“A Case of Chiaroscuro”

I wasn't thrilled about this concept when I learned about it. But this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think though, for me, I'd have preferred the story of this episode without the noir motif far more.

There's good stuff here, but the genre drag jazz hands got in the way.

I actually liked the conceit of doing Casablanca in Space, the noir theme worked for me in ways the other concepts have not.

Also, this was a passable episode of television and watchable, maybe 2 to 2.5 stars out of 4. There we some interesting moments.

What I am upset about and feel very let down by the writers it that there was a 3.5 star episode just sitting there, waiting to be grabbed...

*SPOILERS BELOW*

EXPLAIN WHY THE DAMN FACIAL RECOGNITION WORKS FOR UNA.

Una is an Illyrian, I just watched the episode and I can name 10 ways off the top off my head they could have leaned into this, spent ten minutes explaining it and add real depth to the episode, backstory and her character overall. It is an Una episode after all, SHOW US SOMETHING ABOUT UNA WRITERS. (And yes, show, not tell.)

Possible Explanations:

1) She is a clone or Nevette was a clone. They share an identical DNA profile.

This fits with genetic experimentation and at the end of the episode instead of the weird La'An stuff, she sits in Pike's office discussing "How many of me are out there?"

She could also spend time with a counselor or Pike discussing what it was like to see a very real version of herself dead.

Also, the clone was obviously much more ruthless (or is SHE the clone?) so nature vs nuture could've been explored here heavily.

2) Something about being Illyrian allows for enhancements, similar to the Singhs and the augments. Maybe like how TOS gave Spock some weird god-tier abilities, seemingly at random, we can learn that Illyrians can do weird stuff, like alter their base DNA when they want to.

3) Something Thomas-Riker-esque.

Do a TNG callback, make Nevette ACTUALLY Una Chin-Riley, not a clone, not a doppleganger, but her who made different choice. This episode is shot in black and white anyway, so spend ten damn minutes on a flashback on how this all happened.

Then when the dead body is found, it hits like a ton of bricks because the body in the casket IS HER. Not looks like her, not a clone, not trek technobabble, just an alternative version of herself that became a resistance leader, but obviously took some liberties in doing so.

I came up with these in under 30 minutes. Surely, the writer's could've come up with one of these or something even better having a ton of time to storyboard and then write the episode, it's not like there is an insane writing deadline crunch, this isn't South Park.

*END SPOILERS*

This for me is why the episode is so frustrating. Why create a mundane episode of passable television when something magical was RIGHT THERE.

For me, these type of episodes are almost worse than the abomination we got last week. It's like when you go to the restaurant and the food is fine, not great, not bad, passable...but you can immediately identify ways it could've been transcendent.

I'm so, so, so dissapointed. Not because this episode was bad, but because of what it was so close to becoming.

Let’s start with the obvious: the noir, pulp Sin City monochrome gimmick is completely unnecessary, and the in-universe explanation is absurd. It’s simply an excuse (yet again) to have the cast play fancy dress, apparently because the writers want to write anything but Trek. Sigh.

That said, I was pleased to see Una finally getting another focus episode. Romijn is of course outstanding as a femme fatale, yet this episode paradoxically gives her relatively little to do other than guide the viewer through the plot rather straightforwardly. The character bits for Una at the end are so-so and rather forced.

The central conceit of this episode thus becomes that you can indeed improvise and blunder your way through anything with blind luck and reliance upon fortuitous coincidence. For example: it is never explained how Una and Nevette could be identical; the entire plot hinges on Klingons openly discussing secret plans in front of a conveniently captive Uhura, who just so happens to be able to understand their ‘rare dialect’; Kor (?!) and everyone else is helpfully credulous at just the right moments, etc. This is terrible by the numbers stuff.

At least the actor portraying Kor does a decent job of appearing menacing.

The B-plot, with La’an investigating a security breach caused by ‘Chapel’ for personal reasons, merely serves to reiterate the NuTrek no consequences worldview. Do whatever you want, all the time. Tell lies, hide information from superiors (including the captain, who will play along knowingly), sabotage the ship’s systems, follow rules if and when you feel like it – you can always emotionally blackmail the security chief into letting you off. Everyone in the chain of command is hoodwinking one another constantly.

Overall, this episode is a stylish yet superficial wasted opportunity. I didn’t dislike it, solely because I am a huge fan of Romijn in SNW and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her having a rare chance to be centre stage here. I was actually quite interested in the question of what life is like on a planet occupied by the Klingons, which we’ve seen a little in Trek, but not nearly enough. Unfortunately this episode isn’t interested in the idea beyond using it as a sci-fi framing element. So, Romijn’s efforts aside, this is not really a very good episode.

Lastly, it’s in black and white so M’Benga can literally make a statement at the very end about things in life not being black and white!

This was actually better than just a gimmick episode although people will no doubt complain as that seems to be the default with NuTrek.

I was worried about the noir theme but it worked ok, we got a “strange new world” and some much needed screen time for Una and M’Benga.

The actor playing Kor had obviously done his homework as there was some lines delivered just like Kor in DS9.

Yes some parts of the story could have been tightened up but all in all a decent episode. Low end 3 ⭐ for me

We've gone from ripping off "Event Horizon" and "The Hangover" to ripping off the perpetually-cool classic, "Casablanca".

For me, the only interesting thing about this episode was its justification for being "black and white". I can't say whether this justification is scientifically plausible ("radiation" that shifts the spectrum to greyscale?), but I liked that the episode made an effort to justify being "colorless". I've never seen this done before, and thought it was really clever.

But the noir aspects work against the episode. The idea of a planet trapped in a colorless pocket is really interesting and alien (sort of like "Voyager's" "Night"), but the moment you add noir tropes (Bogart's Bar, trenchcoasts, brimmed hats, femme fatales, Klingons-as-Nazis etc) you're replacing a really new and alien idea with something familiar and cliched.

Bok R'Mor said>the noir, pulp Sin City monochrome gimmick is completely unnecessary, and the in-universe explanation is absurd

I thought the "in universe explanation" was good, in the sense that it quickly justified the gimmick of a black and white episode.

I agree that the "noir stuff" was unnecessary. These kinds of black-and-white/Nazi gimmick episodes were a dime a dozen in 90s scifi (X-Files' "Postmodern Prometheus"/"Triangle" being two of the best), and it's no longer "new" and "daring" to do this stuff today.

Better, therefore, to create an entirely new black-and-white aesthetic, and leave the noir stuff out. But what kind of planet justifies a black and white aesthetic? Well, maybe something populated by an alien evolutionarily adopted to the absence of color. Maybe it merges with the dark, or the white, and hunts based on how it perceives the spectrum? Or maybe the locals are peaceful and have never experienced colors, with the Enterprise crew showing them colors for the first time. There's so much unique, alien and interesting stuff you can do with a black and white premise, but these writers always go for the laziest routes.

I thought it was very good. Take the same story and film it in 1966 with Kirk having a doppleganger unexplained by anything other than "the universe is big and it's bound to happen" and no one would be complaining. There are lots of TOS episodes with setups that are just as barely credible. We forgive them because that thing we have to squint to accept is not the point of the episode.

(That said: there's probably more going on here than our characters get to learn or than the episode reveals. I like the idea that Nevette actually IS Una--just not our Una. An Una from an alternate timeline due to Time War shenanigans that survived the correction due to being enlisted to fix something, or from an alternate universe maybe. The evidence is that Nevette doesn't just look like Una, but is LIKE Una in many ways. The odds of the first are already astronomical. The second? Insurmountable. But that kind of an explanation would have been too much to shoehorn into this episode, and including it would have been to its detriment. If SNW were DS9 they would probably circle back around to this at some point--maybe more "Unas" start popping up--but SNW doesn't have the episode count. Alas.)

. . .

The only thing I would have changed was the resolution of the B-plot. I would have done the more interesting thing and had La'an tell Pike. Pike, then, of course, would have not reported any of it to Starfleet. As Pike does. But I think La'an should have trusted Pike with that call. I understand that the whole thing here is that she is proving to herself that she doesn't have to give in to her paranoid instincts, and that's the impetus for her decision. But the resolution I would have done would have left her more uncertain: did she do it because it was the right thing for her to do in her capacity as security officer, or did she do it because she is in fact changing? This doesn't feel like the end of this arc for her anyway, so I say let her not be reassured in this episode.

. . .

The black and white solar radiation thing is cool and I don't care what anyone says.

. . .

Kor's not as dumb as some people are making out. He purposely said everything he said in front of Uhura as a test. He darted his eye at her (when she could not see) to communicate that this was all on purpose. Una turned it around on him by quickly deducing what he had done and volunteering that yes, Uhura was actually a spy. But not for the resistance. For her. She made it out as a powerplay on her part, to earn Kor's respect for her abilities and further trust.

Plus he instantly suspected Uhura was Starfleet and tried to catch her out at it with the blotter card and the question about the color of the trees. Before he decided to test her with the "overheard conversation" bit instead.

. . .

I wonder if the inhabitants of the planet are humans. Would be very in keeping with TOS if so.

Really good episode. To all the naysayers, just admit you'd be creaming yourself if this was a TOS or TNG episode...

A good, but not great episode, though I do think the style and substance clashed a bit, here. The episode was dripping with noir visuals in the direction, but the core of the story isn't really noir at all, and could fit quite easily during the Berman Trek era, if you shot it in color, took out the fantastic use of light and shadow, and the various anachronistic 1940s references.

My central conceptual issue: Noir is detective fiction which explores the dark heart of human nature, where you go in knowing there's not going to be a happy ending. This (or rather the A-plot) is a wartime occupation/resistance story with a happy(ish) ending - a simple tale of good/evil, where there's only apparently one genuine collaborator. So it fails at noir compared to something like DS9's Necessary Evil, which avoided heavy noir visuals, but was dripping with noir moral ambiguity.

However, it doesn't fail as an episode of Trek at all. This was a great showcase of Una, who's gotten pretty short shrift since Season 2. I liked that they tied back into her history having to hide her genetically modified ancestry with how she slips into the role of another woman comparably easily. M'Benga (who did essentially nothing this season up until now) got to at least talk about his dark wartime past, and Uhura goes on a mini-arc as she learns how to be an undercover agent. This is all great stuff.

I really enjoyed the B-plot with La'an as well. It was pretty disjointed thematically from the rest of the episode (might have made sense to not film these scenes in black and white, TBH, though I understand the shift could be jarring). Strangely enough, this was much closer to a noir story, since La'an acts as a detective. I appreciated that it showed more subtlety to her character than we've gotten so far. She distrusts her instincts now due to her recent experiences, but it turns out her instincts are 100% right. The conclusion of the arc was somewhat noirish, since it wasn't clear if Chapel made the right decision to institute a coverup - or that La'an should cover for her. Pike's little hint of menace at the end was completely OOC for him (this guy has covered up for crewmembers - including La'an - multiple times) but I liked that he had a little bit of an air of authority again, finally. Still, this is very toned down - it's not exploring the darkness of humanity, but the very off-whiteness of humanity.

So yeah, it's a perfectly fine, above average episode of Star Trek. But it's just wearing a costume, it's not what it purported to be at all.

I think without the "noir" gimmick this episode would be much better. The style over substance quite ruined it for me.
Why these people are so obsessed to have almost each episode be a homage to a different genre? This was a good sci-fi story and it was indeed a chance to see a planet under the Klingon rule. But nooo, it was more important to make the planet look like coming straight from a 1940's black and white movie than focus more on this new world.

