Fridge / Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S2E2 "Ad Astra Per Aspera"

• Fridge Brilliance: As noted on the main page, Neera's Loophole Abuse argument that Pike de facto granted Una political asylum from the Federation by letting her serve in the Federation Starfleet is rather absurd. It's entirely possible, however, that the tribunal didn't really want to convict a highly decorated officer, and liked Amoral Attorney Admiral Pasalk's suggestion of coming after Pike next even less, so they accepted her Loophole Abuse just to give themselves enough Plausible Deniability to acquit Una.
  • Which falls right in line with other examples, past and future. Only last episode, Spock was let off with a warning for disobeying orders and stealing the Enterprise, which he fully expected to result in court martial, because war with the Gorn is imminent and Starfleet can't afford to lose good officers. In a century, Dr Bashir will be allowed to remain in Starfleet because war with the Dominion is imminent and he's the lead expert on their Super-Soldier species. Starfleet can't afford to lose two of their best officers, including their most highly-decorated captain, so when Neera hands them a way out they take it.
• Admiral Pasalk's decision to go after Una and Pike was revenge on Spock for whatever happened that made him an ex-colleague of Sarek's, which is heavily implied to have involved Spock. He knows Spock values his work with Starfleet and his crew, so that's what he targets. He's not the only enemy of Spock's to target people he values for revenge, and Vulcans and Romulans are related.

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