They did such a great job of personalizing the mentality of a Starfleet officer with her knowing herself to be dutiful and capable even if nothing else in her memory was left to her.
“I fly the ship” as mantra resonates with me so much because when I feel lost I just remember that “I fix what is broken” and then I remember what I am and what I am supposed to do.
STD gave me vibes that a boardroom full of old white guys in expensive suits had a conference call with the writers that went something like…
I 100% believe that this ham-fisted diversity bullshit is what happens when a board room of old white guys are just checking boxes instead of anyone actually trying to tell a cohesive story.
There are always going to be people that are offended by diversity, but if anything we’ve witnessed from the fan response to these recent Star Trek shows like lower decks, STD, Picard, and strange new worlds, It’s that there’s different ways of using diversity in a story.
Diversity that seems natural to the plot and diversity that seems to be the plot are treated very differently by different kinds of fans. The former seems to be well received even by people that aren’t huge fans of diversity. The latter seems to be grating on a large number of fans.
What I think almost all of Star Trek except STD did very well is to use the infinitely diverse universe to tell stories about the human condition and the future of hope. Why I think STD failed at this is not for the inclusion or the diversity but because it made it the A plot repeatedly in a time when the society we are shown the universe through is supposed to take diversity=strength for granted.
Other treks wouldn’t care that you are gay, black, trans, or the descendant of a bad man, but there was still inter species conflict and an intense fear of genetic engineering that created a context for exploring various modes and motives for conflict.
There was just too little of it.