this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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LoglineCaptain Pike and his crew welcome a Klingon defector aboard the USS Enterprise, but his presence triggers the revelation of some shocking secrets.


Written by Davy Perez

Directed by Jeff Byrd

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[–] Continuumguy@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

2x07: Wacky crossover with the comedy cartoon!

2x08: WAR IS HELL, NOBODY IS INNOCENT, MORALITY IS GREY, FORGIVENESS IS QUESTIONABLE, AND THE FRIENDLY DOCTOR MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE DELIBERATELY KILLED A GUY IN COLD BLOOD

2x09: Musical!

Find you a show that can do both.

[–] Hogger85b@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Buffy
Mom
Once more with feeling

Stargate
Wormhole Xtreme
The tomb

But yeah had to go quite far back

Edit also how could I forget what seems an inspiration of this episode M*A*S*H

[–] Qapla@startrek.website 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So... I have loved this entire season but I am not sure about this one.

I'm a vet with PTSD, and I'll preface my upcoming comments by simply stating that maybe it hit close to home and made me uncomfortable. Maybe dealing with those feelings clouded my perception of the episode. However, the TNG and DS9 episodes dealing with PTSD are some of my favorite and are actually therapeutic for me, so maybe that's not the case.

Ultimately, the message was dour and I resent it a little since it implies that there isn't any healing that can occur from this type of trauma, which I believe is completely false. Sure, there might not be any healing for M'Benga as a character, but the thematic message of the episode implied some stuff I'm not really a fan of.

Furthermore, how is Pike supposed to operate as a Captain after both M'Benga and Chapel have committed conspiracy to cover up a murder? I think I will just have to head-canon this episode way. It'll join "Sons of Mogh" as an episode I just pretend never happened.

I'm fine with a bit of moral ambiguity in Star Trek. But I think this episode crossed a line. Hopefully we will see fallout from this come up later in the show.

I really hate typing this but M'Benga went from possibly my favorite character on the show to someone I sort of resent. And I feel like Chapel is right there alongside him. And it made Pike look ineffectual as a leader- he really should have reprimanded Ortegas.

Plus, back to it again, lying about the blade is conspiracy and it really shattered my perception of those two characters.

Anyways, this is just me rambling. I'll say something positive about the episode: I enjoyed seeing Spock struggle with seeing Chapel in distress and finally figuring out he needed to step away.

[–] Mezentine@startrek.website 2 points 1 year ago

I'm not a vet and I don't have PTSD but my girlfriend and I had some pretty similar issues to you with this episode. I think, thankfully, the episode doesn't seem to expect us to think that M'benga was "right" at the end, or to be happy about what happened, and the final scene between him and Pike is critically important because I don't think Pike is supposed to look foolish in that scene. Absent that, this episode would feel really gross to me.

As it is, really the only way I can work with this is knowing that the actual arc here is the enormous one that concludes with Star Trek VI, a movie that I feel only gets more radical with every year that passes and every rewatch I give it. Kirk's realization that he has to let go of all the pain and anger in that movie and allow the world to move on and healing to begin is, when you get down to it, maybe the most optimistic and important message the franchise has ever really tried to express, and if this episode exists as a "middle chapter" between the war itself and that eventual endpoint...well...I can work with it as that middle chapter. But I still feel pretty crummy about it.

I understand your reaction.

For me, this is in many ways a less dark and cynical take than DS9 In the Pale Moonlight and certainly the Section 31 references.

What was critical here was the difference between the journey of individual traumatized officers who had been forced repeatedly to take actions in wartime that compromised their values, and brought out capabilities they never sought to own, vs Starfleet leadership taking cynical action. It’s also a direct outcome of Starfleet’s cynical actions in having M’Benga develop the serum and then use it.

Starfleet’s postwar directive, and Pike’s insistence on pressing it with his senior officers, created the immediate crisis.

However, we need to take account of the fact that it was the ambassador’s own repeated insistence on confronting, engaging and attempting to recruit M’Benga to assist in his mission that led to the break.

M’Benga seemed to be processing his trauma and managing it as well as he could. He wasn’t at the point of exposing the ambassador’s deceit although he appeared to have been contemplating it.

It was the ambassador’s decision to seek M’Benga out again, in his own safe space, his private office, and own refusal to take M’Benga’s rejection that seemed to take the contemplation to action.

The cover up by Chapel and M’Benga is serious, and in the case of M’Benga this is the second case of his hiding something of significance from his captain. He’s an understandable but grey character, and we will have to see where the show takes him.

In Chapel’s case, we have been shown that her bright effervescence hides much darker experiences. It’s now easier to imagine how she will evolves to the very restrained version of herself in TOS.

I feel this is a very authentic portrayal of the chronic legacy unaddressed of trauma in individuals, how a military service and society will need to move on after a society-wide war when its individuals are not yet ready to do so, and how disasterous the potential outcomes when the divide been societal and individual needs in healing are ignored.

It’s not the 24th century Starfleet we’re seeing where there has been a long period of peace and officers can be treated effectively for trauma before returning to duty and it locks in with chronic effects.

I agree that it does not show Pike’s leadership in a positive light, but I find it realistic. What it does show is the gulf between war veterans and those senior officers who, while veterans of other kinds of conflicts, were not involved.

Starfleet needs senior officers, without direct personal history, like Pike to lead the peace and move forward, just as the western allies needed to find a way with some German leaders and scientists after WW2. But not every individual at the front can withstand the stress of that direct engagement with a former enemy.

