Strange New Worlds 2x08 was one of the best Star Trek episodes ever

Submitted ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨47_alpha_tango@lemmy.zip⁩ to ⁨startrek@startrek.website⁩

cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/792370

I think Under the Cloak of War has broken into my top 10 episodes of all time.

Seeing Chapel and M’Benga’s struggle with having the Klingon responsible for one of the most traumatic moments in their life aboard the ship was tough to watch.

The performances from Jess Bush and Babs Olusanmokun were absolutely perfect in conveying their deep hatred for man they are being told by Starfleet is now an ally.

I wasn’t a fan of M’Benga but after today he, along with Chapel are possibly my favourite characters on the show. I still can’t got on board with Ortegas though, sorry.

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darth_helmet@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t understand, what’s hard to like about ortegas? She’s exactly what I’d expect a hotshot pilot to be like.

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- circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  100% agree. She’s got a confidence that is often annoying, but I think that’s the point. She thinks she’s hot shit (and maybe she is – she’s at least a competent pilot).
  
  I see her as a kind of version of (early) Tom Paris.
  
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  - StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    She’s a more seasoned pilot by far than early Tom Paris.
    
    But she’s exactly what I expect and know experienced combat pilots to be like. Some are sober and subdued like Sulu or Detmer, but the in your face types are common and tolerated.
    
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  - dpkonofa@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    She’s the Maverick of the Enterprise. Makes sense to me.
    
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- InverseParallax@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  She’s a human being, starfleet has very few of those.
  
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- osarusan@kbin.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Season 1 Ortegas was hard for me to like. She was far too cocky for a Starfleet officer, talking back and too informally to superior officers. She felt like she didn't belong in Star Trek, or at least in that kind of Starfleet command structure.
  
  Season 2 Ortegas has backed off from that a bit and is now far more enjoyable. She's got spunk, but she doesn't come off as insubordinate or rude.
  
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Hyperreality@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
What I find fascinating about this episode, is that it illustrates how cultural misunderstanding is a huge driver for continued tensions between the Empire and Federation.

The Federation and humans especially try to be pacifists and explorers and are ashamed of their ability to be fearsome warriors. Ashamed of the barbarity they are capable of. The Klingons misunderstand this, and think the federation are either weak or duplicitous. That the federation is pretending to be peace loving.

Meanwhile, humans think diplomacy is always the answer. When dealing with Klingons, being honest about humanity and the federation's capacity towards violence would go a long way to easing tensions.

If the doctor was known as the butcher of J'Gal, this would have helped the federation seem more like a worthy opponent and therefore potential ally. Instead he allows a Klingon to take the credit, and the federation ends up being represented by the worst kind of Klingon, a coward who ran from battle.

What the doctor did was arguably very honourable in Klingon eyes. He killed a coward, who killed children, but ran when faced with a warrior.

It's also politically relevant today, where pacifism is seen as a weakness, while others underestimate how strength and the threat of violence often prevents wars or the fact that sometimes extreme violence ends wars.

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- Corgana@startrek.website ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Damn, excellent observations. No notes just wanted to say that!
  
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InverseParallax@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t know about best.

But the highest praise I could give it is that it reminded me a little of In the Pale Moonlight.

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- triktrek@startrek.website ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Also, Bunny was awesome.
  
  Who is Bunny?
  
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  - InverseParallax@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_"Bunny"_Colvin
    
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Lumidaub@feddit.de ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Notreadingthatnotreadingthatnotreadingthat because I haven’t seen it yet (woe is me). I’m just here to express my amusement about how lately every week we seem to get “the best Star Trek ever” ;D

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- CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It is a rather impressive run. I’m curious how long it can go before the typical “fan backlash” phase takes place.
  
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  - VindictiveJudge@startrek.website ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The backlash is usually first for Trek, then when a new show comes out the last one is suddenly an underappreciated gem. Not sure what that means for SNW.
    
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  - triktrek@startrek.website ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    We are well into/towards the end of season 2 of SNW, and fans have generally been loving it. I think it’s fair to say that SNW has been and will likely be successful for a while. SNW certainly has one of the best first seasons (along with Lower Decks).
    
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- numbers@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I think a person who thinks the new episode is “the best ever” is much more motivated to make a post than someone who thinks it was fine. The result: each episode has someone making a “best episode ever” post.
  
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Haus@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The last 3 episodes have been freaking superb. A lot of what has appealed to me could be called fanservice, but I can live with that. For the token hottie, Christine's character probably rivals Jadzia's in terms of development. The Spock/Chapel romcom was something I didn't know I needed. The Lower Decks crossover was sublime. And this PTSD episode is one of several examples of taking a character we met in S1, may not have been initially very invested in, and deepening the connection and interest in them.

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sanzky@beehaw.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I disagree a lot. I think the idea was very good and it has good chunks, but overall it was even below average for SNW. The first with the first episode of the season. I feel it hid to much information just to be able to give a twist in the end, at the expense of the first part of the episode, which I think it dragged too much.

I feel the writers are trying very hard to show SNW can have a very wide range of themes but I dont think they are delivering that well when it comes to war.

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- Kichae@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  I feel it hid to much information just to be able to give a twist in the end
  
  I don't think it was much of a twist. Between the doctor's actions in The Broken Circle (using the protocol 12 combat enhancer to fight his way through a ship of Klingons with Nurse Chapel, as recapped at the start of the show), the Special Ops Andorian trying to recruit him to the mission (and the doctor declaring that his days of doing such things were behind him), the re-introduction of the P12 green vial, and the repeated aggressive physical contact between M'Benga and Dah'Ruk, it was pretty well spelled out for us before the end of the episode.
  
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  - sanzky@beehaw.org ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    maybe I just did not fully understood everything until it was over. I found it confusing that the reason to call him butcher was not the killing of civilians but he killing his own men.
    
    In the end he wants to keep the fact that he didn’t kill his own men because that seems to be the reason for starfleet to really considered him a defector? I honestly see that as a weak argument. particularly several years after he has been successfully working as an ambassador.
    
    I feel that if his lies would have been clear earlier we could have had more intense scenes between them and his character could have been developed a bit better
    
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jaredwhite@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This episode knocked it out of the park. In a season that's been a wee bit hit and miss IMHO (compared to S1), seeing such depth and pathos in a story which could have been handled in a heavy-handed way otherwise, well it's very satisfying.

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- UESPA_Sputnik@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  In a season that’s been a wee bit hit and miss IMHO (compared to S1)
  
  Yeah, the first half was very uneven. But I’ve enjoyed every episode since episode 5, so I guess they found their stride again.
  
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JWBananas@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
M'Benga: I can live with it

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