Star Trek Strange New Worlds (Season 2)

[stryke]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong I don't think Bashir is on the same level as what M'Benga did. I'm just saying there's a maybe a case that he broke his oath first just not anywhere near as badly.

[clearspira]

Dr M'Benga displayed none of these traits in TOS. True, he was in it one episode, but he came across as stern and professional. I feel as if the writers just wanted a black guy and pulled a name off the list.

More New Trek character assassination.

[J!!]

Whoever it is that's forcing you to watch these shows you hate so much must be a real bastard.

[Frustration]

But they used to be franchises that we loved. The anger is part of the mourning process.

[Riedquat]

But they used to be franchises that we loved. The anger is part of the mourning process.

Yeah, "who's forcing you" is such a hopeless retort that takes a very, very simplistic view of people and how they relate to, well, pretty much everything. An assumption that the only thing that matters is what's in front of your eyes right now, which is pretty damned shallow.

[clearspira]

But they used to be franchises that we loved. The anger is part of the mourning process.

Yeah, "who's forcing you" is such a hopeless retort that takes a very, very simplistic view of people and how they relate to, well, pretty much everything. An assumption that the only thing that matters is what's in front of your eyes right now, which is pretty damned shallow.

As far I am concerned, if you are going to watch a show that is rich in history and lore, why the hell are you watching if you aren't interested in that history and lore? And I would like to remind everyone that one of the most critically acclaimed seasons of New Trek to date was PIC season 3 - the season that was steeped in history and lore.

Protip: Don't set your show at the exact same time as ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SHOWS ON TELEVISION EVER and begin rewriting the events, characters, look, feel, and tone that was established there.

[TGLS]

Dr M'Benga displayed none of these traits in TOS. True, he was in it one episode, but he came across as stern and professional. I feel as if the writers just wanted a black guy and pulled a name off the list.

Apart from Spock, Uhura and James Kirk, most of the "returning" cast from TOS are blank canvases. Admiral April wasn't black before and I don't recall it being mentioned that Spock worked with Sam Kirk. M'Benga getting more details filled in than "He's a doctor who knows about Vulcan physiology" is as forgivable as Khan becoming furious with Kirk.

[Mabus]

Well, the last three episodes are something, to say the least.

Episode 6 tries to create a more OldTrek story, which is a good direction, I might say, but its execution here it's that of a typical NuTrek story. Also, the mention of the Gorn, but they haven't showed up in 8 episodes, either they're saving them for the finale or they decided to pretend their take on them never existed. Unfortunately, as nice as the set-up was, some things ruin the story.
-Deuterium poisoning? Really? Trek has a history of bad science, but usually they would just invent new particles or science to handwave any nitpickings from viewers and fans (see lasers to phasers). But unlike "macguffinum", deuterium is real, so we know its properties, you cannot get poisoned from it unless you drink only heavy water for months. Maybe. They should have just went for generic space elementium, at least there you only get to nitpick its dumb name.
-So the non-corporeal extradimensional aliens were latching onto the deuterium atoms with their claws or whatever, and somehow they were killed when the deuterium was consumed in the reactor. So why don't they just return to their dimension or move to another nebula if they felt threatened? Why do they have to latch to the deuterium atoms from our universe anyway?
-Given how they referred to the deuterium refinery as "gas station" multiple times, and how they dramatically blew it up at the end of the episode, it's clear that they were going for an environmental message, which is... do not use clean nuclear fusion fuel from a remote area of space, far away from any civilization because you might kill the tiny extradimensional aliens that live on the deuterium atoms...?

Episode 7, not much I can say about it. I don't care about Lower Decks, but it's kind of funny how Boimler, despite being a motor mouth of memberberries, now has to keep his mouth shut, the best he can, to prevent him from altering the future. In a crossover you allow each character to be themselves as much as possible. Restraining them kinda goes against that requirement. Boimler fanboying over Pike and Spock and Una also sort of goes nowhere, since "meeting your idols and they're not what you expected" has been done too many times, and this time they barely do much with it. Honestly, they could have went for a completely alternate timeline story where everyone went full continuity breaking without worrying they'll alter the future, but I guess this season already had a time travel story where one could avoid the timey wimey problems, so they couldn't do that again so soon.

