Alexander was a loser

[john titor]

1. He couldn't handle a bathleth sp? because he was too lazy to learn how to use it
2. He's clumsy
3. He's a wimp (was almost fainting during that klingon batchelor party fire ritual)
4. He's the ships fool
5. He's an embarrassment to his overachieving father
6. He's stupid

All these things made life very hard for Alexander, in the lottery of life he lost out to some extent, but I think that these reasons are attributable to the fact that he wasn't in the right environment. Instead of having him go down the typical every klingon wants to be a warrior route, it would have made more sense if he didn't give a damn about his race or culture and just took up something completely different on earth, like going to university instead of going the military route, klingon empire, starfleet etc. In this way he would have attained a level of self respect and success but on his own terms.

 

[Jono]

I disagree. I think that the writers pushed the comedy factor of Alexander a bit too far but I don't think he was a loser, simply a young man who was trying to find himself.

Fainting from heat exhaustion doesn't make him a "wuss". He isn't a full blooded Klingon like Worf and Martok and both had spent much longer working on their warriorness. Add to that a couple of trained Starfleet officers that while they are human they are experienced and conditioned thanks to training and years of service.

Worf did feel he was an embarrassment at first, but Worf has always over compensated in his Klingon-ness for been brought up by Humans. He accepted that Alexander might never be the best warrior but he will be the best warrior he can be.

 

[john titor]

I disagree. I think that the writers pushed the comedy factor of Alexander a bit too far but I don't think he was a loser, simply a young man who was trying to find himself.

Fainting from heat exhaustion doesn't make him a "wuss". He isn't a full blooded Klingon like Worf and Martok and both had spent much longer working on their warriorness. Add to that a couple of trained Starfleet officers that while they are human they are experienced and conditioned thanks to training and years of service.

Worf did feel he was an embarrassment at first, but Worf has always over compensated in his Klingon-ness for been brought up by Humans. He accepted that Alexander might never be the best warrior but he will be the best warrior he can be.

Why did he have to be a warrior at all though? He wasn't really into it, Martok said that he couldn't see the passion for it in him. Or maybe he was just more emotionally reserved than other Klingons. But Martoks statement was significant. What was Alexander trying to prove? Was it a parental issue? Surely he should have at least some self confidence, just a modicrum of self respect not to blindly join the Klingon fleet in order to prove a point to his father. Combine this with the fact that he really didn't care for klingon heritage in TNG and I think the writers just went for a cop out, which worked well because his arc was cringeworthy, he was the abject failure on a difficult road to finding himself. By that I mean apart from Jake nearly every kid in star trek joins or wants to join some militaristic fleet. And Jake was a loser and dissapointment to his father as well. All he did was slack around. He didn't even get an education, he was a journalist!

 

[Deranged Nasat]

And Jake was a loser and dissapointment to his father as well. All he did was slack around. He didn't even get an education, he was a journalist!

I don't recall Jake ever being portrayed as a "loser" or a disappointment to Sisko. And he was accepted at the prestigious Pennington School, he simply decided to stay on DS9 and get more "real-world" experience (and what an experience it was..)

I see your point about Alexander, though. I never understood why he wanted to become a warrior. I found it a bit of a disappointment. It would have been great to see a young Klingon say "No. I'm not going to be a warrior." But, no, the young Klingon has to become a warrior....

 

[Navaros]

Alexander was definitely a loser, and it was Worf's fault for being a horrible father.

Alexander was trying to prove to his father that he wasn't a loser, even though he was.

The most insulting thing of all is that they had an entire episode for which the point was that Worf promised to teach Alexander not to be a loser, yet then they brought Alexander back in another episode and showed that he is still a loser and always will be and Worf had reneged on his promise. Thereby rendering Worf into a really awful (and dishonorable) person, and also rendering the entire episode where Worf made the false promise to be a pointless waste of time.

 

[john titor]

Thats the thing, Alexander was simply in a terrible environment to be anything but a complete loser, he just didn't fit into Klingon society, there was nothing wrong in that, he would have been better off on earth pursuing some kind of study or other, then he would have had self respect for not cowing to the pressure of others expectations, which makes one not a loser.

 

[john titor]

And Jake was a loser and dissapointment to his father as well. All he did was slack around. He didn't even get an education, he was a journalist!

I don't recall Jake ever being portrayed as a "loser" or a disappointment to Sisko. And he was accepted at the prestigious Pennington School, he simply decided to stay on DS9 and get more "real-world" experience (and what an experience it was..)

