Written by: Alan B. McElroy

Directed by: Sharon Lewis

A pretty good episode that got a lot more interesting in the final act.

For the most part, it came off as a story that we've seen before, albeit a well-told one. But the reveal that Kirk drugged Reeger in order to make him unfit for commend is a genuinely compelling idea, as is the idea that M'Benga just torpedoed his career to cover it up.

The B-plot was decent, too - it was good to see Uhura do some ass-kicking.

They sure do like to talk about the Klingon War as if it's ancient history when it only ended about five years ago, though.

Annotations for 4x08 up at: https://startrek.website/post/44454788

I really enjoyed this one. The core moral dilemma of orders versus morals, captured in a strong A story and a decent B story. Genuine character growth, and an out for M'Benga that made sense, was in character, and felt justified. The direction was really nice, it captured the tense nature of the episode. The treknobabble for the A plot was pretty decent, and in the B plot I enjoyed the cave set - it felt used and full, not bare like they sometimes do. I really enjoyed the acting here - the Andorian leader gave me a hint of cardassian in his analytical takedown of humans, and the badmiral was really enjoyable from his upbeat arrival to steady decline into madness. The two Kirks getting along really well was enjoyable, and the synchronised walk and talk at the end was a nice way to wrap up the episode.

From this season's approach, I'm guessing this episode drawing from old war films, in particular I am getting flavours of submarine hunts, chasing after wakes, and handling big questions of WMDs, the sanity of the chain of command. This is exactly the way I like those references embedded, allowing the trek to shine through, rather than the gimmick taking over.

My only immediate quibble in this episode was when Uhura went Rambo in the caves, it did feel like the Andorians went down a little easy, but I wasn't that bothered by it. A'Sha leaving is fine, I guess, she didn't feel very present throughout the season anyway.

Please, more of this type of episode.

M'Benga covering for Kirk is really good, I like that the setup for this was laid a couple of episodes ago. Kirk fighting on behalf of the crew to keep them from doing war crimes - it shows the level of camaraderie this crew has, which admiral reeger likely never experienced, and helps continue to cement Kirk as a member of the enterprise.

I’m guessing this episode drawing from old war films, in particular I am getting flavours of submarine hunts, chasing after wakes, and handling big questions of WMDs, the sanity of the chain of command.

Maybe it's just because the writers of the (alleged) next Trek film have been talking about it, but I did think of "Crimson Tide" several times during this one.

A’Sha leaving is fine, I guess, she didn’t feel very present throughout the season anyway.

I can't help but think there's still more to come with her - they haven't dropped her off yet, after all. Something about it seems unfinished, somehow.

It also lays a foundation for his actions to (arguably) come back to bite him in the ass in "Balance of Terror," when (presumably) the same Romulan ship reappears and starts wiping out colonies. I'll leave it up for debate whether this is a good thing.

Yaaay, a badmiral!

Hopefully being court martialled helps M'benga with his space madness

Maybe she was an undercover romulan, sent to report if enterprise go too close to finding the cloaked ship, and now that Reeger is likely no longer a threat, and enterprise probably isn't going to want to follow up, her job's done so she's off.

At this point I'm starting to have trouble naming a Goodmiral.

Why couldn't they be like this every week?

Definite TOS Movie vibe to this one, especially in the superlative soundtrack.

Vance and Cornwell come to mind for me.

I was internally screaming "somebody do something!" this whole episode. This was a great episode. My emotions were all over the place. I don't quite understand why the admiral at the end kept acting like he could end Kirk and then M'Benga's career. He just admitted to forging logs. What was everybody else's take on that situation? I can't imagine the Enterprise officers are also going to keep quiet about what happened on the Constitution.

Wow, actually exploring a Strange New World for a bit.

The intro came in really late this one. Ten minutes? Long opening, but then again it's a longer episode.

Oh snap, an Andorian episode. I love Andorian episodes.

Was that the countdown sound from Independence day?

Overall liked this episode. It was a feeling similar to that Spongebob episode where the customers go "that's what we've been waiting for!" A classic Star Trek moral quandary orders vs Badmiral deal.

He was drugged, so even though the drugs made him tell the truth, he can claim they made him spout nonsense.

Just got to watch this week's. It was all right, I guess, compared to most of the rest of the season. My best praise is it was good enough to make me forego head-desking that they found yet another reason to get Kirk aboard the Enterprise for a story about him.

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.

April? Paris?

Good episode. I didn’t think they needed to drug the admiral - there were already emotional (family) and experience (Kirk snr actually being in command at that earlier battle) factors that could been used as kindling for a breakdown.

The soundtrack was really outstanding wasn’t it? There were several points where I was like, oh damn, this moment has some weight to it, thanks to the music!

