Una is not a eugenicist. Her DNA was altered before birth by eugenicists. Treating her and people like her different because of that is most certainly a form of marginalisation.
Replies
I'm commenting less on the specific use of the characters and more about the metaphor being used overall. In this case, that Augments are a persecuted minority regardless of their reasoning.
aug 30, 2025, 9:55 pm • 2 0 • view
You are free to criticize that. However, you are ignoring the actual message of the episode.
aug 30, 2025, 10:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Perhaps. I should note that Una and the episode are wholly supportive of their parents decision to augment their children as well as species. I shall not comment further on the subject.
aug 31, 2025, 12:51 am • 1 0 • view
I think you remember the episode incorrectly. I just rewatched it and could not find what you are referring to. It is supportive of Una and other Illyrians who were excluded, persecuted and mistreated because of their genetics. It does not say much about the parents or Illyrian society as a whole.
aug 31, 2025, 8:27 am • 1 0 • view
I dont think you understood my comment. Star Trek is a fictional show. Una is not a real person, she's played by an actor. They constructed a bizarre eugenicist society to frame as a marginalised people. This is not what eugenics is in real life. It is fictionally constructed to be that way in SNW.
aug 31, 2025, 12:06 am • 6 0 • view
Genetic engineering of unborn children to improve their abilities is something we might very well have to deal with in our lifetime. We can imbrace this practice, leading to a society where genetically engineered people are the norm or we can ban the practice, leading to a society where
aug 31, 2025, 6:15 am • 3 0 • view
Extremely naive take. Genetic engineering already exists, and embracing it of children will not lead to a society where it is the norm, it will lead to a society where minorities are exterminated on a genetic level and with a class divide between those that can afford and those that cannot.
aug 31, 2025, 7:18 am • 3 0 • view
Embracing eugenics will not somehow remove all bad actors in the real world, nor will eugenicists stop their actual ambitions, which we already *know*. We know they want to erase homosexuality, for example. Embracing that is not a path forward, sorry.
aug 31, 2025, 7:20 am • 2 0 • view
That is a very strong possibility, yes. But not one inherit to the technology of genetic engineering. Yes, it absolutely could be used for genocide. As we see from humanity in Trek, and reality. But it could also be used to eliminate things like auto-immune diseases, or Alzheimer's.
aug 31, 2025, 1:53 pm • 1 0 • view
The difference between genetic tinkering and medicine is actually pretty interesting to debate. I grew up with epilepsy and would have loved for something to cure that. It was not part of my identity save something that almost killed me many times. However, I would loathe trying to 'cure' my autism.
aug 31, 2025, 1:56 pm • 0 0 • view
I think the problem becomes less paradoxical when you realise the truth is that eugenicists are wrong and this is what Star Trek writers have failed to understand. Eugenics is about making people intrinsically better than others, but thats not what genetic tinkering can do, its a flawed premise.
aug 31, 2025, 2:02 pm • 2 0 • view
So comparing medical treatments to eugenics is dodgy to begin with. Intelligence isn't genetic, and so much of physical health is about our environment and access to healthcare. Trek writers buy the fantasy that eugenics works. Eugenics should be outlawed in the Federation because...
aug 31, 2025, 2:04 pm • 2 0 • view
...its a racist, anti-human practise that is intrinsically tied to the concept that some individuals are just inherently superior in some quintessential way. Not because "it works and will make ubermensch who conquer everyone else"
aug 31, 2025, 2:05 pm • 2 0 • view
Genuinely thank you for this! I really understand what you were saying better now.
aug 31, 2025, 2:07 pm • 2 0 • view
💜
aug 31, 2025, 2:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Medicine is just medicine. Eugenics is not just the technologies and skills required for tinkering with genes, it's the whole ideology.
aug 31, 2025, 2:07 pm • 1 0 • view
They straddled the line with Khan, his intelligence and superiority were boasts, not necessarily confirmed. Bashir made it complicated, its implied his superioeiry is not just a boast. SNW took this mess and tried to make a story about marginalisation where the oppressive ideology is a victim.
aug 31, 2025, 2:08 pm • 1 0 • view
It will lead to a society where beeing genetically engineered is the norm. A society that will suffer from all the problems and dangers that you describe. I completely agree with you there.
