Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 8 "Under the Cloak of War" (Spoiler Thread)

[Sithborg]

Feels weird to have another episode so soon.

 

[Sithborg]

Oh man, having this episode sandwiched between the crossover and the musical is going to lead to some... tonal whiplash. Got to love a show that has these swings in tone.

 

[Sithborg]

Well, I think "In the Pale Moonlight" has been surpassed as the darkest Star Trek episode. Someone get Babs Olusanmokun an Emmy.

The twist, I just didn't see it coming. Star Trek, when finally allowed, often has amazing episodes examining the personal costs of war. It has been interesting to see vague references to the Klingon war, and it was nice to see the actual war. Especially the soldier part of the war. DS9 had a few good episodes like this. And I love the ambiguous ending. Having the action, and the faces before hand, be obscured was an amazing choice. Did M'benga start a fight with a man he hated, or did Ambassador Rah push too hard to preserve what he created on a lie. And I just love how Pike seems to suspect the truth of the whole thing.

Good to see Clint Howard get another Star Trek notch on the belt. Someone get Jeffery Combs on this damn show. Still love the classic, but obviously newly updated Klingon makeup.

You know what, I'm going to need that musical episode after this one.

 

[flickchick85]

This kind of variety is EXACTLY what I enjoy about Star Trek.

Babs Olusanmokun has such a compelling screen presence to me. He was amazing here.

Definitely was not expecting that ending. Wow.

 

[DKDetective]

Well, I think "In the Pale Moonlight" has been surpassed as the darkest Star Trek episode. Someone get Babs Olusanmokun an Emmy.

The twist, I just didn't see it coming. Star Trek, when finally allowed, often has amazing episodes examining the personal costs of war. It has been interesting to see vague references to the Klingon war, and it was nice to see the actual war. Especially the soldier part of the war. DS9 had a few good episodes like this. And I love the ambiguous ending. Having the action, and the faces before hand, be obscured was an amazing choice. Did M'benga start a fight with a man he hated, or did Ambassador Rah push too hard to preserve what he created on a lie. And I just love how Pike seems to suspect the truth of the whole thing.

Good to see Clint Howard get another Star Trek notch on the belt. Someone get Jeffery Combs on this damn show. Still love the classic, but obviously newly updated Klingon makeup.

You know what, I'm going to need that musical episode after this one.

This kind of variety is EXACTLY what I enjoy about Star Trek.

Babs Olusanmokun has such a compelling screen presence to me. He was amazing here.

Definitely was not expecting that ending. Wow.

I love how they retconned the awful Discovery-era uniforms. I got major Undiscovery Country vibes from the dinner scene and I really enjoyed the MASH-style depiction of the field hospital. It was smart of them to build off of that classic iconography.

I'm not sure how I feel about M'Benga having a black ops assassin past. It doesn't make much sense for a doctor to be involved in that, due to the Hippocratic Oath and all that. Nevertheless, it made for very compelling drama.

Also, if Marvel had half a brain, they would have re-cast Babs as T'Challa after Boseman's death. No one can "replace" Boseman, but Babs would have definitely honoured him in the role.

 

[Baggers]

I'm not sure how I feel about M'Benga having a black ops assassin past. It doesn't make much sense for a doctor to be involved in that, due to the Hippocratic Oath and all that. Nevertheless, it made for very compelling drama.

I always thought besides the Hippocratic Oath a Doctor would be the best killer, as they know where to hit someone fast and kill them instantly. So in a war situation a Doctor probably would be the perfect kill machine?!

 

[DKDetective]

I always thought besides the Hippocratic Oath a Doctor would be the best killer, as they know where to hit someone fast and kill them instantly. So in a war situation a Doctor probably would be the perfect kill machine?!

The thing is, that is when it is most contrary to their professional ethics. As we saw with this episode, war or other emergency is when doctors are most needed to do their actual jobs and you know heal people and save lives. Which is why whenever doctors volunteer for military service, they are always assigned to the medical corps.

It would be one thing if M'Benga was portrayed as being a black ops assassin BEFORE choosing a career in medicine. That would make sense in terms of the themes of the episode and the idea of second chances. But the episode established him as already being a doctor at that time and developing Protocol 12 for his black ops team. It is also inconsistent with his backstory from season 1 as a father and family man.

While a good episode overall, this was pretty sloppy character conception and writing. I'm just glad the black ops team wasn't Section 31. I was grinding my teeth during that scene waiting for the other shoe to drop. If they had turned out to be Section 31, I would have thrown my coffee at the TV.