And of course the "no rules apply to Enterprise crew" saga continues. It is beyond ridiculous now. Not to mention that it seems more Starfleet ships work like this, like the one the captain asked a "favor" from Chapel.
Strange New Worlds, the universe where Crime meets no Punishment, at least not in Enterprise.

Better than last week's episode. Much better. That is all I am saying right now.
When was the Prime Directive "taken seriously"? Lol... was it really interference?

JD says: "To all the naysayers, just admit you'd be creaming yourself if this was a TOS or TNG episode..."

Don't forget DS9. DS9's "Necessary Evil" is a noir episode with WW2 allusions, and I believe Jammer gave it 4 stars.

I agree with most of the comments so far on this obviously being a much better episode than last week’s; it’s the best episode of this season so far.

I also agree that the noir gimmick, as unnecessary as I think it is, isn’t an insurmountable problem when watching this; I was glad that it wasn’t e.g. a holodeck story. If fewer episodes of SNW had been built around gimmicks, the noir aspect might have felt less laboured this time round. As @RealTrent points out, I would have appreciated the monochrome if it had been a Klingon-occupied planet in a (for whatever reason) colourless pocket or there was some evolutionary reason for it, rather than simply being an excuse to have a pulp visual style for the sake of it.

Likewise, @Charles comes up with some really intriguing proposals (Una being a clone) that would have made for a much better central issue. There’s some fascinating ethics – and a tempting irony – in a character named Una and ‘Number One’ not being anyway near as unique as every individual has a right to be, and it would put a more interesting spin on the Illyrians’ (generic) genetic engineering. The casket reveal was actually a nice twist in this episode, so it would have been more impactful to have Una as the impostor as @Charles proposes, and then explore the prospect of there being even more Una clones out there as well.

@Jeffrey’s Tube, @Karl Zimmerman:
I agree that the B-plot is misplaced and more could have been done with it. La’an’s whodunit could actually have formed the core of a whole episode, if the producers hadn’t stuffed this season and the last with rubbish like ‘Human Best Friend’, ‘A Space Adventure Hour’ and ‘Four-and-a-Half Vulcans’ (and others). There’s a lot that could be done with such a plot: maybe La’an really is paranoid; maybe it’s a security test set up by Pike; maybe it’s a security program by La’an herself, etc. So many possibilities. I liked the fact that ‘Chapel’ was the culprit – but I didn’t like the way she got away with it scot-free. It’s a pity it didn’t form the basis of an episode; maybe ‘Chapel’ could have actually been reprimanded at the end?

@Ross, @Jeffrey’s Tube:
The actor playing ‘Kor’ did very well and was undoubtedly a highlight of the episode, but I think @Jeffrey’s Tube grossly over-estimates the writers’ cleverness regarding the pivotal scene in which Uhura is being interrogated. I also think Gooding was quite weak in this episode, as she has been over the past two seasons.

I think an episode like this – which was fundamentally just okay but could have been so much better with only a little more imagination and focus – encapsulates the same problems we see in SNW over and over again: a lack of creativity; zero consequences for the main characters despite egregious misconduct; not making the most of good opportunities; and outright lazy plotting. There’s some potentially classic ideas here, but the execution is fumbled to the detriment of the show.

On the plus side, no Pelia and no Ortegas.

Good grief, that was an ordeal... Was Anson Mount busy elsewhere when they filmed this season? This is the third episode in a row where Pike barely factors into the plot.

It's also the second episode where we're left wondering about a major plot point that's just left unanswered. From the mystery of the Griffin to why Una looked just like Nevette (or vice versa). There's a fine line between bold storytelling choices and lazy writing, nothing black and white about it.

Also, there's only so much of M'Benga whisper monologuing one can take. And the fact he casually admitted to yet another horrific war crime moments before the closing credits... Nothing really matters anymore, does it?

Decent enough episode. I like that they didn’t go all bio essentialist on La’an like they did with pretty much everyone last season. Was getting worried we were headed in that direction with her character. Ad Astra Per Aspera and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow did an excellent job with pointing out to La’an as a character that she is not a monster just because of her genetics, so it feels a little bit like we are retreading ground we already covered in regards to these plot points this season.

Had the episode before this one been better I would probably have enjoyed this one more. I don’t know that the black and white filter was necessary at all despite a cool explanation for it in the beginning.

2 and a half to 3 stars, much like the rest of this season so far I don’t know how to feel about it definitively yet.

@Norvo

They gave a reason in the episode that was plausible enough. People have doppelgängers in real life just on Earth. That was a point of this story that I had the least issue with honestly.

Anyway, I didn’t have much of a problem with the episode but I feel like they were missing a few Star Trek beats like bringing up the Prime Directive as well as the fact that the show keeps beating the drum of, “the only thing worse than breaking the rules in Starfleet is being a snitch.” Which is something that makes me think Captain Kirk is the only guy in the history of Star Trek who actually turned in a fellow crew member for dereliction of duty as we see in “Court Martial.”

I will say those people who say the ending wasn’t noir are wrong, though. The “happy ending” is that millions of these people are turned into refugees and will never be able to return home. That was the touch of the episode I appreciated that the planet isn’t going to free itself in all likelihood nor is it going to be liberated by the Federation. No, this is the, “we got past the wall but everyone who doesn’t leave is ****ed.” That was a smart ending.

I also feel like they should have made it an Illyrian colony and suggested Una’s double might have been due to genetic engineering templates at the time. It would have made it even more emotional for her as well as the fact that these refugees might not receive the warmest welcome in the federation.

Random thoughts:
* How many times now has Trek done Casablanca? (TNG "We'll always have Paris," DS9 ... um Ferengi episode, others?)
* Una's twin can be "Number Two?" But I actually thought the cavalier way the episode shrugged about this person looking exactly like Una was very TOS, where the Canon includes things like a planet physically identical to Earth, another one that wrote the US Constitution with identical words and penmanship, another with an identical Roman Empire history including Caesar and Christ, etc.
* Weird how after Number Two's body was discovered, our heroes never consider that the murderer knows about the murder and the impersonation. Someone in town knows Number One is not Number Two!
* I still don't quite get why Kor let Uhura go. How can she have a valid, even if counterfeit, ID card when she hadn't even decided on an alias until being interrogated? It's obvious Kor knows she's Fed; could the mind scanner have brainwashed her for a later episode? Klingons have history (and future) with things like that...
* The EMP disables the orbiting D7 but not the shuttle parked outside the city?
* Setting aside the ethics, professionalism, etc. about what Chapel did and the cover-up thereof... could she really, in five seconds or whatever it takes to transport something, get into the transporter stream, find the one data chip with the relevant data on it, get it out, erase it, and put it back (but of course not plug it back in perfectly)? WTF

Almost forgot...
* La'an suspects the probe has been tampered with, sees the displaced memory chip, grabs it and... plugs it immediately into the Enterprise's computer. Even I know better than to do that...

Noir? Check. Black & white✅ Check. 40’s Earth costumes because it’s black & white✅ Check. Resistance against Evil Empire since it’s black & white set in early 40’s ✅ Check. Of all the gin joints could it be Casablanca? ✅ Check. Yeah there’s a lot of predictive, unimaginative quality just based on the black & white premise of the episode. Yes I definitely have issues with that.

A world without color could have been explored in depth but it was largely sidelined to the noir early 40ish setting. The episode could have been so much more.

The actual undercover mission was entertaining as this was a standout episode for Una as she slowly realizes there’s a doppelgänger of her out there who just happens to be the leader of the resistance vs the evil Klingons. The mystery of this apparent exact DNA match down to the same hairstyles is left unresolved. On a side note, do you notice how the Klingons have returned to their classic look? Were the ones from Discovery nothing more than a mirage?
.
The Una and Nevette angle was the highlight of the show for me & made this an entertaining watch as she decides to get involved in the resistance to help the oppressed. The B plot was good for me in that it examined La’an’s psychology during her investigation (the Scotty & Ortega focus was a lowlight). Questioning her reasoning powers until she does uncover the fact that behind the scenes, much like Una & unbeknown to Starfleet, there are acts to help the oppressed. In this case, it was confirmed by Chapel. By the way, has she been sidelined this year? Thought she & Korby were entering an interesting phase but Season 4 has sidelined a lot of the character development in service of their obsession with genre/gimmick episodes.

Overall this was just an OK episode for me with lots of faults that I ultimately did find entertaining. When I binge watch SNW, this one will be included.

@ CT Phipps

The Prime Directive doesn't apply in this scenario.

@ Cynic

"* Weird how after Number Two's body was discovered, our heroes never consider that the murderer knows about the murder and the impersonation. Someone in town knows Number One is not Number Two!"

Actually, no. She was poisoned so when Una turned up the murderer would have assumed they failed. The landing party would have had to consider that someone wanted Una dead (believing she's Nevette), not that someone knew she wasn't Nevette.

"* I still don't quite get why Kor let Uhura go. How can she have a valid, even if counterfeit, ID card when she hadn't even decided on an alias until being interrogated? It's obvious Kor knows she's Fed; could the mind scanner have brainwashed her for a later episode? Klingons have history (and future) with things like that..."

The resistance has ears in the interrogation chamber and knew what name she gave.

But anyway, he let her go because she was bait.

"* The EMP disables the orbiting D7 but not the shuttle parked outside the city?"

If the shuttle is shut down there would be no damage to its systems. EMPs only work on powered-up systems.

"* Setting aside the ethics, professionalism, etc. about what Chapel did and the cover-up thereof... could she really, in five seconds or whatever it takes to transport something, get into the transporter stream, find the one data chip with the relevant data on it, get it out, erase it, and put it back (but of course not plug it back in perfectly)? WTF"

I think she altered it in the buffer? I'm not really clear on that. She would have known the specs of the probe and where the data was being stored. If it's what I think, I'm not clear why the chip would be slightly out of place, but Chapel's not a transporter technician, so maybe she bungled something slightly.

"* La'an suspects the probe has been tampered with, sees the displaced memory chip, grabs it and... plugs it immediately into the Enterprise's computer. Even I know better than to do that..."

Presumably that was a secure reader. Airgapped or whatever. I'm sure she thought of it.

I'm on the side that some mysteries like the doppleganger in this episode and the ghosts on the Griffin don't need to be explained. Or said differently, the crew that we're watching does not need to be able to answer every question, and for Una, M'Benga, and Uhura, the mystery here has little bearing on their situation and what they have to do.

It's clear that SNW has decided to look back at the genre episodes of the classic shows for inspiration, and while it's not what I'd prefer, I still enjoy it. If we had 26 episodes a season, it'd be less noticeable, but I think that it makes some sense that a show where each episode is (usually) meant to stand on its own would go that route.

"The Prime Directive doesn't apply in this scenario."

Yes, it does a bit.

//While it isn't a traditional pre-warp Prime Directive dilemma, it challenges Starfleet's broader rules regarding non-interference in foreign political conflicts//

What did Pike say in the beginning?
To be invisible?
OH NO... they know about the shuttlecraft that crashed. Una says the Klingons know someone is out there... What were Una, MBenga, Uhura looking for? A probe
"What do these people look like?" asks Uhura...
Synthesize clothes... says Mbenga.
Blend in...

How is that NOT the beginnings of the Prime Directive? Non-interference.

What is the ending? What did MBenga say to Una? Dont get involved!
Una asks "Have I done the right thing?"

