Depends on the source, apparently, because I used “defected” in my search term.
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x08 - "Under the Cloak of War"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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If only one person’s DNA is on the handle, and everything else is blood on the blade, the natural supposition is the one on the handle did all the killing. M’Benga was there at the time and has a special ops background.
This is a very good point and clearly how the war veterans were thinking about it with the information and understanding they had.
Everything we know about anything in fiction is from what the authors tell us. If they decide to provide additional detail, that's great, but if they say M'Benga and Pike are old friends, then they're old friends. Just like Una and Pike presumably have a lot more background to them than we've been given details on.
I mean it sounds absurd, but can't they just say, "Hey Dak'rah, since you're so sincere about your reformation, you'll have no objection to Spock or another Vulcan mind-melding with you to verify that right?"
Every bit of this. What the author's intent is becomes the in-universe truth.
WHUT???? "Unearned" needs to be retired from the lexicon. How was it supposed to be "earned"?
That would be so traumatic for the Vulcan, though. To experience the literal unchecked violence of a Klingon at war would be the same thing as an instant case of PTSD.
It's earned by the fact that the writers wrote it that way. What's this "earned" stuff?
Did TOS M'Benga "earn" the right to be the CMO in two episodes of that series? He shows up out of the blue in both and is given McCoy's duties in Sickbay in both. "Earning" in fiction is the purview of the writers, nobody else.
Did TOS M'Benga "earn" the right to be the CMO in two episodes of that series? He shows up out of the blue in both and is given McCoy's duties in Sickbay in both. "Earning" in fiction is the purview of the writers, nobody else.
That's why they suppress their emotions. And as it is, delicate diplomatic issues affecting the galaxy are at stake, so it's the Vulcan's duty to verify any info they can
Putting it simply, Kelvin Kirk's rise from cadet to captain was unearned. It's unnatural and artificial. Just because the writer wrote it that way and thus makes the idea canon doesn't make it feel less unnatural to the audience. Obviously M'Benga's friendship with Pike isn't this extreme but I'm using an extreme example to illustrate my point. It would feel more earned if we knew exactly how M'Benga and Pike met and what they did together in the past other than hiking Kenya and Mojave
My point is Pike and M'Benga's friendship feels more like a plot device to alleviate the issues M'Benga should be in rather than adding anything else to the characters
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It seems a bit more nuanced than that. Although they were definitely trying to keep it ambiguous as to what actually transpired. But, really, M'Benga told him to leave, then pleaded that the guy really really should get the fuck out, and the Ambassador kept pressing. Obviously not condoning murder here, but it wasn't exactly premeditated, or cold-blooded. And we're meant to not know exactly what happened (although we suspect and are pretty sure.)
M'Benga's confession about being the actual butcher of J'Gal caught me off guard in the best way (I mean from a story telling perspective).
Also, M'Benga mentions that the drug he created was terrible for the body, so when he's clutching his heart those two times, I'm wondering, is this psychosomatic or real damage to his heart he did to himself?
From everything we've seen of Doctor M'Benga, the heart issues seem to be psychosomatic since the trigger seems to relate with the Federation-Klingon war.
Like a panic attack that makes one feel like your heart is racing or attacking you. In fact, that's what it is.
Why not both? It adds extra weight to why M'Benga's power drug isn't just used ad hoc whenever needed. It would have to have pretty serious side effects to deter its use given the obvious benefits.
I feel like they had a hard time deciding what the tone of this episode was supposed to be. Having a peace loving Klingon who is nicknamed “the butcher” is an interesting choice. The flashbacks I thought were well done, however I thought the reveal that M’Benga was the assassin who killed the Klingon high ranking officers was kind of forced. I really wished they would have pushed more about how having the ambassador aboard was dividing the crew and showed those tensions. Given that we know Klingon ships show up in the next episode I wonder if that’s fallout from this incident.
I thought they effectively built towards M'Benga breaking. Both in the flashbacks and present day.
The Klingon Ambassador was interesting. Probably a Pariah to Klingons and a propaganda tool for the Federation.
Well...think about their diet....
It probably is, Doctor M'Benga stated as much in the episode.
But when he gripped his chest, that seemed to be a Psychosomatic Trigger.
What downsides that happens to the body might not have obvious surface level symptoms that we can see.
Just because we can't see the downsides to what a drug does to the body doesn't mean it isn't there.
I do wonder if M'Bengas actions this episode will lead toward him not being the CMO by the time Kirk takes command.
