Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 4 Recap and Review - (Please Don’t) Play It Again, Sam

Spoilers travel for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 4, “A Case of Chiaroscuro.”

Alright, here’s the happening astir Strange New Worlds. For immoderate reason, astatine immoderate constituent showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers decided that gimmick episodes were what this amusement needed. After a superb archetypal play of adventure-of-the-week episodes, Season 2 featured occasional segments similar “Those Old Scientists,” a crossover with the animated bid Lower Decks, and “Subspace Rhapsody,” a philharmonic episode, which lit a occurrence nether the conception of what a modern occurrence of Star Trek could be. And that was great.

Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Una (Rebecca Romijn), and M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun)

But determination on the way, the gimmicks became the focus, and frankly, they’ve grown benignant of tiresome. I was truly hoping with Season 4 that we’d conscionable get backmost to regular play adventures. So erstwhile this week’s episode, “A Case of Chiaroscuro,” began and everything was successful achromatic and white, my caput instantly went to Yellow Alert. By the clip we were connected Mat'aar XII, the satellite of the week (which is simply a benignant of throwback to a movie noir and/or Casablanca world), my interior Red Alert was successful afloat effect. IT’S ANOTHER GIMMICK EPISODE.

When a recently promoted Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) leads an distant squad of Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Ensign Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) to retrieve a probe that’s strayed into Klingon space, the radical find themselves stuck connected Mat'aar XII, wherever not lone does everything look to beryllium achromatic and achromatic to our heroes (due to the infrared thing something radiation of the system), but besides you person to formal up similar knock-off Humphrey Bogarts and Carmen Sandiegos successful bid to acceptable in.

Look, it’s a cute capable thought I suppose. The Original Series did spell to a gangster satellite aft all. And the visuals of the occurrence are beauteous cool. But arsenic “A Case of Chiaroscuro” labors done its beats to deed the tropes of the genre(s) it’s moving to imitate, the hr conscionable winds up feeling similar a Cinema Studies 101 midterm paper: High-contrast and shadowy achromatic and achromatic photography? Check. Doppelgänger characters? Check. A cardinal bar/cafe wherever conspirators and their foes tin congregate? Check. Corrupt section authorities? Check. And truthful connected and truthful on. The happening is, similar that middling insubstantial from the kid who lone fractional paid attraction successful class, the occurrence truly gets its movie noir cocoa mixed up successful its wartime/romance movie peanut butter.

But whatever, let’s not quibble astir that. The existent occupation present is that Una’s conflict isn’t truly fleshed retired enough. I recognize that she’s torn betwixt wanting to assistance the section absorption fighters who are pushing against the Klingon concern they are enduring, and I besides recognize that this is simply a peculiarly idiosyncratic contented for her owed to her ain puerility erstwhile it was the Federation who were seen arsenic the occupiers by immoderate of her chap Illyrians. And yet, there’s small present that makes maine consciousness overmuch for Una’s existent (or past) situation.

Christina Chong’s La’an is connected the case, adjacent if cipher other is - not adjacent Spock (Ethan Peck).

Indeed, it’s Olusanmokun’s M'Benga who erstwhile again steals the show, adjacent though he’s depicted present arsenic much of an advisor to some Una and Uhura alternatively than fixed his ain plotline. The thought of the kindly doc who is besides a skilled warrior and an adept spy is truthful darned chill arsenic the bully doc counsels the young Uhura successful however to navigate this unusual (new) satellite portion besides reminding Una that she can’t fto her work to the absorption question overtake her oath to Starfleet. He adjacent gets the champion enactment of the hour: “My calling is medicine, healing people. It's the large enigma of my beingness that immoderate of my strongest skills prevarication successful absorption to that calling.”

The B communicative involves Christina Chong’s La’an, who’s been flirting with going implicit to the acheronian broadside each season, obsessing implicit what she thinks mightiness beryllium clues that there’s a traitor onboard the Enterprise. The happening is, cipher other buys her theories, not adjacent her friend-with-benefits-but-actually-her-boyfriend Spock (Ethan Peck). Again, it’s a reasonably low-impact plotline that culminates successful the revelation that, whew, La’an is not crazy, but also, whoa, she conscionable lied to Captain Pike (Anson Mount) to screen up the truth. Pike seems to possibly cognize there’s much going connected here, and trusts La’an to bash the close thing, but still…

Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:

• So if Una’s adjacent measurement up the promotion ladder is captain, however agelong until she gets her ain vessel and leaves the Enterprise for good? (Never to beryllium mentioned oregon seen again, by the way.)
• In her opening log, Una says that they’re astatine hazard of “re-starting a precise Cold War,” but shouldn’t that beryllium “re-starting a shooting war”? The Klingons and the Federation are successful a authorities of Cold War by the clip Kirk is successful bid of the Enterprise, and presumably that’s been the concern since the extremity of the warfare depicted successful Star Trek: Discovery…
• The main Klingon present is Kor, who I conjecture is expected to beryllium the Kor from The Original Series and Deep Space Nine who was played by the late, large John Colicos. Fine, I guess? (The House of Kor was besides depicted successful Star Trek: Discovery, though Kor himself was not.)
• Speaking of Discovery, the shuttle Una and the pack instrumentality successful this occurrence is the Cervantes, which according to Memory Alpha is simply a Stamets-type vessel. It’s gotta beryllium named aft either the Discovery’s Paul Stamets (who is considered mislaid and MIA astatine this constituent successful the timeline) oregon perchance the real-life mycologist Paul Stamets who the quality is named after. Right?