// Una ultimately chooses to cross that line. Recognizing that the Klingons plan a total, permanent military lockdown of the planet, she decides she cannot sit idly by, choosing to actively assist the Mat'aar resistance before making her escape.//

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#202

Another random point is that assuming this is Kor, Kor (versus someone from the House of Kor like the villain of DISCOVERY season one, Kol of Kor) then are we ignoring the Augment virus as a thing in-universe or assuming he got hit with it later. I know some writers went with the idea of the equivalent of toupees or plastic surgery in the books. This is one of those visual things I don’t think ever needed to be explained like the differing Enterprise sets but now is a thing in-universe.

Also, with Kor being of the Imperial Family, is this the first confirmation that Kahless had descendants who are part of the High Council Houses bloodlines?

From Memory Alpha:
//The Prime Directive primarily applied to societies that had little to no knowledge of other worlds and space-faring civilizations (as with certain pre-warp civilizations). (TOS: "Bread and Circuses"; TNG: "First Contact", "Who Watches The Watchers") But it also applied to the internal affairs of societies which knew extensively of other worlds (for example, interference in purely internal affairs by Starfleet was not permitted in the Klingon Civil War).//

@ Eric Jensen

They need to be invisible because they cannot be caught in Klingon space as it might reignite the war. This is conveyed with absolute clarity in the episode.

Picard citing the Prime Directive about the Klingon Civil War was a goof. It's a Starfleet policy not to actively seek to do this, but it's not the Prime Directive. For proof, see probably about half of all Star Trek episodes ever.

Anyway there's no need to get off in the weeds here. The Prime Directive does not apply. These people aren't even native to this planet. It's a colony that was conquered. They may even be humans. We don't know exactly.

@ CT Phipps

"Another random point is that assuming this is Kor, Kor (versus someone from the House of Kor like the villain of DISCOVERY season one, Kol of Kor) then are we ignoring the Augment virus as a thing in-universe or assuming he got hit with it later. I know some writers went with the idea of the equivalent of toupees or plastic surgery in the books. This is one of those visual things I don’t think ever needed to be explained like the differing Enterprise sets but now is a thing in-universe."

Yeah. I have this idea that the terrible DISCO Klingons were a faction of Klingons genetically engineering themselves to be "more Klingon" to resist the augment virus. Hence all their "remain Klingon" sloganeering. But that faction clearly suffered declines after the war and eventually disappeared. As for Kor he clearly wouldn't go in for that bullshit, so he must have gotten the virus then gotten cured whenever they figured out the cure sometime after the end of TOS.

"Also, with Kor being of the Imperial Family, is this the first confirmation that Kahless had descendants who are part of the High Council Houses bloodlines?"

Yes I think so. Or at least Houses claiming it (and that probably believe it). Makes Kahless something of a less mythological figure, I guess. Would Jesus be Jesus if he had descendants? But alien cultures are not human cultures and they may not see it that way at all; it may only strengthen it for them, who knows.

Much better than last week at least.

It is a shame that the writers are so attached to the genre plays that they ignore what could be a creative and original idea: a planet without color.

The set-up is clunky with a few lines of handwaive-y dialogue (black and white because radiation, we can hide the shuttle, the universe is big), but that's fine. I care more about the payoff than the premise.

Sadly, the payoff here is uneven. There are great moments. But mostly, this leaves me with a strong distaste for Starfleet and these people in general.

Una's discussion of trying to remain unremarkable so that no one looked into her and her history, her guilt about "passing," her instincts for playing along with what is expected, all feel true to her history and add depth to the character. I also really appreciate the sense that she is struggling with who she wants to be now that her secret is known. How much of her habits and personality are really her and how much is what she was forced to become in order to hide? This is rich ground that this just starts to till. The impact on Una of finding her doppelganger's corpse was great, it was real but not overplayed.

I also loved how Una understood Kor, and I thought Kor was well-acted. The glimpse of life on a planet under Klingon rule was interesting. La'an struggling with aggression and paranoia feels real and grounded in a way that pays off some of the choices we've seen earlier with her character. Her interaction with Spock when he says "the data does not support your hypothesis" is excellent acting by both Peck and Chong. Her frustration and anger is clearly at herself as well as him, and his uncertainty of how to react shows the cracks in their relationship well.

But all that good is overshadowed by the bad.

I am so done with M'Benga. He's somehow this super-human killing machine black-ops undercover war-criminal. On his first assignment he ran into a large enough group of political dissidents that they could surround a hospital. Instead of calling for security/law enforcement he just single-handedly murdered them all. And no one has a problem with this.

I guess this makes sense because everyone in Starfleet apparently feels entirely comfortable doing whatever they feel is "right," but crucially, then not being willing to admit to what they did or experience any consequences. Not only does it make me seriously doubt the characters' integrity, it cheapens the decision to the point of meaninglessness. Spock's actions in The Menagerie, or Sisko In The Pale Moonlight, or Sulu telling Kirk the location of the Khitomer conference become just another Tuesday (or Thursday in this case). Additionally, when Spock mutinies for Pike, or when Kirk steals the Enterprise to retrieve Spock's body from Genesis, they are making a sacrifice. Although we know that the main characters aren't going to be booted from Starfleet, crucially, the characters expect consequences. There's not much drama in the question "should I rescue someone I care deeply about given that there will be no adverse consequences whatsoever?"

And speaking of, it is no wonder that this peace treaty with the Klingons did not last. The Enterprise violated the treaty by going to the mining planet during the Klingon's interval, then again at Kenfori to after Pike and M'Benga who had, wait for it, violated the treaty. Now we learn a Starfleet medical ship violated the treaty, as did a Starfleet probe (albeit unintentionally), which caused yet another violation by the Enterprise sending the shuttle for the probe, and then those officers stole an EMP bomb and set it off, disabling a Klingon warship and seriously undermining the colonial government on a world in Klingon space. If every Federation (and Klingon) ship approaches the treaty like the Enterprise, I'm shocked it lasted 10 years.

@Jeffrey's Tube:
'I have this idea that the terrible DISCO Klingons were a faction of Klingons genetically engineering themselves to be "more Klingon" to resist the augment virus. Hence all their "remain Klingon" sloganeering. But that faction clearly suffered declines after the war and eventually disappeared. As for Kor he clearly wouldn't go in for that bullshit, so he must have gotten the virus then gotten cured whenever they figured out the cure sometime after the end of TOS.'

I said at the time that this is what 'Shuttle to Kenfori' should have been about. Instead, we got zombies.

This episode demonstrates "moral right versus legal right": do you intervene and keep the peace or allow atrocities to happen? As an Illyrian who faced discrimination, Una empathises with the oppressed, openly expressing that "Starfleet isn't always right". They didnt maintain neutrality so Una chooses to actively aid the resistance against their tyrannical Klingon oppressors. Una can be someone she is not.

"The spirit of the Prime Directive underpins the entire conflict. Starfleet protocols and bureaucratic lines of demarcation dictate strict non-interference in foreign territories"

The fact this episode is in black and white, and the episode showing us there are shades of grey, suggests this episode is about the Prime Directive.

Chapel also violates several Federation policies.
She tampered and hid data to protect a Federation medical ship. Cover up.

Surprisingly watchable, but needed a tighter storyline. I wonder whether the makers of the fan show STAR TREK CONTINUES might have something to say since they did an episode with a similar theme of a world devoid of colour...

www.ex-astris-scientia.org

//Una clearly violates the Prime Directive in the process, but nobody seems concerned about that//

Stop gaslighting me.

(Spoilers of Voyager season 1)
Now this reminds me of Voyager season 1 episode Time and Again. In terms of the Prime Directive, they are similar: going to a different planet, not interfering, blending in, realising the next day something bad will happen, gets mistaken for "resistance"/polaric protesters

Thank god. After two pretty big duds in a row, I was worried the show really wasn't going to recover from season 3. My concerns have been somewhat alleviated. I don't really know much about the noir genre; what I do know about it mainly comes from more modern shows doing interpretations of it. So I can't really comment whether this was a successful spin on it.

What I *can* comment on is that I found a lot to like in it for the entire ensemble. Any time this show gives the criminally under-utilised Una a lead role, I'm happy, but it also had good material for everybody else. M'Benga and Uhura both got to demonstrate competence outside of their usual stations, and the B-story on the Enterprise was good stuff too.

It certainly wasn't a transcendent story, nor do I think it was elevated by the stylistic flourishes of the black-and-white. But it wasn't harmed by it, and I was entertained throughout, which is *far* more than I can say for the likes of "Griffin Incident", which bored me to tears, or "Human Best Friend", which deserves to be fired out of an airlock for wasting Dave fucking Foley!!

@RuthieB

I salute you!

Just a brief note. It was my understanding that by the TNG era came about the TOS era was looked upon as the wild frontier with Kirk known for his “cowboy diplomacy “. One would think or imagine the SNW Pike era would be even a wilder frontier where a lot of the established concepts like Prime Directive may still have been more of a work in progress.

@Mike A

Yes I believe they have established before in this show a few times that the Prime Directive as a concept is a work in progress.

@JDL:

>just admit you'd be creaming yourself if this was a TOS or TNG episode...

You mean like "A Piece Of The Action?" Or "The Big Goodbye?"

Both better eps than this, I'm guessing, though I'm kinda done with this season until they get back to some semblance of plot. These gimmicky episodes just bounce me right out. And, I thought this was already done in SNW with that Holodeck "Clue" Episode???

I mean...come on

Both pleasantly surprising and disappointing at the same time. The whole black and white initial explanation was interesting, but then no attempt to explain as to why the planet looked like 1920’s alternative reality with zeppelins and architecture and clothes reminiscent of early 20th century earth as seen in the black and white movies. Why does the lack of colour in this area of space result in a culture developing like this. So the fourth wall was broken within 5 minutes because it was clear the writers just wanted to do dress up again. Lazy lazy boring writing. At least when Kirk visited a place that looked like ancient earth they at least tried to explain it. How is this science fiction if the most curious part of the story isn’t explained. And then there’s the bizarre Una clone! Like what? The doctor’s attempt to carry the weight of this through a thin shrugging explanation is an unbelievably stupid story beat. And the strange presentation of la’an’s mystery was frustrating. There was no tease of what was happening to keep us curious, instead I had no idea if she was losing her mind or what the b plot was supposed to be, until I kind of got it with this huge other story just becoming clear right at the end with no foreshadowing. Like it was literally nurse chapels first scene in the episode where she all of a sudden cops to sabotaging the probe… like what? Totally confused about what was going on and why. Poor quality writing with very little reason to enjoy the episode. And would it kill them to just have 7 second slow moving ship shot with a captains log just to give us a break from the hyper adhd editing style. S1 and S2 seem like a distant memory. Wasted ideas with 6th grade story telling. Losing my patience. A traditional Star Trek episode please! No more of this experimental insanity if you can no longer pull it off.

"Why does the lack of colour in this area of space result in a culture developing like this?"

As MST3K once said "They just don't care." That applies to both the writers and the audience of this show.

They want to do random genre episodes, and it was film noir's turn this week. They offer an insulting scientific explanation that's so pathetic that it's like putting a fig leaf over a bull elephant's junk.

Offering no explanation is at all is less insulting to the audience's intelligence, imo.

@Paul

One thing I agree with you on for sure, there’s something seriously off with this show right now, and has been since the first episode of season 3. Of the fourteen episodes that have been released since Hegemony part I before the writers strike, I think there are only two episodes that definitely match the tone and quality of the first two seasons from start to finish. The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail and Valles Marineris, the latter of the two less so because the opening of the episode is incredibly all over the place in its pace and editing; rushing from non important beat to non important beat until it finally arrives at the plot.

Since then episodes have either been incredibly frustrating or just alright. Did the writers strike actually kill this show? Was there a change in primary editor? Will we get any episodes that feel like the identity this show had early on? Whatever it is now isn’t really working. I found this episode alright, but I would not choose to rewatch it over any episode from the first or second seasons.

