Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 173 (Firstborn)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Worf is a Klingon and proud of it. Klingons are a warrior people with a long, proud tradition. Being a Klingon parent, Worf wants his son to grow up with said Klingon traditions. Unfortunately, Alexander doesn’t want to grow up as a Klingon. Alexander spent the first few years of his life with his mother, K'Ehleyr, who was half human. (Alexander is 3/4 Klingon and 1/4 Human.) She didn’t particularly embrace Klingon traditions and values and passed this sentiment on to her son.

It hasn’t been easy for Worf to instill Klingon values in Alexander. It comes to a head in this episode when Worf wants to have a talk with Alexander about the first Klingon Right of Ascension. The First Right of Ascension is a coming-of-age ceremony where a Klingon dedicates himself to the ways of the warrior. Alexander has the right to refuse to undergo this, but if he doesn’t do it before his thirteenth birthday, he can never do it.

Alexander finally becomes excited when he and Worf visit a Klingon outpost that the Enterprise happens to be near. There’s a festival underway, which would be a good way for Alexander to see part of what it means to be Klingon. Alexander does get excited about his Klingon heritage and has a chance to meet other Klingons his own age. However, when Alexander and Worf are heading home, several Klingons attack them. Another Klingon comes to the rescue. He identifies himself as K’Mtar, who Worf recognizes.

K’Mtar is a trusted member of Worf’s house. (Here, house is used in the sense of noble family.) Worf’s brother, Kern, sent K’Mtar to protect Worf and Alexander. The word is that the Duras sisters are out to assassinate someone in Worf’s house. (The Duras sisters are members of a rival house.) The Enterprise eventually tracks them down. When presented with the evidence, one of the sisters notices something strange. Eventually, the truth comes out. For the sake of not ruining it, I won’t give it away. However, Worf and Alexander seem to come away understanding each other a little better.

The latter part of the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation had a sort of lame-duck feel to it. The series got to end on its own terms, which meant that everyone knew that the end was coming. You can see it in a few other episodes. They all seem to be preparing for the final episode, which ties everything together.

Here, the acting was pretty good, as was the script and the sets. However, they weren’t great. When K'Ehleyr and worf were together, they served as great foils for each other. It took a while for Alexander to fill that role. In previous episodes, he always appeared a little out of place in the episode. Even in this episode, Alexander seemed a little awkward. The character was just about where he needed to be, but not quite. (Alexander appeared in a few episodes of Deep Space Nine, but was played by a different actor and had started to accept his role as a warrior.)

It’s a good episode, but not excellent. It’s somewhere between three and four episodes, not really average but not really above average. I’m more inclined to give it three stars.


IMDb page
 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 134 (A Fistful of Datas)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

The Enterprise has 48 hours to wait for another ship. During that time, the crew has some time to relax. Picard is playing his flute. Lieutenant Commander Data and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge want to see if they can use Data as a backup for the ship’s systems in the event of an emergency. (For those that don’t know, Data is an android.) Worf is trying to give himself more work. Picard advises him to take the time off, which he reluctantly does.

Worf goes back to his quarters to tell his son, Alexander, that they will be able to go to the holodeck together. Alexander has this Wild-West program that he wants to try out with his father. Troi shows up a little later. Meanwhile, the experiment with Data seems to be going well until there’s a power surge somewhere in his positronic matrix. He and La Forge have to end the experiment.

That’s where things get interesting. At first, it’s small stuff. Picard is listening to music when the computer suddenly switches the song without acknowledging it. (It turns out that the second song was one that Data was studying.) Commander Riker is reading lines from what he things is a play, but is actually Data’s poetry from a few episodes ago. They also discover that all of the food replicators are only giving out a cat food that Data created. Notice the connection?

Unbeknownst to the rest of the bridge crew, Worf and Troi are stuck in the holodeck. Even they don’t figure it out until various characters take on Data’s appearance and abilities. Also, the mortality failsafe isn’t working. When they try to shut down the program, the computer doesn’t respond. Amazingly, there’s a simple solution. La Forge is able to purge the memory of both Data and the ship’s computer. All Worf, Troi and Alexander have to do is wait it out safely, if they can.

