The definition of insanity is watching Star Trek in 2026 and expecting a different result. Returning for her third season, Dana Horgan is joined by a new writer in almost every sense of the word. Skyler Ojeda has a couple of credits, mostly as a production assistant on films and TV, like Daredevil, alongside being Akiva Goldsman’s assistant from 2019. This is Ojeda’s first proper writing credit. Meanwhile, our Director, Meera Menon, also joins Strange New Worlds after previously directing GLOW, The Man in the High Castle, The Walking Dead, the god-awful Outlander, worse, The Magicians, the great Ms Marvel, and most recently, For All Mankind.

Holy sub-surface understanding of the Bechdel Test, which is different from the Bec’t’hal test about two Klingons talking about something other than honor. With the help of Lieutenant Uhura and Doctor M’Benga, Commander Una Chin-Riley has been given a mission to fix a probe that is drifting into space USSR. Now beyond the demarcation line and in Klingon Space, the crew must avoid detection. Crash-landing on the planet Mat’Aar XII, Una is recognized immediately as her dopplegänger, Nevette.

Not only does that planet look like Ben Riley would be comfortable on it, but it is also a rather large hive of scum and villainy… it is Klingon-controlled after all. As it turns out, Nevette is working with the Klingons on breaking down the resistance groups fighting back against the Klingon colonial powers. There is just one problem: Nevette is also the leader of the Mat’Aaran resistance. Indeed Una, of all the gin joints, but might I suggest not dropping your joint in gin because it is disgusting stuff and it won’t spark up if it is wet. Shut up, I know gin is flammable.

I’ve had to sit on this one for a few days since watching it, which isn’t the case usually. My process is to watch the episode and write out the liner notes for those first three paragraphs as we go, then maybe get us started on this fourth paragraph. I’ll say this for “A Case of Chiaroscuro:” I don’t hate it, but I don’t quite love it either. Maybe I am giving it too much praise for not being another godforsaken so-so Jonah Hill comedy episode, but at the same time I am about to go in on it for not really saying anything in particular.

Starting as normal as can be, the group of lesser-spoken-about leads are in a section of space they really shouldn’t be because a space probe drifted into the wrong bit of space in the first place. At least that’s the setup. As I say, they crash land and have to blend in before rescue, typical Star Trek stuff, but the episode is, as the title suggests, in black and white. Ok, “Chiaroscuro” comes from Italian art and means “light-dark,” but you get the idea. However, the theming isn’t just very film noir, as everyone is wearing long leather coats and armbands with special insignia.

If you’re the type of person that Henry Alonso Myers thinks you are, it is, to some level, a very late 1930s, 1940s German look. A bit of a mix of metaphors, as the Klingons are somewhat supposed to be Soviets for this time period; this is where I feel like I’ve got this – something – at the back of my head saying, “I like the concept, just don’t like the execution.” We’ll get to why in a second, but we’re still in the infancy of the plot.

As it turns out, Una looks exactly like this woman who has been in league with the East Mat’Aaran Company (Klingons, for the dense) and has to play along. Dixon Hill, anyone? Effectively, she’s pulled into the story where the Klingons are empire-building, and as a result so are M’Benga and Uhura, the former having a long-standing history with Klingons while the latter never does this undercover, secret observer type of thing. That said, I wouldn’t class “A Case of Chiaroscuro” as an episode more or less about empire and that side of expansion, but rather about the oppression and resistance under the empire.

The Klingons have set up checkpoints on Mat’Aar XII, have ID cards for everyone, control who goes where, and reserve the right to imprison you on a whim. Yet for all this imagery, for all these ideas that feel very Star Trek, it doesn’t feel like it is saying something. It has the themes of oppression, but lacks the conviction to say something about it. The easy targets for this type of story are, after waving a hand over a map like Mystic Meg, The Middle East, Russia, China, and of course the most contentious of all, the USSA. Yes, I did include the second S on purpose.

There isn’t even a catch-all theming that can really be read into as saying something about oppression globally; it is just a vague idea of it without direction. Not to be confused with the film direction, the work from Meera Menon to keep the shots somewhat interesting even in black and white isn’t bad, but after being spoiled with pretty shot after pretty shot with Spider-Noir, it will feel like a step down. From her perspective, it is all functional and not particularly flashy.

