Logline

Starfleet commandeers the Enterprise for an alien pursuit that grows far beyond its original orders.

Written by: Alan B. McElroy

Directed by: Sharon Lewis

  • billmason@startrek.websiteEnglish
    5·
    21 hours ago

    Actually the more I ponder it, the more it stops holding up and I don’t really care for it.

    • The show really undercuts Kirk (IMHO) by having his plan be 1) risk killing himself by accident by hiding amid the radioactive phaser whatever it was to establish a bluff, and then spike his CO’s drink with a high potency drug he only just learned of and he shouldn’t be playing around with because, I don’t know, he’s not a doctor. This is smarter and better for the character than showing us Kirk staking out the moral high ground, standing that ground, and finding another resolution?
    • M’Benga deciding to not only go along for the ride on this but take the blame doesn’t do him any favors either. I know they’re setting up M’Benga’s departure to mesh with TOS, but if this story went “M’Benga takes the moral stand and relieves him even though maybe Starfleet won’t support that stance after the fact” that would have been a stronger character point too.
    • Really, while this sets up “M’Benga will wind up departing but Kirk will be cool with him coming back later in TOS because he knows the true story”, the idea that M’Benga is allowed to stay in Starfleet after admitting to drugging his CO to have an excuse to relieve him of duty is kind of wild. Or at least how that came to pass would be a good story (that we’ll never see).
    • Watching this again, I hear Picard saying Starfleet’s first duty is to the truth and wondering when exactly Starfleet got there, because it’s sure not in this episode.
    • ShaunKL@startrek.websiteEnglish
      2·
      10 hours ago
      1. I felt that Kirk was trying to sabotage the phasers and didn’t have enough time or know how. Failing all other options then bluffing feels like textbook Kirk. We know how potent a full vial of cordrazine can be several years down the road. In the story, Kirk doesn’t know, he gave it his best guess, not a first or last for Star Trek. The drug twist was unexpected but I think makes sense. It’s not simply a Decker situation with a higher-ranking officer, but someone with a “reality distortion field” of myth and flattery Kirk has to prove without a doubt is unsound to a crew he doesn’t have a strong relationship with.
      2. We really don’t know where M’Benga’s story is going. We know he’s on the Enterprise in some capacity in 2268 but there are any number of things that can happen after SNW or before TOS to explain this. SNW is also going to have to put McCoy on the Enterprise theoretically before his first appearance in 2266. So Dr. Piper might have to be addressed as well.
      3. I think M’Benga is in a better spot than Number One was at the start of season two. It’s implied Reeger was removed from command deliberately, so a “Caine Mutiny” result in a trial wouldn’t be unexpected.
      4. I haven’t been able to find in canon where “truth” is an officially stated tenant of Starfleet. We can presume it’s woven into the culture, but for Picard it seems personal, and that whole monologue was specifically used to provoke a feeling of integrity and guilt within Wesley so he would do the right thing. A soft recurring theme in SNW has been that written history doesn’t contain the full dimension or truth of a moment. Logs can have details ommitted, but those logs become the history that is lionized for individuals like Picard, Janeway, Boimler, etc.