the elements can be mixed freely, as when the Talosians create the illusion (in a real landscape) that phasers have not blown open their real doors. This provides fodder for lots of exploration of the nature of reality, authenticity, and identity.
Those Illusory Bodies:
The Talosians are an interesting concept in that they are extremely highly developed telepathically but not technologically. They have lost most of their technological knowledge to a combination of nuclear war and addiction to telepathically generated illusion. This means Pike and Vina's illusory bodies are maintained by brain power, not computer/machine power, and that's an unusual conceit with interesting implications, especially for Pike.
Vina is actually moving around in her own body; she just has a sort of "glamor" on her. Pike, however, would presumably not be bound to the location of his chair, which means his apparent body really is an illusion. He's not where he appears to be. While he could do anything in a purely illusory scenario, in the real world Talos IV, he would not be able to physically interact with inanimate things. For example, he could not send a video message to Starfleet because his apparent body would have no interface with a camera. It only appears to be there if you're close enough to be "tuned into it" through a Talosian brain. In fact, he couldn't even operate a computer, though he could dictate instructions to Vina or a Talosian. This would matter because I can guarantee Pike would not want to spend the rest of his days in an illusion. He would go insane in a month if he didn't have real work to do, presumably some sort of work helping the Talosian civilization, and that involves actually working with the real environment. The challenges are interesting.
So how would Pike's perceptions work? For example, if his apparent body is standing at real-world Point A and no one else is, (how) could he see from the vantage point of A? His physical eyes aren't there, no machine sensor is there, and no other person's eyes are there. One solution would be to have him actually perceive from a different vantage point than his apparent body—but that would be confusing and easier to carry off in written sci-fi than on camera. I'd be inclined to allow tech for this one. Maybe the Talosians do have some little flying sensors that can interface with a Talosian brain, and one of them would fly around inside apparent Pike. While this does go against the lower tech theme, I think it would work if it's made clear that this is left over from their ancestors. Maybe they used to have millions of these dealies and now have two or three. In fact, the scarcity and age of such tech could be a source of urgency in the work on rebuilding their civilization. It could also occasionally crap out, leaving Pike experientially catapulted back into this real body—or a default fantasy—and apparent Pike's body unable to navigate (if still visible).
Talosians in your head: One of the prices you pay for life on Talos IV is presumably that a Talosian is always in your thoughts. I imagine it takes some continual input from at least one Talosian to generate these bodies and any associated fantasies, living quarters, food, clothes, etc. Implication 1: their brains really are amazing! Implication 2: they're putting in a fair amount of effort to keep Pike and Vina reasonably happy. Implication 3: P and V are never alone. I think the horror of this, however, is mitigated by the alienness of the Talosians. It's not the same as having a human looking over your shoulder 24/7. The judgments are not the same. And for all their telepathy, the insights are not the same either. Still, it would be an unsettling way to live, especially when it's new.
Implication 4: If something did happen to the Talosians (ex. an energy surge knocked them unconscious), it would be profoundly stranding. Pike would be stuck without even any way to call for help besides beeping, and Vina—in her real body—would be running the whole show. For drama's sake, I'd like to see this. It could work on both action and interpersonal levels to see Vina have to troubleshoot what's going on and Pike helping but only able to do so with his very delimited beeps. Maybe he could Morse-code out a couple of key words.
What is the nature of the self? This is just good spec fic. Are the illusory bodies the illusion or the reality? There's no simple answer to this, and it could be a good recurrent theme across various incidents and conversations.
The Illusory World
Getting trapped in fantasies destroyed the Talosians. Pike and Vina both know this. Vina has had decades to cope with it herself, and I'm inclined to think they'd have a pretty balanced view of when to indulge pure fantasy (i.e. sometimes) and when to keep it mostly grounded: ex. illusory bodies and probably rooms, food, garden, etc., but basically living on Talos IV and probably maintaining physical routines like cooking, dressing, etc., just to stay in touch with physical reality. I think one of the trickiest questions, though, is what to do about memories: Pike's home, his horse, people he's known, etc. Are those things to indulge in?