It seems like whenever something goes wrong, there’s usually some other problem that’s made worse by the first problem. In this case, Worf has to face bad guys in the holodeck program. Since his life is at risk, Worf has to figure something out. For some reason, the ship’s malfunctions didn’t really seem that drastic. It was more comedic than anything else. The replicators replicating cat food? I don’t really think of that as life threatening. I suppose that the writers didn’t want to have too many problems at once. It’s bad enough that Worf, Alexander and Troi are at risk.

The best part is the acting. Troi and Worf get to try something new, but Brent Spiner steals the show with five or six characters. Not only does he play Data, but he gets to play the villains in the holodeck, which he did very well.

I feel that the episode is worth four stars. It’s easy to understand for fan and non-fan alike. There is a lot of continuity in this episode. Like I said, we get to see Data’s poetry and Picard was playing the flute he got in Inner Light. Fans will appreciate the continuity, but non-fans will probably think nothing of it.


IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 122 (Imaginary Friend)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

It’s amazing how often the Enterprise finds trouble. Occasionally, trouble finds the Enterprise, but the Enterprise is usually putting itself in harm’s way. In this case, the Enterprise is exploring a strange part of the galaxy. Some mysterious energy-based life form comes on board and starts scanning equipment and crew members. It comes across Clara, a child who’s working in the ship’s arboretum. The life form scans her and finds Isabella, Clara’s imaginary friend. (Clara’s developed an imaginary friend as a result of her father, an ensign in Starfleet, moving around a lot.) The life form takes on the appearance of Isabella to interact with Clara. She seems surprised to actually see Isabella at first, but eventually accepts it.

Isabella prods Clara to do things that she shouldn’t do in hopes of finding out more about the ship. Isabella makes a habit of disappearing when adults are around, the only exception being Worf. (The two literally run into him in one of the ship’s corridors.) Clara finds a lot of resistance from adults, the only exception being Guinan. (Guinan runs Ten-Forward.) When Clara enters, Guinan welcomes her and Isabella.

The ship is experiencing drag, which they can’t explain. Eventually, Chief Science Officer Data and Chief Engineer La Forge find a web that’s normally invisible, but that seems to be reacting to the shields and keeping the ship from moving at the speed that it should be.

It isn’t long before the two stories come together. It turns out that the life form impersonating Isabella is trying to decide if the crew of the Enterprise should live or die. The net is an attempt by others of her species to drain energy from the ship. Eventually, Captain Picard talks to Isabella and the two come to an understanding. Isabella realizes that there’s more to the Federation than what a child sees and Picard decides to release some energy for the life forms to feed on.

The episode primarily seems to deal with life as a military brat. It’s not easy having a parent that moves around every couple of years. Clara’s father even talks to La Forge about it. (Both of La Forge’s parents served in Starfleet.) Troi tells Clara’s father that Isabella will ‘go away’ when Clara makes friends. (Troi and everyone else keep dealing with Isabella as imaginary until Isabella eventually attacks Troi.) Isabella, played by Shay Astar, comes across as very creepy. Isabella had very little apparent emotion, even Clara pointed out that she never smiled. It was a great acting job.

Overall, the episode was good until the end, when it came off as being a little too preachy. It seems like I’ve been using that word about too many episodes, and in such a short period of time, but Picard basically lectures Isabella on why a child’s perspective is skewed and how it isn’t fair to judge the ship’s crew based solely on that.

I have to go with three stars on this one. Had it not been for the ending, I would have gone with four. I think that the writers could have done a little better with it. 

IMDb page

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 120 (Cost of Living)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

The start of this episode is somewhat confusing. All we see is the Enterprise destroying an asteroid just in time to save a planet. That’s it. After the theme, Worf and Alexander are in Counselor Deanna Troi’s office. The Klingon father and son are still arguing. Alexander is finally following Worf’s instructions, but is trying to get around them by arguing the letter of the instructions. Troi advises them to come up with a contract about what is expected by each from the other.

This scene is a set-up for the arrival of Deanna Troi’s mother, Lwaxana Troi. Lwaxana Troi, an ambassador from Betazed, tends to be the opposite of her daughter. She’s very free where Deanna tends to be disciplined. In other words Lwaxana and Alexander become fast friends leaving Deanna and Worf to try and rein them in. It turns out that the Enterprise is escorting Lwaxana to marry her future husband, who she has never even met and knows nothing about outside of a personality profile.