It's a shame that the gimmicks overshadow the show itself. Next week will be peak puppet gimmick, so here's to hope that the season will have a stronger second half than the first...

[Episode 7, Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass, "A space trickster traps the Enterprise crew in a soap opera as Pike mourns a lost life."]

Never mind.

"Episode 7, Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass, "A space trickster traps the Enterprise crew in a soap opera as Pike mourns a lost life."


Jesus Christ.


These writers are pathetic. "Another (Strange New) World" is right there and they choked.

This feels like a recycled Holodeck episode script. There are just too many handwave moments here.

The incredible coincidence of Una looking enough like the resistance leader to pass a face recognition scan seems like a remnant from that hypothetical Holodeck script. It would make perfect sense if, say, Dax would go into a holodeck story that resembles Casablanca (but better in the original Klingon) assuming that identity works.

Here it’s actually an immersion breaker. It makes no sense other than that the plot requires it.

Yes, loved the art direction, but the episode didn’t really do anything with it other than make it look cool.

The B-story with the hidden data seems tacked on to fill the runtime.

Not a terrible episode. But not good either.

Two stars out of five.

"It's a shame that the gimmicks overshadow the show itself. Next week will be peak puppet gimmick, so here's to hope that the season will have a stronger second half than the first...

[Episode 7, Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass, "A space trickster traps the Enterprise crew in a soap opera as Pike mourns a lost life."]

Never mind."

(One Google search later)

Wait, that's a real upcoming episode? Jeeeeezzzuss.

@RuthieB

[[I am so done with M'Benga. He's somehow this super-human killing machine black-ops undercover war-criminal. On his first assignment he ran into a large enough group of political dissidents that they could surround a hospital. Instead of calling for security/law enforcement he just single-handedly murdered them all. And no one has a problem with this.]]

I think the impression was that the "protestors" attempted to murder all of the patients and the doctors defended themselves.

Is no one struck by how cheap and amateurish this episode looked? It looks like a mid-90s basic cable shot on video movie of the week.

Substandard acting by almost everyone. Really unimpressive performances. This just doesn't cut it these days.

RR totally misplays her character. She's been chosen to go undercover in enemy territory so you would think she would have some skills at playacting and improvisation but she plays almost every scene in such a way that it would arouse the suspicion of any native she met. Always unsure or extremely vague.

Bad costuming. Everything looks cheap. And don't even get me started on those hats.

My God, Dr. Whisper is a walking tri-corder. Not only can he instantly tell that Una's twin in the cryochamber is dead with a glance but he can also tell exactly what plant the resistance member was killed with from across the room.

Memory Alpha member berries: Borgia plant

"Cross my heart and hope to never get stuck in a pattern buffer" - the show runner should have instantly fired the writer who wrote that line.

Boy, that Mind Ripper isn't nearly as impressive as I'd always imagined it to be. Somehow I always thought that Klingon tech would be a little more advanced than mid 20th century jumper cables. Still managed to trip Uhura up in about 5 seconds though.

Lucky break when the Klingons had a nice little chat discussing their top secret plan in front of someone they're torturing. Also lucky that they didn't look for a Universal Translator or scan her DNA. Luckiest of all they just let her go because of...reasons. Nothing suspicious about a native talking about how much she wants to see green trees after all.

So Kor had ridges, huh? Why use Kor in this episode? Why? Are there only 5 dudes in the entire Klingon empire?

The three biggest problems other than the production and performances:

Zero explanation for why this society looks like 1940s era America.

The preposterous idea that Una has a doppelganger. Even during the "The network has got our nuts in a vice about our budget so we're doing Cowboy Planet next week" days of TOS did we get this Roland Hand M.I. bullshit.

Ripping off Casablanca at least twice. Uhura quoting it is one thing but doing an extremely lame version of the classic La Marseillaise scene was absolutely shameless. Ripping off the plots of other sci-fi movies is bad enough, but doing a shitty imitation of maybe the best scene from one of the greatest movies ever made is beyond the pale.

Other than that I liked it

If you're going to steal, take from the best and bring something to make it your own. This is NuTrek's take on Casablanca with a touch of film noir. The "chiaroscuro" in the title is a bit of a misnomer - that technique is more about creating strong contrasts between light and shadow, rather than simply a black & white technique. But hey, close enough. I'm also not really sure the black & white adds much beyond atmosphere. It's not really essential to the plot, or does it feature in the world-building. Anyway, M'Benga, Una, and Uhura are stranded on a Klingon-occupied planet (standing in for occupied France). They get caught in the middle of a conflict between the Klingons and their local collaborators versus the resistance. Character is what matters here, and I think they overall do a good job. M'Benga in particular steps up to show what it takes pretending to be someone you're not. He speaks with a voice of weary experience that rings true. Una knows what it is like to pretend to be someone else. But then she gets mistaken for someone who looks exactly like her - and she gets pulled into the conflict. I like that the resemblance is not explained beyond, "In a galaxy so vast as ours, you will probably run into your doppelganger sometime." Uhura plays the newbie who is nervous but a quick study. The shifting loyalties and double agents all play well into the story. I wasn't quite sold on Kor - he's not a world away from the classic character, but it doesn't seem like he needed to be the same person. I wish they had spent more time on this plot rather than the B-plot on Enterprise. The whole story with La'an wondering if she was being thorough or paranoid was fine, but it took away time from the more interesting story on the planet. Again, the 10-episode streaming format means they have to shoehorn these ongoing arcs into other episodes. The resolution on the planet was good - with Una setting up the collaborator to detonate the device. But if you are going the Casablanca route, you need the stirring speech to rally the resistance, along with the "We'll always have Paris" or the "This may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship" moments. The last talk with Ja'lem aims for that, but doesn't quiet carry what's needed. Overall, a strong episode, but not quite as good as it could have been.

So after Event Horizon and The Hangover, SNW dives deeper into the history of cinema and goes all out with a wartime film noir. Think The Third Man by way of Casablanca with a sprinkling of 1984 for good measure.

At this point this show has lost any identity it might have had. It's nothing but a series of homages for other movies and takes on different genres, a regular cinematic playground, what can I tell ya. Let's all remind ourselves this is supposed to be a science fiction show called Star Trek which should, and could, have its own identity, but the writers seem to prefer to engage in meta-games with their favorite movie genres.

So the idea of a planet where everything is black and white is inherently interesting and novel, but this episode does nothing with it other then use it as excuse for its film noir aesthetics. What is it like, living in a black and white world? I assume the planet's inhabitants are not color blind. Do they know what color even is? Have they seen any? So many interesting questions to explore. but the writers have another agenda which is show is a film noir in space with another tired Klingon plot.

So Una, Uhura and M'benga are forced to lend on a Klingon occupied planet where in true Star Trek fashion they are forced to blend into the local population until they can return to Enterprise. So far so good. Not terribly original but I'll take it. Then we find that Una is the spitting image of some well-known enforcer on the planet and we have a case of mistaken identity. The odds of something like this happening are astronomical and I didn't buy it for a sec.

Our group of Starfleet heroes dress up as 1940's characters because apprently that's the local fashion, and the women are heavily made-up because it's film noir, you know, and then the tired plot about resistance fighters begin and then Uhura is taken captive and tortured for information by one of the more flamboyant Klingons I've seen in Trek, and not in a good way.
And she's tortured so mercilessly that she leaves the interrogation room as glamourous and beautiful and she entered it. At this point I lost interes in the A plot and zoned out. In the meantime we have a B plot back on B&W Enterprise where La'An is second guessing herself (again!) because she thinks somebody tempered with a Federation probe, only to find that it was nurse Chapel who did it for her own reasons and no one must know and then La'An proceeds to lie to her captain.

Pike is running a tight ship, what can I say! The most clueless captain in the history of the franchise.

We see the Vulcan cadet again after a two-episode absence and she's being Vulcanny, and Ortegas and Scotty are apparently now best buddies after their delirious adventure last week.

The worst episode of the season so far. This show is quickly spiraling into self-parody. Can it recover? Or is it too late? Stay tuned.

It's not even noir. It's just in black & white.

Hey, I liked the black and white. It was a nice touch.

It's just another gimmick.

Everyone knows what a Rashomon is, right? The old TNG episode A Matter of Perspective is a Rashomon story. The episode is written using this technique, but still kept it a Trek story. What they didn't do is have everyone speak Japanese as some sort of side effect of Apgar's device and then also have everyone onboard the station start wearing feudal era Japan costumes for no damn reason whatsoever.

They started with "We are going to do a half-assed noir episode" and then worked backwards putting in the minimum amount of effort.

It's also worth noting that not only do the writers have a surface level knowledge of Trek (I'm being generous) they also don't seem to "get" most of the movies they rip off.

One thing I liked about this episode is the existence of planets subordinate to the Klingon Empire that have a native population. It's very rare to see that, and it finally justifies the "empire" moniker.

not bad but DEFINITELY the writers have run out of ideas

I really, truly was excited for this series for the first two seasons. It had its rough patches but overall it felt like the showrunners had the right idea.

At this point I just have to admit the version of SNW I loved is dead. I don't know what this genre mashup stuff is going for, but it isn't for me.

It occurs to me that the Pike we saw in The Cage would have made an ideal film noir protagonist.

World-weary almost to the point of burnout. The guilt. The drinking. The anger. The rebelliousness. Perfect fit for those post-war noir films.

Susan Oliver would have made a great femme fatale, too.

Too bad this episode wasn't a Talosian fantasy.

@Lynos I agree 1000000MILLION TRILLION PERCENT..this show is called SNW..Didd they not make the episode about exploring a strange new colorless world because that would have been much harder to do perhaps I wonder..why not compromise and make it the subplot so they can og a little easy on themselves while still have fun truly exploring and give us a better experience and drop the klingons altogether maybe

@TheRealTrent Voyagers Night episode had the crew traveling in a Void with radiation not a colorless pocket..unless you meant even more literally colorless in sense of pure blackness but that would be a matter and energyless pocket not just colorless..wondering were you thinking of the black and white aspect of that episode from the holodeck scenes or Iin the Bride of Chaotica episode or thinking of the planet trapped in a pocket of subspace in episode Gravity also in VOY Season 5 perhaps..not to nitpick or complain just wondering. Or is there an episode of another Trek series I haven't see that has a colorless pocket concept..the only other one coming ot mind is in Discovery Season 4 the Galactic Barrier episode remember they moved through black and white bubbles of something while crossing the Galactic barrier..were you thinking of that also perhaps? Just curious and would like to know if you can share..and I really wish this episode had explored nore on that aspect and maybe made the aliens nore alien..would they evolve less humanoid looming since can only see black and white or no? Wish this episode had addressed these types of issues

It looked great, but I’m not sure what the point was. On the planet or on the Enterprise.

And, other than there being a bar and occupiers - and a weak nod to (rip-off of?) that great La Marseillaise scene, this was barely a surface-level homage.

Points to ChatGPT for giving the writers the Borgia plant from The Man Trap, though.

@Jack was that a joke or you thinknthe writers really used Chatgpt if so how do.you know for sure, just curious?

This is not film noir, and not Casablanca.

It's similar to the Enterprise story or Patterns of Force, or the Voyager episode. It's dark and they make shadows. The cityscape is interesting and there's a few fake exteriors. Who cares? Uno looks ridiculous in her Fedora and long hair. The '80s leather jackets also look ridiculous.

The story is not film nor of course. They help the resistance, after a few lines of dialogue. The plot is simplistic, the local characters are nothing but stereotypes.

