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Star Trek Short Treks - The Brightest Star
39 Plays4 years ago
The Brightest Star gives us insight into Saru's backstory. This is our shortest broadcast of just 21 minutes, but don't let that fool you. We have a lot of fun talking about this episode.
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Starfleet Boy, where we have a casual and informal discussion about our beloved series, Star Trek.
00:00:38
Speaker
Boom, we're back. Another exciting episode of Starfleet Boy, where we have a casual end.
00:00:47
Speaker
A casual and informal conversation about Star Trek.
Topic Introduction: 'The Brightest Star'
00:00:52
Speaker
Star Trek Discovery is our topic today. We're going to have a discussion about the most recent short tracks, The Brightest Star. I already had a discussion right after it aired on TextTrax channel, so go check that out. But I like to do one... I have a horrible lesson.
00:01:15
Speaker
you're gonna do a cool video about it but i like to do one on my channel because it it just uh is it it's like tradition right like i'm supposed to have a episode for every single posterity that's what you say
Guest Introduction: Sean from Trek on the Tube
00:01:28
Speaker
For posterity's sake, exactly. I'm joined by Sean from Trek on the Tube. Thank you for coming aboard once again for this exciting thing. How are you? I'm on antibiotics, so if I seem a little low energy, that's the reason why. That's fine. I went and caught a bloody...
00:01:51
Speaker
Tarkarian flu. That's the Tarkarian flu. I am under the care of Dr. Crusher.
00:02:00
Speaker
I have no clue, so I'm fine.
Avengers Endgame Trailer Impact
00:02:04
Speaker
I will say that the excitement for the short trek was undercut by the Avengers Endgame trailer that was released. It dropped on the same day. I know, I was like, oh my god. That was a great trailer. I'm very excited about Avengers.
00:02:27
Speaker
It is, it is the one movie to rule them all, isn't it? I think it will be. Cap says, our guy Cap says, this is it, right? It's got to work because I got nothing else. Our buddy Cap, that's, I think, yeah, you think it's going to work? He's like, yeah, this has to work because this is my only solution or whatever. I don't know. Yeah, I got no other plan, whatever. Anyway, that's pretty cool. My boy Chris Evans was crying.
00:03:01
Speaker
All right, so I can feel better. We're here to talk about the brightest star. Yeah. Who would you like the honor of doing the short Trek summary? Remember we had to try to keep it right. Okay. So short Trek summary is like three sentences, right?
Summary of 'The Brightest Star'
00:03:19
Speaker
Short Tricks episode 3, what is it, The Brighter Star, tells us the backstory or the origin story of Saru's integration into Starfleet. So essentially we see a Kelpian village and its inhabitants living their daily lives on planet Kamenar.
00:03:45
Speaker
So it's explained that they're very simple people. They're almost, dare I say, a backward people. They live very primitively. And once, I don't know if it's like defined, but once every now and then they have this big ritualistic sacrifice in which one of the village elders or like a priest or something sends some of the villagers off to be, I suppose, harvested by this other alpha race that we've never seen before.
00:04:14
Speaker
that we still haven't seen. And Saru kind of questions this existence. He's the only Kelpie in that questions this existence and this kind of state of mind that his entire people are in. That's a little surprising, but yeah, he is. But he is. He's like an exception. And so essentially a piece of technology drops off one of these beaming pods. They have these probes that beams everyone away or vaporizes them, whatever, harvest them.
00:04:43
Speaker
And so a piece of technology falls off and he manages to create a communication system with this and communicate with someone outside of his planet.
Saru's Decision and the Prime Directive
00:04:53
Speaker
It so happens that he was communicating with Captain Philippa Georgiou, which turns up, rolls up in a shovel,
00:05:00
Speaker
tells him that he's exceptional, that he is essentially the brightest star of his species, and she's managed to pull some strings over at Starfleet HQ. And in this very peculiar, very unique situation, they have found that the solution was to remove Saru from his planet. So they give him a choice. It's like, either you stay on this planet and exist with your people, either we take you away from it, we can like show you more.