From a writing perspective, though, “A Case of Chiaroscuro” takes the best bits of episodes in its style, throws them into a bag, and scatters them on a table. I tried thinking of an episode most like this, and all I could think of were season one episodes of The Orville (surprise!): “Majority Rule” and “Mad Idolatry.” The former is about social media and the influence it has on opinions in the court of public opinion, with the latter being a criticism of how fragile first contact can be and of religious imagery. Here? I’m honestly at a loss for anything that it is trying to say.

“Oppression = bad?” but that’s surface-level Star Wars stuff. The main crux of the episode for the most part with this side of the crew is that M’Benga is teaching Uhura the basics of espionage and trying to maintain a cover while Una tries to walk the line between oppressor and resistance. The three do not want to aid in the Klingons’ brutal occupation of the native people of Mat’Aar XII, but are caught between maintaining that cover and helping break down the system. Of course, with the ID cards being a requirement, a member of the crew is taken to be tortured, and it is Uhura.

One might argue that it is about building her character beyond being the comms officer, but what little is done in that regard feels more like putting the innocent character in harm’s way to provoke empathy. Maybe that’s the bit where I’ve read the episode wrong, and it is the puzzle piece that clicks everything together; but as I can make out from watching the episode (I know, a novel concept), it fills in a gap in the script to connect M’Benga and Uhura through this shared experience of brutal Klingon acts.

Una, on the other hand, gets little more than being the one in charge and the one to solve who knows Una is not Nevette and who killed her. I’m not going to turn down Rebecca Romijn in an action scene, but again it is that thing of “what is this saying?” Though there is a third story going on that explains why our ground crew is on the planet in the first place. It doesn’t provide the puzzle piece of saying something. Unless you want to have a discussion about the influence of work politics on doing the most basic parts of jobs? If so, it is one scene in the C-plot.

Aboard the Enterprise, La’an and Spock are trying to work out the data from this probe that drifted, which was transported onto the ship after the away crew crash-landed. Oh, by the way: No, the ship isn’t bothered about the First Officer, the Doctor, and the Comms Officer crash-landing on the planet and being unable to establish communications. Why? Would something like that be important? I’m not even getting into that; it is a separate issue in itself that I can talk about after the plot point.

So, with the probe’s data on board the Enterprise, the crew starts working on figuring out why it drifted, or, as is about to become the plot point, who tampered with it and why? La’An being a diligent Security Officer and Spock being blasé about a chip being out of place, repeatedly saying that it is nothing and La’An should just move on. There are two things here: Spock isn’t being Vulcan enough (I know, coming from me?) and this could have been the A-plot.

I don’t want to get too into it, but the story here shifts from “it’s a data chip out of place” to “someone has intentionally scrubbed this – why?” Again, I don’t want to drift into rewriting territory; having this be the A-plot while rescuing the away crew could have been not only more interesting but also could have said something. I’ve kind of already spoiled the why of this data chip being out of place, but that (if you know, you know why I’m being vague) could have said something about professionalism and defining right and wrong.

No, I’m not saying you can’t do the oppression storyline, but in a shorter, more contained B-plot setup, it could have been more effective because you aren’t trying to fill it out with mystery that goes nowhere. It could have said something in a shorter timeframe. Having a focus here wouldn’t have been a bad thing. It would have given us a reason for the black-and-white visuals, the mystery theming, the Third Reich-like Klingons, and so on. Yet here we are, 45 minutes later, and there are really only three characters changed, only one of which was on the away mission.

Ultimately, “A Case of Chiaroscuro” is a mystery-of-the-week adventure with very little to say for itself, both from a character perspective and as a plot perspective. Beyond a throwaway line, the black-and-white noir look is little more than a visual gimmick to make the episode stand out a little more. In three weeks from now, unless we drag up a line about this, you’ll have forgotten about it entirely, and that’s a problem because it wasn’t terrible; it just didn’t do anything.

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Strange New Worlds "A Case of Chiaroscuro"

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• I'll never turn down Rebecca Romijn in an action scene.
• The C-plot was interesting.

Cons

• Has nothing to say and does nothing.
• The visual style and theme are little more than gimmicks.
• The C-plot could have been a lot more.