The fight scene is ludicrous.

And the whole point is to tell us that the Federation is a terrible place, similar to Nevette's life under the occupation. It's absurd.

If we insist doing a Film Noir in science fiction, let's look at how it can be successfully done. Case in point: Blade Runner.
Blade Runner takes the aesthetics and tropes of the Film Noir, retains the color but uses clever lighting to acheive the same effect. It tells a story of a world sold out to corporations where a cynical lawman needs to navigate his own moral ambiguities and find out what he's really made off, according to some theories, literally.

Film Noir as a genre doesn't really fit Star Trek because the whole idea of Star Trek is that it's one of the only SF franchises which is not cynical or dystopic. In this episode, the writers are using the Film Noir aesthetics but to their credit mostly avoid the cynical aspects. However, the result is Film Noir on surface only. It has the visuals, but the story is one where Una gets empowered and takes control of the situation. Characters in Noir rarely get empowered and are usually caught in a situation mostly out of their control. Rick in Casablanca just want to run his bar and be left alone. He's profiting from the war but tries to avoid the bullets doing so. His neutrality is precious to him. He's passive. He only gets active when he gets entangled in a situation he didn't ask for. Una on the other hand embraces her new role with gusto and makes contentious decisions.

So the result is that this episode is neither here not there. Either commit to your genre and go all the way - it would be a risk but it can be done if the writing is really good - or just tell your resistance story in an alien occupied world and be done with it. TNG had many variations on this basic plot.

Most of all this episode reminded me of TOS's A Piece of the Action. In that episode, Kirk and co. find themselves on an odd Earth-like world where there are very human-like 1920's gangsters.... however, crucially, that episode has an in-story reason why the planet resembles Earth in the 1920's, specifically Chicago, and it becomes a Prime Directive story, combining humor as Kirk intelligently plays both sides against the middle to resolve the conflict.

In this episode, there is no rhyme or reason why all the people look like they stepped out of Rick's bar. It's purely there because the writers wanted to play with the genre. The Prime Directive isn't even a consideration here or mentioned. This is only a couple of years before Kirk. The Enterprise crew quickly gets involved and Una is rather pushing for it, It's purely a writing problem, which continues to be the achilles heel of this season.

Ultimately this episode felt like a nothing burger for me. Una seems like a competent and respected commanding officer already so I didn't get the sense she 'grew' in this episode. The film noir motif was 'meh' and the La'An storyline needs to move along at this point.

"Jack was that a joke or you think the writers really used Chatgpt if so how do.you know for sure, just curious?"

I don't know anything about Chatgpt, but if you Google "Star Trek poison" the first result is a Memory Alpha article that begins

"The venom of the mugato and the alkaloids of the borgia plant were examples of natural poisons."

The Doctor practically quoted the "alkaloids of the borgia plant" part, I think. I don't have the episode handy to check.

This sort of thing would be neat if A) the writers actually displayed an understanding of Trek instead of just random factoids and B) it was handled in a believable way. The Dr. sees an inhabitant of a foreign planet start foaming at the mouth from across the room and instantly diagnosed that she had been poisoned by a plant only mentioned in a single episode from 60 years ago.


I have no idea if the writers use AI, but it wouldn't surprise me. The mangled TNG quote and weird comic book art in SFA make me very suspicious.

This is a Prime Directive violation. (Yes, this is pre-Picard era)

1 "Starfleet regulations mandate strict neutrality in conflicts involving sovereign foreign powers like the Klingon Empire."

Pike said to be invisible.

2. "Starfleet officers are prohibited from using deception to manipulate local governance or societal movements."
Una said she could be someone she is not. She actively decides to help the Resistance. If Una HAD not participated in the Resistance, Roman would not have died. This changes the balance of politics.

3. "Introducing or weaponising technology to alter the fate of a world is one of the most egregious breaches of General Order 1."
Una actively gave Roman a weapon, changing the politics of the planet.

It may have been morally right, but it was still a violation of the Prime Directive. While Roman did kill Nervette (spelling?), this may be "justice", it isnt law. Una may be right in her actions, but she still violated the Prime Directive.

Reminder - From Voyage Flashback episode: "Janeway: Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive, and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit: I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that."

This is 100% Prime Directive Violation. It does not have to be pre-Warp.

The Prime Directive was actually mentioned in Strange New Worlds, episode 1, season 1.

Go back and watch it again.
It was called General Order 1

"As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Starfleet personnel, Federation citizen and/or representative may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Starfleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship/installation, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation."

It does not have to pre warp. Yes, in this time, the Klingons are the enemies.

The fact that people are ignoring what happened in this episode is pure ignorance.
Pure ignorance.

If Una had not intervened, Roman would be alive. The politics would be different.
But Una did intervene, despite good intentions, and the balance of power/politics has shifted.

This is absolutely a prime direction violation. This is textbook example.

*prime directive (typo above)

The problem with doing noir (which I love) is that you need to really embrace it to pull it off. And they just didn't. As others have noted, without the clothes and the black and white, it wasn't a noir story at all. And the story that was there COULD have been interesting, but somehow wasn't, very.

I think the music bothered me most of all--even Dixon Hill did that better.

It was mildly interesting, so I guess I'd give it two stars.

SNW is currently stuck in genre/gimmick hell. It’s burning through episodes with not many actually left. The series just seems to be running in place with no movement forward. The optimistic forecast for the 4th season have been replaced with a degree of pessimism. From what I can gather, the genre/gimmick obsession will last through the 6th episode. The next few episodes may or may not be good. Don’t know. I just know that I’m ready to move on from this genre/gimmick hell the series is currently in.

Looking forward, after the sixth episode, there will be only 10 episodes left in this series. The good news is with SNW running in place, there’s a lot of ground to cover, a lot of characters will have to make their exits. It’s inconceivable to me that season 5, with only six episodes, will have any genre/gimmick episodes. As for the back half of season 4 & the final four episodes, I strongly believe they will be also be genre/gimmick free. It looks like the plan for the 4th season was to split the season in half with one half being genre/gimmick (five episodes) & the other half being free to being Star Trek. Who knows I could easily be wrong as there seems to be contingent in the writers room that can’t get enough of these genre/gimmick episodes. Simple math, however, shows episode 6 will probably be the last we’ll ever see of them. They’ve got to start moving forward. They are running out of episodes.

Got bad news for you Mike A, the gimmicks will not be stopping at all for the entirety of this season, even if some of them turn out to be actually good Star Trek episodes in spite of them. Episode 5 - puppets, episode 6 - the Pitt style medical crisis, episode 7 - trelaine soap opera episode, episode 8 - might be normal, episode 9 - more fantasy stuff with dragons and swords, episode 10 - looks to be a normal Star Trek episode.

@ Eric Jenson

The Prime Directive doesn’t apply to this civilization because they are 1) already technologically advanced with warp capable ships 2) the crew are not interfering with the natural development of the civilization since the development is already made unnatural by Klingon occupation 3) they are just doing what the original resistance leader was going to do anyway.

Is this a pre-warp world? It didn’t seem like it. If not, the prime directive wouldn’t apply.

@ Pikes Hair Very bad news indeed. I had no idea what was in store after episode 6 but none of that looks promising. It seems the contingent in the writers room that loves these genre/gimmick episodes more or less did the entirety of the 4th season. Any promises that Season 4 was going to be a bounce back season in quality from Season 3 are starting to ring hollow to me.

And even if it DID apply, the whole point of the concept of the prime directive is just a plot device the characters can choose to ignore to do the morally correct thing in spite of its existence or uphold it to send a different message, as has been the case for the entire history of the franchise since it was first mentioned in The Return of the Archons.

@Mike A

Agreed. I thought the first episode was promising that we were back to Star Trek, and despite the second episode being a purposefully chosen genre, it still had really good character development for the three characters involved. The most recent two ring completely hollow, and that’s compounded by the fact that we know for sure we have the biggest gimmick of the season coming next week.

Maybe we'll get lucky in season 6 and they'll decide to do a science fiction gimmick episode.

I'm shocked that they didn't name next week's episode The Puppet Masters.

Neil Diamond has a mine on this planet. Interesting.

@Pikes Hair

You’re right, the PD functions mostly as a plot shaping device to give the characters a conflicted choice: do the moral thing at personal cost, or do the ethical thing at a cost to others. Within that framework the various debates can rage as to whether allowing people to die rather than violate Starfleet’s number one rule is too great a cost to the souls of those standing by and so on. The problem with SNW in this context is the lack of overarching world building that would allow for consequences to these different choices. Too much time spent on gimmicks and unnecessary callbacks to ground the audience in some sort of concrete stakes surrounding why the prime directive would give a character pause or cause a personal crisis. In short, poor big picture storytelling.

In the final season we will discover that prior to episode one of season one Pike was actually in the terrible accident which exposed him to the delta-ray radiation and has been in a medically induced coma ever since. The episodes are what's occuring in Pike's mind while in the coma hence all the mad gimmick episodes. It's the only explanation!! ;D

Not bad but I’m unimpressed and was slightly bored in watching this one. The writing just isn’t intelligent enough and the resolutions are too easy. Yes, there’s a bit Una learns about herself and command, but as usual with nu-Trek, these insights are fairly superficial. Stylistically it’s obvious what SNW is going for here and it’s done reasonably well — a bit of “Casablanca” meets “Errand of Mercy”.

As far as La’an’s wild goose chase, it uncovers and then wants to promote insubordination (surprise, surprise). And how should Chapel really know how to alter data records on a probe? All these officers on Pike’s enterprise don’t give a shit about his authority and do whatever they want. And why should they care about his authority when what Pike really wants to be is head of catering for Star Fleet.

The black and white / shadows gimmick here is of course for the nature of the story and the type of society on Mat’Aar 12. Definitely fosters memories of “Necessary Evil”, “Things Past”, “Patterns of Force”. This one also feels like AI could have written it — give me a Klingon occupation scenario with a resistance, collaborators etc. Kind of ridiculous that Una could look exactly like the resistance leader — what a coincidence. Also ridiculous that Dr. M’Benga takes on some kind of all-knowing advisory role to both Una and Uhura on the mission. He not only knows a bit about Klingons but also spouts all kinds of moral guidance (from a guy who is not afraid to bend ethics).

And they bring in Kor, because that will score some points. Really pushing it as to how Una’s resistance character can straddle the line between being a resistance fighter but also having Kor’s trust. I don’t think this was developed enough. So it seemed Kor was smitten for her, which may be consistent with Klingons and human-like aliens hooking up in the future.

2 stars for “A Case of Chiaroscuro” — a better title was needed here instead of just referring to the artistic technique, as if that’s what’s most important with the actual story being much less so. Una as a newly promoted commander does things her way, and of course it works out. Even the Klingon DB-7 gets incapacitated by the detonation. Just not good enough to warrant a recommendation from me; but not atrocious like last week’s “Human Best Friend”.

"The episodes are what's occuring in Pike's mind while in the coma hence all the mad gimmick episodes. "


My guess is that the final scene will involve Benny Russell holding a snow globe. Inside the snow globe will be, of course, Captain Pike and Patrick Duffy in the shower together.

//The Prime Directive doesn’t apply to this civilization because they are 1) already technologically advanced with warp capable ships 2) the crew are not interfering with the natural development of the civilization since the development is already made unnatural by Klingon occupation 3) they are just doing what the original resistance leader was going to do anyway.//

Una committed murder, even if what if she thought was morally right. She planted a weapon and altered the course of politics, and that is a Prime Directive violation. The Klingons are not even part of the Federation, they are enemies at this point.
They were meant to retrieve a probe, invisible.
You are 100% wrong.

