Star Trek Continues ”Divided We Stand” - Detailed Analysis & Review

Today in the podcast, we talk about the Star Trek Continues episode "Divided We Stand" which sees Kirk and McCoy living out something of a nightmare in the American civil war. And we discuss what the mysterious nanites might represent in the greater world of Star Trek.

----more----

Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 99 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Divided We Stand.”

And if you’d like to check out some of my original science fiction, head over to AdamDavidCollings.com/books

I recently appeared as a guest on the Yum Yum Podcast with fellow Australian nerds, Ryan and Rachel, discussing the Babylon 5 episode “Ceremonies of Light and Dark.” If you love Babylon 5, as well you should, be sure to check out the episode, and all the other stuff that Ryan and Rachel do at Yum Yum Podcast.

The description on IMDB reads

After an explosion on the bridge resulting from a failed attempt to isolate the ship's computer from a nano-virus, Kirk and McCoy wake up to find themselves in the middle of one of America's bloodiest conflicts.

The teleplay was written by Marc Cushman & Susan Osborn

With story by Vic Mignogna and additional material by Todd Haberkorn

It was directed by Vic Mignogna

And it first aired on the 25th of September 2015.

This episode was dedicated to the memory of Grace Lee Whitney. Another of Star Trek’s veterans who sadly passed away during the making of this show.

This one gets right into the action, making good use of the captain’s log to skip past all the setup and throw us right in the thick of the crew’s trouble. The Enterprise computer has been infected with a virus, or as Kirk calls it, a pathogen, a term I haven’t heard in computer science before. This happened when they tried to make contact with an old Earther probe called Friendship 3. This is significant, because, as you may remember, Voyager once encountered the predecessor - Friendship 1 - in the Delta Quadrant.

What makes this pathogen interesting is that it is of a much more advanced technology than the primitive earth probe. It is quickly migrating through the entire ship, Spock’s library computer, scotty’s engineering specs.

Spock doesn’t think this is a virus, and it’s not singular. He says he detects hundreds of thousands of microscopic objects. So…are we talking actual physical objects? He’s also seeing evidence of high-level intelligence.

McCoy shows a startling lack of awareness as he casually arrives on the bridge and berates Kirk for not keeping his medical checkup appointment. Now if the circumstances were different, McCoy would be well within his rights, but it’s very obvious that the bridge crew are in the middle of a crisis. Kirk clearly has a good reason for missing his appointment and this is not the time or place to hassle him about it. That time will come later, of course.

The intelligence of whatever is invading the ship is growing.

As the bridge controls overload, Kirk finds himself in a very unexpected place and time. He’s on a primitive battlefield, surrounded by men firing rifles, and wearing unfamiliar uniforms.

This scene marks “Divided We Stand” as the first episode of Star Trek Continues to take us off the ship. If you think about it, the last four have all taken place on board the Enterprise.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the American civil war. Is this a holographic simulation? A fantasy created by a being like Trelane? In Star Trek, there are many possibilities, but in their shoes, time travel wouldn’t be my first thought. I mean, what could have caused it right? So Kirk and McCoy would be feeling understandably disoriented and confused.

But, they’re in uniform, which means they’re expected to fight. At the very least, they can’t just sit here and wait for the bullets. They may have to play along until they figure out what the go is. But they wisely manage to remove themselves from the situation to avoid taking any rash actions they may not be able to undo.

They wisely also choose to treat this as real, and not take any unnecessary risks.

Now, you’ll have to excuse my lack of knowledge about his particular event in history. Oh, I know the basics. North vs South. I believe it was primarily fought over the issue of slavery, although they may be more to it?

I imagine American audiences would be able to tell immediately by looking at their uniforms, which side Kirk and McCoy are meant to be on. At this point in the story, I haven’t figured that out yet.

The interesting thing is, it seems that they are both on different sides. Now THAT could make things interesting.

And it was cool to see Dr. M’Benga in this episode. It’s only logical for him to step up and take on the role of chief medical officer while McCoy is missing.

