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

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  • Total voters
    222
You're nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking.
Dude, I'm asking a "what if" question as if I were a Fed investigator investigating the incident.

You know what, I shouldn't have come back on here especially after the disproportionately cruel comments (as in getting called swear words, called twice by a certain poster that I'm b---sh-- as if this forum were a frat hazing session) I received in regards to my minority opinion on the LD episode. I get fooled thinking it's civilized for a while, only to realize people are just waiting to take my smallest comment out of context. I can't work in a community where everyone's waiting for you to trip and make the most of it because they didn't like your opinion.
 
All good points. I think the short answer is "production values." The red armor did remind me of the security armor seen during the original TOS movies.

I would also like to think that by the 23rd Century, instead of just wearing black, they might have some Pred-tech style light-bending camo. Not necessarily a 100% effective cloak, but something that would make you near-invisible if you weren't moving.
I don't think they have the Predator style cloaking technology miniaturized yet or lowered in terms of energy consumption until the 24th century.

Remember Data had the Holographic Suit that made him invisible in ST: Insurrection.
 
I get why some people become frustrated by others nitpicking details in a show about space magic, but what sells a show is its characters behaving roughly the way the audience would in a given situation, whether that’s good, bad, or ugly behavior. If we understand it and can see ourselves behaving that way, it’s relatable no matter how much space magic and technobabble it has.
Elements of this episode, like the other episode where they put a phaser in Uhura’s hand when they know she’s having hallucinations, just don’t fit with how people would behave.
 
Once again, posting prior to reading this Thread.

Wow...just wow.

A definite 10

I think DS9's S7 The Siege Of AR-558 just became surpassed as one of the better commentary episodes the Star Trek franchise has done on the horror of war and what it can do to those involved.

It really gave one hell of a background to both M'Benga and Christine Chapel. Not much more for me to say as the episode does a good job of speaking for itself i the story it told.

I hope the WGA and Sag/AFTRA strikes don't end up affecting the run of this Star Trek Franchise series - Star Trek Strange New Worlds is really firing on all cylinders in a way the Star Trek franchise hasn't since the original STAR TREK Season 1.
 
Dude, I'm asking a "what if" question as if I were a Fed investigator investigating the incident.

You know what, I shouldn't have come back on here especially after the disproportionately cruel comments I received in regards to my minority opinion on the LD episode. I get fooled thinking it's civilized for a while, only to realize people are just waiting to take my smallest comment out of context. I can't work in a community where everyone's waiting for you to trip and make the most of it because they didn't like your opinion.

No one was cruel to you and no one is being uncivilized. If you don't like being told you're being nitpicky then say so and carry on, Tuskin thinks you're being nitpicky, you don't, there's no need to rehash how you feel like you're a victim and were subjected to what you think was abuse.

The moderators of this site were far and away harsher to you than the rank and file members have been
 
Dude, I'm asking a "what if" question as if I were a Fed investigator investigating the incident.

You know what, I shouldn't have come back on here especially after the disproportionately cruel comments (as in getting called swear words, called twice by a certain poster that I'm b---sh-- as if this forum were a frat hazing session) I received in regards to my minority opinion on the LD episode. I get fooled thinking it's civilized for a while, only to realize people are just waiting to take my smallest comment out of context. I can't work in a community where everyone's waiting for you to trip and make the most of it because they didn't like your opinion.
If someone thinks your opinion is "bullshit", then they can call it bullshit. That's not about you, it's about your opinion.
 
Pretty much a DS9 episode. Shades of Sisko, Bashir, Garek... even Rom and Jake. lol
I enjoyed their take on it though, and hopefully it eases criticism of episode 1 where people didn't like the Captain America serum and the fact that M'Benga is a ninja warrior.

It does remind me of a silly point about DS9 and Star Trek as a whole that I hadn't thought about in a while - ground wars are just pointless in this universe. Well, so are fleet battles when you can just warp starships into planets and destroy them, or just fly around a blockade since space is 3 (or in the case of time travel, 4) dimensional.

