I realise I did exactly the same thing yesterday and linked to exactly the same creator, but I’d be an absolute fool if I didn’t direct everyone here today. From time to time, the online world has a cool habit of throwing up surprises, and Steve Shives has made a video which I really didn’t expect – in a good way. In this video essay, Shives looks at Captain Christopher Pike from Star Trek and his fate in relation to disability representation. You may remember that Pike was one of the few disabled characters in Star Trek: able-bodied in the pilot, he was shown severely disabled in a later episode, needing to use a beeping communication aid and rolling around in a wheeled tumble drier. Thus Shives looks into whether his fate ought to be regarded as that horrific.

Now, much of this analysis concerns episodes of Star Trek Strange New Worlds, which to be honest I haven’t really bothered with, so I can’t really say much more until I catch up on that series. Nonetheless, I find this a highly noteworthy piece of criticism, not least coming from a guy who doesn’t usually deal with these sorts of issues. It even touches on contemporary disability rights discourse. and concepts like the Social Model of disability: when I heard Shives start to speak about that, I almost spat out my morning coffee in joyous surprise. Once again, this is another great example of just how articulate and advanced online film and TV criticism is becoming.