I believe M’Benga only appeared in two episodes of the original series, although he is, of course, a series regular on Strange New Worlds. At the time of recording, I still have no idea why, although he was chief medical officer under pike, he seems to have been demoted by TOS. I mean, he’s still serving on the Enterprise but McCoy is chief. So what happened? Strange New Worlds is gonna have to address that at some point.

At first it seems strange that Spock is asking M’Benga about the computer virus. Why would  you have a medical doctor assess a computer problem? Then we pan over and see Kirk and Bones unconscious in bio-beds, their faces pale. Whatever has infected the ship has also infected their bodies.

I think this episode is lacking some precision of terminology when it comes to what we are dealing with. From what I gather, this isn’t a computer virus, which is simply a self-perpetuating piece of software with malicious intent. It’s some kind of swarm of small physical objects that are interfering with the computer somehow, but also invading Kirk and McCoy’s bodies.

M’Benga can’t prevent the spread of these things in the human bodies, he can only slow it, but in a day or two, they’ll be dead.

So, what we can gather so far is that despite the episode descrition, we’re not dealing with time travel here. We’re dealing with some kind of mental projection from an alien entity.

Kirk refers to McCoy as a southern gentleman, so I gather his uniform is from the south. But then again, McCoy himself IS southern, so Kirk could be referring to that.

A group of Kirk’s team find them. They assume McCoy is Kirk’s prisoner, at least until they notice Bones still has his weapon.

The leader of this group is pretty aggressive toward McCoy, but then, this is war. He takes Kirk’s word for it a little too easily when he pretends to be a famous Kirk from the time, especially given his uniform has the wrong rank.

The leader is shot by a sniper on the other side. And we get verbal confirmation that McCoy’s uniform is confederate, which I believe is the south. Kirk wants to bury the confederate sniper. The northerners are hesitant. Afterall, he’s the enemy.

Kirk tries to preach the virtue of having compassion for all people, even one’s enemies, but they’re not very interested.

It’s hard to judge them too harshly. Kirk is correct, of course, but it’s not easy to have compassion on somebody who just killed one of your own - probably a friend.

McCoy could easily save this wounded soldier’s life with 23rd century technology, but it’ll be a challenge with period instruments. But I don’t think it’s just technology. A doctor of the time could probably do a lot more because they’re familiar with the equipment.

McCoy raises the typical time travel problems. What if man is supposed to die and they heal him, or what if he was supposed to live, but by being here, they caused him to get shot? Being in the past is very risky. Of course, they don’t know that they’re not actually in the past. They have to treat this as if it’s real.

Like the previous episode, this one had new music composed by Andy Farber and performed by the STC Orchestra.

Back in the original series, they didn’t write all new music for every episode. Each season, they’d record some new music cues to add to the toolbox, and a music editor was apply them to the scenes of episodes, But when something big, special, or out-of-the-box happened, they’d write specific new music for it.

That’s kind of how they did this episode. With all the civil war stuff going on, this episode really cried out for new original music. They re-used stuff where appropriate, but created new stuff where it was needed.

Some really interesting trivia. They used the melody of Uhura’s song about Charlie, in the episode Charlie X, but that melody actually dates back to the American Civil war. It was a folk song about union volunteer soldiers. In this episode, it becomes Billy’s theme.

Spock and Scotty have found a way to draw the alien presence out of the Enterprise computer. It’s attracted to new sources of information. They can lure it into a backup module and then jettison it.

I’m a little shocked that Spock chose to destroy the jettisoned objects with the phasers. Yes, they were an infestation that caused problems to the ship, but there was also evidence that collectively, they represented an intelligent lifeform. It doesn’t seem very Starfleet to just blow them up. Once removed from the ship, they were no longer an immediate danger.

In any case, the ship is safe. Now they’ve just got to save Kirk and McCoy.

The northerner doctor doesn’t care about uniforms, he is just happy to have another set of hands to help the wounded. And as a doctor, McCoy is willing to help whoever is in medical trouble, regardless of who they are.

Spock clearly values McKenna’s services. He knows that this will be a stressful time for the crew, with the captain and doctor incapacitated. But he naturally assumes he is immune. McKenna not-so-subley makes it clear she is available to him as well.

