Strange New Wednesdays - Under the Cloak of War

0:04 Space, the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of Strange New Wednesdays. It's continuing mission to explore episodes of Strange New Worlds, to seek out new information and new discussions, to boldly go where no podcast has gone before. Hello everyone, and welcome back the Strange New Wednesdays. Will we continue to talk everything about the current season of Star Trek Strange New Worlds once again, Redd Alert, Please be worn. Spoilers our ahead, so if you haven't seen this week's episode, please stop, go watch it and then come back to join us. I am David Burns often and I'm Wayne White. Today we are discussing season two, episode eight, Under the Cloak over War Incoming Transport. Incoming Transport. We get a big shift in this episode from the laid back comedy of those old scientists to this much serious, dark episode about war and dealing with PTSD. Wayne, can you give us a recap of this episode? Yeah? It definitely was a one hundred and eighty degree turn, wasn't it? But here we go. The Enterprise place host to Ambassador Drocra, who during the Klingon War was known to have killed his own officers

1:37 for attacking civilians on the Moon of Jacal before defecting to the Federation. His presence on board ship has split opinion upon the crew. Veterans of the war, including Chapel, Artigas and the Benga, despise and distrust him, while others who didn't serve believe he should be given a second chance at redemption. DoCRA states that he is there to bring peace to the two war races, but the ghosts of the past still haunt those who fought, and for doctor Membinga may bring out a darker side that he's kept hidden for a very long time. You know, Um, we finally get that origin story from Membinga and Chapel. Um, you know that that we've been wanting. Um, you know, we get some flashbacks scenes with them in the war, you know, helping the wounded and dying in which to me is some of the darkest Star Trek I have seen. Yes, you know, getting to see actual surgery which we don't really get to see in Star Trek and all that blood was just a shock to me. Yeah. Yeah, we definitely get to see a how how shocking that side is for the characters in those roles.

2:45 Uh specifically, Uh, lets see ensign Inman played by Brendan jeffers Um kind of has this. I think he has this line of dialogue where he's talking about, you know, I signed up to explore. I didn't signed up to be a soldier, but here I am and having to just keep getting shoved back into the front lines. It was. It was rough. It was and you know, just you mentioned, you know, seeing what we had last week, but there's old scientists and moving to this, it was what a shock. And you know what I love about to do is this This episode in the last episode just shows you the range these actors have. You know, they go from such a light, fun hearted episode, you know, to this very serious, dark tone of under the Cloak of war. I mean, just phenomenal performances across the board. Yeah, especially when you see doctor Embenga's reaction when doctor comes into the medical bay, the look on his face just kind of backing up and the horror from that.

3:50 We've gotten kind of glimpses of this, we've gotten kind of hints at it with him and Chappell, but just so perfectly executed in this. But it's it's always been in the past for them before now here finally it's right there in front of them. They'd have to confront this right there, and it brings it's bringing up so many different and terrible emotions to all of the veterans of this war. And you can see that in Ambinga the PTSD was getting I mean when he was like shaking and just trying to control himself right holding his heart. Yeah, yeah, just wow. And then and then when Chapel step in said I'll handle this so that he could go, you know, go away, and then she just moved on in. It just my goodness, man. It just the at tension there and it looks it looks dramatic the way he was he was doing where he was shaking and steading.

4:45 That is very very accurate. I can tell you to PTSD and a lot of the veterans that I see, UM, very accurate. They have these these physical almost it's almost like a heart attack. It it's it's a very physical manifestation rather than just mental. And he played it perfectly. He did. Um, this is one of the best performances I've seen him give. And I'm probably already gonna give away who I think is the shines the most in this and I'm just giving it away because he was phenomenal in this episode and it really was his episode. I know. I know Chappell was there too, um and you know, we get to see her side of how she met and membang and you know, got involved with the war and stuff like that. But just his brilliant acting. Just like you said, Wayne, you know, it's almost like he went and studied the reaction to people who really have PTSD in order to be able to perform that, because you're right, he was incredible with that. Yeah, this was a really dark turn for that character. I mean, oh yeah, you'd I'd say, I'd call him he's a damaged man. He's traumatized by the actions during the war. He's suffering from some serious physical psychological scars that's created. But I'm glad that the writers went with this. We we have too many characters and start Trek that I would say have perfect lives that a greader, you know, clean, they're perfect disparsier to see a character in this franchise presented with histories like this and this, this isn't something that the writers can just just do as a story of the week and push off to the side and forget

