‘DIVIDED WE STAND’ (STC)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is a fascinatingly enjoyable and insightful episode in the ‘Star Trek Continues’ series. It’s an episode that showcases Kirk and McCoy’s friendship where they find themselves out of their place and time. They end up in a perilous situation concerning Earth’s history.
In the episode, the Enterprise is under attack from a nano-virus which the ship acquired when they encountered a probe in space. The Enterprise crew do all they can to rid themselves of the nano-virus, including Spock and Scotty whilst they’re working on the bridge.
‘Bones’ McCoy comes onto the bridge to get Kirk to have his medical checkup when he failed to show up in sick bay for it. During the attempt to free the Enterprise ship’s computer from the nano-virus, an explosion puts Kirk and Bones into a very unusual coma.
They wake up in a turbulent moment in time – the American Civil War. Kirk finds himself wearing a Union uniform whilst Bones is wearing a Confederate uniform. This doesn’t bode well when Kirk and Bones end up with a group of Union soldiers, as Bones isn’t trusted.
Thankfully, Kirk manages to convince the Union soldiers that Bones’ skills as a medical doctor are essential for keeping the wounded alive. But as the experience persists, Kirk and Bones find themselves vulnerable to the harsh realities of America’s bloody conflict.
I must admit I’m not very familiar with the American Civil War in terms of its history. I never studied it in school and have only picked up glimpses of it through various other film and TV productions like the ‘Doctor Who’ TV story ‘The War Games’. It’s been quite fascinating.
I’m glad this ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode gives viewers a look-in to how things turned out in the American Civil War. And how it presents Kirk and Bones in a dangerous situation. Whether they actually ended up back in time on Earth via their coma, I’m not entirely sure.
I can only assume it’s imaginary, although Kirk losing his leg during a skirmish in the American Civil War is pretty unsettling. Thankfully, Kirk managed to get life back into his leg once he and Bones woke up after Spock and the Enterprise medical crew saved them.
The pivotal aspect of the American Civil War that Kirk and Bones find themselves in happens to the Battle of Antietam. This was fought on the 17th of September 1862. It was before President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. 🙂
Like I said, I’m not very familiar with the history of the American Civil War and I’m not sure why the alien nanites put Kirk and Bones through the experience when that explosion occurred to cause their coma. 😐 But it was fascinating to see it when watching the episode.
Abraham Lincoln does make a brief appearance at the end of the episode, albeit from a distance when Kirk and Bones witness his arrival. The only other time that Lincoln has appeared in the original ‘Star Trek’ TV series is the Season 3 episode ‘The Savage Curtain’.
This episode showcases Vic Mignogna and Chuck Huber well as Kirk and Bones. They capture the personas of Kirk and Bones effortlessly, based on William Shatner and DeForrest Kelly’s performances. It makes you forget Kirk and Bones are played by different actors. 🙂
It was interesting to see how Bones coped with being a medical surgeon during the American Civil War. This is especially when he doesn’t have his usual 23rd medical equipment to heal his patients, as he has to resort to using primitive medical implements.
The scene where Bones must amputate one of Kirk’s legs in order to save his life is a pretty shocking moment. But Kirk knows that Bones has to do what he has to do in order to save his life. Fortunately, this only happens when they’re in the American Civil War scenario. 🙂
Whilst Kirk and Bones are in their coma in sick bay, Martin Bradford as Dr. M’Benga attends to them. M’Benga has been in the original ‘Star Trek’ series beforehand, in the episodes ‘A Private Little War’ and ‘That Which Survives’. Brooker Bradshaw played him in those episodes.
It was nice to see M’Benga in this ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode, especially when Bones is out of action as well as Kirk. More recently, M’Benga has appeared as a regular character in ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ and is currently played by Babs Olusanmokun.
M’Benga comes up with a solution to save Kirk and Bones from the coma state they’re in. It will mean, of course, having to transfer the nanites into a bio-mechanical device. Thus, the services of the chief security officer Steven Dengler as Lt. Drake are called upon here.
I’ve mentioned Lt. Drake’s character before in the second episode of ‘Star Trek Continues’ called ‘Lolani’. I described Drake as a ‘gentle giant’ aboard the Enterprise, and he gets to prove his loyalty to Kirk and Bones when agreeing to offer his bio-mechanical arm to save them.
It was interesting to uncover more about Drake’s character in this episode, especially when he lost his arm during a conflict. I like how he appears on the bridge with Kirk and Bones at the episode’s end, having lost his bio-mechanical arm but still looking dignified.
In terms of the rest of the episode’s guest cast, there’s Scotty Whitehurst as Billy, the young soldier who struggled to confront his fears whilst fighting during the American Civil War. The conversations Kirk has with Billy are really meaningful and insightful to watch. 🙂
There’s also Greg Dykstra as Dr. Heath, the physician who works on the Union front. I like that Heath doesn’t judge McCoy when seeing him wearing the Confederate uniform. He’s willing to acquire his services to save the lives of many soldiers who are suffering terribly.
Blaque Fowler guest stars as Pappy, one of the Union soldiers who sadly gets injured in the conflict. Pappy shares with Kirk what happened when Billy stood up for himself and persisted in the fight for freedom. This is thanks to Kirk persuading Billy to make a difference.
Kipleigh Brown makes another appearance as Smith in the series, having appeared previously in ‘Fairest of Them All’ and ‘The White Iris’. Smith comes across as a nice Starfleet officer in gold uniform when working on the bridge of the Enterprise in this series.
Michele Specht does make a brief appearance as Dr. McKennah, the ship’s counsellor, in the episode when Spock asks her to help those who need counselling. I did wonder if she was going to contribute more to the episode, but sadly, that never came to be for this one.
It was interesting to see how Spock coped with being in command of the Enterprise whilst Kirk and Bones were out of action. He interacted well with Dr. M’Benga in getting Kirk and Bones to recover as well as interacting with Chekov on the bridge as well as with Lt. Drake.
So, yes! ‘Divided We Stand’ is a very enjoyable and insightful instalment in the ‘Star Trek Continues’ series. I like how it gave Kirk and Bones a chance to shine as characters when put in a dangerous situation. It was fascinating to learn more of the American Civil War. 🙂
This episode is also a nice change for our characters to go outside of the Enterprise, as many ‘Star Trek’ stories are usually confined aboard the Enterprise or on an alien planet somewhere. Being in the open air and in a period of Earth history was refreshing to watch.
‘Divided We Stand’ (STC) rating – 8/10
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