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.

 

[eschaton]

Kor was fine here. Worth remembering that DS9 already gave him a personality transplant, turning him into a sort of Falstaff-type character.

My main issue with it is there was no reason for it to be Kor other than just memberberries. Could've been Kang, Koloth, or someone completely new, and it would've made no difference.

I know TV doesn't work like this, but the whole "small universe syndrome" where we repeatedly run into the same people is just irksome.

I do like that Kor had a normal human nose. No Klingon nose bumps or ridges. So in a completely accidental way he ended up looking more like an Augment Klingon.

I thought his nose looked a little weird, TBH. Mostly because the actor has a quite small nose for his face, which when combined with the prosthetic building up the bridge more, made it kind of vanish into his face a bit.

 

[flandry84]

Kor was ordering the mass execution of Organians as if it was just another day out the office and while genocide ( in our world)is quite fashionable even heroic these days he was rather shamefully rehabilitated into a kindly old fart by DS9.

For years people wondered just how TNG era Federation could ally itself with a self proclaimed Klingon empire and just exactly what life would be like on a Klingon conquered world.
Did this episode answer this question?
Did it fuck.

 

[fireproof78]

That Kor becomes an ally still irritates me.

 

[No Grave Dug]

...For years people wondered just how TNG era Federation could ally itself with a self proclaimed Klingon empire and just exactly what life would be like on a Klingon conquered world.
Did this episode answer this question?
Did it fuck...

Well from the dialogue it appeared the Klingons were just about to take it into full Klingon Slave Planet mode; but why the Klingons didn't just do that outright to begin with was never explained.

Also, (and I mentioned this earlier as have some others) - Kor wasn't portrayed in this episodes as ruthless as he was in the TOS S1 episode Errand Of Mercy.

I mean he knew for a fact Uhura was lying - and had gotten all the info he could from her; but left her alive?<--- That's not Kor from Errand Of Mercy at all:

KOR: Well, have we a ram among the sheep? Do you object to us taking him?

KIRK: He's done nothing. Nothing at all.

\KOR: Coming from an Organian, yours is practically an act of rebellion. Very good. (to the Council) So you welcome me. (to Kirk) Do you also welcome me?

KIRK: You're here. There's nothing I can do about it.

KOR: Good honest hatred. Very refreshing. However, it makes no difference whether you welcome me or not. I am here and will stay. You are now subjects of the Klingon Empire. You'll find there are many rules and regulations. They will be posted. Violation of the smallest of them will be punished by death.

AYELBORNE: We shall obey your regulations, Commander.

 

[Tuskin38]

Jörg Hillebrand (@gaghyogi49.bsky.social)

Here's a look at a graphic of the detonator, seen in #StarTrekSNW's "A Case of Chiaroscuro ". As I was able to decipher the Mat'Aar language, I can say that the text under the image reads "Project Gollico detonator". "Gollico" is a word not heard in the episode and only appears here. :-)

bsky.app

Did this episode answer this question?

Yes

 

[flandry84]

Share with the class.

 

[Tuskin38]

Share with the class.

Watch the episode.

 

[Fateor]

Or the fact we have at least 3 distinctive types of Gorn…TOS/Lower Decks Gorn, Enterprise Gorn, and the Xeno-Gorn from SNW.

The TOS/LD/ENT Gorn are the same Gorn.

The SNW Gorn were a quickly retconned experiment.

 

[fireproof78]

All Gorn look the same, just like humans.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

9, nice to see an episode focusing on Una/Rebecca. Loved the homage to Casablanca. Loved Kor. Pure Star Trek like the season premiere

 

[Mr J]

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.

Totally agreed, and this is exactly what I mean by half-baked and under-focused whilst the show focuses on it's shiny theme of the week. Its a pattern, actually.

As you rightly say, there is a nugget in there of a dilemma, but it was completely glossed over and underutilised in favour of the theme of the week. It was just a whole lot of nothing, when actually it should have been the driver of the whole episode. It was enough alone without a gimmick of seeing our heroes play dress-up again..

 

[Starflight]

For years people wondered just how TNG era Federation could ally itself with a self proclaimed Klingon empire and just exactly what life would be like on a Klingon conquered world.
Did this episode answer this question?
Did it fuck.

It answered it more than any episode of the Berman shows did, surely. What's shown here seems largely in line with Errand of Mercy - life on a Klingon-conquered world means harassment, subjugation, cultural stasis, and the omnipresent threat of torture or death.

The episode could have been better in many ways, but I love that they didn't shy away from portraying Klingons this way. These Klingons are much more interesting IMO than the "a-haaaaa, honour and warriors" stuff from TNG/DS9, even if this specific episode leant too hard on the Nazi stuff due to its inexplicable Casablanca fixation.

 

[Ovation]

These Klingons are much more interesting IMO than the "a-haaaaa, honour and warriors" stuff from TNG/DS9

Very heartily agree.

 

[flandry84]

Watch the episode.

God,I ‘m not doing that to myself again.

Honestly all I saw was a group of fancily dressed collaborators hanging around a cafe/bar.Bizarre really.
Even the suicide pill sequence was soporific.

 

[Tuskin38]

God,I ‘m not doing that to myself again.

Honestly all I saw was a group of fancily dressed collaborators hanging around a cafe/bar.Bizarre really.
Even the suicide pill sequence was soporific.

You must dislike TOS then. This is probably the most TOS like episode in the series

 

[saladdays]

You must dislike TOS then. This is probably the most TOS like episode in the series

But....but...it was TOS. That was different!

 

[flandry84]

You must dislike TOS then. This is probably the most TOS like episode in the series

I ..huh?
This is not the most TOS like episode.
“Errand of mercy” was a TOS episode.
The gulf in quality between it and “..chiaroscuro “ is huge.