2x07: Wacky crossover with the comedy cartoon!

2x08: WAR IS HELL, NOBODY IS INNOCENT, MORALITY IS GREY, FORGIVENESS IS QUESTIONABLE, AND THE FRIENDLY DOCTOR MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE DELIBERATELY KILLED A GUY IN COLD BLOOD

2x09: Musical!

Find you a show that can do both.

Can we just have a quick shout out to Jess Bush who is such a talented actress. Nurse Chapel experiencing RAGE was so convincing!

So... I have loved this entire season but I am not sure about this one.

I'm a vet with PTSD, and I'll preface my upcoming comments by simply stating that maybe it hit close to home and made me uncomfortable. Maybe dealing with those feelings clouded my perception of the episode. However, the TNG and DS9 episodes dealing with PTSD are some of my favorite and are actually therapeutic for me, so maybe that's not the case.

Ultimately, the message was dour and I resent it a little since it implies that there isn't any healing that can occur from this type of trauma, which I believe is completely false. Sure, there might not be any healing for M'Benga as a character, but the thematic message of the episode implied some stuff I'm not really a fan of.

Furthermore, how is Pike supposed to operate as a Captain after both M'Benga and Chapel have committed conspiracy to cover up a murder? I think I will just have to head-canon this episode way. It'll join "Sons of Mogh" as an episode I just pretend never happened.

I'm fine with a bit of moral ambiguity in Star Trek. But I think this episode crossed a line. Hopefully we will see fallout from this come up later in the show.

I really hate typing this but M'Benga went from possibly my favorite character on the show to someone I sort of resent. And I feel like Chapel is right there alongside him. And it made Pike look ineffectual as a leader- he really should have reprimanded Ortegas.

Plus, back to it again, lying about the blade is conspiracy and it really shattered my perception of those two characters.

Anyways, this is just me rambling. I'll say something positive about the episode: I enjoyed seeing Spock struggle with seeing Chapel in distress and finally figuring out he needed to step away.

I want to call out to everyone the BRILLIANT usage of the medical transporter incoming warning during the war scenes of the episode.

I don't have PTSD, but I do have cPTSD which is close enough, and the way the sound designers utilized that medical transporter incoming warning seemed VERY clearly an attempt to demonstrate to viewers how PTSD triggers are formed.

Like--so many shows focus on explosions and stuff as a PTSD trigger. Because usually you talk about the soldiers as the vets, not the support personnel.

But with the MEDICS--that sound, going off again and again and again, when they were already overwhelmed and didn't have the staff or equipment to deal with the incoming wounded...

It's so clear to me that that sound alone, telling them they're about to get more dumped on their head when they can't even deal with the ones they already have, is meant to be fixated in the viewer's memory to sort of demonstrate how it'd get lodged as a trigger in the medic's memories.

It was just a fantastic use of sound design to help tell the story. They did it with such a deft hand that it didn't come off as poor sound design (as it could have), but was still CONSTANTLY THERE, putting everyone on edge.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if we hear that sound in a later episode and either Chapel or M'Benga (or both) completely hit the roof.

Edit: Unrelated to the sound, I also like how they had M'Benga and Chapel fix up the young man, even resorting to "medieval" medicine by manually pumping his heart--only for him to go out and then COME BACK dead.

It just gives a feeling of hopelessness. They spent so much time fixing him up--and he died anyhow after he was sent back into the meat grinder.

@ValueSubtracted
Did anyone else wonder (spoiler warning):

When Rah arrives on Enterprise, all the war vets hate him, but did M'Benga's damaged mind actually awaken his military instincts as a defence mechanism, compelling him to "finish" the unfinished mission to kill Rah?

When M'Benga & Rah first spar, M'Benga says he thought about not showing up but changed his mind because "Klingon judo is good exercise". Does he then use the session in a safe environment to A) trick Rah into...

Wow. There’s no contest anymore: SNW is undoubtedly the best new Trek. This season has been fantastic. Somehow they’ve just outdone last week’s crossover. And they just did war ‘better’ than DS9.

Not much to say beyond this episode was amazing. I love how this crew can do it all - lighthearted comedy, to dark, emotional drama. The scars that Ortegas, Chapel, and M'Benga wore in this episode felt real. When Chapel hesitated at knocking the one guy out of the pattern buffer, and M'Benga just cooly smacked the button, it was a clear reminder that war is hell and it breaks people.

Elevating a notorious enemy general to the position of ambassador in a handful of years is a total Starfleet move.

