Star Trek Strange New Worlds, Season 4, episode 4 - A Case of Chiaroscuro

[agoodwinsmith]

Somewhat whishy washy spoilers, but spoilers nonetheless

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Wait.  No.  I've added more spoilery things about Star Fleet Academy and much of SNW

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Okay.  I was going to moan about using the black and white of noir films and films like Casablanca[1] in order to make use of the fashions of the 40's.  I found it annoying in TOS episode Season 2 Episode 7, A Piece of the Action in 1968 because my uncles were still wearing clothes like that then, and I expected it was written in order to make use of already present wardrobes at the studio.  There was no reason the TOS story needed that style.  At first I didn't think the SNW story needed it either.  The Gin Joint quote and the mimicking of the "la Marseillaise" scene in Casablanca were not subtle hints, but I thought unearned.

However, last week I read an article by Carlyn Beccia

Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold?
https://carlynbeccia.medium.com/has-america-crossed-the-asshole-threshold-1f96b7fe6be7

and today an article by Cory Doctorow

Surveillance vs guillotines
https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2026-08-11-tragedy-of-the-commoners-piketty-snowden-d6865c97797a

and I wonder if SNW isn't being covert.

Beccia argues that societies always reach the "I might as well cheat because everyone is cheating" phase just before their fall because it is the natural outcome of game theory.  We know about tit for tat, but it gets more complicated than that, and it ends up rewarding the all-cheating-all-the-time person.  She also argues that First world countries reached that point in the Gilded Age and only just avoided collapse because of non-power wielding "nobodies" joining mutual aid societies.  Service Clubs: Rotary; Order of the Royal Purple; Lions Club; Ladies auxiliary of many churches and hospitals; unions; The Legion, etc etc. [2] [3]

Doctorow argues from the perspective of Piketty's theory of capital, in that we are entering an end time/revolution time because the nature of capital is that it uncontrollably collects in incompetent-in-society-leading hands, so society usually gets guillotines as the only way to break the stranglehold.  The wealth-holders know this, so that is the reason for the insane spending on surveillance technology.

Doctorow argues that it would actually cost less to just fund hospitals and schools and libraries, etc to maintain societal equilibrium, but that wealth-holders just can't resist the cruelty and meddling, and would rather spend more on surveillance.  And ... guards will salute you if you pay them just a little bit more than anyone else in wage-peonage.  Beccia's review of long-play game theory leads to the same story - the people who have just can't resist cheating for more - which leads to societal implosion.

I think SNW is obliquely exploring totalitarianism, and whether escaping and running away is enough.  Since we know that ultimately the Klingons will lose their world (Star Fleet Academy) and will need to be offered a culturally-acceptable path to a new home world, what are we to think of them as Quasi-Nazis?

I think this was less wardrobe kink and more trying to investigate something that is becoming dangerous to notice.

Also - I think we are seeing the context for Kirk's ultimate rules schmules attitude.

Everybody and their dog on Enterprise (maybe not Spock) is holding back *something* from Star Fleet.  More and more "alpha shift" are valuing their own moral compass more than following Star Fleet's (guidance)rules.  Showing this in relation to Klingon empire building is interesting.

Oh yes, and chiaroscuro.[4]   It is an Italian term for the use of light and dark in works, but usually only used when the contrast between the two is extreme.  If we are metaphoring, is there a stark contrast between moral codes, here?  Maybe.  In the Klingon world we see here, there is loyalty to the Klingons or death, while in the Star Fleet world there seems to be a more close-enough-is-good-enough attitude.  Even Admiral April (hah) extends deniability to Pike.



[1] - huh.  First time I have ever thought about that as White House.  huh
[2] - this begs the question of whether this was a last-gasp effort to put off the inevitable - service clubs and churches started emptying out in the 70's, and many Christian denominations and clubs have lost buildings and clout.  The Legion is really struggling to stay afloat.  I am sorry.  They helped my grandparents move to Canada during a very difficult time.
[3] - yes, the "clubs" were as guilty of cheating outsiders as anyone - it's also the start of the KKK, after all
[4] - I have a tender spot in my heart for that word because it was the name of the student run literary magazine I helped start in university.  It was pretty good, but short-lived.

Comments

[sabotabby]

I actually thought this one was good, and I think will hold up well (especially in comparison to future episodes under the Ellison takeover). It's not subtle but we are apparently in an era where "Nazis bad" is a bold statement.

It was hella weird to have Black-coded Klingons occupying white-coded humans (though they made a good effort to not have any of the major characters besides Una be actually white) and in the context of the Klingons as a whole representing a utopian vision out of the Cold War, I don't love that they were the Nazis here but the episode itself was really fun, I enjoyed the dumb gimmicks, and I liked that they didn't try to iron out the moral complexity like they did with the premiere episode.

[agoodwinsmith]

Yes. I have already rewatched it, and will do again.

Oh gosh. I just realized that Uhura being taken to the head cheese over "papers" is an homage to Casablanca's interview of Annina Brandel by Captain Louis Renault. It is harsher because overt sexual favour would not fit the SNW template. Both women end up with "papers". I was worried about why Uhura rec'd papers when she had nothing to substantiate her identity, and I feared Uhura was being "bugged" or something to be used against her group. But if we are mimicking the mercurial nature of Renault, it makes more sense. Kor probably thinks it will be more fun to let her loose to bumble her way into more trouble (she didn't know enough to avoid a check point with a line up).

I don't remember enough about how the Klingons were coded in TOS. They were not black, but nor were they German. We forget that Mexican Ricardo Montalban was coded as Sikh when he played Khan in Space Seed (S1 E22 1967). I *think* Klingons were coded as Mexican (wispy mustachios and *swarthy* skin - think Danny Trejo in his young roles).

Oh mwahaha - the actor who played the original Kor (1967) was also Canadian (as is Demore Barnes). John Colicos helped originate the Klingon look under budget restraints, and he recommended a leathery Genghis Khan look: dark hair and skin (imdb info).

So. As your current expert on all things 60's - I pronounce that Klingons and Khan were originally coded as ... dunt dunt duuuuun ... *Asian*. Oh yes. Exotic and Unpredictable. Nehru Jackets, and Peter Sellers[2] in The Party (1968). And Indira Gandhi (started 1966), the Beatles with the Maharaji[1] (1968). Om Mani Padme Hum.

[1] - spelling utterly wrong
[2] - even the Pink Panther (1963) had an Indian Princess[3] as the owner of the jewel
[3] - played by an exotic french woman

[sabotabby]

Yeah, good point. They're coded as Asian but played by Black actors (or white people in blackface). Either way, I don't love them being written as Nazis here.