6:16 about it. Think the writers will need to have to follow this through because all of us are out there wondering what is going to happen to him. I won't mention what's going on to the in the ending right now, we'll get onto that, but there are definitely far reaching consequences from what happens in this episode. Well, you touched on something they're wayne that. You know, we alluded to a little bit toward in the beginning of this episode. And you know, Star Trek has always been that that clean, shiny, everything's perfect, you know, in this in this galaxy, in this galaxy, in this world is universe. This episode is nowhere near that. We're seeing a side of Star Trek that we've never really seen or explored. That's why those flashbacks. He just caught me by surprise, because I'm like, wow, this is mark for Star Track. Yeah, try things like this before in D Space nine, that was a major war story, and they tried episodes like this, but never to this extreme. Never, never anything like this, not with not with this blood, just dirt, this grimes, this psychological impact, It's it's incredible what they're trying to do here.

7:17 Yeah, and I mean that first scene where we have Chapel coming into the scene and um, you know being told like there's no landing pad, we just kind of drive by and drop you off. And when she was being led through by Buck Martinez played by Howard, it brought me back to Mash. Right, yeah, very much Mash kind of feel to it where it's kind of like we're on the front lines, about as close as you can get. We do the best we can with what we have, we have to triage and move on. I think that was a very clever, you know, ten City, a very clever way of showing that angle of warm and very shocking. I thought the first scene where m chappell was trying to treat somebody who had massive damage to every organ and I thought, all right, Amenga's going to have to kind of like, you know, discuss the reality of like we might have to make a tough decision here, and decides to keep him in the transport buffer, which it sounds like they're doing with a few characters. I thought that he was actually lying to her in that instance and just saying, you know, we're going to do this, but he's ultimately not going to make it. But I need you to move on from this, So we're just going to triage and kind of get through it.

8:41 And that leads to important scene later Scott too. Yeah, yeah, when he has to delete it. Yeah, especially considering what he was going through with his daughter. Yeah, I'm glad to brought that up. The same kind of thing, the same thing, yeah, oh, because you goose bumps. Yeah, And you've got a rounding out this trifactor of war veterans that are, you know, having to you know, push down some emotions and kind of balance that with their duties. Ortegas, who again an amazing performance here, and you get three different angles. You get Abenga, who is who has been on the front lines the longest with this but also has to wrestle with expectations that people have of him as a warrior, as a soldier. You've got Chapel, who's just getting introduced to the front lines and having to experience that and go through it with Ambenga. And then you've got Artegas as a pilot who has seen friends, who has lost friends on of her own and gone through the horrors from from her angle. And I think the way that they show the three of them handle diplomacy. Ortegas does it with such respect and reverence. She doesn't go to insubordination. She has a whoops moment on the bridge, but at dinner when she kind of stands up and just kind of stands there and you know, doesn't throw a fork down or anything. I was like that, just stands up with respect to say, like I don't feel comfortable being here. Yeah, very important moment.

10:11 And you see with those three characters too, three different ways of dealing with the trauma that they went through with Mebenga he is hiding it deep inside of him, Chapel is pretty much denying it a lot. She's she's just pretty much not ignoring it until it comes out. And then Ortegas is just she has new Filder. She's bringing it all out and saying everything she wants to say on her mind. Yeah. That that whole dinner scene when they were all in there together and then some of them had to excuse themselves, Ortegas had to leave him in Chapel went after her. And then the scene where Membinga was in there and he was starting to break and Pluck recognized it right away and he leaned over. He says if you want to go check on him, to go ahead, because he knew what was happening with Membinga and get him out of here. And of course what does that lead to when membing is trying to leave the room. Oh yeah, that scene I audibly shouted. I was like, don't do that, do not do that when doc Ra kind of you know, grabs him by the arm to stop him and say like, you know, I heard that. You you know, practice martial arts and we should really sparse sometime, we should have some sessions as he has been gripping the arm of his chair the entire time, trying to hold it in. Oh god, so tense it was, and may just it's just, oh my god, I can't stop myself in watching that because you could feel what Membinga was feeling at that moment, and just that kudos through the writers there and the performance of him before that, because it's enabled for them to make you feel like that you have been pulled into