It raises the question of Vulcan mental health. Vulcans have emotions, strong ones, so it would seem that counselling and psychology would be needed, and a logical people would understand their importance. But because of their mental disciplines, Vulcans are so good at suppressing their emotions. They don’t let themselves be controlled by their emotions.

Does this negate the need for counselling? For a human, to suppress everything you’re feeling is not healthy, but Vulcans aren’t humans.

Doctor M’Benga has discovered something interesting. While their bodies are still, he is detecting high levels of neural activity in Kirk and McCoy, very unusual for patients in a coma. And they spike at the same time, showing that they’re linked.

He’s well on the way to uncovering what’s actually going on here.

Checkov has found that at the time the computer was shut off, the entity was reviewing a particular battle in the American Civil war, as part of its analysis of Earth history.

So while they don’t have solid evidence, the Enterprise crew have pretty much figured out what is happening to Kirk and McCoy.

One of the soldiers is no longer sure what he’s fighting for.  Just to free some slaves? He doesn’t know the victims of slavery so it doesn’t feel personal to him. Kirk suggests that they’re all slaves to something, and this war is about freedom for all.

They’re all having doubts. One of them wants to be there for the birth of his grandchild, but instead, he’s here taking lives. And he’s right to see that as a tragedy. But Kirk explains that what they do here will be remembered. He knows this as a matter of historical fact. They can’t understand that, of course. So his words fall flat for them.

I’m really struck, in this scene, just how much Vic looks like William Shatner. It’s almost uncanny.

Bones is horrified by the brutality of it all. The wounds, the lack of proper anaesthetic. It all feels barbaric to him. But it’s not about technology, it’s about the human suffering he’s seeing.

Kirk blames himself. If he’d gone to his physical, McCoy wouldn’t have been on the bridge. But as I said, in this case, he had a good reason.

But I like what Bones says back to him. “The only thing worse than being stuck here with you, is you being here all by yourself.” Now that’s friendship.

McCoy raises an uncomfortable reality. It’s one thing for him to be saving lives, even lives that history says should be dead, but tomorrow, Kirk has to go onto the battle field and kill people. He can’t do that.

Despite that, he’s on the front line with the other men. Kirk has formed quite a bond with Billy, the young kid fighting for the first time.

I’ve got to give it to this episode, the scale is something else. The many actors, the horses, the canons. For a period piece like this to be done on a fan production’s budget is very impressive.

Kirk was fighting, but he’s badly wounded. I wonder if that’s because he held back from doing his best in an attempt not to kill.

With the equipment of the day, all Bones can do is amputate Kirk’s leg below the knee. That’s a pretty big deal. We know that even in the 24th century, Star Trek medicine can’t just magically grow back a limb. Nog was given an artificial leg in Deep Space Nine. This is a loss Kirk is going to have to live with for the rest of his life, if this were real, of course, which we know it’s not, but Kirk and McCoy don’t.

Can you imagine what it would feel like to have your leg cut off with a saw, when all you have for pain relief is a piece of wood to bite down on?

I can’t.

The thought absolutely horrifies me.

Even if it’s not real, the pain Kirk experiences is real.

But it’s even worse.

M’Benga finds that back on the Enterprise, Kirk’s real leg is dying. I’m not even going to try to make sense of that. There’s no reason that should be a thing, so let’s just accept that and move on.

M’Benga has managed to extract one of the pathogen objects. Turns out they’re nanites. Not a big surprise. The episode was clearly leaning in that direction.

Spock has an idea. They can help Kirk and McCoy the same way they cleared the Enterprise computer. Shut down their brain functions temporarily to starve the nanites, then lure them away with a trail of new information sources.

M’Benga can do it for a very limited time, but the while feasting on a biological brain, the nanites might not be tempted by an inorganic source.

They need something cybernetic. Nurse Chaspel suggest a prosthetic limb. There’s a crewmember with a bio-mechanical arm but confidentiality prohibits her from disclosing who it is. But with the captain and doctor’s lives at stake, Spock asks her to forgo her principles.

