Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 4 Recap/Review – “A Case of Chiaroscuro”

chiaroscuro (N): pictorial representation in terms of light and shade without regard to color (M-W.com) It was a dark and stormy Stardate 2122.4. The rain came down hard on Mat’aar 12, the kind of rain that soaked you from the tip of your hat to the toes of your shoes. Listen, kid, “A Case of Chiaroscuro” ain’t no “Dixon Hill” tale; this is a hard-boiled Trek Noir episode. Think Casablanca in space without the love triangle. Number One / Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) leads her first away mission as a Commander, Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) confronts demons from his past, and Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose-Gooding) learns what it’s like to work undercover in a hostile territory. Back on the Enterprise, Chief Security Officer Lieutenant La’an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) has a mystery of her own to solve, but Science Officer Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) is being less than helpful with her investigation. The Enterprise is sent to the Mat’aar system to retrieve a wayward probe, Angelo-1, that’s wandered off course. Nothing in Star Trek is ever simple, though; it’s drifted into Klingon space near a Klingon-occupied planet, Mat’aar 12. It’s too far from the demar...