Episode 8, oh boy. This could have been good. It had almost everything it needed, good performance from the actors, a moral gray story, people having to do hard decisions and face their consequences later on... but, none of the story elements blend well.
-Not related to the story, but the make-up for Rah looks very cheap, cosplay level. It looked more like a cap than a head piece. I guess all the budget went into Pike's haircut instead. Anyway...
-M'Benga's overdramatic PTSD is stupid, NuTrek adores to give everyone PTSD for literally everything, it's overplayed and dumb. Also, given that currently we know that certain compounds help massively with PTSD, I find it hilarious that 250 years from now, there still isn't any OTC product for dealing with PTSD. I guess all our current research with SSRIs and MDMA will be for nothing. Thanks Kurtzman, you hack. Also, given the twist from the third act, why does M'Benga even have the PTSD episode? He was bloodthirsty not shell-shocked.
-Starfleet still doesn't understand the concept of logistics, apparently sending one freshman nurse on the front lines but not any other medical supplies is somehow good strategy. No organ regenerator even though people are dying on the battlefield? Why, the Federation ran out of money and can't buy a few hundreds? Didn't this episode show Spock using a replicator even though it shouldn't exist in this century? Hell, didn't Discovery had a replicator-like thingy before the war? Why would the Federation have issues manufacturing basic medical hardware, when they already have the technology for rapid manufacturing? Maybe they can't make the entire machine, but surely they could make most of its parts. I nitpick on this "minor" thing because trying to portray futuristic warfare using 19th or 20th century logic is stupid, even now most militaries around the world are spending billions trying to come up with cheap and reliable ways of fixing injured soldiers on the battlefield. And it's silly to excuse this as "they ran out of supplies, can't get more and now they have to rely on WW1 medical procedures", when the flashback literally begins with a Fed shuttle going to the front lines to deliver just one nurse, with almost no other medical supplies, not even a bag of blood or antibiotics. This cheapens the story and makes it difficult to take it seriously.
-So M'Benga invented the pattern buffer storage trick during the war? Why didn't he tell anyone else about it? Surely it would have revolutionized medical treatment, and even allow the Federation to save millions of Alvarados. I mean, unlike Voyager's version, M'Benga's allegedly doesn't even cause pattern degradation, but then again, if you only use it once or twice, it's not a big deal. But nah, let's ignore this for the next century.
-Why the fuck does Starfleet order its veterans to interact with the Klingon defector? Since when has Starfleet became run by idiots? Oh, right, NuTrek. There's no way Starfleet doesn't know about Rah's war crimes on J'Gal. So why wasn't he arrested the moment he defected to the Federation? Political asylum can be rescinded, you know. It's not amnesty. Hell, they even mention some protests during his coming on the Enterprise, so it's clear that Rah's deeds are public to some degree. So why would Starfleet take this decision? Oh right, because the plot has to happen. No other reason. After all, if Rah truly had a change of heart and wanted to repent for his sins, he can repent on a penal colony, you know, like the one Spock's wife runs? Not necessarily that one, but one like that. What's that saying? Forgive but not forget? Seems that NuTrek Starfleet runs on Vincent Vega logic: "Once a man admits he is wrong, that he is immediately forgiven for all wrongdoings". What are they even going for here? That war criminals should not be trialed and left to "walk the earth"? Does the Federation even have a legal system? Oh right, as shown a few episodes ago, it's a complete joke, because of course a space-faring civilization with a population in billions would not have a proper legal system...
-I liked the Andorian... lieutenant? Kind of a low rank for someone like him, the guy should have been a colonel at least. Pity he had such little screen time.
-"They're killing civilians. Humans and Klingons, it doesn't matter. Rah is ordering his men to kill anyone that isn't a Klingon soldier. After they torture them." I had to pause the video and literally facepalm at the stupidity of that statement. Do these morons even understand how warfare works? No, of course not. NuTrek writers don't understand most basic human things, how could they understand something as complicated as warfare. I have no doubt that one of the writers took a glance at the TV and saw the war in Ukraine and heard that the Ruskies were indiscriminately killing civilians and torturing POWs and civilians, and decided to add that in the script, not understanding how and why. While killing the enemy civilians is sadly something that still happens in war for too many reasons, intentionally killing your OWN civilians is like the dumbest thing anyone can do, not only you're demoralizing your own troops by forcing them to kill your own kind, you're diverting precious war resources that could be better spent into, I don't know, killing the enemy? Not to mention torturing them before killing them? You're asking your own subordinates to mutiny against you! There was no behavior like this in the OldTrek Klingons, but there was plenty of mutiny against your superiors. And hell, even in real life we have Nazi Germany, where Albert Speer refused to carry out Hitler's orders of destroying what was left of the German infrastructure when he was losing the war, because he thought that was too much. And before Speer, Dietrich von Choltitz refused to carry out the order of blowing up Paris into smithereens, under the same reasoning.
-"I am the Butcher of J'Gal" So let me guess this straight... The Klingon general decided to take the blame for the death of his subordinates, because... why exactly? He wanted repentance already? Like 5 minutes after they were dead? Who even came up with that nickname if everyone else was dead? Did Rah himself come up with it?
-"If people know the truth, my work would be undone!" How? You'd still be a war criminal that deserted the Klingon Empire. You'd just not have that shitty nickname, but that's it. I mean, what, are people that already hate you for being a war criminal hate you for being a lying war criminal?
-"The Federation believes that everyone deserves a second chance" yeah, but like I said, you can have your second chance from a penal colony or from behind the bars. I'll say it again. The only reason Rah was never put on trial is because the plot said so. That's all.
-"There are some things in this world that don't deserve forgiveness" sounds awfully similar to La'an's statement about the Gorn from the previous season.

