Star Trek: Short Treks -- Season 2 Episode 6 (Children of Mars)

It’s somewhat difficult to think of a series like Star Trek: Short Treks as having seasons.  CBS All Access doesn’t seem to group them as such, although IMDb does have a four-episode first season and a six-episode second season.  The final episode of the second season serves as prelude to Star Trek: Picard.

It centers on two girls, Kima and Lil.  They go to the same school and seem to have an adversarial relationship.  Kima is antagonistic towards Lil.  (Lil misses the school bus because Kima tripped her.)  They get into fights and generally don’t seem to like each other.

The one thing they have in common is that each has a parent working on or in orbit of Mars.  Then, the androids revolt.  It serves as a bond between them.  We see them holding hands in support of each other.

It does answer a few questions I’ve always had.  It does look like they have formal schools in the future.  I always wondered what Jake Sisko would have done had Keiko O’Brien not opened the school.  I know starships have teachers, but what did he do for education on Deep Space Nine before the school opened?

It also looks like rivalries still exist in the 24^th century.  Like schools, fighting will still exist several hundred years from now.  I do find it odd that they just make up because of the attack.  I know that they each had a parent involved, but I don’t think it would be that easy for me.

Another oddity is that Lil’s father didn’t get a break.  It’s implied that he hasn’t been home for over a year.  Given that Mars is so close, shouldn’t he at least be able to go home on the weekends?  Maybe get a holiday or some vacation time?  It seemed like that was added just for the emotional effect.

It’s an interesting episode.  It has very little dialogue and isn’t necessary to watch Star Trek: Picard.  Granted, you have to have All Access to watch either, but I would imagine that they’ll be coming out on DVD eventually.  If you can get Picard first, don’t worry about this episode.

IMDb page

Star Trek: Short Treks -- Season 1 Episode 3 (The Brightest Star)

I remember seeing the coming attractions for Star Trek: Discovery.  I hadn’t seen Saru’s race and was intrigued by his claim that he could sense death and danger.  It turns out that he was the only member of his species in Starfleet.  We do learn quite a bit about his species during the second season.  To set us up for this, we were given a Short Trek between the first and second seasons.

This episode gives us a brief glimpse of what it was like for Discovery’s firs officer to have to leave his planet.  He always knew he didn’t belong.  When he finds a communications device, he’s supposed to bury it.  Instead, he learns how to use it and ends up contacting and meeting a then-Lieutenant Philippa Georgiou.

This short episode doesn’t get into the details of the Prime Directive.  It shows what life was like for Saru before Starfleet.  He didn’t really fit in and wasn’t content to live a simple life.  His father and sister were.  But Saru knows that there’s more out there.

It makes it a little easier to identify with the character.  I’m sure there are a lot of people now that would go out into space, given the chance.  We’re at a point that we’re just talking about going to Mars.  Could you imagine going to different solar systems?

It’s a little strange seeing this after the second season of Discovery aired.  I know that Saru does make it back to his home planet.  It must have been a tough decision not knowing that, though.  Given that his people aren’t warp-capable, Saru could never bring that knowledge back.

From what I understand, the Short Trek episodes are coming out on DVD in June.  I took the opportunity to watch these while I had access to CBS All Access, but it would be nice to have another option.  There are two “seasons” with the possibility of others.  I don’t know if future seasons will be released individually or if CBS wants to release ten episodes at a time.  Maybe they’ll include them with Discovery episodes.  Either way, they’re fun to watch.

IMDb page