But DS9 had to invent "transport inhibitors" to have an excuse for why you'd leave people on the ground with no way to reach them... yet they clearly had transporters here. So why would you even use ground troops like you're fighting a war in Vietnam? Even if you don't want to use robots to do the fighting, just nuke the ground troops from orbit.

That said, I do know that's just one of those Star Trek things you have to ignore in order for the story to work, so I'm fine doing that. lol
 
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Experiment with masonic / illuminati / George Soros design of Klingons (so called Klingorcs) ended. We could see that today. Klingons are now normal.
 
She wasn't there from the start of the fight, she came in midway through.
Um, yes, that was my point. She was asserting that she had seen what happened, when she had not. It was a fabrication of M'Benga's self-defense because she didn't see the altercation in full. She's protecting him and also she doesn't care why he did it because she understands the underlying reasons he might have. Have I explained my perspective on that scene clearly now?
 
I don’t think it was premeditated.
M’Benga certainly knew what he might do if the ambassador didn’t turn on his heel and walk out right now, indicated by opening the box with the knife.
And then he lied about it together with Chapel, taking advantage of the ambassador’s big lie because the knife had the DNA of the Klingons he claimed to have killed all over it.
He provided M’Benga with a pretty solid alibi for his own murder.
The lie is the most damning part.
It’s a little like Data firing the phaser at Fajo and lying about the discharge being deliberate, IF you assume that Data actually intended to kill him at that exact moment.

similarly we could assume that M’Benga didn’t intend to kill the guy, it happened during the altercation, but because the Klingon was a lying bastard anyway he took advantage of the easy alibi and just not risking destroying his life with a murder charge.
No...as soon as the Klingon didn't just go way after being told to and discovering WHO M'Benga was; once the fight started his fate was sealed and at that point M'Benga decided to make him pay for the war crimes that he had ordered and committed. And the way the final 'fight' was filmed (from an obscured vantage point); IDK if M'Benga IS telling the truth about the Ambassador starting the fight. And further it did come out that the Ambassador himself WAS a coward. He didn't kill his own men and then decide to surrender; HIS OWN men protected his escape from a man who was on a mission to kill him, and who would have succeeded had the 3 Klingons not gotten in his way and given the Klingon General time to escape.

And in the end, the General DIDN'T escape J'Gal. He was captured by Federation forces on that world and in surrendering told them the story that he WANTED to surrender earlier, and that he wasn't really the one responsible for the order to murder any and all non-Klingons; and that he KILLED the 3 Klingons who he claimed gave those orders, and were trying to prevent his ultimate surrender.

He was a true Klingon coward on many levels and once he realized that, he knew he could never return home and he would be disgraced or disscommodated from the Klingon Empire so he became an Ambassador for the Federation as a way to try and live with himself.

At the end, M'Benga fully decided to finish the mission he started on all those years ago; and bring justice (as he saw it) to the Klingon General's victims.
 
Well, we "know" the Enterprise loses M'Benga and Chapel eventually. This could set up why. Hopeful not for a long time, though.
 
I'll give this an 8/10. I appreciated this one. It felt like a good Berman era (specifically DS9) episode, just like "Ad Astra" and "Among the Lotus Eaters."

It aimed for some level of intellectual discourse, like the above mentioned episodes, and that is what I ultimately want from Trek. Something to think about. Something meaningful to walk away from the episode with.

Not just to be brainlessly entertained by characters dancing around, or being written as fools for the sake of "hijnks." Like seriously, M'Benga is singing and doing jazz hands on the bridge in the next episode after the brutal way this episode ended. That's nuts. Tonal whiplash for the audience.

This episode loses some points for how Pike handled the end situation. That was way too passive and laid back, given the severity of what happened.

Regardless, I commend them for at least taking big swings and the effort. More like this.
 
