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Short Trek #3: The Brightest Star
Remember the classic TNG episode “Pen Pals”? The one where a planet is about to explode or whatever, but Data befriends Nikki Cox and tries to get Picard to save her life, but then Picard is like “Mister Data, uhh prime directive much?” But after some epic wrestling with morality and intellectual debate between competing ideologies, the crew finds a way to save the planet and Sarzenka’s people. Happy ending for the characters, the planet, and the audience. Yay! Star Trek!
Ok, now take that episode, subtract all the intelligent debate about morals, ethics, and the nature of power, add in a dumb Georgiou cameo and some expensive sets, and blamo! you’ve got “The Brightest Star.”
Look, I like Saru. I really do. He’s one of the best characters on the show, Doug Jones is one of the best actors on the show, and he’s one of the only ones who acts anywhere approaching consistent during the first season. His species is basically a herd of space cows and unfortunately for them, they’re smart enough to know it. It’s a really interesting and promising set up and learning more Saru backstory is definitely welcome. So… why jam it into a “short Trek” when you can, I dunno, make an entire episode exploring…