00:05:25
Speaker
But the deal is you'll never be able to come back because there is the prime directive. This is a species that is not aligned with the Federation. They can't really intervene with it. And considering this isn't like an official cry for help from his species, I think they don't have the authority to come in and police everything. So that's the deal. So then Saru leaves with Georgia and
00:05:53
Speaker
And there we go. And we see his sister see him leave. And her sister is probably one of the most... She's the secondary character of this episode. I think she gets undercut by the arrival of JoJo. We can't forget about her. But he does have some tender moments with his sister.
00:06:12
Speaker
I think this is the best done of the short trek so far. I agree. I think runaway was absolute ass. It was just dreadful. So that doesn't count. I think Calypso was a nice try, but it lacked in
00:06:30
Speaker
But it was intriguing. I remember us talking a lot about the world. You know what I'm saying? It was interesting to think about what the landscape was, right? It is. But in itself, it was a bit of an underwhelming project in the sense that you didn't really know why it was there, or what its purpose was. This, it has a purpose to explain Saru
00:06:55
Speaker
and better understand his race and species. And I think it was the best executed. It also doesn't feel cheap because it's not on the USS Discovery. I know that it's a thing in Star Trek to reuse sits, and they've always done this. Every iteration of Star Trek has done it. But to actually go out there and build sits and props and take the time to invest money and time into the Short Trek episode makes it more important.
Production Quality and CGI Review
00:07:23
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:07:25
Speaker
that amazing cgi shot at the at the very end when he climbs up the mountain and you see his village below was breathtaking i was like oh that's like super cinematic there is one that was terrible though there was one there is one cgi shot that is freaking hideous because it looks like ps3 you know um graphics there but um i love how ps3 is terrible graphics now but anyway um
00:07:50
Speaker
No, there was one shot where all of the Kelpians are around the probe or the harvesting machine. It's like shot from the beach or from the ocean or something, and everyone's CG'd before they disappear.
00:08:07
Speaker
It's very quick, it's very quick and then it has the flash and everything but just before that it wasn't. But then I don't, it's a short trick, right? Right. So I think the props and the sets were really amazing. But this is what we're looking for. This is I think the vibe that you're looking for. It enhances the actual story and it gives you in depth in a character that you maybe doesn't
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, maybe you don't want to have a whole episode devoted to... It justifies the fact that he's the only Kelpian that we've ever seen. Right. But it also, it brings up more questions like, by the time we get to the Star Fleet, sorry, by the time we get to the Old Man Picard show, right, or 200 maybe, 200 years later, have the Kelpians
00:08:57
Speaker
is it that long no it's about oh yeah you're right it's like 180 uh it is it's gonna be 200 200 this short tricks i'm assuming takes place 10 to 15 years before discovery because Saru does go through Starfleet Academy which is four years he's been like what seven years on the USS Shenzhou there's at least
00:09:17
Speaker
At minimum like 11 years plus he he went to like commander.
Future of the Kelpians
00:09:21
Speaker
So that's a lot of ranking We don't we don't actually know how long kelpians live or anything that we got so yeah anyway, so there's like 22 40s or something and um, the old man picard will be taking place in like the 25th century so like 2401 was it they said anyway, so 200 years later It would be really interesting to see like Okay, I would want the old man picard show to be about this now like just
00:09:47
Speaker
Finally, the Kelpians have evolved over 200 years, right? And they're sending out this distress signal and they're doing like they're actually asking the Federation for help, officially. And so now they send old man Picardon to like help this alien race because now there are an official warp capable race that are asking for help because they're being enslaved by another warp capable race. And you can actually come in now.
00:10:15
Speaker
How horrible would it be if you find out that the Ba'ul, the unseen villain in this episode, but how horrible would it be if you find out the Ba'ul are actually selling hors d'oeuvres and they don't tell you what's in it? It doesn't take long, Peter, it's just like...
00:10:35
Speaker
I like themselves with the Terran Empire just to sell them food, right? They don't know. They've been selling Kelpian meat everywhere and people think they're eating chicken or something or like pate. They're having a pate. Oh, the biggest scam in the galaxy.