Pretty much a DS9 episode. Shades of Sisko, Bashir, Garek... even Rom and Jake. lol
I enjoyed their take on it though, and hopefully it eases criticism of episode 1 where people didn't like the Captain America serum and the fact that M'Benga is a ninja warrior.
It explains why the serum isn't in mass production:
1) It's Doctor M'Benga's proprietary serum that wasn't tested or validated at the highest levels
2) The good Doc knows that there are long term side-effects


It does remind me of a silly point about DS9 and Star Trek as a whole that I hadn't thought about - ground wars are just pointless in this universe.
They aren't silly, they are important to hold territory.

Most species aren't out there to destroy planets, that's like wreckless wonton destruction of the Environment on a Galactic scale. It's fundamentally dumb and only useful to those who are so callous with life & resources that they think destroying a planet is justified in any way when you can occupy a planet and use it's resources for vast periods of time and start a colony / civilization on it or turn it into a resource planet to be mined.


Well, so are fleet battles when you can just warp starships into planets and destroy them, or just fly around a blockade since space is 3 (or in the case of time travel, 4) dimensional.
At some point in space combat, you're going to have to fight, you can fly around a blockade, but they can fly to intercept you.

If you try to split up, they might just gang up on the weaker parts of your fleet and pick you off one-by-one and in the long term you're screwed because you split up.

So at a certain point, you either are going to fight, or you're not. Where you choose to fight is up to you and what kind of advantages you can gain by picking your location is completely dependent on where you're fighting. So that's a case-by-case basis.

Same with formations and how you split up or if you even split up at all.


But DS9 had to invent "transport inhibitors" to have an excuse for why you'd leave people on the ground with no way to reach them... yet they clearly had transporters here.
"Transport Inhibitors" makes sense for a whole host of reason for civilian & military use.
1) Prevents easy kidnappings in a civilian's confines or abode, I expect every building / house to have a "Transport Inhibitor" in the UFP.
2) Prevents easy burglary / robberies / theft of items
3) Prevents easy terrorism (Beam in a Bomb)
4) Prevents easy tresspassing by beaming into your facility / area / region
5) Prevents easy biological/technological-contamination

There are MANY reasons to have various forms of "Transport Inhibitors" / "Transport Blockers" / "Transport Scramblers" in general.

So why would you even use ground troops like you're fighting a war in Vietnam?
You fight a war on the ground to gain hold of territory / strategic buildings / resources / HVT (High-Value Targets) / Technology that isn't easily moved.

Even if you don't want to use robots to do the fighting, just nuke the ground troops from orbit.
We should be using mass produced robots to aid in fighting, but not replace the Organic being.

Nuking ground troops could also nuke the target you're trying to protect/hold/recover and cause collatoral damage.
Short of being a Mad Dictator/Tyrant/Military Commander who doesn't care for life, most people won't go "Scorched Earth" policy.

That said, I do know that's just one of those Star Trek things you have to ignore in order for the story to work, so I'm fine doing that. lol
No it isn't, there are plenty of logical reasons for the tech they have to justify ground combat.
 
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M'Benga being an "old friend" of Pike seems unearned and just a bone for fans wondering what happened to Boyce. It's not even clear when they served together or if they went to the Academy together (and M'Benga probably went to Starfleet Medical Academy which further complicates things)

That's given M'Benga a pass on the transporter thing and now Dak'rah's death. That's not even getting into dangerous patients constantly escaping his sickbay. Pike should be really wondering what's going on and wondering what the hell this guy is doing on his ship and there shouldn't be some clumsily written "old friend" business to undermine that. 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 Gary Mitchell 'earn' his stated 15 year friendship with Kirk in TOS S1 Where No Man Has Gone Before?

It that story and in this one, it's there to heighten the connection and interpersonal drama between the characters, like MANY fictional dramas. Nothing needs to be 'earned' here. Its all a part of the story being told.
 
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