11:46 that story, which means you care about what's going on. That's incredible. Yeah, And I want to take a moment to just call specifically the writers out, you know, a Kiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumt, Davy Perez, and Nitri Johnson. This is an example of why the writers are so important on these types of show shows. They're they're the lifeblood of it because you see the power of this episode versus the comedy of the previous and to see that it all still fits within the same show. It's absolutely incredible. And we let's go ahead and talk about the ending, guys. Um, everybody's where we've got spoilers here? Um, that that ending caught me by surprise, every everything that happened, what was going on with men being a to find out mem Mingo was actually you know, the one who you know was responsible for killing the Klingons and stuff like that, right right, he's actually he was the butcher. Yeah, And then we get that obscure shot behind that like screen to see did he start the fight or did or did um cut with his name? Um the doc ra did doc Ross start to fight? You know, we kind of know who did. But and then Chapel comes to his defense, which of course she would you would too if you were in an experience like they did together, you absolutely would protect one another. And this really takes these two characters in a completely different direction than we were expecting. Yeah, this is going to have ramifications for that character in the years to come. And it makes sense because when this

13:20 series was first announced and they first announced that Mebinga was going to be the chief medical Officer in the Enterprise, I was a little confused and surprised, because you know, this isn't a new character. This isn't some of them creative for this series. We've seen this character before. He was in two episodes of the original series, but he was not the chief medical officer. He was serving under under doctor McCoy, and there's another doctrine between Mebinga and McCoy. I can't think of who it was that served on Enterprise too, But why wasn't he still chief medical officer? Is this Are we seeing the beginning of a storyline that's leading to his demotion? I think you're right it could be. I mean, who knows where where they're leading with this.

14:03 As long as we see we see more and we see the effect of his actions continuing on in the story. And I really hope that's more of a slow burn than anything I do, because you don't want him to go away as CMO anytime soon, David, When you were mentioning the ending of this, I kind of thought of another ending that we saw with the analogy of the biobed that he still has a hard time of fixing and then he finally gets it fixed and then it kind of flickers in and out. Such a brilliant piece of writing there to have that analogy like it's going to work for a while, but it has to keep you know, it needs help, it needs continual maintenance to try to you know, get it to do what it needs to do. It's right. And to have him go through that, oh so good, I know, I know. Well, let's talk about some of our favorite moments in this episode, Wayne, any for you?

14:56 Ah? Well, you know, I always have fun trying to find the continuity and the episodes, and there was there was a few, not too many, kind of some of them were a little vague. But the one big thing I noticed was Jail notice in the recap that we saw all scenes from Discoveries first season and scenes of the They're Weird design for the Klingons. It's pretty much been forgotten now. I was really surprised to see that, and I was really surprised not to see them in the episode. I was kind of hoping that they would explain the differences and look kind of like what Deep Space Nine did with the Originals and the new look, but we never saw anything more of them, so I don't I don't know their reasoning for showing those scenes. But there were other little things that I loved.

15:39 Just the the whistle, the Bostwain whistle was exactly the same as what was using Star Trek sixty Undiscovered Country, and even then in that movie, what they whistled it for the arrival of the Klingons. And we got Racca Gino, which was Jazia Dax's favorite drink on Deep Space nine, and it was in this same type of cup too. I was actually rather impressed with that. Pike and his cooking goes to Mabinga and asked for Delton Parsley. Now Delta, we saw that that's from Star Trek, the motion picture that is where Aliah came from. The the they are very sexually advanced race on that planet, so I can only imagine what they're what they're partley can do to you. And of course you know this, the sonic showers that's something we rarely ever saw in the show was sonic showers. I think they showed it once in Voyager and lower decks had it on there too, But you know, remember the next generation they had regular showers. I think that must be a choice. The officers must be able to choose whether they used they have real showers or sonic showers, but they were in there. And then my favorite Easter egg, it's not really an Easter egg, but my favorite thing was Clint Howard. I mean, he deserves to be on this show.