00:10:55
Speaker
How horrible would it be if like so that the bowel is the name that the Kelpians have given these these like alpha species How horrible would it be if you actually found out that the bowel? Like I don't know some other species that we've like that we know about but we've never heard of their home planet We thought they were nice people
00:11:15
Speaker
oh that would be true and it's like oh shit like we thought these guys were good but they're not they're horrible people right there's some interesting things about uh the kelpian home planet kaminar we were wondering would uh would the other species be the kaminarians or the cam you know whatever because i don't think so yeah it's an
00:11:39
Speaker
But I mean, it's interesting because we don't say Earthling often in Star Trek. Usually you refer to people from Earth as being human, right? It's strange, human. And they say human all the time. But in fact, we are Earthling. So maybe Kelpien's, it's kind of the same way. It's kind of the same thing where like, yeah, they might say we're, you know, Kamenarians on occasion, but mostly Kelpien is not saying human.
00:12:09
Speaker
Caminar have you ever heard of Camelot the musical Camelot? Yes, that's all I could think about whenever I hear a camp Caminar I think of Camelot so I keep thinking Caminar That must be really scary as a race that he's
00:12:25
Speaker
I think, um, Kamenarians, right? They must be, because, okay, think about this. They seem very, like, docile and, um, uh, submissive. These Kelpians that we see in the short tricks. But it's established that Saru is ultra strong and really quick. He's really fast. And he's got, like, this really good, like, sensitivity and stuff. And, um, and they're just completely submissive. Like, accepting of their situation. How scary are the other guys?
00:12:55
Speaker
Maybe the cations from the animated series. I don't remember those angry cat people those angry
00:13:06
Speaker
There's tiger cats, right? Oh, yes, that's right. My God, you went deep there. That's crazy. Who knows? I think on the text track discussion, Fathery revealed that
00:13:30
Speaker
or he seemed to glean some knowledge about in season two I think or maybe PJ said this I can't remember it was late at night but it came up in the discussion that like there's definitely going to be a return to Kalpian story of Saru's planet or his village in season two and so there was some speculation we did around that.
Return to Saru's Planet Speculation
00:13:52
Speaker
Have you heard any of that? Like have you heard about that or anything?
00:13:54
Speaker
I haven't thought of that but that was my like okay when this episode finished my first thought was we're gonna go back to that because they built they invested a lot of money in all the sets and it's like 30 minutes and then like half of it is just Giorgio speaking to Burnham on a hill on a cliff right
00:14:15
Speaker
In all the internet chatter that I've seen, and it's true that Saru's a really cherished and favorite character from fans and critics alike, so people who don't even like Discovery are saying, well, but I do like Saru. He's the Data, he's the Seven of Nine, he's the Spock.
00:14:33
Speaker
um or odo you know it's kind of like we all have one we all have a we all have an odo my odo won't make me lunch what is the one from enterprise though ad odo no bucket for you sorry oh my god you're horrible you're horrible he becomes a little flaky and shit
00:15:03
Speaker
Go on. Is it Flox in Enterprise? Yeah, Flox. He's the Denoblean. He's an alien. But he's not very extraordinary. Is he strong? I don't remember. It's not that he's strong. It's that like these characters that we're talking about are like kind of out of place characters that, you know, they're the fish out of water situation. Yeah, I would say that I would say Flox was definitely that way.
00:15:31
Speaker
And to Paul, actually, there's... There's no definitive character like that on Enterprise. I don't think so, right? Yeah, that's actually kind of a... I think that's a kudos to Enterprise that you don't have an obvious trope from previous series. But yeah, it's interesting. I think that the fish out of water thing, though, now that I think... If I really think about it, it is in every iteration of Star Trek, because it's a real phenomenon that...
00:16:01
Speaker
It's a story that we like to talk about or tell in our fiction in general. I think it's like, yeah. It is one of those defining things that fans of Star Trek relate to. I know that we always talk about the diversity in Star Trek, the representation, et cetera. But having that one foreshadow water character, you'll see so many people talk about how they identified themselves. They felt close to Spock or they felt close to Data.
00:16:30
Speaker
I will say Saru is the most interesting character for me at times, especially because they've really done a good job at making a truly alien character.