The misconception is that the Prime Directive has to apply to pre-warp societies. WRONG.

//At its core, the Prime Directive is a law of absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. It dictates that every independent culture has the right to determine its own destiny without external Federation influence.//

As Starfleet officers, you dont go down to another planet, join a resistance, kill members of the opposite party just because of moral injustice and think you are fighting for the right cause. That is interference. That is a Prime Directive violation
It does not have to apply to pre-warp societies.
In this episode, Klingons are the enemy and you dont want to affect any conflict in some unauthorized way. This was meant to be an "invisible" mission. MBenga also told Una not to interfere. I am just repeating myself, so this is the last post on this.

@eric Jensen

I’m objectively not wrong about the Prime Directive not applying here, it doesn’t. You’re stretching it to such an encompassing meaning that would invalidate many other Star Trek episodes in the past that have nothing to do with the prime directive. Did you have this issue when Sisko and Garak brought the Romulans into the war? Because they did far worse than Una and M’Benga in this episode for the greater good. The Romulans weren’t even doing anything wrong.

Wow...
Sisko was originally NOT happy about it. Sisko went directly to Garak and punched him. Sisko did not know about this. Also, the Dominion's aim is absolute control over the solids, they were afraid of them. The Dominion was a galactic threat, not a local threat - they wanted to control the Alpha and Gamma quadrant.

Una made a conscious choice to take part in the Resistance. The original mission was to retrieve the probe. Una MURDERED Roman, to enact moral justice. Una changed the outcome. Nervette was killed so she could not have done what Una did. Una interfered. What do you think happens now on Mat'aar? Do you think Klingons will now stand idly by? You dont think the Klingons will retaliate? When Una leaves the planet, what happens on the planet? Will the Klingons increase security? Will the Klingons work harder on being fascists? Una wont be there to help the Mat'aar. You dont think the Klingons wont bring reinforcements?

You have just shown this was 100% prime directive violation.

Garak was not part of the Federation, so he was "free" to do whatever Sisko asked. But Sisko did not actively participate in any "crime". The Dominion was already at war with the Solids. To bring the Romulans into the war was vital. Sisko WANTED to increase the odds of winning.

Una was supposed to AVOID a conflict. Now she left the planet and let the Mat'aars to deal with Una's actions. How do you know the Klingons wont hurt more Mat'aars? How do you know the Klingons wont use the Mind Scanner on more Mat'aars?

Andrew Carr: "I wonder whether the makers of the fan show STAR TREK CONTINUES might have something to say since they did an episode with a similar theme of a world devoid of colour"


For anyone who is curious that episode is called "What Ships Are For." It's an amateur production with a scintilla of SNW's budget, but the writing is leagues beyond what we are getting on modern Trek.

The use a sci-fi premise and actually incorporate it into a story with a moral dilemma at its heart. What's more, both sides of the debate get to express their pov and no one is portrayed as a cardboard villain. Plus classic Trek-ian speechifying!

Yes, this is a low budget affair, but these people actually understand TOS. All the episodes are available for free. If anyone can't get past the production values I think the scripts are out there too.


P.S. I would be interested in seeing this series reviewed. There aren't that many episodes.

I absolutely loved the first two seasons of this show. Since then? Just tragic. Gimmick, comedy, more gimmicks… What happened to Pikes struggle with his destiny? The hints for many of the characters toward what they would become? Season three was just awful and this one is more of the same. I’m a Star Trek completist so I’ll keep watching; hell, I watched every episode of Discovery in a fit of masochism.

The Prime Directive doesn’t actually exist so we can’t consult its text. Canonically, it has been stated different ways at different times and is still being refined during the time period in question. And as @Pike’s Hair points out, the PD is just a plot device to create a dilemma for the characters.

What is clear is that the plot device that the PD represents is present in this story. Una is not supposed to interfere. We can decide that’s because of the PD, the treaty, some other rule about non-interference in others’ affairs, the ethical question of when we can/should act to impose our morality on others, or the practical concerns that @Eric pints out, namely that dropping a literal bomb and then peacing out might have some unintended consequences.

Ultimately I don’t think the why matters for the story. The point is she’s not supposed to do it, she’s advised against doing it, but she still thinks that evil must be opposed, and she’s experienced the consequences of attempting to comply in the face of injustice. The moral dilemma is there.

The best thing about being on Pike's Enterprise is that you can do whatever you want without having to worry about your neutered Captain doing anything about it.

Disobey direct orders, kill people, hide people in transporters, temporarily join resistance groups and risk interstellar war with hostile empires - it's all good.

Of course the dilemma is seriously undermined by the TOTAL LACK OF CONCERN OR CONSEQUENCES for any kind of rule-breaking or morally questionable action.

@Andrew Carr
"I wonder whether the makers of the fan show STAR TREK CONTINUES might have something to say since they did an episode with a similar theme of a world devoid of colour"

@R.G. Bleu
"For anyone who is curious that episode is called "What Ships Are For." It's an amateur production with a scintilla of SNW's budget, but the writing is leagues beyond what we are getting on modern Trek."


Yes!!!!! All the time I watched this, something gnawed on my mind, "this premise of a colorless world is interesting, but didn't I see it somewhere before?" Then the whole Klingon/Resistance thing started and I lost interest, but you guys just reminded me! The premise was done before in Star Trek Continues!

Star Trek Continues is a wonderful, wonderful show. I cannot stress this enough. It's a fan production, but very high quality for its kind, and it's all done for the pure LOVE of Star Trek, not for profit. It has quality scripts which are leagues better then what we're getting now in official Trek. I recommend anyone and everyone to give it a watch, and I think i need to rewatch "What Ships Are For"!

And yes, I second R.G. Bleu in asking official reviews by Jammer!

Oh, and if the writers of SNW did not watch Star Trek Continues, then it's a coincidence, but if they did, it's a total rip-off.

//The point is she’s not supposed to do it, she’s advised against doing it, but she still thinks that evil must be opposed, and she’s experienced the consequences of attempting to comply in the face of injustice. The moral dilemma is there.//

You said it better, RuthieB.
Yes. Una was morally right, in the sense Klingons are oppressing the Mataars. You should fight injustice. But you cant just do an action and then leave the planet without consequences, even with good intentions.

//Of course the dilemma is seriously undermined by the TOTAL LACK OF CONCERN OR CONSEQUENCES for any kind of rule-breaking or morally questionable action.//

Yes.

I guess Sisko’s closing monologue where he fully admits to being responsible and complicit for the events of In the Pale Moonlight don’t matter at all then.

“So I lied, I cheated, I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But most damning thing of all, I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would.“

Una is only at best responsible for ONE of the above in this episode, and that accessory to murder is a massive stretch since the episode does not show Roman being killed. We don’t know what happened to him. Is it possible the Klingons shot him after the EMP detonated? Sure. But it isn’t shown or confirmed by the episode at all. The prime directive is irrelevant.

The problem with making homages is that no one will make a homage of your homage.

The point is to MAKE something as original as Casablanca, not ape it. Aping is an exercise. Creating something new and exciting should be the goal of this show, of any show, really. SNW is an aping machine...but maybe that has always been a part of its DNA, since it is a prequel.

The only episode I have genuinely enjoyed so far from this season was the first one.

(Spoilers of DS9)

You clearly have no understanding at all, do you?

"So I lied, I cheated, I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But most damning thing of all, I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would.“

The Dominion was a GALACTIC threat. They were all involved in the war. Season 5, Episode 26 - "Call to Arms" was when the Dominion declared war. The Pale Moonlight took place after they declared war.

What Una did was different. This is not about the quantity of crimes. This is the deliberate interference from Una, when explicitly the away team was only about finding the probe. Una pretended to be someone else. Una placed a weapon onto Roman, killing him in the process. You cannot interfere with another planet's politics and LEAVE and let the Mat'aars deal with the consequences. The Klingons have not declared war with the Federation.
"Federation-Klingon War of 2256–2257" This took place before Strange New Worlds, season 1.

Strange New Worlds Season 4 is 2263?
In Season 2, the Klingons and the Federation are uneasy diplomatic parties.
2267 is when they next declare war with each other.
The Klingons are NOT at war with the Federation in season 4 episode 4 of Strange New Worlds.

@Eric Jensen
"The Klingons are NOT at war with the Federation in season 4 episode 4 of Strange New Worlds."

Federation maybe not, but Enterprise it seems to still be at war with them, killing their ambassadors, helping resistance in their empire planets..

I love it when people fail to argue their side in a cogent or consistent manner. It ensures the thread ends like an underfunded public works project in NYC.

@CTP "I think the impression was that the "protestors" attempted to murder all of the patients and the doctors defended themselves."

Maybe, but, to me, the Doctor doesn't really give the impression that it was a group effort when he says "When I was done, not one loyalist was left alive."

A very minor point, but...I have started to really hate the doctor so...

Haven't seen this ep, but my 2c on the PD as of TOS is that it's primarily focused on the Federation avoiding acting like the two powers during the Cold War: manipulating or capturing less developed countries, using their resources to wage a larger economic conflict, and trying to puppeteer elections and politics all around the world. So the "pre-warp" element is about allowing them to develop without pressuring them. A Piece of the Action shows an example of cultural contamination. Mirror Mirror shows Kirk's restraint in respecting the decisions of local people, even when the Federation needs their resources. In this era, it wasn't forbidden to make contact, just to give them things such as technology, or to coerce them or try to colonize them. Kirk pushes the envelope here in A Private Little War in the interest of fairness.

In A Taste of Armageddon Kirk decides to interfere in their culture at the point when they start being aggressive with his ship and crew, but not before. He would have let them be. He does make exceptions, though, when an entity like Vaal or Landru has already interfered and prevented a people developing.

I find it extremely ironic.
Do you know what happened in The Errand of Mercy?
SPOILERS

Quote:
"With diplomatic talks breaking down by 2267, open conflict briefly flared up again over the planet Organia, a key world on the Klingon-Federation border. The Starfleet flagship Enterprise was sent to Organia to secure the world upon the declaration of war, despite the Prime Directive forbidding Federation influence on pre-warp civilizations such as the one documented on the planet."

Why do I mention this? Because of Kor. Of course, the Organians were non corporeal and far more advanced. Technically, this was not a Prime Directive violation, but it was in the beginning.

I think another comparison might be Captain Maxwell in The Wounded or Michael Burnham in the pilot for Discovery. Just because you think you are right doesn't mean you have the right.

I don't know if Una's actions are a violation of the Prime Directive or not, and ultimately I don't think it matters because I think the writers wouldn't treat the situation differently in either case. Una is "right" and their won't be any hand wringing or second guessing on her part and there will be no consequences for her career either. Maybe they'll surprise me.

Honestly, Una's decision to plant the detonator, likely condemning the collaborator to death was one of the most interesting choices, as it actually fit with the sort of questionable morality we'd expect from film noir.

Of course, it's OOC for Una, but still, small victories here.

This is my fault for not paying enough attention, but by the end of the episode I had somehow gotten it into my head that this was originally intended as some sort of an undercover mission from the start, but it was only supposed to be a probe retrieval, right?

So why are the doctor and Uhura even on this mission?

And what are the odds that not only does Number One have an exact duplicate on this planet, but they would land in the exact city and go to the exact bar where her double is expected?

Luckily the skills needed to retrieve a probe - a medical degree and mastery of linguistics - are exactly what you need when going undercover as a resistance leader on a Klingon occupied planet that looks exactly like 1940s Earth.