16:52 This is his fifth Star Trek series that he's been on. I mean, we're talking to someone that that was not only in the original series, but in the first aired episode of the original series, and it's great seeing him continue on. But um, you know those were those what I found, Uh, my favorite scene there was that dinner scene. I won't go into too much details, we've already talked about it, but yeah, that was that also reminded me of the dinner scene from Star Trek six. Oh yeah, yeah, since that scene was and how it didn't quite go the way it should have and it showed out to you know, nobody holds it in it really brought out some of the prejudices and some of the emotional scars that the actress had. It's such an uncomfortable scene to watch. And Spock coming to the rescue of Chapel to getting the subject chance. Yes, that was That was a nice touch too. But at the same time, uh, you know, acknowledging like that's not something you can fix. Yeah, right, and Chappell saying like, this is something I need to get through.

17:53 Yeah, it's not about you. Please don't make it about you because I need I need to get through this on my own. Just understand that and give me time, give me space. That was that was so well done. I love that depth that they're giving to that relationship. Absolutely, Scott, what about you? Aside from what we've mentioned, we got this. I like that kind of encouraging refrain that they have between them. I don't think this is the last we're going to see of their past, because there's that, you know, that gesture where they kind of rub under the eye. We'll probably see that explained or revealed a little bit more later. Doesn't come up here. I thought it was interesting with how they made another connection to that that battle enhancer that we saw in a previous episode that Embenga is the one who engineered that, and when he gets approached by you know, somebody who's trying to get more soldiers and he's just like, I I can't do it. The scene where the ensign Um is coming back out after they've had to literally pump his heart with Chapel's hand and he's like, well, I gotta go back out there, and it's kind of like, how can you, buddy speaking? Yeah? Yeah, and he looks so young, so young. Um. And then you know, obviously Clinton Howard did an amazing job. I love the fact that he couldn't get any sayings right where he would say, well, running up the flag pole and see if it whacks. Yeah, like he got messing up those things, you know,

19:27 totally understandable and yeah. And then last thing is just that relentless refraid of incoming transport. Yeah. Just that sounded like the choppers from Mash right. It was. It was very very creepy and just put you on edge, like war should of of incoming wounded. You know. That was a really cool touch to put into a Star Trek show. And I love that very very much. My biggest part of love of the scenes that I love were the flashback scenes, the war scenes, but the director in me the photograph. For me, I have to call out the transitions they did moving back and forth from the flashbacks to present day, going back and forth. I thought their transitions were phenomenal in this. Yes, and I you know, I love to call out creators and editors when I see stuff like that, and they should be called out for this because that was fantastic work and it added to the depth of the emotions that we were feeling and should feel in this episode. So, you know, kudos to him for the good work.

20:32 Great work. Absolutely, I do want to call out two more things. I know we're running along. But as far as guest stars, Robert Wisdom as Doc Raw, yeah, I think he did a great job at that diplomat that you you really want to hate, but he's doing such a good job of being being a diplomat that you can't quite trust. So hats off to that actor for his work in this and to he and to Abs for their their sparring scenes. Again knowing that Babs is a black black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu, so to see that sparring and the emotion within that.

21:14 You know, when somebody gets knocked down, you don't see anger, you don't see like rage filled faces. The closest you get is when he has the chance to like hit doc Ra in the face and you see his shaking fist just at Bay. Yep, it was just so tense, but such a great use of that actor's background. Yeah, I've already given mine away. So which character do you think shine the most? Wayne? Oh, there's no doubt we've been this season. We've been working through all the characters. Each character has gotten their own episode, and now we're down to the Benga. I mean, you can't deny this is this is this is his episode. You know, it's great that everyone's been able to get an episode to shine. We've got two more episodes left. I think probably the next two are pretty a pike. But this is a dark turn for this character. We've mentioned so much more already before, So I won't go into two judge detail, but please, writers continue with this storyline. Yeah, please, Scott? What about you? Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree.

