Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x08 - "Under the Cloak of War"

And as we've seen from 23rd century Trek transporter logs tend to show not much more than when someone beamed aboard.

 

I'm not sure how good transporter records are supposed to be in this era, in "Dagger of the Mind" they didn't even realize there was a guy hiding in one of the boxes they beamed up.

 

I don't have the words to articulate what I loved about this episode without it sounding trite, so suffice it to say 9/10. Also, it was great seeing Clint again.

 

I don't think the tech for seperating weapons, items, & gear while in the transporter buffer was common until the 24th century.

 

I really enjoyed this episode. I love character heavy eps like this. As some others have mentioned already, it also reminded me of some of DS9's best war episodes. Much to dissect here. Probably my favorite SNW so far.

 

I love the comparison of M'Benga to biobed 2. Damaged and not fully repairable. You can only manage the damage.

 

Well, that was brutal. Star Trek's never gone this far into this kind of territory either in tone, the depths of the character's emotions and conflicts as portrayed by these remarkable actors, the level of tension they succeeded in maintaining throughout. The conversations were hard, and illuminating.

For the second time in this series, no reassurance in the conclusion. None at all.

No, it doesn't show Pike at his best, does it? Well, it was realistic in that respect, too. The contrast between M'Benga's experiences and POV and Pike's was stark.

DS9 tried to do this kind of thing. They were never once this good.

Olusanmokun is phenomenal.

Solid "10."

 

This was indeed bizarre!

 

This is real. This has been happening in the aftermath of war forever.

Hello, Doctor Von Braun.* Look into the history of diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. The people who make peace are the people who made war. Western governments as well as others in many instances look away, in peace, from what they called terrible enemy crimes during the conflict - because it's expedient in order to move forward.

Not bizarre. Disturbing, unpleasant, and real.

*Let's start a list, shall we?

 

There was quite a bit of nuance here.

Ortegas was wrong. Rah was not playing some kind of long sabotage game, having insinuated himself into the Federation. He was sincerely doing exactly what he said he was and what the Federation believed that he was doing. There was no betrayal there.

Certainly his remorse was facile, if not actually superficial, and he lied about his escape. And it's reasonable to assume that there were people in the Federation government who knew exactly what atrocities he was responsible for. Pike was naive. There's no reason to think that everyone was.

The issue was whether his "good works" in any degree expiated his guilt as a war criminal.

 

This is the way that it has been for a long time. Look at the Allies in WW2 and the Soviets joining them. The German scientists being recruited?

Heck, even TUC makes the Federation the problem, and not acknowledging all the horrible things Klingons have done in the past.

 

I really liked this episode and gave it a ten also. Though I though it was pretty much on par with some of DS9's best war themed episodes. I will have to go back and do a rewatch soon to do a better comparison. Though I did do a rewatch of DS9 that I finished in late 2021. I can do with a little refresh.

 

He didn't compel them. I thought that was clear. He wanted them there and suggested it would go far to promote peace if they did...
oh wait, I guess he did.

Diplomacy is so weird. It's such a long game.

 

Yeah. It'd have been nice to see some happy moments between Spock and Chapel. But last week was focused on the LD crew, this week Chapel was dealing with her PTSD over the war stuff so maybe in the next 2 episode we'll get some good Spock/Chapel stuff?

I hope?

I want more from them!

 

He basically told Una not to worry about any consequences of her truth last season before everything fell apart, so I wouldn't put too much weight on the few moments we had with Pike at the end of the episode.

 

Page 17. Not nearly as bad as last week. (The page count isn't as bad. I loved Those Old Scientists.)

I knew there'd be hell to pay for all the "light" episodes we'd been getting. Makes me worried about the finale. Yikes.

Did anyone else equate the sound "Incoming transport" with medical choppers? Brutal.

What? No tranya?

M'Benga erasing the pattern buffer. Gulp.

OK, is Ortegas enough of a character for people now? (Probably not.)

Right. Because SHE was the only one acting dodgy. OTOH, good to see that Pike can be unhappy with his people from time to time.

Nice giving us three POV characters (Ortegas, Chapel, M'Benga) with three different experiences.

The ending wasn't air tight, but let's just assume that it is, OK? M'Benga had his own Pale Moonlight moment. Ouch.

Totes. Maybe more than one.

I'm guessing that we're going to get that next week. I hope. A lot.

 

Some one up thread mentioned it in reference to MASH

 

Several MASH connections have been made. At least one love letter for a MASH inspired M'Benga episode and a hurt letter from a peeping tom*


*Mash joke. Laugh if you get it.