The Klingon Political "Trilogy"

[MikeS]

"Sins Of The Father", "Reunion" and "Redemption".

After reading a thread about Worf's funny bits I decided to revisit these episodes. IMO, they are just as good now as when they first aired. Effects included. I have heard people complain that TNG was too "episodic", that there was no overall arc to the show, but these are one example of an arc that was done very well. Aside from, perhaps, Sela who it seemed was just thrown in to give the Actress something to do and provide a bit of a cliffhanger.

K'Heylar's death had me in tears. She was such a proud and honourable warrior despite her aversion to Klingon heritage. She would have made a good wife for Worf. I did find it strange that Worf was allowed to resign his commission and then get his old job and rank back so easily at the end. Oh and kudos to Data for putting that Lt Cmdr in his place! And O'Brian getting more to do.

Four of the best hours of TNG.

 

[M-Red]

"Sins Of The Father", "Reunion" and "Redemption"....are just as good now as when they first aired. Effects included.

agreed...these are all great. It's easy to forget now but these really formed the foundation for the Klingon saga in the post-TOS era. Aside from greatly enriching TNG, they also set many of the parameters for DS9...and are especially good to review before watching Way of the Warrior.

Aside from, perhaps, Sela who it seemed was just thrown in to give the Actress something to do and provide a
bit of a cliffhanger.

it's amazing "Redemption" was as good as it was because Sela is one of the most forced, unbelievable, and totally unnecessary characters in the 40+ years of Trek.

Not only did she get a prominent role in this Klingon story but also in the major Rommie two-parter "Unification." (Look, we got Spock!....aaaaaaaaaaand: Tasha's identical-looking Romulan daughter who somehow rose through the ranks of the Romulan military and now over-acts with them exactly like Tasha used to do with us!!....how clever!).

It's unbelievable that both stories not only worked but excelled (and somehow still hold up after time), despite Sela's mind-numbingly bad presence. Ugh.


Really, Sela is one of the major flaws of TNG imo -- a kind of Shinzon-esque foreshadow to the tragic crap that awaited us all. TPTB jeopardized two of the most important stories in TNG for....Sela? Huh? I don't care how good of a friend Crosby was. That character is mind-blowingly dumb. They should have politely told Crosby, "umm....sorry....but no thanks."

K'Heylar's death had me in tears. She was such a proud and honourable warrior despite her aversion to Klingon heritage. She would have made a good wife for Worf.

agreed...she was great, but her death was well executed and really gave Worf a new degree of depth and allowed his story to evolve the way it did in TNG/DS9.

I did find it strange that Worf was allowed to resign his commission and then get his old job and rank back so easily at the end.

but the scene at the end of Redemption is so superb it didn't matter to me...they knocked it out of the park.


yep...good shows.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Shouldn't "The Mind's Eye" be thrown in the pile with these three episodes as another lead-up to the Klingon Civil War?

 

[Unicron]

These are some of my favorites in TNG, because they added a lot to Worf's perspective and to the Klingons as a race. It's why some of the later one-dimensional, "we're all warriors" portrayals bother me, because TNG did a lot more with them.

 

[Red Ranger]

I agree these are among the best eps dealing with Klingons in ST in general and in TNG in particular. That's in spite of the inclusion of the dumb character Sela. Would've been more interesting if Tomalak were the Romulan officer in charge of supplying the Duras' sisters with arms. I always liked his character and wished we'd seen more of him.

One of my favorite things in this arc is when Worf kills Duras. Riker and Data walking in just before the kill and being unable to stop Worf was a nice touch.

And, of course, this arc introduced Gowron! He's one of my favorite Klingon characters because of his scheming ways -- not to mention his raspy voice and bugged-out eyes!

 

[Doug Otte]

I agree these are among the best eps dealing with Klingons in ST in general and in TNG in particular. That's in spite of the inclusion of the dumb character Sela. Would've been more interesting if Tomalak were the Romulan officer in charge of supplying the Duras' sisters with arms. I always liked his character and wished we'd seen more of him.

One of my favorite things in this arc is when Worf kills Duras. Riker and Data walking in just before the kill and being unable to stop Worf was a nice touch.

And, of course, this arc introduced Gowron! He's one of my favorite Klingon characters because of his scheming ways -- not to mention his raspy voice and bugged-out eyes!

Agreed about the killing of Duras at the end of Reunion. When I first saw it, I was shocked. In the moments leading up to it, I was sure Worf would relent or be talked out of it. None of the TNG characters had killed somebody like that before. However, it was a bold move to have him carry it out because it gave his character that much more veritas and weight; it also reinforced my respect for the depth of the TNG universe that the writers had built up.

Doug

 

[MikeS]

It was bold. Something similar had happened in "The Enemy" with Worf refusing to give a dying Romulan a blood transfusion. That was a real shock when it first aired. Was sure he'd come around to a humanitarian way of thinking.

 

[indolover]

TNG essentially developed the Klingons and the writers did a good job at it.

I find the way they did it was good though. Klingons may care most about honour, but the arc showed they're complex, and not always honourable (Duras in TNG, even Gowron in DS9).

 

[Joemac]

as a side, i also loved the mix of the trouble with tribbles, enterprise( the klingon plague caused by the pinching of the genenome treatment by data's great grandfather,singh) and the DS9 worfs reaction to smooth browed klingons. I can't quite remember worfs quote but i think it was"we don't talk about it".wonderful way to cover the difference between the old style klingons and the new.

 

[Mojochi]

Shouldn't "The Mind's Eye" be thrown in the pile with these three episodes as another lead-up to the Klingon Civil War?

Yesterday's Enterprise, for that matter. That ENT-C stuff is when the Klingons started getting cozy with the Federation, & likely when the Romulans started wanting to destroy that. Also, around the time when crappy Sela was born

I did find it strange that Worf was allowed to resign his commission and then get his old job and rank back so easily at the end.

It all comes down to Worf sparing the life of Duras' son, Toral. It IS the Klingon way, but not Worf's way, the Starfleet way. Worf then requests permission to return to duty, after having conducted himself in a very upstanding way, by Starfleet's standard, & more importantly, Picard's.

Picard is big on giving people a second chance, especially ones who deserve it. Just look at what he tells Riker, after the Pegasus incident, or taking on Sito Jax, after the academy disaster

 

[Admiral Shran]

I did find it strange that Worf was allowed to resign his commission and then get his old job and rank back so easily at the end.

It could just be that Picard, knowing that Worf would eventually want to return, never forwarded Worf's resignation on to Starfleet Command and instead granted him an extended leave of absence.