Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 4x04 - "A Case of Chiaroscuro"

[Mr J]

That's been several of the "gimmick" episodes for me, particularly the documentary episode. These writers are perfectly capable of coming up with interesting stories but they've been burying them under one or two layers too many of pure concept.

Totally agree - and actually, it really obscures the golden thread of the story behind the gimmick and doesn't let it shine as it should. What people see is a camp black and white/casablanca space adventure, not the dramatic thread.

 

[Mr J]

they did.

Insightful input to my commentary right there.

They didn't, IMO (and btw, opinions are just that. You can't just blanket-deny them as true with condescending two-word sentences because you disagree).

Not even close. And what they did do was completely secondary to the theme of the week. It should have been totally, 100% the focus of the story and, actually, it was dealt with almost as quickly as it was raised. A tokenistic "did I do the right thing?" at the end is not depth.

That's precisely why I made the point. What people tend to remember is the campy black-and-white/Casablanca-in-space aesthetic and the gimmick surrounding it, and actually it felt obvious to me that that was the part the writers were most interested in too, rather than the dramatic thread that should have been carrying the episode.

The bigger issue, though, is that even if you stripped away the gimmick entirely and shot the episode exactly as written, the underlying dilemma still wasn't enough. It was half-baked, underexplored, and ultimately didn't have much new or interesting to say.

Too often with this show, the gimmick or "theme of the week" ends up obscuring the story's golden thread instead of enhancing it. The central moral dilemma never gets the attention it needs to breathe, develop, and really land with the audience.

IMO, which is perfectly valid, by the way. You don't have to agree with it, but dismissing it with a two-word reply isn't exactly respectful. It just comes across as pompous.

 

[Origami Chicken]

Insightful input to my commentary right there.

They didn't, IMO (and btw, opinions are just that. You can't just blanket-deny them as true with condescending two-word sentences because you disagree).

Not even close. And what they did do was completely secondary to the theme of the week. It should have been totally, 100% the focus of the story and, actually, it was dealt with almost as quickly as it was raised. A tokenistic "did I do the right thing?" at the end is not depth.

That's precisely why I made the point. What people tend to remember is the campy black-and-white/Casablanca-in-space aesthetic and the gimmick surrounding it, and actually it felt obvious to me that that was the part the writers were most interested in too, rather than the dramatic thread that should have been carrying the episode.

The bigger issue, though, is that even if you stripped away the gimmick entirely and shot the episode exactly as written, the underlying dilemma still wasn't enough. It was half-baked, underexplored, and ultimately didn't have much new or interesting to say.

Too often with this show, the gimmick or "theme of the week" ends up obscuring the story's golden thread instead of enhancing it. The central moral dilemma never gets the attention it needs to breathe, develop, and really land with the audience.

IMO, which is perfectly valid, by the way. You don't have to agree with it, but dismissing it with a two-word reply isn't exactly respectful. It just comes across as pompous.

What dilemma? There was no conversation of note taking the other side. It seemed like they were just vamping along until the end.

Had the Klingons begun to think the Federation was involved… potentially opening up war issues … is this planet worth that risk… now you might have issues and consequences. But no, Uhura magically gets an ID card. Imagine if they thought she was a spy and released her to catch co conspirators. Klingons on the chase of our heroes would have massively upped the stakes.

But instead No threat to our team. While some natives got to leave, the D7 will be fixed soon enough and enact harsher measures. Situation is now worse.

Pike seemed to be playing solitaire.

This is a Galaxy Quest “bad writing” episode.