Quite a good episode, I thought - as someone who's suffered from PTSD and still can be subject to flashbacks about what happened.
OK, yes, it was fairly grimdark, but then, the Fed-Klingon War is an established thing, and of course there is going to be fallout from it, not just political and social but also personal and emotional. It's a courageous choice though to leave it ambiguous exactly how the ambassador ended up with a knife in him, and how much Chapel is lying about how it happened. I'm sure some will be outraged at Are Heroes potentialy being guilt of murder!
However, there were issues. The wartime flashbacks were compelling in their intensity, they really sucked you into the moment. But they also began to feel quite stylised after a while. All these beams and pulses of heavy weapons fire soaring into the air, what were they aimed at? Were they intended to be long-range bombardment - raising the prospect that plasma and phaser emissions are subject to gravity (maybe they are for all I know) - or suppression of aerial suppoort or attack? And all those huge explosions, visible in the background and from space, it's amazing that anything is left standing...
And I'm unenthused by the revelation that the Butcher of Wherever wasn't actually whatsisface (it may say something else that I can't remember the name of the planet or battle or the main guest character) but M'Benga. Though it feels absurd to begin with that the name comes from the Butcher having killed three specific KLingons (were they all that was left on planet?) and not countless noncombatants including children...
But the battlefield medical scenes were incredible, matching if not exceeding those from DS9's "NtBttS" and TSoAR-558". I'll bet at least one exec glanced up briefly from counting his money and thought "Hmmm... Star Trek: MASH?"
I'm curious though about M'Benga's timeline. He's an experienced doctor, no doubt about that; but also at some point (when? As a Wikipedia note would ask) a legendary badass SF operator. When did he decide to stop being the latter? During the war - which only lasted about a year at most, going by DSC s1? And whether the state of mind evidenced by him, Chapel and Ortegas is consistent with the war having been... two or three years before SNW started?
While on the subject of DSC, it's notable how much they seem to be trying to avoid using as much of the designs - uniforms and shios - from that show. We haven't seen much or any of the assorted designs introduced in "The Battle at the Binary Stars. Another wholly-new design debuted, the (rather incongruously-named, I thought) USS Kelcie Mae. And while I think the DSC combat uniforms were present, none of the DSC blue Starfleet uniforms were...
Something tells me we've not seen the last of this theatre of war however. We know from the season premiere that Chapel has had experience of using Compound 12 or whatever as well (unless I misunderstood that scene where she and M'Benga use it again?), so that she was given some of it but never seen using it is interesting to me.
Deltan parsley is pink. Bdcause of course it is. Those saucy bald minxes...
Is the use of prolonged transporter-buffer storage consistent with what was established in TNG-era Trek?
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Kelsie Mae is a stupid name for a starship. Making M'Benga a specops dude before becoming a doctor is trite af & smacks of Book from Firefly.
I dunno. Like, I get what they were trying to get at viz. the whole "victims' rights vs. opportunities for atonement of previous wrongs" thing, & it wasn't done poorly...but it wasn't done great, either. (3.6, if you're a Chernobyl fan) DS9 did war trauma way better, I feel, with a lot less cliché & telegraphing.
This is what I hate about these cheap-ass Euro-style 10-episode seasons: you don't get shit from then that's not constant push of action. Slow burns & letting things grow as useful & necessary, & this would've been a plot thread that benefitted from 22-26 episodes. We could've learned more about why M'Banner existed rather than the shitty excuse of "oh, he was just a badass who got conscience". Fuck outta here with that shit.
Also, their alien actors gotta get better. Trek used to have ace-caliber alien players; now they got just guys. Like, the dude playing...Trask, was it? He wasn't an Andorian for me, he was just a blue dude with sticks on his head.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Actually yes, a bit of inconsistency there - just last week… end, we had two more “classic” look Andorians in the background, but now we have a foreground DSC-style Andorian.
Unless they’re deliberately using looks from different eras, if not together then in proximity, to retcon that they’re just differing racial types within one species. Which is what we’ve all assumed anyway. Now do DSC, TOS and “normal” Klingons together, we dare you!
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
I'm not talking about the makeup, I'm talking about the acting.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I know, but you reminded me of an observation I forgot to make.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :