Following the surprise early release of “Those Old Scientists” on Saturday, episode 8 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 is now arriving this week. We have details along with new images and a clip. SPOILERS.
“Under the Cloak of War”
Episode 8 of Strange New Worlds’ second season is called “Under the Cloak of War.” It features guest star Robert Wisdom (The Wire, Barry) playing a Klingon. The episode was written by Davy Perez and directed by Jeff Byrd. It debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, July 27.
Synopsis:
Captain Pike and his crew welcome a Klingon defector aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, but his presence triggers the revelation of some shocking secrets.
NEW images:
L-R Anson Mount as Pike, Robert Wisdom as Dak’Rah and Christina Chong as La’an (Paramount+)
L-R Rebecca Romjin as Una, Anson Mount as Capt. Pike and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga (Paramount+)
Babs Olusanmokun as M’Benga (Paramount+)
Melissa Navia as Ortegas (Paramount+)
L-R Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga and Jess Bush as Chapel (Paramount+)
L-R Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga and Anson Mount as Capt. Pike (Paramount+)
L-R Jess Bush as Chapel and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga (Paramount+)
L-R Jess Bush as Chapel and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga (Paramount+)
Clip:
The latest The Ready Room includes a clip with the Klingon defector arriving on the Enterprise bridge (Clip starts at 28:17.)
Season 2 episodes drop weekly on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Season 2 is also available on SkyShowtime elsewhere in Europe. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with premiere dates to be announced at a later date.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
My guess is we’re going to see some flashbacks to the Klingon War and we’ll see what M’Benga and Chapel were up to on that moon (?) they talked about in the season premiere.
That is a logical guess. M’Benga’s PTSD from the Klingon War has been most of his arc this year. It would be nteresting if SNW shows us more of the Klingon War in flashbacks than we saw of the actual Klingon War in Discovery, where it was mostly in the background of the show.
Has he had an arc this season? Aside from the premiere and the one where he forgot his memories, he’s been featured in the background mostly.
Across several episodes M’Benga and Chapel have talked about the Klingon War and how it affected them.
Thanks for the clarification. I haven’t rewatched many of the episodes this season so I guess I’ve forgotten!
But will the Klingons in the flashback look like DIS Klingons or TMP/TNG Klingons? Or will they look like white guys in blackface and Fu Manchu makeup like TOS Klingons?
This would be the perfect opportunity for them to show all three versions and, once and for all, explain their differences on screen. SPECIALLY since the flashbacks involve doctors, which can organically lead into a discussion about the different Klingon genomes.
There are far more than three versions, though. TMP Klingons are vastly different from TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT Klingons, which are vastly different from Star Trek VI Klingons, which are vastly different from Kelvin Klingons. And even the TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT Klingons represent dozens of extremely different designs, sometimes so much so that they’d qualify as different species.
TMP Klingons were the first with the ridges, which continued in the subsequent series and whose absence in Discovery sent Trekkies on the aggressive offensive against anyone that dared like the new designs.
In the context of what I said, I think it was clear I was referring to the ridges Klingons people that hate Discovery have spent the last several years demanding return despite their appearance in DIS or SNW contradicting TOS canon.
Trek Fans don’t hate Discovery. Only a very small sad minority of them do.
A very small yet unfortunately vocal minority that ultimately got their way, which ended up costing Discovery everything.
They didn’t get their way. The show is ending after 5 seasons and already has a spin off flagship show in the works. Expect to hear more whining from them in the near future.
But they did, though. Discovery entirely lost its identity in the second season and never got it back. It might as well have been cancelled.
I have no clue what you’re talking about. Good luck with that.
What Discovery became after the second season was done for the sole purpose of pandering to the people that hated the first. It was not supposed to transition from a prequel to TOS to a sequel to Picard/Voyager. They did that to make the haters happy.
Careful! Most of that minority live on this site! You don’t want to anger them and have them quoting Rotten Tomato and IMBD scores at you!
LOL, I know they do. They really don’t matter.
Yes, thanks for clarifying. Discovery is an excellent show and I can’t wait for the final season. And we wouldn’t have SNW without it, something many of the haters fail to see.
Hallelujah!
Calling anyone that doesn’t like Discovery “sad” (which is a majority of Trek fans, in my experience) is well, ironically, just sad.
The first Klingon shown on TOS was just a balding middle aged white guy. It’s hilarious how people worry so much about how the Klingons look. The Klingons on DIS are pretty much the best I’ve ever seen to date. The TNG one looked lame to me as a kid. You can clearly see the actor behind the makeup in TNG.
Indeed.
Seeing the actor under the makeup is one of the charms of the thing, at least with Trek. I was always bothered by not being able to recognize Mark Lenard under the TMP latex. Tell me, could you see ANY of Paul Winfield under the blah blah blah at Tenagra mask?
Also not getting the critical note you sound about John Colicos as Kor, especially given that he managed to put a pretty terrific stamp on the character. I mean, Sean Connery in his prime, pulling off THE WIND AND THE LION / THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING / ROBIN & MARIAN hat trick was also just a ‘balding middle aged white guy’ but I can’t imagine anybody thinking any less of his performances for it.
Also, check out Colicos as Kor in DS9 where he has grown some hair. And he’s playing the same character.
This looks very good!
Nice! I figured that releasing SNW207 a few days early meant that we’d have to wait until next week for 208.
Me too. I did not expect another episode so soon. And one with Klingons no less!
Same. So happy not to be the case. And it also means the musical episode is now next week too. That’s going to be a conversation. ;)
Nice. Getting some Undiscovered Country vibes from that clip. Looking good, SNW, looking good.
That’s a cool-looking Klingon. Very good.
I feel sorry for M’Benga. He loses his job to a guy name Bones.
You gotta pay the (Mark) Piper before you get to Bones, dude.
I wonder if Piper will ever show up.
He doesn’t have to. At the rate they’re going, they can just declare it’s a separate timeline from TOS (like ST’09) and keep M’Benga as long as they want. Sure would make a lot more sense to me…
M’Benga out of loyalty and friendship could become Pike’s personal doctor after the accident and leaves the Enterprise. Then when Pike leaves for Talos IV he goes back to the Enterprise because that is home to him.
You ever wonder if in a parallel universe some aliens are discussing how every one of their entertainment units has arguments over different depictions of humans?
They don’t get the colors right, the eyes are always different, some have hairy faces, others have no hair…
Wow this is surprising. I think like many I didn’t expect another new episode this week. I was actually happy to just talk about the crossover episode for another week lol.
But this looks good and very serious. It could possibly tie in to the first episode of the season as well. While I haven’t loved this season as much as season one, it’s been pretty good overall. And I loved that we got two comedies, time travel and now Klingon episodes. A lot of fun for me!
Yes, this one does appear to have some teeth to it, looking forward to it.
Pretty sure it has to tie to the first episode. In my opinion, they built up the storyline concerning M’Benga and Christine’s war PTSD too much to drop it. There’s been some vague references since then, but hopefully this episode fleshes it out more and has a lot less slow-mo.
This is a very DS9 episode. In fact it reminded me of two very specific and very excellent episodes.
Similar, yes, but it won’t have the gravitas of the DS9 episodes. SNW likes to flirt with the war concept, but it doesn’t really create the same level of intrigue and tension that we saw in DS9 between the aftermath of the Cardassian occupation and the Dominion War. I hope this is a good episode, but somehow I just think it will come across as empty and a filler to get to the final two episodes.
It does have the gravitas, and then some. I have seen it.
Your skepticism is laughable.
Are they the same ones that I was thinking of? I was sitting here like wow I can’t wait for this to be Treachery Faith and the Great River.
Robert Wisdom is a FANTASTIC actor. Everybody remembers him from being on half the run of THE WIRE, but before that he played a deathrow inmate on an episode of the nearly totally forgotten BOOMTOWN series and he was fantabulous there too, and very solid in the equally great and jut-as-forgotten KINGPIN miniseries.
If this particuar show doesn’t deliver, it isn’t for lack of smarts in the casting department, it’ll be that the writing doesn’t let him bring his intense shine.