I can only speak for myself here, but as profoundly as I love my home, and as totally as I can never go back there because the fires of 2017 destroyed what it was, I would not want to see it in fantasy. It would make me too acutely aware of the separation, the unreality. Ditto people I've known. I'm inclined to think Pike would land in a similar place. There's something a little too seductive, too unbalancing in forgetting the difference between the fantasy and the fact. And if you don't forget the difference, it would be a site of grief. Vina may be a bit different: she's had nothing but Talos IV for so long she may well have developed a set of "memory rooms" that help her feel at home and safe. Different again, I think, would be memories of places seen in passing: planets the Enterprise has visited and so on. This would be psychologically safer. And I could imagine some fun times spent (re-)experiencing such places.
The Talosians
The Talosians themselves are a neat concept, which Roddenberry expanded on somewhat with the Taelons in Earth: Final Conflict. There's potential for a couple of good, differentiated Talosian characters, as E:FC had Da'an and Zo'or. Their telepathy raises interesting questions about identity. What does it mean to be a differentiated Talosian? How alike are they to each other? How different? What kinds of internal conflicts, à la Da'an and Zo'or, might they have? (I have no bright ideas here but imagine such conflicts might drive an A plot and produce a reasonable antagonist.)
How many of them are left? I'd like to imagine not many, maybe about a thousand, getting toward a concerning population bottleneck. It may further be that the majority of them are still spending their lives lost in illusion. In fact, it might be this segment of the society that actively sustains the illusions of Pike and Vina, which is another site of interesting conflict: pulling them out of their stagnation in illusion would degrade, if not destroy, P and V's quality of life.
In keeping with the original Talosians and the Taelons, I'd go on casting them with women and voicing the with men (or voices shifted lower), and I'd keep them an androgynous species. It's an interesting thing to explore. (How) do they reproduce? (In E:FC, sterility was a major issue. That feels clichéd, but it also feels like a natural thing to explore. It's hard to imagine the Talosians being embodied enough to have kids in what is probably an ancestral humanoid way, but it also seems unlikely they retain the tech to grow offspring in vats or something. It would be interesting to posit that the Talosians are sufficiently physically degraded that they die under the strain of giving birth, which means they can only replace their population at a 1:1 ratio. Given that they are very physically secure on Talos IV, and if they are very long-lived, this might keep them going a long time, but it's not sustainable, and it could be a good site of both personal and species-level drama.)
There's also the question of how good/bad/other the Talosians are. "The Cage" itself sends some weird mix messaging. Vina is basically a zoo specimen who gets tortured when ornery, yet ultimately she chooses to stay on Talos IV, where the Talosians basically offer to take good care of her (with a comforting smile). They clearly do want the humans to be more-or-less happy; they're willing to work to make that happen. But they are also disdainful, assured of their superiority, wildly powerful (scary in itself), and just very alien. For example, they are fundamentally baffled by Pike not wanting to be imprisoned in a zoo. This tension between magnanimous and malevolent is an interesting basis for both interpersonal drama and larger philosophical exploration.
The Spirit of Star Trek
What would it mean to "rebuild" Talosian society? Fix reproductive problems? Address their addiction to illusion? Ecologically reclaim their planet? All of these? Is it possible to bring them into the Federation or into reasonable diplomatic relations with the Federation? Or will they always be too dangerous with their massive powers of illusion?
These are good Star Trekian questions. They show concern for a species' right to exist, compassion even for a species that is kind of scary and has engaged in some pretty dicey behavior. Figuring out how to coexist with the Talosians, how to help them without being hurt by them, is a core thematic Star Trek question.
Human Drama
This scenario also creates a lot of opportunity to explore the lives and thoughts of Pike and Vina. There's an opportunity for good representation of disability, as long as the illusory bodies don't erase the very real limitations of their lives, not least of which is being stuck on Talos IV. I think Pike will do a lot of soul searching over whether he's made the right decision. Vina, I'm sure, has too across the years.