This episode exists because of the stupid Starfleet rule of having traumatized veterans of the war have to interact positively with the supposedly bad-to-good turned war crime enemy. That's a classic example of people acting stupid for "plot" (e.g. we couldn't have this episode without the stupid bit).

This was one of the best "connective tissue" episodes of Star Trek I've ever seen.
It provides context and ties together the Discovery Era "T'Kuvma War" with the eventual outcome in "The Undiscovered Country", while providing a layered, accurate and evocative image of Klingon Honor and "perceived honor" while staying true to the lore and expanding it in meaningful ways. It also has strong shades of "The Siege of AR-558". It now "makes sense" how the Klingons got from TOS to TNG. Wow!

Dr. M'Benga is fast becoming one of my favorite characters. Robert Wisdom's Dak'Rah was terrific too!

Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam

Edit: Spelling, Phrasing

After one of the funniest episode in trek history we got one of the darkest.

Well, the previously inexplicable "inject a bunch of drugs to fight Klingons" scene in the season opener has suddenly paid off.

I have little to say now except that this episode was a seriously heavy hitter. Just... wow. And ouch.

Dang, man.......what a whiplash from last week's episode. From slapstick funny to Siege of AR-558 in 10 seconds flat. LOL.

Excellent episode, though. I've got to say that M'Benga being basically a butcher was not something I expected.

Erica, the doctor, and Christine, throughout the entire episode: “Don’t believe him. Don’t trust him. Let him die.”

A fantastic episode.

Certainly, another YMMV of episode as the season takes on radically different tones and tropes episode by episode.

In my view, it’s one of the few episodes in the franchise that tackles trauma authentically and successfully. I would put it the ‘best of lists’.

It’s astonishing how many standout episodes we’ve had already this season.

@ValueSubtracted
I rewatched VOY "Jetrel" some days ago by coincidence and see some parallels (and - of course - differences) on the meta level.

M'Benga and Neelix both in trouble with their conscience (for opposite reasons) - Rah/Jetrel both ignoring the borders of M'Benga/Neelix, behaving selfless but having selfish reasons.
Wellmeaning Starfleet personnel that was not involved in the war pushing M'Benga/Neelix.

What a tonal shift from the last episode.

I think this was on par with DS9's Dominion War episodes, showing how the Federation ideals clash with the real world. It will certainly be controversial for being so "un-Trek". There's no happy ending, there's just the sinking feeling that a war never really ends in the heads of those that were affected by it.

The acting was stellar all around, particularly M'Benga and Chapel. [Edit: and Ortegas! Finally she got some material to work with that weren't funny one-liners, and she made the most of it.] And that final scene with M'Benga and Pike just demands a continuation in the future.

It was certainly an impressive, thought-provoking episode but if you'd ask me to rate this episode on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd have no idea where to put it. I'm still sitting here trying to wrap my head around what I just saw. I guess that's war for you. It doesn't make sense.

So this is how M'Benga isn't the CMO by the time of Kirk? This storyline still has many more seasons to go, it seems.

Could someone explain the food replicator? I thought they weren't invented yet? Or were they showing an early beta version that can't get anything right?

PTSD. Like many of us I struggle with it. I was taken how so many on the Enterprise have not gotten any sort of treatment. It also showed Pike as a bit weak of a leader. He should have known to keep certain people away from the Klingon. I did like that he didn't reprimand Ortega because he understood her feelings. BUT what was he doing inviting her to dinner that night without at least a long talk with her. Pike is wonderful and I'm struggling to understand his sometimes avoiding conflict... even a conflict he could have prevented.

The hand to hand combat was quite good.

Thank you P+ for adding an extra episode this week. I totally expected not to have this one this week.

It is great to see characters who were undeveloped in TOS get fleshed out. The characters feel real and motivated by their history. It beats interpersonal drama designed purely to create conflict within the crew.

I know Orville was widely disliked by critics for uneven tone because they wanted to shove it in a pigeon hole but variety is where episodal tv really shines. I don't think Orville did this as effortlessly as SNW is currently doing but it had its moments. Given the substantial departure from Discovery and Picard I wonder if Lower Decks or SNW could have existed in Kurtzman's Star Trek without MacFarlane showing there was still demand.

I hope they use the release of inhibitions in the musical episode to delve into the inner thoughts and feelings of some of the characters as they did in Buffy's Once More With Feeling. The characters revealed a hell of a lot in that episode. It would be a waste to back off after this episode and not use what on the surface looks like a lightweight episode to dig deeper.