aug 31, 2025, 7:34 am • 3 0 • view
genetically engineered people are a tiny minority. The second scenario leads precisely to the moral dilemma addressed in "Ad astra per aspera".
aug 31, 2025, 6:15 am • 2 0 • view
Genetic engineering will lead to eugenics, in a society they will value traits based on constructed (likely colonial and white supremacist) racial biases
aug 31, 2025, 6:18 am • 31 0 • view
Sure we can accept that Una’s Illyrian culture does genetic engineering on a purely cultural nonracial or value basis and that’s what makes the metaphor in Ad Aspera work okay enough as an isolated episode - but mixing the metaphor with the human eugenics context and history makes it messy.
aug 31, 2025, 6:22 am • 27 0 • view
It doesn't really matter what purpose the genetic engineering serves. The point is, that nobody should be treated differently for being genetically engineered. In particular if they were not actively involved in the process. In 2019 a chinese scientist announced that he illegally produced
aug 31, 2025, 6:51 am • 0 0 • view
genetically altered babies. The same could very well be happening somwhere in the US right now. Would you consider depriving these babies of some of their civil and/or human rights? After whatching your content for a while now I do not think so.
aug 31, 2025, 6:51 am • 0 0 • view
Of course not, but that is why in this case it worked for an episode. Because it's just the individual who didn't ask for it. But had they made it a basic decision to just let everyone with that background serve in Starfleet, they'd legitimised eugenics. And we live in a world where Nazis already/1
aug 31, 2025, 8:25 am • 0 0 • view
The problem is that Starfleet does not appear to be particularly consistent in its approach towards genetic manipulation. La'An, who comes from a family of augments, is allowed to serve in Starfleet. Marie Batel, who has become a kind of Gorn hybrid, is allowed to continue serving
aug 31, 2025, 8:43 am • 0 0 • view
in Starfleet. And in the latest episode the crew even turned themselves into Vulkans as part of a mission ordered by Starfleet.
aug 31, 2025, 8:43 am • 0 0 • view
used eugenics (not genetic engineering, but forced sterilisation as well as actual murder) to try to get rid of disabled people, among others. (Side note: It's interesting that disabled people are the one group not mentioned in prejudices the Federation has overcome. 🤨 I mean, true, we see /2
aug 31, 2025, 8:25 am • 0 0 • view
Star Trek has struggled with the topic of disability for a very long time. I hope that the writers will eventually find a way to change this.
aug 31, 2025, 9:09 am • 1 0 • view
ableism time and again, but it feels like we were just once again forgotten, instead of making this an ongoing plot regarding Pike's future disability.) So even without the idea of "Oh no, a superhuman could infiltrate the Fleet and take over", they need to stay cautious about the topic. /3
aug 31, 2025, 8:25 am • 0 0 • view
On top of that, they’ll need to be INCREDIBLY careful if they did any further exploration of Illyrian culture to not make them a eugenics-based society - which would be hard to do so it’d be best to just stay far away from it lest the make Ad Aspera retroactively even messier. I like the episode but
aug 31, 2025, 6:24 am • 56 1 • view
It works specifically because of how vague the notion is, and that it relies more on metaphors for institutional prejudice against minorities like immigrants and trans - not arguments of eugenics. Which is def for the best.
aug 31, 2025, 6:24 am • 62 2 • view
Some folks need to watch GATTACA and it shows.
aug 31, 2025, 6:39 am • 1 0 • view
Gattaca is one of my favourite movies. But it shows only one of many possible futures. Personally, I think it is more likely that genetic engineering will be strictly regulated or even banned.
aug 31, 2025, 7:04 am • 0 0 • view
You could use a story on Illyrian culture to rebuff essentialism by having it be a matter of history that a religious subsect tried to remove traits like queerness and disability but found it was impossible because messy deviance is part of humanity -- so Illyrians only select environmental adaption
aug 31, 2025, 6:51 am • 5 0 • view
I think this would be a fascinating video essay, Jessie, even if I can guess you're probably more interested in other topics and your own original work these days. Comparing Una's story, for example, with Doctor Bashir's take (that his parents took away his autonomy) and Belanna's gene-washed baby.
aug 31, 2025, 11:45 am • 2 0 • view