Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 'A Case of Chiaroscuro' airs
Star Trek at its best is didactic. It's a morality play in a sci fi costume. Every good episode has something to say about humanity, about the contemporary world, about SOMETHING. Strange New Worlds has gimmicks. It's fun, sometimes, but it has nothing to say. It's hollow and facile.
In fact a lot of modern Trek has focused too much on FORM and not on FUNCTION. Disco for all its befuddlement at least tried to say something each season, and even multiple somethings. Picard's first season seemed to gesture in the vague direction of saying something before devolving into nonsense
Yes a lot of tv is empty calories now
Beginning in S3, yes. I blamed the writers' strike for forcing half-finished scripts to production. S4, it's gimmicks and aesthetics. Please, SNW, give us an *idea.*
The thing is SNW often does have things to say; it’s frequently fatalistic, deeply conservative, pro military industrial complex, bio essentialist, and even genocide apologist. I don’t think it’s all intentional, this can happen when you don’t think about the meanings of your work.
I disagree, but let me make a comparison that is more stark. Scooby Doo. Hear me out. Scooby Doo had zero episodes that involved morality. Instead the morality was baked directly into the concept itself. Friends are everything, and can be anyone. The monster is never real. Always look for answers.
In addition, it is owned by CBS Studios ("See B.S."), which is part of the fascist propaganda-pushing Paramount Skydance Corporation. Paramount has been a toxic corporate entity ever since 1967 when it acquired the original series from Desilu, but now it is far worse. I cannot support them.
Yeah. Kurtzman & co. seemed to take people enjoying the first season of S1 (in a way that Discovery was never loved) as a license to double down on the dumb/fun silliness, and now SNW has turned into nothing but pandering surface-level gimmicks.
There's an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Cordelia wishes Buffy never existed. The whole show is gimmicky, like OOH THINGS ARE DIFFERENT. ie: Willow and Xander are vampires. Now imagine a whole sequel series following hammy alt vampire Xander. Anyway, this is a post about new Star Trek.
This is a meaningful breakdown.
NEW! #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds goes black and white — while exploring all the shades of grey — in “A Case of Chiaroscuro” blog.trekcore.com/2026/08/star...
Hit me over the head with a bat. I will fire up Casablanca today. Same thing, better movie. Is Una going to get her own show? Still the best show of the season.
And next will be puppets?
OMG they made an episode of Star Trek about Expedition 33???
One of the things I love about Strange New Worlds is how the writers have some goofy itch that they want to scratch and figure out some pseudoscience nonsense to get there. And then it's just enjoyable. Also, Joseph M'Benga is the most interesting doctor ever.
Does this show ever do just an episode about science fiction drama?
(Hits blunt) What if we just made "The Wizard of Oz" with the Strange New Worlds cast? Like, Ortegas crashes a shuttle on the Wicked Witch's sister? And the witch turns Pike into the lion, Una into the scarecrow and Scotty into the Tin Man?
There's a non-zero chance they've already shot this episode!
Also, La'an is obviously the wicked witch because everyone descended from Augments has the Evil Gene. And Pelia is the Wizard.
“What if we did science fiction?” “You’re fired.”
I mean I would watch the shit out of that… 🖖 😶🌫️ 🌪️
I haven't watched this season, admittedly, but it does seem like they're just speedrunning all the holodeck eps from ST:TNG at once.
I kinda like this idea, but it makes the ending of your concept and the movie with Judy Garland that much more of a letdown. "you could go home at any time." "Really!?" "that's right all you had to do is push the button on your communicator." 
The sad thing is that it’s entirely possible this could be an upcoming episode, squeezed between the Doctor Who crossover and the stop-motion animated Christmas special.
My take: Auntie Em: Una Uncle _____: Pike Dorothy: Spock Lion: La'an Tinman: Uhura Scarecrow: James Kirk Toto: Ortegas (moves the story forward) Wizard: Pelia Witches: Actual aliens having conflict over shoes
Seán's here with all the Ups & Downs from the latest Strange New World genre hop, 10.30pm BST. youtube.com/watch?v=r47MIv3vewA #StarTrek #StangeNewWorlds #TrekNoir @seanferrick.bsky.social @pedrostarfleet.bsky.social
One last adventure into the final frontier
Okay, this is whiny, but I can't get over how the La Marseillaise homage ends? The whole point of the scene is that united the people outnumbered their oppressors and could drown them out, even if there would be consequences for that...but instead, Kor just yells and everyone is cowed. What?
Ok here's my theory on Spock. He assumed the chip was dislodged and never was used. She thinks it's wiped, he just thinks it's blank.
Did I enjoy Strange New Worlds film noir episode? Why yes, yes I did. Am I going to be thinking about it in a year? Nope, probably not. And that's alright. In this topsy-turvy world, I eek out joy from wherever I can these days.
I appreciate this more than you know! Bsky is overflowing with SNW hate, sadly.
I really liked this episode. Looking forward to the Muppet episode also
I want so much to see a shitload of behind-the-scenes/production info on this ep because I want to see the costumes and sets in living color, learn how lighting setups changed for the end result, inspo for all of the aforementioned, all the technical work poured into this ep
I personally enjoyed it but I didn't connect with it as much as the first 3 episodes of season 4. I knew the references & they were well performed. Still an improvement on parts of season 3. I am however really interested in La'ans story going forward.
I enjoyed this one. Probably my favorite of the season so far.
A good comment I read elsewhere said the only thing that would have improved the episode would have been some instance where they used a light that revealed color on the planet showing everyone had blue skin or something to better explain the resemblance.
I really enjoyed Star Trek Strange New Worlds A Case of Chiaroscuro 🖖
Best of the season so far. Still felt too much like Casablanca to me, especially when they quoted it. At least they didn’t sing La Marseilles at the end, just did something similar.
I was afraid after the weird generation AI sequence in the previous episode, the show was begin just to be reference of things. This one is nice and not a "noir" in a holodeck program.
Captain Kirk’s empathy, which gets lost in the Kirk Drift of his pop culture image. But STRANGE NEW WORLDS and the Reboot films got it. Through Shatner’s Kirk and Superman, I learned the importance of empathy and helping others.
So good. These people missing on #SNW because they've decided in their own mind's eye what it is and now can't see the forest through the trees. It's kind of sad. This scene is as much what SNW is as the genre of the week. This kind of scene is everywhere in SNW. "Lost in Translation" is epic Trek.
Agreed completely. Having just finished a re-watch of TOS, I am struck once again by how the cliches about the character are really pretty often off-base. They miss the compassion, and also that he's frankly a bit of a nerd. (Not that he can't turn on the charm at will.)
I love how much Commander Una Chin-Riley is featured as the lead of “A Case of Chiaroscuro.” It wasn’t about her DNA or much to do with her backstory, it was just this competent officer walking a dangerous line undercover on an alien world. Classic #StarTrek
I think her backstory plays a part in why she decided to help though.
(Not seen it, but seen Ups and Downs) They missed a trick. Since this is another planet. Convergent tech evolution and all that, they should have had a protagonist with...a rocket pack! But called Captain Neutrino.
I'm always here for a Una centric episode, but I feel the lens could have been more finely focused on her than it was. It was just ok for me, certainly not at the level of Ghosts of Illyria or Ad Astra Per Aspera.