Starfleet’s order to force veterans into direct contact with a former enemy was psychologically unhealthy and unrealistic, but a value-focused officer like Pike would not have the insight to see that.

This gulf was underscored at a personal level by Chapel’s conversation with Spock, when she could not share her experience with him and he could not ease her pain. The scene between them was an essential confirmation.

What I found interesting is that Number One had the best read on the situation. She saw the pressure the ambassador was putting directly on the veterans in the crew.

As the executive officer, it’s her job to manage personnel, to assess readiness, to deliver a functioning ship for the captain’s command. She accurately saw the problem and recommended action to mitigate the situation by reducing the time to deliver the ambassador to Starbase 24.

What she was not able to do however was to convince Pike to stand down a bit on Starfleet’s toxic order to require veterans of the war to show acceptance of the ambassador. Nor did we see her attempt to try to convince Pike. He was leading from his values and unable to really take measure of its impact on the individuals.

I find it interesting that this show is giving us episodes that show the negatives of Pike’s command style as well as the strengths. While we’ve seen the negatives in Kirk’s and Picard’s temperament’s and command styles acknowledged in the movies and in Picard, this seems to be the first time we’ve had it done with a hero captain in an ongoing television series when he’s in active command of the ship.

[–] stuck@startrek.website 2 points 1 year ago

Can we just have a quick shout out to Jess Bush who is such a talented actress. Nurse Chapel experiencing RAGE was so convincing!

A fantastic episode.

Certainly, another YMMV of episode as the season takes on radically different tones and tropes episode by episode.

In my view, it’s one of the few episodes in the franchise that tackles trauma authentically and successfully. I would put it the ‘best of lists’.

It’s astonishing how many standout episodes we’ve had already this season.

[–] valen@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

This episode exists because of the stupid Starfleet rule of having traumatized veterans of the war have to interact positively with the supposedly bad-to-good turned war crime enemy. That's a classic example of people acting stupid for "plot" (e.g. we couldn't have this episode without the stupid bit).

[–] nyxlabs@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

This was one of the best "connective tissue" episodes of Star Trek I've ever seen.
It provides context and ties together the Discovery Era "T'Kuvma War" with the eventual outcome in "The Undiscovered Country", while providing a layered, accurate and evocative image of Klingon Honor and "perceived honor" while staying true to the lore and expanding it in meaningful ways. It also has strong shades of "The Siege of AR-558". It now "makes sense" how the Klingons got from TOS to TNG. Wow!

Dr. M'Benga is fast becoming one of my favorite characters. Robert Wisdom's Dak'Rah was terrific too!

Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam

Edit: Spelling, Phrasing

[–] williams_482@startrek.website 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, the previously inexplicable "inject a bunch of drugs to fight Klingons" scene in the season opener has suddenly paid off.

I have little to say now except that this episode was a seriously heavy hitter. Just... wow. And ouch.

[–] triktrek@startrek.website 1 points 1 year ago

Even with this "backstory" of this green juice, it really isn't much of a backstory. It's just explained as some chemical that makes you stronger -- it still feels like a cheap plot device, and that action sequence in the season opener was still unexpectedly long.

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I liked it, but two things went a bit too far.

The bio-bed acting up was just too silly of an issue to bring up. I mean this is starfleets flagship with the best of the best on board and M'Benga keeps working on this bio-bed, never fully fixing it? Sounds weird.

Second, they are making this whole keeping a person buffered in a transporter thing way too useful. Like the only downside seems to be that if you get a malfunction you may need to "delete" the person. I remember some episode of another series, was it Rikers clone in TNG? Where they were worried about integrity of the pattern, since it was stored so long. Did not seem to be a problem for his daughter though. Don't like how this is so trivialized, it would solve so many problems if this could be done "professionally".

[–] Hogger85b@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I thought it was played like pattern buffer storage is an m'benga special skill he is better at than his peers . It was not something she was taught at the academy

[–] felixxx999@startrek.website 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could someone explain the food replicator? I thought they weren't invented yet? Or were they showing an early beta version that can't get anything right?

PTSD. Like many of us I struggle with it. I was taken how so many on the Enterprise have not gotten any sort of treatment. It also showed Pike as a bit weak of a leader. He should have known to keep certain people away from the Klingon. I did like that he didn't reprimand Ortega because he understood her feelings. BUT what was he doing inviting her to dinner that night without at least a long talk with her. Pike is wonderful and I'm struggling to understand his sometimes avoiding conflict... even a conflict he could have prevented.

The hand to hand combat was quite good.

Thank you P+ for adding an extra episode this week. I totally expected not to have this one this week.

[–] williams_482@startrek.website 1 points 1 year ago

Could someone explain the food replicator? I thought they weren’t invented yet? Or were they showing an early beta version that can’t get anything right?

That was a "food synthesizer", a precursor to the TNG era replicator which is more limited in capabilities.

[–] EnsignAesop@startrek.website 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I figure this is as fine a place to ask as anywhere else... what is the extra badge that Pelia wears? I don't recognize it and I haven't spotted any close ups on it to get a good look

[–] NikkoJT@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago

I don't think it's been identified. However, she is a long-serving Starfleet officer, and was both a Chief Fleet Inspector and a (probably senior) instructor at Starfleet Academy before joining the Enterprise, so you could make a reasonable guess that it's a badge of seniority/advanced qualification.

[–] erbazzone@startrek.website 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

After one of the funniest episode in trek history we got one of the darkest.

[–] famousringo@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

The variety is one of best things about SNW. The whole episode was a thriller. You know somebody’s going to get stabbed, just a question of who, when, and how badly.