 

[Sithborg]

The thing is, that is when it is most contrary to their professional ethics. As we saw with this episode, war or other emergency is when doctors are most needed to do their actual jobs and you know heal people and save lives. Which is why whenever doctors volunteer for military service, they are always assigned to the medical corps.

It would be one thing if M'Benga was portrayed as being a black ops assassin BEFORE choosing a career in medicine. That would make sense in terms of the themes of the episode and the idea of second chances. But the episode established him as already being a doctor at that time and developing Protocol 12 for his black ops team. It is also inconsistent with his backstory from season 1 as a father and family man.

While a good episode overall, this was pretty sloppy character conception and writing. I'm just glad the black ops team wasn't Section 31. I was grinding my teeth during that scene waiting for the other shoe to drop. If they had turned out to be Section 31, I would have thrown my coffee at the TV.

I think that was sort of the point. He was a family man before the war. But the war changed him. He developed Protocol 12 for the federation, and then went on to use it himself, to become the Ghost. And I assume he was trying to go back to being a medical man on J'Ghal, but the war there didn't allow him. And ever since, he has been trying to pretend the part of him that was the Butcher of J'Ghal didn't exist. And I assume the reason he became the Ghost was a similar reason he became the Butcher of J'Ghal.

To be fair though, Protocol 12 does feel like a Section 31 plan.

 

[Gaultheria]

In TOS "Day of the Dove", we learned the Klingon proverb "Four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man." I wouldn't be surprised if the proverb was, oh, only about ten years old at that time.

 

[DKDetective]

I think that was sort of the point. He was a family man before the war. But the war changed him. He developed Protocol 12 for the federation, and then went on to use it himself, to become the Ghost. And I assume he was trying to go back to being a medical man on J'Ghal, but the war there didn't allow him. And ever since, he has been trying to pretend the part of him that was the Butcher of J'Ghal didn't exist. And I assume the reason he became the Ghost was a similar reason he became the Butcher of J'Ghal.

To be fair though, Protocol 12 does feel like a Section 31 plan.

The thing is the Federation-Klingon War was super short. What was it a year if I recall correctly? It was short enough for the flagship to not even be recalled to serve.

That seems like a short time for such serious shifts to occur in M'Benga's character. If he went from family man and healer to super serum developer/assassin out of desperation due to the Federation fighting a losing war for years, that would make sense.

 

[Gaultheria]

The thing is the Federation-Klingon War was super short. What was it a year if I recall correctly? It was short enough for the flagship to not even be recalled to serve.

That seems like a short time for such serious shifts to occur in M'Benga's character. If he went from family man and healer to super serum developer/assassin out of desperation due to the Federation fighting a losing war for years, that would make sense.

Officially, the war may have been short, but there'd been conflicts for years, such as when young Michael Burnham lost her parents. In small-scale fighting with Klingons, humans would benefit even more from a hand-to-hand combat enhancer than they would in a full-scale war between ships.

 

[Gaultheria]

Uhura being terrible at speaking Klingon is a nice bit of continuity with Undiscovered Country.

 

[Sithborg]

The thing is the Federation-Klingon War was super short. What was it a year if I recall correctly? It was short enough for the flagship to not even be recalled to serve.

That seems like a short time for such serious shifts to occur in M'Benga's character. If he went from family man and healer to super serum developer/assassin out of desperation due to the Federation fighting a losing war for years, that would make sense.

I mean, both Federation/Klingon wars were pretty short. And the second one left the Federation nearly unable to fight the Dominion.

And I really don't have trouble imagining a war with the Klingons may be extra brutal compared to Romulans or Cardassians.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

There is still a bit of Jamis in M'Benga

 

[Spider-Fan83]

at least they handled the Klingons appearance better then Discovery did (I know that was suppose to be more of ancient sub-race of Klingons in that, but still)

 

[Sithborg]

Yeah, they heard those complaints wide and clear. Still, I like the small updates they have been doing for the Klingon makeup.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

Finally catching this after being away for a couple weeks, really loved this episode, and in general this show not being afraid to have so much variety in the content of its episodes. Strong shades of In the Pale Moonlight, Duet, and Undiscovered Country in this episode, with us being given an extremely dark question about morality with the Enterprise crew simultaneously dealing with how to handle a perhaps too easily forgiven war criminal and their own prejudices towards Klingons stemming from the war. M'Benga in particular was obviously the standout here, and Chapel was really great too. The decision to be fairly ambiguous about what exactly happened at the end was also great, I wonder if we'll be seeing further fallout from this episode's events.