22:18 It absolutely spotlights Benga, and Babs does such an amazing job of portraying this character. The writers have done an amazing job at giving this character so much more depth than when we already had so much depth to explore in season one. The characters are only getting richer. Yeah, it's it's a tough call. We've got that strong trifecta that I was talking about before with the Benga Chapel and Artegas, but for me, it's got to be in bigger It's It's funny. The three of us in a few episodes have already mentioned that the actors and the characters in this show have become so good with each other that we feel like it's the Next Generation all over again with their chemistry. I read an article the other day John and Freaks pretty much said the exact same thing. He said, this feels like the Next Generation crew all over again because of their chemistry. And it's true. It is absolutely true.

23:11 Yeah, So, if you could be any character in this episode, who would it be? And why? Scott? I don't want to be a Buck Bartinez. As much as he has to go through all those horrors of war, it'd be interesting to see, you know, how he handles this from day to day. It'd be interesting to see his relationship with Benga before Nurse Chapel arrives. I don't think I would want to have to live through what he did, but it looks like an interesting character to kind of live through. Yeah, absolutely, Wayne, What about you, Well, I can tell you it's not definitely not gonna be Benga m I have no desire to go through what he did. But I'm gonna tell you this isn't gonna be a funny answer for me this time because I'm going to see Chapel.

23:56 Oh as as you two know most of this, don't you know. I'm a long serving paramedic and I understand the feeling, the frustrations that everything the Chapel was going through. It's it's it's rough, But you know, there's a strong line between your the intentions that you have on the field, what you want to do, and what you're able to do with the resources that you have. And it can be very frustrating when you find yourself helpless to do anything or when the situations escalate beyond what you're capable of dealing with it. But you keep you keep focused, you you do your job, and you hope that that whatever efforts you're able to make makes a difference for at least one person. Uh. You know, this is exactly what Chapel was going through. This is what they were showing in the flashback scenes.

24:42 And and um, I can relate in every way to what she was feeling. It's and Jess Bush, She's isn't she wonderful? Oh? She's incredible. I mean I look at the character of Christine Chapel and I see a whole new perspective on the character. You know, she's she's making this one of the all time great characters in the Star Trek universe week after week. And and I know she's she's doing such honor to Mijel Barrett, who was so limited to her appearances and what she could do in the original series in the movies, that it's fantastic that that Jess has been able to take this character and the writers and the writers, uh and and make it such a great character to watch every week. I just can't wait to see what they're going to do in the next two episodes and for the seasons in the future.

25:36 And if she's listening, please do some convention us police, please, will will all three come and we'll tell you in person exactly how we feel, Yes we will, and any member of the cast, they're a delight to meet in person. And I would love to just geek out these members. I did I got back in March. I'll tell you everybody to eat Anson Mount and he is the nicest person. If you have a chance to meet him, meet him please, He's he's fantastic. Yeah. Well for me, I'm going with Laon because well she didn't get to do too much, but she was always around and well, come on, guys, she's a badass. Any other Easter eggs that you guys might have found besides Clint Howard being the biggest one, I think, yeah, I think I mentioned him all you did? Okay, so well we know what the next episode is going to be. It looks like we might be going back to a little bit of a fun episode. Uh Subspace Rhapsody. Uh. It is apparently the musical that we have always wanted in Star Trek right, right and Wayne. This is a first for Star Trek right, I believe so.

26:48 I don't remember them ever breaking out in song before other than you hear, but I don't know. I'm waiting till next week to watch it and see what I feel you know, I have faith in the these writers, so I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. It makes me think of a I don't know how many people watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but they had that musical episode where they couldn't do anything but just saying everything. It feels like it's going to be that and I can't wait to see it. Yeah, I knew everybody's talking about the musical episode that I'm We've got two more episodes left and I'm really curious to what they're gonna do for the season. For now, we know what's going to kind of what's going to happen. It's the Gorns are going to reappear. Oh yeah, But my curiosity is they're They're not supposed to have met the Gorns by now, so are they going to change continuity or are they going to try to find some clever way of sticking to what we've seen and know already. That's a good question. Well what do you think? Out there? Listeners? Open up a channel give us your thoughts, predictions, and questions. If you want to leave a comment, discuss what's next, or even half suggestions, you can find us at www dot film by podcast dot com. A film by podcast at gmail dot com. A filmed by podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

28:00 Stay Low, Fight Hard, Thanks everybody, Thank you,