Thoughts on 4.04 / Season 04 So Far
I enjoyed "A Case of Chiaroscuro." I liked how once again, in-universe, we were given a reason for why things were black and white (similar as to why we were given a reason to why they were singing in "Subspace Rhapsody"). I also liked the old-school TOS feel of it, how our crew would go down to a planet and the residents would be dressed up like from some old earth era. We certainly had a few from the 30s/40s on TOS. So from that aspect, this felt very classic Trek. Finally, I appreciated the follow-up on Una's journey as an Illyrian and how as a child she had to hide it, her family didn't fight, and that has been something that has formed and informed her choices her whole life through. That was truly lovely, I thought.
There were two other aspects of the episode I liked that lead me to my thoughts on the season as a whole. Scotty and Ortegas, and La'an, as well as Spock and La'an. There has been some commentary about how this season is jumping all over the place with each episode being this trope and then that trope and then this, etc. I agree. We had the martians/dinosaurs the first episode, horror the next, the pleasure planet/mystery the next, and now the film noir this one. HOWEVER, and this is the biggie, the show is using the tropes, the different styles, the episodic style of storytelling to give us consistent character arcs. And I love it!
We have watched a progression through each episode of Scotty and Ortegas and their relationship. We have watched a consistent progression of Ortegas and her anger from the end of last season being resolved. We are seeing La'an and what happened with the Vulcan/Romulan augmentation and how it effected her play out over the course of each episode, and how it is effecting her relationship with Spock.
We are seeing--in smaller ways, but still it's there--how Christine and Spock are still a part of that equation, and those lingering feelings are still there. We are seeing Pike's lingering grief over Marie's loss. We are seeing Spock struggling with his humanity vs his Vulcan self. Uhura is growing into the Uhura we know, the more confident, knowledgeable woman we know with every passing experience she has.
All of these character beats are being played out in consistent, progressive arcs with every episode. The surrounding tropes--the horror, the goofy (delightful or annoying, depending on your take) pleasure planet, the film noir--are all just in service of the growth and/or journey (hah! see what I did there?) the characters are following.
It's just so, sooooo good. And I'm really enjoying how the writers are using their creativity with these different landscapes to explore the characters. Love it, love it, love it so hard! Whee!