Soon, the Enterprise starts experiencing trouble. First, it’s the replicators. (When Lwaxana Troi asks for tea, she gets a cup filled with sausage.) Then, other systems start to fail. The crew traces the problems back to a parasite that apparently came from the asteroid that they destroyed. The parasite is feeding on a metal that is common to many of the ship’s components.

That basically sums up the three story lines that are present in the show: the conflict between Worf and Alexander, Lwaxana’s marriage and the problem with the parasites. The parasites are given a new home in an asteroid belt that has more than enough of the compound that they like. Lwaxana ends up not marrying the man that she had intended to, mostly due to personality differences that weren’t captured in the profile. As for Worf and Alexander, they go on to have other differences of opinion. However, the Enterprise is safe from trouble.

This is another one of those episodes where you have to have watched the show to fully understand. For instance, Lwaxana Troi is a force to be reckoned with. She usually knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to say so or simply go after it. Also, it seems that Worf and Alexander are always arguing. It isn’t until much later (after Worf transfers to Deep Space Nine) that they start to agree on anything. You’d really have to have seen a lot of the series to understand the entire history between Worf and Alexander and between Deanna and Lwaxana.

There are two things that I found odd about the episode. First, there’s a scene where Data opens the turbolift doors. The turbolift is the Enterprise’s elevator system. Most elevators have two sets of doors. One is the interior set, which is attached to the elevator carriage. The other set is the exterior set, which is attached to the walls that border the shaft and the hallway or room where the elevator exits. Data really should have had to open two sets of doors, but it looks like he only opens one.

The other odd thing had to do with the parasites. Why is it that getting rid of the parasites seemed to return all systems to normal? Granted, it was stated that repairs had to be made, but the lights shouldn’t have gone from flickering to full power. Maybe it’s just me.

Both of these points are minor and easy to overlook. I wouldn’t recommend this episode to someone who’s new to the series, but it’s definitely something to look forward to if you intend on watching the entire series. 

IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 116 (Ethics)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

The episode starts with Security Chief Worf and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge discussing a poker game. La Forge, who wears a special device to see, is commenting on Worf's hand, despite the fact that Worf folded. Shortly after the two split up to scan some containers, one falls on Worf. He awakens in sickbay; he tells Dr. Crusher that restraints won't be necessary. She tells him that she's not using any; his spine has been shattered leaving him paralyzed in his lower body.

For a proud Klingon, this is unacceptable; he wants to die. In Klingon society, he'd be allowed to, but Dr. Crusher maintains that he consider surgery to repair the spine. At best, she can restore 60% of his mobility. That's not enough. Worf doesn't want to be pitied. It's an all-or-nothing proposition for him. If he can't regain his former life, he wants to die. He asks Commander Riker to assist him.

Riker has a hard time coming to terms with the request. He almost does it, but refuses Worf on the grounds that it traditionally falls to a family member. Since Worf has a son on the ship, Riker has no place granting his request. The thing is that Worf can't bring himself to allow his son, Alexander, to see him like this. Worf is proud and stubborn. To be weakened is bad enough; to admit weakness is beyond him.

There is an alternative; Dr. Crusher has called in Dr. Russell, who has experience with Worf's type of injury. The problem with Dr. Russell, though, is that she has some radical methods. Dr. Crusher confronts her about a dead patient who might have lived had he been given a traditional treatment. Crusher believes that Russell's methods are extreme and unwarranted. In fact, Russell's proposed treatment for Worf is to actually create a new spine and replace the damaged spine with it. Considering that it's never been tested on a humanoid and has simulated success below 40%, Crusher wants no part of it and won't even let Worf consider it.

Russell brings the idea to Worf anyway. He accepts, even knowing that he might die anyway. (Actually, this option was perfect for his all-or-nothing mentality.) To those that have seen the final seasons of Deep Space Nine, it should come as no surprise that Worf lives. I thought it was a little cliche to have an ending where Worf dies, but comes back to life when everyone's given up hope on him. I think it would have been better to simply have the operation succeed.

The beginning was also pretty bad. I think it was one of the worst staged accidents that I've ever seen. However, the beginning and ending of the episode were the only two bad parts. Otherwise, I'd have to say that this is one of the best episodes that the series has to offer.