It's difficult for me to care about the ethical dilemma in this episode, given that the whole plot requires too much suspension of disbelief and plot contrivances for it to work. And even if I gloss over that, M'Benga's decision ultimately is still in the wrong, since he was in the sickbay, he could have chosen other non-lethal ways of getting rid of Rah, but since it was clear that he was still bloodlust from the war, his judgement was impaired. True, Rah seemed to have developed a twisted idea of what peace and forgiveness should be, and he asked people too soon for those, but ultimately that's not a reason to off the socially awkward war criminal.

And with two more episodes, the season is over, and it barely feels like it had fewer than 10 episodes.

[CharlesPhipps]

A couple of things that you're wrong about, IMHO.

1. PTSD gets associated with "Traumatized" a lot of the time and that's something that is an inaccurate meladramatic moment. M'Benga doesn't suffer any falling to the ground, triggers, or breakdowns. He's just fucking warped by the war and sad about his experiences.

2. I mean, 100,000,000 Federation civilians died in the war. I don't have difficulty believing that a far off colony has run out of medical supplies.

3. I mean, M'Benga has to delete the guy because you need to keep the guy in storage so keeping someone in the pattern buffer is only a stop gap. It's also implied what he was doing to his daughter was actually incredibly unhealthy and had to be brought out of it regularly.

4. Dah blamed all of his war crimes on his officers and "killed them" before defecting. Starfleet absolutely was ignoring his other war crimes to show how enlightened they were. If you find that unbelievable, I remind you, Werner Von Braun was an SS officer and the head of Marshall Flight Center. Imagine what a Jewish man thought working there.

5. The Andorian was head of a squad of killers. I'm surprised he's not just an Enlisted Man. Then again, Starfleet ignores the existence of things like MACOs.

6. I get the impression that the locals weren't down with the boss' dishonorable scummy tactics.

7. Dude could have probably spun the Battle of j"gal if he'd won but he failed miserably so he decided to blame his subordinates and seek the Federation.

It's like M said in QUANTUM OF SOLACE, "Anyone who screwed up this bad would have the decency to defect."

[stryke]

Please do your self a favour if you're in this thread and are prone to bouts of Trek based rage. You will be mad. It will be incoherent. For the sake of your blood pressure just don't watch the musical episode. I honnestly think this could cause some fatalities here, and nobody wants that. Engage with Trek responsibly. Ask your local forum if this episode is right for you. Especially if you're a klingon fanboy... oh my, seriously underline this last one. This is not a drill!