Saru's Character Development
00:16:43
Speaker
I genuinely don't get Saru a lot of the time. It's kind of actually awesome because it stirs these angry and deep sort of feelings to think about, ooh, I'm being,
00:17:00
Speaker
I'm being interrupted. I better. You're being hailed. I'm being hailed. That rarely happens on Starfleet point, but let me check out what's going on here. It looks like it's my sister. Oh, okay. Anyways, what I was saying. Disappointed. I thought it was going to be an alien or something, or Captain Georgiou.
00:17:22
Speaker
No, I thought the doctor, because he's invited, he's always invited, would pop in and be like... He wouldn't talk about show tricks. No, if the doctor liked Discovery or even could stand it enough to watch it, which he does not, unfortunately, he would probably like this episode.
00:17:47
Speaker
I think so too. It was good. It was nice. Honestly, the storytelling was good. It was short, simple, to the point it doesn't have major flaws like some of the other short tricks did. It doesn't leave you with these big questions. So the questions that you are left with are interesting questions that, on the contrary, are the questions that you want from Star Trek.
00:18:14
Speaker
You're trying to build the universe more. I really want to see these aliens that have kind of enslaved them.
00:18:22
Speaker
Yeah, I hope we see the Ba'ul in Season 2. We don't really know. I think they rushed Saru, because the whole thing with Data is over the course of seven years plus the four movies, he becomes human, right? Or he's striving to become human. Ultimately, he does the most human thing.
00:18:45
Speaker
And you kind of have that situation with Seven in Voyager. Odo doesn't try to become human, but he's trying to find himself and make peace with the fact that he's like of a species that he just fundamentally disagrees with. We have these very long stories and I think Saru, there was this whole deal about how he's like constantly scared and afraid and he's from a very submissive people.
00:19:07
Speaker
But then in the space of 13, 15 episodes in season one, he becomes the most assertive and strong character they have. So much so that he takes command of the friggin ship when the fleet admiral backs down. And I think as much as it's cool to see him do that and everyone was hype about the speech, I think it was done too quick.
Hopes for Saru's Story
00:19:28
Speaker
It would have had more impact or it would have been more meaningful to me if they had done that over the course of multiple seasons.
00:19:36
Speaker
And so I would like to see the similar thing with the planet. I would like to go back to Kamenoth. I would like to see him save and free his people, but later on, not in season two. I think that's great. I actually don't see anything wrong with it. Like, I'm not... I mean, I am in a hurry to find out more, but I'm not... I think it... Yeah, like... Let this story be a discovery. Yeah, let it, like, evolve over time. This could be one arc that they deal with later.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree with that. In a sense, Discovery begins with Georgiou and Saru. And then later on, it continues with Georgiou and Burnham. And then it's this adventure of these two characters, you know, right? And so let it end like this. Let it end with the ultimate death of Burnham.
00:20:24
Speaker
You're so terrible. I don't want Burnham to do that. They will. They're not going to kill her. They're not going to have it. They're going to kill her. You're terrible. I'm not terrible. Why? Horrible person. Hi. Audience, let us know what you think below. Should Star Trek kill Burnham at the end of its story? It's not should. It's not should. It's will they. Will. Will they. Sorry. I believe they will.
00:20:50
Speaker
I'm not saying I shouldn't kill anyone. No, I mean, I disagree. I disagree with these two. Um, yeah. Admiralty is in fact calling. So I think we have to wrap up this already. I think we're the short track discussions can't be long, right? Like they have to be short, right?
00:21:08
Speaker
I like this one. There you go. We give a rating. Yeah, we've been doing it. So I will go first as per tradition and say that this for me is a seven, a solid seven.
Episode Ratings and Conclusion
00:21:23
Speaker
Okay. I would give it a 6.5. That's great. I think the first above five.
00:21:30
Speaker
No, I think you did. I don't know. I can't remember what you came up with. Maybe I gave a straight five, I don't know. All right. Well, Sean, it was a pleasure talking to you. I'm going to see you in just a few more minutes. We're going to do a costume change if I can find my hat and then come back.
00:21:51
Speaker
No, I gave it a four Calypso. So two four and this is 6.5. So it is the best. You're simply the best.
00:22:46
Speaker
you