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.

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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