I enter the discussion post after watching the episode, did a Ctrl+F to Crimson Tide and I see I'm not the only one thinking about it.

As soon in the episode as the Admiral says, "Here there is only one voice, mine" or something like that I knew they were ripping off the plot of Crimson Tide, and I was not wrong.

I think an important difference is the characters' motivations, though - for Reeger, it's personal, while Ramsey in "Crimson Tide" is merely hawkish and reckless.

while Ramsey in “Crimson Tide” is merely hawkish and reckless.

I have to disagree, Ramsey (Gene Hackman) in "Crimson Tide" gives during all the confrontation scenes a very good arguments about why they have to launch, for me as good as Denzel Washington character ones. He is hawkish and violent, but even at the end he says, let's sit down and see who is right. He was acting on good conscience even if his position was brutal and could cause a World War. That's why his character is so good, because his motivations were right.

Here the Admiral is never right, he is just looking for revenge, even if he denies it, until is drugged. That's why the episode pales in comparison, because there is someone who is right and someone who is not.
Yeah, we still maybe have to see that mysterious cloacking ship again, and then maybe someone, Kirk, can feel some remorse, but I don't think so. He did the right thing, everybody knows

Definitely enjoyed this one. It was fun seeing Kirk doing what he does best and following his gut no matter the cost. Been really enjoying Paul Wesley on this.

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.

SMW actually makes a Star Trek episode! I've heard this described as the best episode of Star Trek for 20 years. I think I agree.

Well, this was a great episode.

The only downside is that the Badmeral didn't get his comeuppance like is tradition, but I can excuse that because we get some justification why M’Benga gets a demotion.

We've seen this plot a few times, I don't feel that's a bad thing. I feel like some of the best of Star Trek, and especially SNW, is just recycling plots but doing them better, or at least something different.

Also, it was super nice to give Uhura the spotlight. It felt a bit over the top, but I kind of accept it... I kind of wish A’Sha had a bit more development to land her decision, but she was not having a good time on the Enterprise and she clearly almost died, and technically she's seen enough times where the Enterprise was almost destroyed, it really does seem logical for her to nope out of Star Fleet. I cannot fault the Vulcan prioritizing self preservation over Uhura's attempts to make her feel welcomed.

And a few continuity notes. The ship is obviously the same one from Balance of Terror. The other helms men next to Sulu says, everyone knows who attacked the Star Fleet Base. So this cloak ship has been a problem for a while and everyone knows of it, but there is likely political problems that make it impossible to deal with.

We also know cloaking tech is not new, as we also see it in ENT's Minefield.

We also seen an alternate reality version of Balance of Terror in SNW's A Quality of Mercy, which I feel this has some strange parallels with. Where in QoM Pike hesitates to attack the Romulan Ship, while we see in BoT Kirk is gungho. In this one Kirk is less gungho (but like, reasonably so). I just thought it was an interesting take. It also explains why the writers need to make sure Pike wasn't on board or else he'd have spoiled the big reveal that it was Romulans.

My head canon vis a vis Uhura is that 1) she has trained with La'an on tactical back in season 1 and 2) the sound feedback on the coms machine probably did a number on the Andorians antennae and therefore on their internal balance like an extended flashbang granade.

I can see that, each time I read your comment it makes more and more sense

I wonder if A'Sha will have T'Lyn moment and realize she's been Starfleet all along.

Boy, I just discovered that people are picking apart the star map in this episode. There's a hair trigger to just get angry about anything at this point 😂

...Do I even want to ask?

I'd have to double-check, but it IIRC it was the same map we typically see. But maybe that's the "problem" 🙄.

It's basically that for literally one second of screen-time (if you pause so you can read it), Cardassia is marked on the map with a "Wormhole" marked near it.

So if you're in a frame to be mad, you're mad because the DS9 wormhole seems to be on the map a century before it's known. Or more esoterically, there's a wormhole stable enough to mark on a map when TNG told us there were historically no known stable wormholes.

I basically would headcanon it as "they thought it was stable and marked it, but later it turned it was not". Or I would just not be freeze-framing and nitpicking this stuff in the first place.

Really though, I think making detailed maps on the show marking all sorts of places just opens a door for problems. Geography is second to travel times from A to B among "things work in whatever way makes sense in this story and otherwise forget it" in Star Trek. (Edit: I guess geography and travel time is all of a piece, but you know what I mean.)

Just for reference/funsies.

Hoo boy. Wait until they hear about the rubber ducky...

we get some justification why M’Benga gets a demotion.

This one is funny because I've been thinking "oh, this is what does it" many times over, starting with "secret daughter in the transporter buffer." Maybe this time it will stick?

I am so late to the party but I only just got around to watching the episode.