ValueSubtracted

My excitement was starting to die down thanks to the dearth of news, but hot damn, this show looks gorgeous. There's some really interesting stuff in the interview, too:

"If you're going to do a show about a young generation facing the future and you want it, as all Star Trek does, to be a mirror that holds itself up to the world as it is now, to situate the show in the halcyon days of the Federation would, in some ways, be dishonest," Kurtzman, a showrunner on Starfleet Academy with Noga Landau, tells Entertainment Weekly. (The halycon days was a time period when the Federation of Planets enjoyed peace and prosperity.) "Our children are facing a lot of challenges right now and they are our hope for the future...They've got a lot riding on their shoulders, and they are meant to reestablish and rebuild everything that we all know and love about Star Trek," Kurtzman continues. "They convey hope and they search for hope, and that felt like an extremely relevant message to talk about now."

Landau adds, "It's wish fulfillment. Every week it's about a new part of coming of age. One week that can be a prank, war erupts another week, a romance begins another week, we encounter an alien species for the first time and we don't know what the hell we're doing [another week]. But at the end of every episode, what we want our audience to feel is, 'I want to go to Starfleet Academy.' Even in the deepest, darkest depths of character problems and drama, you get such a good feeling from watching this show [of] how much you want to be there so badly."

"One of the things that we see all across the world now is how much hate is relied on to sow division between things that connect us as human beings and how hate is used as a bludgeon to destroy empathy, which I think is ultimately what Star Trek is about," Kurtzman explains. "At its core, it's about: We may not look the same, but we are the same. Finding that common ground and figuring out a way to understand our differences is at the heart of what [Star Trek creator Gene] Roddenberry was talking about."

Without revealing too much, Kurtzman explains that Giamatti's character "represents a tide that has swept across the world in a very profound and upsetting way," he continues. "I say this without taking a political stance. That is part of what it means to invite everybody into the tent. One of my favorite things about Star Trek is that it reaches across the aisle. People on all sides of the political spectrum love it for different reasons. That is something that we really wanted to hold true to here."

It also seems like we might learn a lot more tomorrow:

The creative leads are keeping many of the character details under wraps until the big Star Trek panel at San Diego Comic-Con this Saturday, but they confirm Holly Hunter plays the lead of the series, that of the captain and chancellor of the academy.

I can't believe the manual had such a glaring misprint...

Yeah, it looked directly connected - if you squint, you'd probably be able to work out where on the bridge the door is.

Funnily enough, that episode provides supporting evidence:

BASHIR: Starfleet Medical won't see it that way. DNA resequencing for any reason other than repairing serious birth defects is illegal. Any genetically enhanced human being is barred from serving in Starfleet or practising medicine.

One has to conclude that the procedure Bashir underwent is considered an enhancement, not a "repair" - like they tried to overcome his undefined disability through brute force, rather than address the underlying cause.

Not equipped to handle sexual assault cases. This is a very well-documented issue.

I'm not certain about the retro-style logo on the wall (I suspect the blockier lettering on the tote bag represents the actual series logo), but might this be the first look at (a version of) the series uniform?

This has unfortunately been the case in sexual assault cases since...forever, really.

There are almost never any witnesses, human memory is fallible, alcohol is sometimes a factor...the justice system is not well-equipped to handle it.

Good - the original case seemed pretty straightforward.

I think the general policy is that genetic augmentation to grant superpowers is bad, while genetic treatment of disease or other medical conditions is generally okay.

They tiptoed right up to the line without outright stating it.

I don't really have a problem with the resolution...it just seemed to have been unplanned and bolted on, and was contradictory to the beginning of the season.

Payroll is a large portion of any budget, and I haven't seen any credible claims that it's possible to cut round it, or that they're even trying.