It also strikes me that illusion aside, they are both physically infirm and both getting older. (I think they're maybe in their 60s or so by this time?) While I'm sure the Talosians are adept at completely blanking out real physical sensations and replacing them with illusion, there is something to be said for keeping in touch with real sensation. For one thing, it's a good measure of the condition of the physical body sustaining your life. And it would be interesting to explore the aches and pains drifting the through the illusion of youth and vigor and the kind of maintenance their physical bodies might need.
Vina has been tortured by the Talosians. Even if they have lived equably together the vast majority of the time, a little "punishment" goes a long way, and she's clearly carrying trauma. It would be interesting to see how this manifests. She probably has some symptoms of CPTSD, like many survivors of abuse. She probably has deeply mixed feelings about the Talosians: gratitude, camaraderie (at least with some), fear, dislike, distrust. While I would emphasize her resilience and hard-won maturity, the scars of trauma would be interesting to sprinkle in. Pike, being emotionally tuned in, would immediately pick up on them, which would be a good source of drama in itself, as he has to be filled with his own fear at putting himself in the hands of the Talosians, even if we assume the Federation is going to check on his welfare from time to time.
Vina would also likely be a bit peculiar from 30-plus years in a Talosian "zoo." Again, I'd play up her strength. Perhaps she has pulled herself back from the brink of insanity and, by this time, developed a lot of systems and failsafes for staying coherent and balanced. But in addition to seeing her positive coping mechanisms, it would be interesting to a see a smattering of weirdness. Maybe she talks to herself quite a lot. Maybe she has little rituals around distinguishing real from illusion.
And then there's Pike and Vina's relationship. If one chooses to follow "The Cage" narrative closely (which is not a must), the Talosians chose Pike to be Vina's mate because he matched her "dream man"—and that's a little awkward because she's not his dream woman. He likes her. I think they could make good companions, but there's an initial asymmetry in the relationship. And however close they might get, there's always the reality that they're stuck together. They are the only two human beings on the planet. They will never really have a free choice about whether or not to be life partners. They've been defaulted into those roles; it's the only available course that makes sense. But it will be tentative, at least for a long time.
And if they decide to have a sexual relationship—and sooner or later they will—they will have to figure out what it means to be physically intimate in a non-physical situation. As far as I can make out, Pike and Vina having sex would consist of Pike not really being there and Vina's physical body being completely effaced (visually, tactilely, etc.). And I think that would feel emotionally odd. It's one avenue of those questions on the nature of the self and the relationship between mind and body. (And also the Talosians are watching them.)
Religion: One of my favorite things about Discovery Pike is the implication, albeit lightly insinuated, that he comes from a Christian background. That's really unusual in Star Trek, which is intentionally set in a secular, largely non-religious human society. In fact, it's rare in general in our popular culture to see a positive representation of a Christian character in a story that is not a "Christian story." I think, in terms of what one sees on screen, less is more here. But in my head, I imagine that if Pike is a man of Christian faith, that faith is probably central to helping him cope with his injuries and his choice to make the best of it on Talos IV, and I think just alluding to that, even once, could be very powerful.
Finally, there's a universal relevance in the questions this scenario raises about how we confront limitation, loss, age, and death, which we will confront. It might, on this level, be Star Trek for the older folks, but coming straight out of our 1960s nostalgia, maybe that's not inappropriate.
In sum, I think there's potential for some of the best of Star Trek here. Good sci-fi, good Federation quasi-utopianism, good character drama and philosophical exploration. I'd be curious what y'all think.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-09 11:50 pm (UTC)Yes, I always thought this would be a real problem for Pike - Vina has had much longer to adjust and presumably has solid coping strategies in place as you say, but bringing Pike into that situation is going to be profoundly destabilising.
Your thoughts about the Talosians and their society are super interesting! I really like the idea that they no longer reproduce without technological intervention and then have lost that technological ability...but that technology does exist, outside their planet. Would they choose to stay with their illusion and long life or eventually (with input from Pike) choose to continue their species after all?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-11 05:29 am (UTC)