Saru as a Microcosm of the Federation
*Red Spoiler Alert**
My wife sits on our couch next to me saying, “I’m going to need an explanation on Saru’s behavior from the doctor.” This was after I had already explained why Saru behaved the way he did in this week’s episode of Star Trek Discovery. However, when the inevitable sickbay scene opens up she is immediately relieved. “See.” I laugh.
I have written before about how much I love Saru. I understand his center of motivation. The show-runners have done a phenomenal job of developing Saru as a character grounded in his species evolutionary destiny. I say this with a bit of hesitation because to bind a species so intimately to their evolutionary nature confines and stereotypes them. Still, Discovery’s showrunners haven’t widdled down Saru to a bunch of stereotypical tropes.
The show has used Saru’s natural instincts as strengths rather than weaknesses. His cautious nature has often been right. He was the first to suggest that the Federation’s array (first episode) was damaged on purpose. He said they should have left the Klingon artifact alone. In other words, if the Federation had been a little more cautious there is a possibility that this war could have been avoided, or, at the very least, when T’Kuvma’s ship decloaked other ships would have been closer giving Starfleet a tactical advantage. But, you know, we want a show with conflict and caution is the nemesis of conflict.
All that said, Saru has fought his fears and expressed his concerns. He has faced Michael’s racial jibs with his own arsenal of sarcasm. He has defended himself and won’t be talked down to. In fact, in this episode, when Michael is again being racially insensitive he stops her. Saru states, “and we particularly enjoy being discussed in the third person while present.” He doesn’t hold back and it has been true of his nature from the first episode. Saru is blunt and assertive even though he comes from a race that has historically evolved as prey.
In the beginning of the episode, we get another refresher or, maybe, expander of Saru’s species. Saru explains he could have reached the transmitter in 15 minutes. That’s where Michael jumps in saying, “Kelpiens pursued by apex predators have exceeded speeds of 80 kilometers per hour. They can also sense predators from as much as ten kilometers.” Saru shuts her down. He doesn’t need anyone to talk for his species or himself. He further explains, “I possess visual, auditory, and tactile receptors more acute than yours.”
Clearly, Saru is proud of who he is but is also aware of his shortcomings. In previous episodes, he has expressed his fears and anxieties. He has a tell also. Those danger ganglia react—sure they have been off in some episodes—to perceived and actual dangers around him. This can make him incredible obvious in social interactions as when they flared up once speaking with Michael. But he tries to work on who he is and strives to improve upon inherited fears.
If you want peace, prepare for war — ”Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.”
When someone offered him the chance to remove these fears; when someone offered him freedom from anxiety; when someone offered him liberty, he took it. The universe is a complex and dangerous place. For a species that evolved to be hypersensitive to danger and react physically, in ways that leave our most complex nervous system reactions in the dust, the harmony Saru was offered was invaluable.
Much of the internal conflict and soul-searching the Federation faces in Discovery can be mirrored in Saru’s character. There is a parallelism here the rings true. To win the Klingon conflict the Federation has been willing to do things that seem to be in conflict with its very nature. They have been willing to overlook mutiny, eugenics, inhumane treatment of new species (tardigrade), etc. to win the war. To some extent, the Discovery is Starfleet’s magic bullet like this planet is Saru’s magic bullet. It is an easy way of solving an extremely complex situation. In Saru’s case, his hereditary instincts. In Starfleet’s case, the Klingon war. However, silver bullets seldom exist and complex problems rarely have easy solutions.
Saru was given all the wealth he could possibly ask for and he took it. Peace was worth war, betrayal, abandonment. Internal peace was gold, wealth, paradise and a taste of it left him greedy for more. To some extent, Saru’s character is playing out broader Federation-wide conflicts. The Federation, like Saru, wants peace and, like Saru, they are willing to fight for it—even if unethically.
