History Recap / StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS1E08TheElysianKingdom

* ArtisticLicenseMartialArts: Ortegas holds her cruciform two-hand longsword in a one-handed fencing pose. This is a bit like attempting to use a hammer the way you would a needle. Ultimately {{justified}} in that Rukiya can hardly be expected to understand nuances of UsefulNotes/HistoricalEuropeanMartialArts that even grown tropers aren't aware of, and Debra the Nebula even less so. Plus, it's a great ShoutOut to ''another'' helmsman who likes swordplay.

** The book ''The Kingdom of Elysian'' is shown to be written by [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Benny Russell]].
** One of the crux of the episode introducing Russell was about the difficulty Russell's work having a black Protagonist when he wanted it to because his stories wouldn't be sold. Ironically, this is exactly what happens when his book comes to life, with M'Benga as the king. This is not a coincidence as it is explicitly shown [[https://blog.trekcore.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/the-end.jpg in the character illustrations as well]]. And perfect for a Benny Russell take on high fantasy.

* WillingChanneler: Hemmer deliberately drops his psychic defenses to the nebula entity can communicate through him.

While the ''Enterprise'' surveys the Jonisian nebula, Dr. M'Benga works tirelessly on a cure for Rukiya's cygnokemia — perhaps too tirelessly, since he misses some of his official duties. Rukiya, for her part, is getting tired of ''The Elysian Kingdom'', the FairyTale M'Benga has been reading her all season; she wishes it would end differently, and M'Benga tells her that perhaps she can write her own ending one day. Up on the bridge, Pike orders ''Enterprise'' to depart... but something is pinning the ship in place, and when they try using impulse power at first, the turbulence throws Ortegas from her console. M'Benga is ordered to the bridge... where he suddenly finds himself cosplaying as King Ridley, the MainCharacter of ''The Elysian Kingdom''.

'''Rauth:''' Okay!

-->'''Ortegas:''' Just waiting for you to say the thing.\\

* GenreSavvy: In-universe, M'Benga has read the story several times and can thus know what's coming in this recreation, even though some of the details are off. Ironically, despite this, he fails to anticipate the obvious TreacherousAdvisor, even though he lampshades after the fact that it's lifted directly from the story. One can blame that on his concern for his daughter distracting him.

** The laid-back, wisecracking Ortegas becomes a fierce BloodKnight.

* ArtisticLicenseMartialArts: Ortegas holds her cruciform two-hand longsword in a one-handed fencing pose. This is a bit like attempting to use a hammer the way you would a needle. Ultimately {{justified}}: While you could make arguments about whether Sir Adya ought to know better, it's reasonable that Ortegas wouldn't be familiar with nuances of UsefulNotes/HistoricalEuropeanMartialArts that even grown tropers aren't aware of-- and even more reasonable that both Debra the Nebula and Rukiya herself, who are the ones actually enforcing the illusion, wouldn't.

** One of the crux of the episode introducing Russell was about the difficulty Russell's work having a black Protagonist when he wanted it to because his stories wouldn't be sold. Ironically, this is exactly what happens when his book comes to life, with M'Benga as the king.

* ShoutOut: The entire episode is an homage to fandom, from the LiveActionRolePlay forced on the characters to Rukiya's FixFic which allows two characters to interact. There's even an acknowledgement of SlashFic, which is appropriate for ''Star Trek'' given that the original characters to be linked by that suggestive slash mark were Kirk and Spock.