"Ethics" doesn't even begin to cover it. The episode deals primarily with the ethics of assisted suicide. It also deals with what a doctor is obligated to do (or not do) for a patient. Can a doctor do too much? It also brings up the ethics of cloning for the sake of medical uses, even though it doesn't really deal with it.

It looks like Worf is finally getting used to the presence of Alexander. Worf's involvement with Troi also develops a little more. I'd like to echo the sentiments of many other Star Trek viewers when I say that it was a total waste to end that relationship when Worf joined Deep Space Nine. (Speaking of Alexander, Brian Bonsall seems to be getting more comfortable with his role. In previous episodes, he seemed like he hadn't quite gotten the hang of it.)

I'd recommend this episode for regular viewer and occasional viewer alike. As I said, this is one of the best that the series has to offer. 

IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 110 (New Ground)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

They say that breaking up is hard to do. Apparently, getting back together isn’t any easier. Way back in the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Worf had a child, Alexander. Worf is Klingon and the mother was half-Klingon half-human. Shortly after Worf was told that he had a child, the mother died, leaving Worf with Alexander to worry about. Feeling that it would be difficult to raise a child and be chief of security, Worf sent Alexander to live with his own adoptive parents. In “New Ground”, Worf’s adoptive mother brings Alexander to Worf, telling him that she and her husband are too old to be taking care of a Klingon child. (Worf doesn’t know that she has Alexander until both are aboard the Enterprise.) As if it was hard enough the first time, they now have to deal with being several decades older. They simply can’t take care of Alexander.

As it happens, the Enterprise is getting ready for an experiment. Someone has developed a technology that, if successful, would replace warp drive, the current faster-than-light engines used in the Star Trek universe. A station on a planet will generate a wave that will carry a ship to another station, which will nullify the wave. Granted, this doesn’t add a lot of stress for Worf in particular, but he has missed the first few years of Alexander’s life. He has his normal duties plus the responsibilities involved in taking care of a child, such as enrolling him in school.

Things are difficult for Worf. Alexander is understandably resentful towards Worf. Alexander lies. He steals. He shows hostility towards Worf. Worf doesn’t have the aid of Alexander’s mother, but his crewmates are patient. When both Dr. Crusher and Alexander’s teacher contact Worf within minutes of each other, Captain Picard tells Worf that what they are doing can wait.

Worf is considering sending Alexander away to a Klingon school, mostly because Alexander has no knowledge of what it means to be Klingon. (His mother rejected Klingon culture and passed this on to her son.) Worf is proud of his Klingon heritage, which allows for a great deal of tension with Alexander. The biggest problem for Worf is admitting that he has a lot to learn about parenting. When dealing with Alexander, Worf oversimplifies a lot of problems.

The moment of truth comes when an experiment with the new form of propulsion fails, leaving the Enterprise to solve the problem. The wave expands to such massive proportions that the receiving station won’t be able to stop it. In fact, if no one stops it, the planet that it’s on will be destroyed. In stopping the wave, lethal amounts of radiation will be released and that radiation will flood certain parts of the Enterprise. Worf has to get his son out of a burning room before the room is flooded with the radiation. Worf succeeds with the help of Commander Riker. Worf and Alexander come to an understanding that it will be more of a challenge for Alexander to stay, but Worf will have him if Alexander feels that he’s up to it.

The story involving the new form of propulsion wasn’t written very well. It looks like it was just a way to set up a dangerous situation where Worf would have to rescue Alexander. It was never seen or heard of again. (Fans of the Star Trek series are very familiar with promising technology that makes one appearance in the series, but is never explored again.)

Because of the way Alexander was raised, there is going to be tension between Alexander and Worf, and this is dealt with several times throughout the rest of the series, although not to this extent. This episode was simply to put Alexander back in to Worf’s life. It also sets up Counselor Troi as someone that Worf trusts and can depend on. It also is meant to have Alexander see that Worf is someone that’s looking out for him rather than some overbearing father who just wants to lay down a bunch of tough rules.

There are only about two or three episodes that you’d have to have seen to fully understand this one. If this was the first episode of the series that you watched, I don’t think that you’d be missing out on too much, though. However, it’s so late in the series that if you’re watching reruns on Spike TV, you might just want to wait until it starts at the beginning again.

IMDb page