Good grief.

Should the show respect continuity? Absolutely. And is it fair to debate how the Prime Directive works and how thst fits in here? Sure. And we should be talking sbput the ethics of it, too. But can we dial it down a little?

Kurtzman is basically thumbing his nose at the Lore Nerds, in his view, I bet. "Hehehe I don't care about your stupid show lore, go out and touch grass, nerds, hmhehehe" (read in the nerdiest voice possible)

Like, this is so far away from what I liked about the best DS9/TNG episodes, that it seems intentional.

"Kurtzman is basically thumbing his nose at the Lore Nerds, in his view, I bet."


Robert Heinlein: "You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity."


Even if Star Trek had never existed before 2015 I would still think most of the writing on these shows would be disappointing.

Very interesting discussion on the PD and Una's actions from everyone. You could maybe argue that while they were supposed to retrieve the probe and get out, they crashed and were trapped so they had to interact with people nad improvise. If Una hadn't looked EXACTLY like a resistance leader and been recognized, maybe they would have all kept their heads down until they could be rescued.

What is more disturbing is how Pike looks he other way when his officers falsify data, break the rules and disobey orders. What is this amoral, follow ethics only when convenient vision the nu Trekers have foisted on us? In the Pale Moonlight and others may have shown the PD being violated, but that was the core of the episode. That's what made conflict and tension in the episode as our heroes grappled with moral ambiguity and when do you cross he lines, and sometimes do lines need to be crossed? But in nu trek the characters never ask those questions. It seems it never occurs to them. It seems they break the rules without a second thought. It's almost expected.

Also: how does a Starfleet medical officer do double duty as a black ops assassin? What about the Hippocratic Oath? Does not the equivalent exist in nu Trek? I cannot imagine McCoy or Crusher or Bashir ever actively participating in combat. In real life wars medics don't carry weapons and combatants on all sides (usually) avoid firing on medics and ambulances and hospitals. There is that standard if not always followed.

Perhaps in the final episode there will be a big rveal that SNW has been happenning in the Mirror Universe all along.

Another theory, perhaps the writers are doing this genre/trope fest of the week becasue they have no knowledge or appreciation of Star Trek and don't have the will or ability to tell a Star trek story. This actually wasn't a bad episode, but the B&W and the 1940's style were unnecessary. Necessary Evil was the most noir of ST episodes and the DS9 producers didn't feel the need to shoot in B&W. Doing "homages" to Event Horizon, Hangover, and Casablanca makes the writers look like they have no original ideas or know what to do with the source material.

"how does a Starfleet medical officer do double duty as a black ops assassin?"

Maybe a coincidence, but in the post DS9 novels Bashir becomes a kickass spy. They're are building off the Section 31 and Augment storylines and it kinda sorta works. For a few stories anyway.

New Trek borrowed some bad ideas from the later novels and I wonder if they were inspired by what was done with Bashir.

@Mother Crabber (love the handle btw)

"So why are the doctor and Uhura even on this mission?"

Very good question. Uhura was flying the shuttle, not sure why. But this is in line with SNW's commitment to giving Uhura much more to do than in TOS. Of course, if you consider SNW as canon (which honestly in my head there's no way it can be canon), then after being empowered to the nth degree on Pike's Enterprise, and learning to be independent and kickass, Uhura devolves into being stuck in communications 90% of the time on Kirk's ship.
In TOS she went on maybe... two away missions? Maybe? She certainly didn't fly anything.

As for M'benga, I guess he was there because this was a Klingon occupied planet and his knowledge may be required? I'm not sure. It is a strange shuttle mission because they were not supposed to land anywhere. It was a purely scientific task that involved disabling a probe in space. You'd think there would a two-man crew, a pilot and a science officer, but then of course we wouldn't have an episode.

@Kyle
"If Una hadn't looked EXACTLY like a resistance leader and been recognized, maybe they would have all kept their heads down until they could be rescued."
One more thing that should be mentioned: even if people look very similiar to each other, there would still be differences that would not fool those who are close to them, and their voice would also be different. This type of shenanigan works in a comedy maybe but not in what purports to be a serious science fiction story.
Unless... we're talking about a clone.
But the episode does not hint that is the case. Very strange writing choices here. People have made theories here that Nevette is perhaps indeed a clone, or that Una herself is a clone, but I think we are giving the writers too much credit. Nowhere in the episode is that possibility even hinted at.

@Kyle
"But in nu trek the characters never ask those questions. It seems it never occurs to them. It seems they break the rules without a second thought. It's almost expected."

Most of the characters in SNW have a darker aspect to them. Uhura, La'An, Chappel, Pike of course, M'Benga for sure, even Ortergas and Spock. The only one who is squeaky clean is Scotty, and even he's beginning to show signs of a "dark past". It's just a modern writing sensibility. Characters such as the ones in TOS and TNG will be considered boring today. They are starightlaced, professional and don't have any traumas. You gotta have a trauma these days, dude. As a result, the characters are morally ambiguous and do unprofessional s**t on the enterprise.

@eric Jensen

I’m sick of repeating myself but your assertion that Roman died in this episode is objectively at best an assumption that is not at all proven by what actually happens in the episode. The EMP doesn’t blow him or anyone up, it sends out a pulse disabling technology across the planet. Proof? Kor was standing right next to him. Wouldnt he have been hit by such an explosion as well if it killed Roman? How would he be in TOS as it’s clearly meant to be the same character.

Una doesn’t deliberately have anyone killed on screen in this episode. HAD she had to actually murder someone or HAD the prime directive been an actual factor in this story (it isn’t, they just give vague “don’t break the rules” reasons without explaining what rules are being broken) the episode would have actually had some stakes and been much better. I understand the stakes of In the Pale Moonlight fine enough, but Sisko’s last statement that he’s happy with all the morally questionable decisions he had to make and would do it all again is still an objective fact hammered in at the end of the episode.

I also brought it up because Chiaroscuro clearly wants the same type of effect; yet, It’s hard to feel the dramatic weight the writers want the audience to feel in this episode when they don’t give you any reason to doubt Una’s actions, no actual consequences are shown, and this is proven so by your reaction assuming events happened that didn’t even happen in the episode trying to create consequences where there weren’t any on screen.

"but your assertion that Roman died in this episode is objectively at best an assumption that is not at all proven by what actually happens in the episode."

Here you are correct yes. But lets look at the possibility.
1. In SNW, the Klingons are militaristic fascists, dictators and they use the Mind Scanner. The Mind Scanner can turn the mind into a vegetable. They used it on Uhura. Una told the Bartender that Roman was a traitor. Una even revealed she was not Nervette at the end of the episode. Let's look at the quotes.
From Kor.
"Brutality more so"
"Killing her was the honorable thing to do"
"This woman is a traitor to the Empire"
Logically we can infer that Roman was killed by the Klingons.
Roman would not go back to the Resistance.
You are right we have no actual proof. But Roman being killed by the Klingons is consistent what happens.

I am using the actual quotes from the episode and logically inferred that is most likely what would happen to Roman.
Which is why I said Una "murdered" Roman, because Una was trying to enact moral justice. Nervette couldnt do what Una did, so Una pretended to be Nervette and plant the EMP instead. It was her interference that "killed" Roman.

2. It is still a Prime Directive violation.

@Kyle: "Perhaps in the final episode there will be a big reveal that SNW has been happening in the Mirror Universe all along."

If this turned out to be the case, they should rename the show for the final season: "Strange Bad Places"

(And it would STILL be an homage to another show!!)

Everyone is much too nice for this to be the MU. They're not cruel, just doofuses.

I thought about the Star Trek: Continues episode, "What Ships Are For," which used the similar idea of a planet all in black and white. ST:C often employed straightforward allegory/message episodes, much in the vein of TOS. That episode was an allegory for illegal immigration, where the lack of ability to see color masked the many immigrants living in the midst of a xenophobic society. (Nice turn by John DeLancie in a non-Q role). In this episode, the lack of ability to see color doesn't really serve the plot. There's no thought to what it would mean to live in such a world. Kor even seems to recognize it, asking Uhura what color the trees were. But then the idea is just dropped. That's part of what's missing here - a sense that there's a comprehensive world rather than just a stage to recreate classic tropes in a Trek setting.

"Rebecca Romijn starred in Femme Fatale, a neo-noir where she had a doppelganger. That movie has been on my radar since Roger Ebert gave it four stars in 2002, but I've still never seen it. "


That movie is trash. It's really dumb from the beginning (such a brilliant 20 minute heist scene lol) but the ending is full on kicked in the head by a mule dumb.

The only positive thing about it is that Rebecca Romijn Stamos was hot back then and she spends the entire movie actin' sexy in a low grade Skinemax kind of way.

If you want to watch a director do a bad Hitchcock impersonation I recommend skipping Brian De Palma and going right to the king: James Nguyen.

P.S. Any time that you are tempted to take Roger Ebert's opinion seriously just remember that he wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

I do take Roger Ebert seriously, because he took film criticism seriously.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls came out in 1970. Five years later, Ebert won the Pulitzer for Criticism - the first film critic to have done so.

Not to mention, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is considered a cult or trash classic, depending on one's point of view: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beyond_the_valley_of_the_dolls

Nguyen's Birdemic truly IS one of the worst movies of all time, imo. Femme Fatale is not very good either. DePalma made his mark as a Hitchcock imitator but by the time he got to Raising Cane, he started ripping off himself ripping off Hitchcock, as Owen Gleibberman noted in his review of that 1992 film.

At any rate, as several commenters noted when the episode aired, "Profit and Loss" was really THE Star Trek attempt to do Casablanca. Quark was Rick Blaine, Natima was Ilsa, Garak was Renault, Gul Turan was Major Strasser. The two Cardassian students were basically Laszlo. There was minor fun to be had in making the connections, but the episode was stiff and uninspired.

I'm not sure the Profit and Loss writers thought the audience was dumb, however. The writers of A Case of Chiaroscuro, not so sure. The episode's Casablanca signifiers are so obvious. The Watch on the Rhine/La Marseillaise scene is, as one commenter put it, lazily and not-even-skin-deeply ripped off. uhura says "of all the gin joints."

The episode sort of knows the words, but certainly not the music.

The failure here to work as film noir or as a Casablanca homage reminded me of how Jammer described Bride of Chaotica's failure:

"The last thing I expected from "Bride of Chaotica!" was for it to come off as routine. I mean, it's a throwback to the 1940s serials, shot in black and white, and the title even contains an exclamation mark, for heaven's sake. How can you have a title with an exclamation mark for an episode that plays itself nearly as straight as any other standard offering?

Simple style aesthetics and common sense insist that I write the title of this show "Bride of Chaotica!" Even so, I tend to think that the idea behind this episode was "BRIDE OF CHAOTICA!" The intentions behind what would warrant a cheerful, all-uppercase assault are clearly present. Unfortunately, the net result of this offering can never muster anything that deserves more than "Bride of Chaotica!" or perhaps just "Bride of Chaotica" sans exclamation mark.

Episodes like this one tear down that cinematic "fourth wall" in our minds. We're aware that this isn't a story being told so much as a meditation on much older cinema. The point of the episode is to show the cast and crew of Voyager paying homage to an idea, perhaps so we'll experience vicariously the fun they had in making an unconventional installment.

Well, I'm all for it. I loved the self-referential humor of "Trials and Tribble-ations" and got a great deal of enjoyment out of other holodeck comedies/spoofs like "Our Man Bashir" and "Take Me Out to the Holosuite." And although I'm no expert on 1940s serials, I am familiar with them, and they do appeal to my enjoyment of schlocky cinema: I've seen all 12 chapters of "King of the Rocket Men," and I still enjoy an occasional episode of MST3K on the Sci-Fi Channel.

