SNW Season 3 Retrospective: The Season of Surveillance

[u/UglyBagOfMostly_H2O]

Premise: The show is presented in a visual medium to an audience that is mostly sighted, and takes advantage of modern production technology to very much show off some pretty stunning visual effects. 

We are a visual species and English is replete with phrases and idioms referencing vision/sight.

That said, this season contains a LOT of visual references to the point that it presents as an overarching theme culminating in the imagery of the final episode.

“Hegemony II”

• Scotty describes his gadget to hide from the Gorn as “like a cloaking device”
• Gorn communication is based on light/optics

“Wedding Bell Blues”

• We are introduced to Beto Ortegas and his intrusive camera
• As Batel considers her assignment options (after Pike asks her “So, what are you looking for?” she notes that the options are less than ideal because taking those assignments means “Then I never see you.”
• Scotty: “A sensor ghost outside the hull. Nothing to see here.”
• We see the “Vulcan bartender” through Spock’s eyes/reflected in a mirror, but as viewers of “reality” we see that he appears to be a standard issue human male.  We later learn that other characters see this character as Andorian. 
• Trelane: “Well look at that. My own little Vulcan terrarium.”
• Much of the episode takes place in a seed pod biome, which functionally is a giant terrarium, and the cinematography emphasizes this. 

“A Space Adventure Hour”

• Spock (correcting La’An for looking away during their tango, noting that she herself had instructed him thus): “Eyes up, Lieutenant. You told me the eyes are the anchor of the tango, are they not?”
• The Holodeck learns about La’An both by watching her prior to the exercise via the monitoring pin she wore, but very obviously during the simulation by very blatantly observing her and “Spock” interact through the eyes of the Maxwell Saint character while he is questioned by them.
• The plot is a show within a show, and Scotty can only communicate with La’An by “hiding in plain sight.”

“Through the Lens of Time”

• “Lens,” right there in the title
• Beto’s “lens” displays the characters in the same space despite the fact that they themselves cannot perceive this
• Gamble/Vezda loses his freaking eyeballs
• Spock sees Vezda through magic goggles
• N’Jal has face markings reminiscent of goggles/eyepiece
• We are left with the impression that the Vezda could have infiltrated the ship’s computer and is “watching” things

“The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”

• Una: “Who needs sensors? We have eyes”
• Uhura establishes ship-to-ship ”line of sight communications”
• Kirk: “We don’t need aldentium, just need to look like we do.”

“What is Starfleet”

• The entire episode is about observation

“Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”

• La’An renders herself invisible to Scotty/ship's sensors. Guys, she cloaks herself.
• The first scene in Pelia's quarters (for the conspiring/plotting scene) opens with a zoom out from a round glass/ball which is reflecting a red light, and it reminds me of HAL spying on Dave and Frank in 2001: A Space Odyssey

“Terrarium”

• The entire episode is about observation

“New Life and New Civilizations”

• Too many instances to count, but I liked the many callings of Captain Batel:
  • Beholder
  • Warden (from Proto-Germanic *wardon "to watch, guard" (from suffixed form of PIE root *wer- (3) "perceive, watch out for"))
  • Sentry (shelter for a watchman)
  • Advocate ( past participle of advocare "to call (as witness or adviser)) (and thus, as the ultimate JAG, her destiny is to deliver judgment on the Vezda)
• Pike reiterates that he will meet his fate on “an observation exercise.”
• Batel: “I never thought we’d see this.”

Edited to Add:

What Gamble/Vezda chants to the crowd, right before the eye stabbing, seems to translate thusly:

Demetis tenebris

From the harvest of darkness

interitus

destruction

vide clara

See clearly!

In conclusion, maybe: We're all aware that some scenes in TOS and beyond are invalidated by occurrences in SNW. That's not new to Star Trek or any other series, but I feel we're playing a part in a Heisenberg Uncertainty scenario by which our act of observing this series alters the in-universe future of Star Trek allowing more flexibility in a potential TOS reboot show.

[u/OhneSkript]

Yes, you described it quite well, I feel it very much.