Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 4x04 - "A Case of Chiaroscuro"
Ahh now I see. I was comparing it to Errand of Mercy but of course they are actually at war in that one
I heard that M'Benga pronounces Kahless like its written and not the common Trek usage of Kay-less. I'm assuming this is just Babs saying the word as how its written and no one on the crew correcting it? Or is this how they're pronouncing it going forward (I haven't watched Starfleet Academy so I'm not sure how it's pronounced there)
Ask someone to pronounce Washington.
Some will say "Warshington."
Pronunciations variations are extremely common. Look at Shibboleth.
Some will say "Warshington."
Pronunciations variations are extremely common. Look at Shibboleth.
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Or he went with the pronunciation used in TNG New Ground, which no one could correct him since that has a canonical precedent from what is generally considered "Real Trek."
In SFA, they say "Kay-lesh" like they did in Disco. Which supposedly is how Marc Okrand claims it's supposed to be pronounced.
Po-tay-to / Po-tah-to
Vulcan/Vulcanian
Kling/Qo'noS.
[*Runs*]
[*Runs*]
Mugato / Gumato
Starfleet/UESPA
Bolius/Bolarus
Victor/Victoria.
Wait,what?
Wait,what?
Mopar Road and Track?
Riberius/Tiberius
this is what the kids call ball knowledge
"A Case of Chiaroscuro"
I'm very happy to have such focus on Una, my second favorite character on SNW. Even better that it's a teamup with my favorite character (M'Benga), which is so rarely done.
Rebecca Romijn does a great job here. Una is quite smart and adapts very quickly to situations. I wouldn't mind seeing her have her own show or miniseries with her as captain.
M'Benga was also fantastic. I love how he is also quite adaptable to any situation. Quite the renaissance man. Interesting observation on his part about how he is more skilled at killing than what he prefers to do. Such a layered character. (Nice friendship beat between him and Uhura when she said her fake last name was 'a friend's home'.)
I don't mind the conceit of a doppelganger on another world... this felt very TOS in that way, along with the fact this world is like a 1940s era movie. The fact it could be a TOS story in how it was told helps the episode a bit.
I don't like having Kor here, for multiple reasons. First, it just illustrates my biggest problem with the Kurtzman era: making the large universe of STAR TREK feel much smaller. He could have been a new character entirely, or at least one that has only been mentioned and not ever seen. Second, Kor is supposed to have no ridges in this era. We see him with ridges in DS9, but that can easily be explained as him getting cosmetic surgery between the time of TOS and DS9. But here? It looks like he goes from ridges to ridgeless and back again... this just creates more issues than necessary. Again, the era trying to say "Here, we KNOW this character and you can see him here" instead of really thinking things through. Third, I didn't find his portrayal of Kor convincing. He was written here as less ruthless than "ERRAND OF MERCY"... almost timid by comparison. Like the cafe: the Kor we know would have taken all the singers in the cafe and executed them, or at the very least imprisoned them. Here? Sort of slamming the piano cover down and grunting like a spoiled kid who didn't get his favorite dessert after dinner. It just didn't work.
Also, the mind-sifter... interesting how it's used here. I was expecting it to be far worse than what we saw, based on its description in "ERRAND OF MERCY". I'm not sure how to feel about this, honestly. Part of me found it a nice way to interrogate... random medium pain throughout rather than targeted high pain at specific times. Part of me hates it, though... it's just not "turning one's mind into a vegetable".
The B plot with La'an... was okay. I get that her thread for the season is the internal struggle of augment dna, but it really is starting to dominate too much of the season.
This was another gimmick episode, and the explanation for it is... weird. I can't really call it noir because outside of the way it was shot, it wasn't really noir. I did like the style, but the substance was lacking somewhat. I loved Una in this especially since she has been rather shortchanged for quite a while and M'Benga was fantastic, as always. So that really lifts this one up for me. I'll give it a 6.75, so it rounds up to a 7.
I'm very happy to have such focus on Una, my second favorite character on SNW. Even better that it's a teamup with my favorite character (M'Benga), which is so rarely done.
Rebecca Romijn does a great job here. Una is quite smart and adapts very quickly to situations. I wouldn't mind seeing her have her own show or miniseries with her as captain.
M'Benga was also fantastic. I love how he is also quite adaptable to any situation. Quite the renaissance man. Interesting observation on his part about how he is more skilled at killing than what he prefers to do. Such a layered character. (Nice friendship beat between him and Uhura when she said her fake last name was 'a friend's home'.)
I don't mind the conceit of a doppelganger on another world... this felt very TOS in that way, along with the fact this world is like a 1940s era movie. The fact it could be a TOS story in how it was told helps the episode a bit.
I don't like having Kor here, for multiple reasons. First, it just illustrates my biggest problem with the Kurtzman era: making the large universe of STAR TREK feel much smaller. He could have been a new character entirely, or at least one that has only been mentioned and not ever seen. Second, Kor is supposed to have no ridges in this era. We see him with ridges in DS9, but that can easily be explained as him getting cosmetic surgery between the time of TOS and DS9. But here? It looks like he goes from ridges to ridgeless and back again... this just creates more issues than necessary. Again, the era trying to say "Here, we KNOW this character and you can see him here" instead of really thinking things through. Third, I didn't find his portrayal of Kor convincing. He was written here as less ruthless than "ERRAND OF MERCY"... almost timid by comparison. Like the cafe: the Kor we know would have taken all the singers in the cafe and executed them, or at the very least imprisoned them. Here? Sort of slamming the piano cover down and grunting like a spoiled kid who didn't get his favorite dessert after dinner. It just didn't work.
Also, the mind-sifter... interesting how it's used here. I was expecting it to be far worse than what we saw, based on its description in "ERRAND OF MERCY". I'm not sure how to feel about this, honestly. Part of me found it a nice way to interrogate... random medium pain throughout rather than targeted high pain at specific times. Part of me hates it, though... it's just not "turning one's mind into a vegetable".
The B plot with La'an... was okay. I get that her thread for the season is the internal struggle of augment dna, but it really is starting to dominate too much of the season.
This was another gimmick episode, and the explanation for it is... weird. I can't really call it noir because outside of the way it was shot, it wasn't really noir. I did like the style, but the substance was lacking somewhat. I loved Una in this especially since she has been rather shortchanged for quite a while and M'Benga was fantastic, as always. So that really lifts this one up for me. I'll give it a 6.75, so it rounds up to a 7.
Korrd or Kruge were also possibilities. Notably Uhura never meets Kruge in the movies so there would've been no contradiction
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