The ideal way to handle this would be to approach the crewmember privately and ask if they were willing to help, but what if they said no?

Another thing you wouldn’t normally see in a fan production is a practical effect for a soldier missing half his arm. It’s just a background detail, but it’s another example of this show’s professionalism.

Billy is in bad shape. Not physically, the bullet just grazed his head, but emotionally, he’s suffering from what was once called shell shock, a form of PTSD. McCoy doesn’t blame him.

Turns out, when the shooting started, he turned and ran, crashing into a tree. Now he feels like a coward. Kirk’s words touched him last night, but he’s questioning it all. He noticed that Kirk didn’t shoot anyone.

Kirk can’t properly explain his reasons for not firing, but he can say  that his freedom was taken away. Taken by the alien entity. Once again, Kirk tries to inspire Billy.

When Spock explains the situation to Lieutenant Drake, he’s quick to volunteer his cybernetic arm.

I was confused when M’Benga said that if this fails, he’ll lose all three of them. Kirk, McCoy, and Drake. So …. Why would they lose Drake? Are they not just going to remove his arm and use it as a tool? Worst case scenario, he doesn’t get his arm back. And he has to wait until a new one can be made for him, maybe on a Starbase.

But apparently, Drake’s arm cannot be removed. He’s sitting there in a chair between the biobeds holding a device. So….I guess that means there’s a risk the nanites could enter Drake’s body.

Kirk must have been asleep for some time. When he wakes, Billy isn’t in the next bed anymore. Turns out that Kirk’s words had a big impact on him. When all hope seemed lost, Billy led the charge, inspiring the other men to fight for freedom. He lost his life in that battle.

I think Kirk is feeling both proud and guilty. It was his words that led that boy to his death. That’s got to be a heavy thing to live with.

When someone announces that the president is here, Kirk jumps out of bed onto his crutches, despite his injuries. He doesn’t want to miss the chance to see a famous historical figure like Abraham Lincoln. Although, he’s already met him once. That was a pretend Lincoln, of course, manufactured by aliens, but then, so is this one. Kirk just doesn’t know it yet.

There’s a historical photo I’ve seen of Lincoln talking to some soldiers outside a tent. The staging of this shot looks very similar to that photo, and at the end of the scene, we see someone taking a photo. So I’m assuming this was meant to be the moment in history when that real photo was taken.

It’s pretty special for Kirk to be there.

McCoy points out that while Kirk only has one leg, he still has purpose, and that can allow him to stand just as tall.

M’Benga successfully draws the nanites out of Kirk and McCoy, then gives them stimulants. Their skin returns to normal colour.

Drake is escortedto the transporter room for some reason. It’s still not clear exactly how this whole plan is working. But I think the nanites are not so much in Drake’s artificial arm, as they are in the device he was holding.

Except when Drake enters the bridge to see Kirk, he’s missing the arm.

So …… I’m really confused. None of this was clear to me.

McCoy points out there could be more of the nanites out there. Kirk says God help anyone who encounters them.

This sounds like the episode is suggesting the nanites might be something we’ve seen before.

The obvious place my mind goes is the Borg. We know they use nanoprobes.

The Enterprise wasn’t assimilated, and neither were Kirk and McCoy, but their skin did go gray.

So maybe these are early Borg nanoprbes. I’m sure they had less sophisticated ways of assimilating before they developed nanotechnology properly. Perhaps in Kirk’s time, they’ve only recently assimilated that technology and have yet to perfect it.

It’s all speculation, of course,

But that’s half the fun of science fiction.

I felt the script was a little lacking in this one, when compared to the previous 4 episodes. Some things weren’t explained as well as they could have been. But it was still a good story. And the production with all those extras, costumes, location shooting, was very well done.

This is hardly a bad episode, just not as the good as the ones that have preceded it.

But still well worth watching.

Next time, on what will be our 100th episode, we’ll be talking about a special episode that gives us some practical creature effects, and a special guest appearance by an Australian actress of Farscape fame.

I’ll see you for Come Not Between the Dragons.

Until then, have a great two week

Live long and Prosper

Make it so.