I'm really disappointed with how preachy this episode was about the topic of abortion and abortion legislation. Unfortunately, it took a very sensitive, nuanced issue and browbeat the audience over the head with a particular viewpoint.
It's a viewpoint I happen to agree with (Grey's Anatomy isn't consistently pro individual rights), but that makes it all the worse: there's nothing more harmful to the right ideas than their bad defense.
This episode isn't going to convince anybody of anything, since, despite the show's general theme of the importance of empathy and human connection, they don't at all attempt to empathize with the people who believe that a fetus is a human life with rights (again, something I disagree with and which I think is objectively demonstrable). Instead, I fear it will embolden people who believe in abortion rights to be more preachy and callus with those who disagree. (And that is very ironic indeed.)
And even worse (or perhaps as an example of why a bad defense is the worst thing for the right ideas), they gave their opponents ammunition: The state of Washington already protects abortion explicitly, at least approximately on the same terms as Roe v Wade. The episode led a viewer to believe that one could only get something called a "medical abortion" because of the recent Supreme Court decision, which, to my understanding, isn't true. So anti-abortionists will be able to criticize the episode for being hyperbolic and misleading, thereby undermining the message the episode is trying to send.
I wasn't sure whether I was watching an episode of Supergirl or Captain Planet... But seriously, there was zero plot development, no meaningful character development, no subtle metaphorical lessons (the whole point of scifi, which Star Trek, BSG, Stargate, and X-Men did superbly), and only ideological moralizing, empty rhetoric, and dogma. Most plot points didn't even make logical sense, as everything in the episode was in service of making a point about environmentalism.
The issue of pollution and its effects is very serious and requires sober, thoughtful analysis, not casual philosophic drive-bys. Such a topic is unlikely to be able to be treated with the care it deserves in an episode of a TV show, and the effect of trying to be so blunt and explicit about it in such a superficial way is that (1) people who already agree are unaffected (or else, taught to engage in similarly superficial rhetoric), (2) people who disagree are not convinced and dig their heels in more, and (3) children are indoctrinated with often-repeated dogma instead of learning how to think carefully about these (and other) complex issues.
Unfortunately, I see the whole Arrowverse devolving in a similar fashion, especially Batwoman. It's really disappointing to see viewpoints (many of which I agree with) to be conveyed in such an unintellectual, ineffective, disrespectful way. There's nothing worse for the success of the right ideas in a culture than their poor or false defense.
Apparently, not knowing that a particular condition is more likely for some races than for others is racist.
I appreciate that the show wants to dramatize racial issues and how they come up in medicine. Racial biases and unconscious bias in particular are very serious issues each one of us needs to grapple with.
But this was forced, and logically, beyond even a stretch. It's so ridiculous that I think it undermines the goal: the people who most urgently need to be reached, as well as those on the fence and those still forming their views, will throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Not knowing things is a part of life. There is no such thing as omniscience. If, instead of being met with kindness and compassion, someone is condemned as a racist, I can easily imagine an internal monologue along the lines of Why bother? What's the point? There's no winning., and that is definitely not what we (or at least the show's writers) want.
Doctors miss things all the time. It's understandable. They're not omniscient. They're not infallible. If the reason a doctor missed something were based on racism or unconscious bias, that would be one thing. But merely not knowing a particular medical fact about how a particular medical condition is more or less likely an explanation for a particular symptom for a particular racial group? Calling that racism or attributing it to racism undermines the cause of fighting against actual racism.
Cool technology and galactic politics aside, I loved this episode for a comment from Picard about Riker:
PICARD: As a matter of fact, I never met Will until he reported on board at Farpoint Station.
PRESSMAN: You chose your first officer without ever meeting him?
PICARD: I was looking through the records of about fifty candidates and Will's was much like all the others, filled with lots of dry statistics and glowing letters of recommendation that tell you nothing. I was about to put it aside and look at another file and then something caught my eye. There was an incident on Altair Three when Will was First Officer of the Hood. He refused to let Captain DeSoto beam down during a crisis. He disobeyed a direct order and he risked a general court martial because he thought he was right. When I read that, I knew that I had found my Number One.
PRESSMAN: You wanted someone with a history of disobedience?
PICARD: I wanted someone who would stand up to me. Someone who was more concerned with the safety of the ship and accomplishing the mission than with how something looked on his record. To me, that's one of the marks of a good officer.
I think what resonates with me about this is its relationship to how I think about parenting and child development.
