Although the gestures of "rolling out the red carpet" are present, for those who fought in the war, it's impossible to accept this former war criminal as an honored diplomat. Rah's presence on the Enterprise is not met with applause. At the end of that lengthy operation, Rah killed his own men and defected to the Federation, earning him the title, among Klingons, of "the butcher of J'Gal." He has taken on a new life speaking out against the Klingon Empire and looking for ways to make amends for his past atrocities and those of his people. Dak'Rah, who now simply goes by Rah, is a famous Klingon former general who once masterminded the mass slaughter (including civilians and children) against the Federation in a protracted battle on the moon of J'Gal. The ticking clock is set in motion with the arrival of Ambassador Dak'Rah (Robert Wisdom) arriving on the Enterprise to be transported for a diplomatic mission. It accomplishes this even though the POV is limited to a single MASH unit. The flashbacks here do for the Klingon War what Discovery failed to do by giving it a scope that feels real and lived in. (Next week it will presumably do another 180 when it becomes a musical.) In this episode, we revisit the Klingon War - which, despite being the alleged subject of Discovery's first season, was fought so much on the periphery of the narrative that it seemed like Discovery was the only ship in the war at all. The tonal shift from the featherweight " Those Old Scientists" to the grim "Under the Cloak of War" is about as extreme as it gets, and it shows how the episodic structure allows Trek to basically be anything it wants. As Chapel notes, "War doesn't leave you." The ending is murky, troubling, and has an ambiguity that speaks to the central idea of the main character losing himself in the fog of a war that may have technically ended, but is still very much being waged internally. It's also the real deal, because it manages to raise a lot of intriguing and difficult questions as it skirts right up to the Trekkian moral line without quite crossing it. "Under the Cloak of War" is dark, haunted, and morally gray in a thoughtful way unseen in Trek since Deep Space Nine's darkest war outings. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds "Under the Cloak of War"
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |