#the lonely childhood of jack crusher | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pixiedane · 2 years ago

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@dougielombax asked me to elaborate. Note that this includes discussion of various mental illnesses including addiction and suicide, and spoilers for Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Discovery.

My post was in reference to the Borg reveal explaining away Jack Crusher’s mental illness while simultaneously traumatizing him and every other young person in Starfleet. I’m not convinced the writers understand the consequences of any of that.

I say ‘once again’ because it keeps happening.

In season one of Discovery Lorca is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress, no, actually he is from an Evil™ universe. Also in Discovery season one Tyler is suffering from PTS, no, actually he is a genetically modified Klingon. In season two of Discovery Spock is suffering from [undisclosed mental illness], no, actually his visions are time travelers. Also in Discovery season two and continued in at least the first season of Strange New Worlds, but probably the entire series, Pike suffers from Future Traumatic Stress about being permanently disabled which he learns about through more time shenanigans. Picard season one gives us depressed Picard, depressed Rios, anxious Agnes, anxious and addicted Raffi, Soji’s identity issues, grieving Troi and Riker, and all of the above are revealed to be a direct result of Romulan manipulation. And the Romulans themselves were ALSO mentally manipulated! Meanwhile the Borg Reclamation Project, aka the project to destigmatize victims of mental and physical assault still dealing with the trauma while providing support and community, was destroyed.

Picard season two needs its own paragraph. First, we get the revelation of Picard’s childhood trauma, his mother’s death by suicide. The narrative sympathizes with Maurice Picard, who is otherwise suggested to be abusive— not only in TNG (which came before) and Picard season three (which comes after), but earlier in this season. The only evidence of Yvette Picard having any agency is her choice to kill herself. The camera lingers on her death, everything is soft and pretty, then travels backwards in time to show why Jean-Luc blames himself and the entire thing is horrific. There is a parallel storyline about his ancestor who suffers from depression but guess what, she is also being manipulated by Q. Lonely Agnes is manipulated by the Borg to assimilate Earth with the help of Another Terrible Soong, who kept the truth about his daughter from his daughter in order to manipulate her as per usual for Soongs. And then there’s Seven, the only person whose S1 issues were not exacerbated by Romulans, I guess because she was already traumatized by Borg, and I don’t hate her arc of self discovery, but she’s reassimilated without her consent. To save her life yes, but this could be fixed by a three second wordless exchange that showed she wanted it.

Then there is the depiction of mental healthcare. Spock is institutionalized in Discovery season two and it could be worse but it lacks imagination/relies on stereotypes— he’s locked in a white room in his pjs and writes all over the walls while muttering to himself. In Lower Decks Boimler is sent to a facility when he’s disabled by the transporter and he spends the entire time scared but it turns out to be a paradise. That’s the joke. Maurice Picard inexplicably forgoes any systemic support or modern technology and instead locks his wife in her room with an antique key.

Cornwell is bad at boundaries and dispenses self-help fortune cookie therapy. Deanna literally runs away from Jack and later ignores Data. And she manipulated her husband’s emotions. David Cronenberg’s testing of the Disco crew is hilarious but outdated. Other new Trek therapists include: the Talosians, Q, the Guardian of Forever, Vulcans, the holodeck, Narek, whatever book Worf read. Or just monologue about your traumatic backstory in the middle of a crisis like in Discovery season four.

It’s not all bad. For example, I like Culber’s counseling arc and how it grew out of his own traumatic experience. I really love Raffi's arc (Raffi's everything), her addiction and isolation to self-actualization and community. I love all the character driven conversations about personal trauma and the depth of these relationships: Beverly and Picard, Ro and Picard, Will and Deanna, Soji and Deanna, Raffi and Rios, Michael and Spock, Michael and Georgiou, Dal and Gwyn, etc etc. I love that these are ongoing arcs and things aren’t swept away at the end of an episode never to be heard of again. I love Worf working on himself and Boimler working on himself and Dal working on himself. I love that trauma and recovery are such a huge part of these stories! And I don’t expect perfection. Honestly I love mess. It’s just that I know they have science consultants for the physics and I want them to consult social scientists, too. Because “your mental illness is a part of your brain chemistry/genetic make up, it’s not your fault and we can help you find a way to manage it” is a good message but “your mental illness, and potentially all mental illness, is part of an alien conspiracy” is troubling.

Note: Jack’s heightened energy in the final scenes of the finale—pacing in the shuttlecraft, chattering on the bridge—is enough for me to determine he’s still neurodivergent post-de-assimilation. “He may be Borg but that’s not all he is”, like Seven, so he’s where he belongs. Whether the trauma of mass assimilation and murder will be addressed in the future or Seven hugging Sidney is all we get must remain to be seen.

I am once again begging Star Trek to hire a mental health, neurodivergence, and disability consultant.

#reblog mine #star trek therapy the show #star trek generational trauma

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