All of which is why I find it so hard to believe "Bride of Chaotica!" struck me as so flat. What went wrong?"

Both episodes lacked juice and inspiration that came from anything beyond their obvious inspirations.

"Necessary Evil" worked as noir because of the effective voiceover and because it credibly painted Odo and Kira in shades of moral grey. There was a MacGuffin (the list of names) and Kira made a great femme fatale.

None of it would have worked, though, had Kirk and Odo not already been established as multi-dimensional characters.

"P.S. Any time that you are tempted to take Roger Ebert's opinion seriously just remember that he wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls."

I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

"Femme Fatale", like most De Palma films, is supposed to be trash. And it's glorious trash (I recently re-watched his critically maligned "Black Dahlia", and that benefits from rewatches too).

But I think we're all tired of all this postmodern genre winking. We want straight-faced, serious, sincere Trek. We want to watch serious scientists solving serious science problems, not actors playing dress-up and winking at classic film tropes.

De Palma did some great movies, and yes, he's very influenced by Hitchcock.

Carrie, Sisters, The Untouchables are genuinely great movies. Body double, Dressed to Kill and Snake Eyes are lurid on purpose but as Hitchcockian thrillers they are very well-crafted.

He is well beyond his prime, though. I haven't seen Femme Fatale but it's a late-period De Palma, so it's probably not as good as he's peak years. However ya'll just made me interested to watch it. I mostly know Rebecca Romain from the X-Men movies where she's covered in blue for most of the time.

I will tolerate no slander against Femme Fatale. It's great. (but, definitely not a good "entry point" for De Palma if you've not seen much of his work)

"although I'm no expert on 1940s serials, I am familiar with them, and they do appeal to my enjoyment of schlocky cinema: I've seen all 12 chapters of "King of the Rocket Men," "


If you want to see a good serial (good being a relative term) you might want to check out Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941). Some of the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon movies are charming too.

The synopses of the remaining episodes have been released:

Ep6 (Off Hour): An off-duty window becomes a warp emergency when the Enterprise is pushed beyond its safe limits (supposedly an episode influenced by the recent hit TV show, "The Pitt").

Ep7 (Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass): A temporal anomaly traps the crew inside a soap-opera reality while Pike confronts a life he lost (supposedly a homage to the soap opera Days of Our Lives).

Ep8 (Orders of Magnitude): Starfleet commandeers the Enterprise for an alien pursuit that grows far beyond its original orders.

Ep9 (Once La'An a Time): La'An enters a genuine fantasy world where the fairy tale becomes a personal test of courage and control.

Ep10 (Tomorrow's Enterprise): A temporal crisis brings Pike's Enterprise face to face with the future Kirk will one day inherit.

10 episodes 7 gimmicks?
And I say let's way to see ep8 and ep10, they might "surprise" us.
It is unbelievable the lack of vision/talent of these writers.

I can appreciate a lower-than-normal episode (for today's standards), but I can't believe that we spent most of this episode and this idea having Dr. M'Benga explain everything in every scene.

Star Trek is historically good at hitting the audience with melancholy, of making our hero's solution bittersweet, but between M'Benga's explanations and that little wrap-up with Una on the shuttle at the end, this episode just didn't want to have the audience sit inside of this week's dilemmas. La'an's plot doesn't finish much stronger, but the bones are really good. (La'an's mounting paranoia collides with her dutied vigilance in the face of potential and very possible Klingon espionage. Can she learn the truth before a catastophe happens?)

One last note. SNW does a lot of diegetically keeping things off the record. Perhaps this frees them from canon, but I think the main thing it's achieving is fleshing out the image of Starfleet we will see in 'Court Martial' and why Kirk will always be a bit of an outlier. We see that Kirk has no qualms about reporting his fellow crewman in the past and demands a trial when one has never taken place due to obviously shifty business.

Perhaps we should take it a little more seriously when Korax in 'Trouble with Tribbles' says, "There is one Earthman who doesn't remind me of a Regulan blood worm. That's Kirk. A Regulan blood worm is soft and shapeless, but Kirk isn't soft. Kirk may be a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood, but he's not soft.

Andrronicus said: "I can't believe that we spent most of this episode and this idea having Dr. M'Benga explain everything in every scene."

It's the Second Screen Content Phenomenon.

Studios now have access to mountains of viewer data, and this data is telling them that a significant chunk of the audience cannot follow things, or does not notice things (particularly metaphors, themes, symbolism etc), and so certain types of "writing depth" is either wasted on the audience, or confuses the audience.

As such, networks and studios are increasingly instructing writers to spell things out for the audience. Every point, motivation and emotional shift is explained in the most heavy-handed way possible. Stories themselves are simplified.

Experts blame this on phones, but I think it's also caused by a decline in reading for pleasure (linked to a decline in cognitive flexibility/speed), and a large number of retired people having disposable income, and burning it on streaming services (people tend to start to experience cognitive decline in their 60s).

Nowadays, streaming networks capture vast behavioural, contextual, and demographic metrics. They know your income, education levels, viewing duration, preferred genres, lifestyle values, what you binge, skip, abandon, your geographical location etc etc. All of this goes into the creation of a psychographic profile, and all this gets sent to TV producers.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Paramount has marketing data on nuTrek that advises them to paradoxically target old people and hipster young people, with the data telling them that the only big overlap between both groups is literal pakleds.

@ OneOfTheTrents (you pick which),

"Studios now have access to mountains of viewer data, and this data is telling them that a significant chunk of the audience cannot follow things, or does not notice things (particularly metaphors, themes, symbolism etc)"

I was trying to explain this to someone the other day - and it's complicated - but strange things start to happen when you ask people direct questions about things. This can include questions about their own behavior, questions about their knowledge, questions about what they intend to do. By asking the question you trigger a script that may generate its own feedback and static, and the output is going to be questionable. Now polling does rely on trusting answers to direct questions, but binaries are perhaps a bit easier for someone to internally parse, and even then it depends on phrasing.

So I'm not sure it's correct to conclude that because viewers report failure to understand all sorts of things that they *actually* failed to understand it. What they maybe cannot do is recollect it; or articulate it; or intellectualize it. That doesn't mean it had no effect on them and didn't work. In fact despite my enjoyment of text analysis I also recognize that most of them enjoyment from media isn't going to come from cerebral inspection. So I tend to have my 'enjoyment brain' going on one track, and my 'forensic brain' going on another, as I watch. But if I shut off the forensic part somehow that doesn't mean I'd cease enjoying it.

So maybe these viewers really aren't different from other viewers in history. In fact I'd wager the opposite: today's audiences will be super attuned to picking up lots of information far more quickly than people from 60 years ago. Maybe the networks are screwing up by having dumbed down stories and spoonfeeding information, and are actually annoying their audience that they think they're helping.

So, they have data that say we are dumb or they wanna sell nuTrek to a new but dumber audience?

Peter, I think you're indebted to yourself for your own dual-track analysis. I wonder, which pronoun do you identify with during your watches?

the Bgt, you readily acknowledge that these episodes are trash, yet you keep watching. You're not dumb. You're just you.

@Not a Merry Man
I am watching for the very few good episodes that might be.
And I have to endure the rest of it.
Right now I am watching the puppet one and I have serious doubts I should keep watching this show.

"Peter, I think you're indebted to yourself for your own dual-track analysis. I wonder, which pronoun do you identify with during your watches?"

His Majesty/M'Lord.

every week this show becomes more and more like late-stage farscape. we watched because we loved the cast, but the carnival does grow tiresome after a while.

@Peter G: Have you ever seen Marjorie Prime (2017)? It bombed and has a mediocre imdb score, but I think you might like it.

@ Stuart Cadwall,

I haven't, but thanks for the tip!

@ Lynos: Most people are straitlaced and act professionally at their jobs, otherwise they would be fired or in jail. Not everyone is walking around with trauma, or most of us would be committed. Modern writing sensibilities are not how most of us talk to each other or live our lives or do our jobs and interact with others. Saying the cover ups on SNW reflect modern woriting sensibilities lets the writers off the hook for being terrible at their jobs and flying in the face of what Trek has stood for since the TOS era. A well written show can have normal people grappling with ethical dilemas and scary stuff. Nu trek has made starfleet into a corrupt, morally bankrupt organization. Maybe that reflects current social and political conditions. But TOS and TNG were able to reflect higher ideals and ethics in the 60's and 80's, decades where the social and political atmosphere was no less corrupt and violent than today's.

For a gimmick genre episode, this one was good. I've always wanted to an episode about life on an occupied planet in the Klingon or Romulan Empire. I would have preferred a straight-up episode over film noir, but it worked well enough.

Now for the dreaded muppets.

"I've always wanted to an episode about life on an occupied planet in the Klingon or Romulan Empire. "

Yeah, there's a lot of world building that could be done with this concept. When you think about it we really don't know very much about two of the most prominent alien races in Trek. The changes they would enforce on subjugated planets could tell us a lot about the occupiers as well as the occupied.

I really liked this. It's not Andor, but a few things are and both the noir gimmick and the writing and acting of the episode overall provided satisfying World War II resistance vibes. 3.5 stars.

@Peter G. @Stewart Cadwall I second the recommendation of Marjorie Prime.

Yep, Marjorie Prime is great. So much more to the Heavens and Earth than are contained in your trusty ST field manual, Horatio.

Two stars for me. This is another indifferently executed mishmash of styles, themes, and content that is only intermittently engaging as the gimmick wears off.

PROS:

-It's nice to feature Rebecca Romijn, one of the better actors on this show who often fades into the background. She makes the material more watchable than it deserves.

-I always enjoyed the "colorful planet of the week" trope on TOS, so it's nice to see a bit of that vibe again.

CONS:

-The black and white photography evoking Casablanca is both too on the nose (TOS typically analyzed actual historical themes and ideas, not cinematic styles) and inconsistent. Even if we've decided to do the planetary scenes in black and white, why can't the intermittent scenes back on the ship stay in color to present a contrast? Were they saving budget money or something? Creating a dilemma where people on the ship also can't see in color is pretty weak sauce.

-The episode feels like an AI program mixed TOS' "Errand of Mercy," "Patterns of Force," and "A Piece of the Action," then vomited up this script. Not to mention random moments like the Klingon interrogation scene. Nothing is particularly deep, well scripted, or thoughtful here -- it's the essential two-star "time filler" Trek that labors to justify its reason for existing.

-More of an observation than anything else, but does anyone recognize even a slight resemblance between the animalistic Klingons of the Discovery pilot and their role in this plot? Presumably they inhabit the same universe, but these Kilngons aren't as threatening as Disco or as intelligent as TOS Klingons. The use of Kor is a waste of the character.

@Trek fan: "Creating a dilemma where people on the ship also can't see in color is pretty weak sauce."

Yeah, I don't know how it makes any sense in-universe. Inside the ship, they use their own lights, not the sun in that system, to illuminate things.

I disagree with you about Kor though. I thought he came across as very intelligent and ruthlessly calculating, one of the things I really enjoyed about the episode.

@Eric Jensen
Mon, Aug 17, 2026, 6:58am (UTC -5)
"You are right we have no actual proof. But Roman being killed by the Klingons is consistent what happens."


Exactly. You have no actual proof, full stop. He could've been killed by the Klingons. He also could have escaped into the darkness when every light in the district went out after the EMP went off at that moment, because the EMP also took out their disruptors. The point is you don't know either way, so you have no case to make in that regard.