I see your point about Alexander, though. I never understood why he wanted to become a warrior. I found it a bit of a disappointment. It would have been great to see a young Klingon say "No. I'm not going to be a warrior." But, no, the young Klingon has to become a warrior....

didn't know that, thanks. Yeah, I suppose Jake was intelligent enough not to be a loser but his dad had better survivor skills and technical savvy. Nog was an idiot but not a loser, Rom was almost a loser but not quite owing to his latent technical intelligence, hmmm, apart from Harry Kim, Alexander has to be star treks biggest loser.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I don't know if I'd call him a 'loser'. But I agree that he did need to work on coming to terms with the fact that he'd never really be a 'true' Klingon.

Personally, I think Worf should have been helping him all along with that though, since he HAD to know this was coming since, like, the day Alexander was born.

The TNG episodes dealing with Worf/Alexander sort of address this issue...but frankly, I don't feel DS9 had much available bandwidth to give it, and therefore it probably shouldn't have been addressed at all.

I don't think Alexander should have ever been brought into DS9 for this reason. We simply had too much other stuff going on to try and deal with Alexander/Worf. And we already had a couple of father/son relationship storylines going with Ben/Jake Sisko and to a lesser extent, Rom/Nog.

Alexander did not bring anything new to the table for DS9...and DS9 did not have the bandwidth available to make any meaningful progress in that relationship happen.

I wonder whose idea it was to try and wedge Alexander into DS9......

 

[Sykonee]

They established Alexander to be quite disinterested in Klingon culture -and the warrior's life- through most of TNG; he was apparently going to become a diplomat (at least according to his future self in Firstborn). Him joining the Empire's army was completely out of leftfield.

I s'pose it therefore makes sense for him to be incompetent at being a warrior, but I don't think it makes him a loser since he only became a 'warrior' due to the writers' whim.

 

[Blueicus]

I think DS9 dropped theball on the Worf/Alexander storyline... as Sykonee said, according to the TNG episode Firstborn he decided to be a diplomat and peacemaker (though in the end he was intently involved in Klingon politics and the homeworld... despite being raised in the Federation) and the young Alexander had no desire to kill even holographic opponents, nor was he a particularly skilled warrior.

Suddenly jump forward a few years and he's gone and joined the Klingon army... it just didn't seem to ring true to me.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

The Batleth was a stupid weapon anyway. Surely a phaser on full spread could take out an army of Klingons?

 

[john titor]

It amazes me how klingons ever got into space in the first place. They went from being badass to a joke species.

 

[DevilEyes]

And Jake was a loser and dissapointment to his father as well. All he did was slack around. He didn't even get an education, he was a journalist!

And what is wrong with being a journalist? Jake was a good journalist, and he eventually became a renowned writer (at least in one future reality we got to see). Definitely not a loser not a disappointment.

Why is a career in Starfleet supposed to be the pinnacle of achievement?

Maybe Ben was a loser and a disappointment to Joseph because he did not become a chef.

I think DS9 dropped theball on the Worf/Alexander storyline... as Sykonee said, according to the TNG episode Firstborn he decided to be a diplomat and peacemaker (though in the end he was intently involved in Klingon politics and the homeworld... despite being raised in the Federation) and the young Alexander had no desire to kill even holographic opponents, nor was he a particularly skilled warrior.

Suddenly jump forward a few years and he's gone and joined the Klingon army... it just didn't seem to ring true to me.

There's no reason to think he won't eventually leave the army and become a diplomat.

 

[JustKate]

Gee. My degree is in journalism, and I did that for a lot of years (I'm only sort-of a journalist these days). I knew we weren't held in high esteem by some, but I don't think my parents consider me a "loser" because of it.

As for the OP, no, I don't think Alexander was a loser, but the writers couldn't figure out what in the heck to do with him - he sort of became a Generic Troubled Part-Klingon Young Person. So he was...well, whatever they needed him to be to fit in with the plot. Not a good idea, character-development-wise.

 

[Kelthaz]

Suddenly jump forward a few years and he's gone and joined the Klingon army... it just didn't seem to ring true to me.

I've always rationalized it that the only reason he joined was because of the Dominion threat and that he resigned as soon as the war ended.

 

[RoJoHen]

Suddenly jump forward a few years and he's gone and joined the Klingon army... it just didn't seem to ring true to me.

I've always rationalized it that the only reason he joined was because of the Dominion threat and that he resigned as soon as the war ended.

It would have made more sense for him to follow in his father's footsteps and join Starfleet.

 

[PSGarak]

Alexander suffered the fate of countless kid characters on shows that aren't kid-centric or family oriented. The writers had absolutely no idea what to do with him. I never liked him in TNG. It was a waste of time and storytelling space to bring him into DS9. My view is that if a writer doesn't know what to do with a child character, then the character has no business being created in the first place. If it's just as a foil or an obstacle to give a parent something to angst over, it's a bad idea.

 

[Anika Hanson]

I think Alexander's failures in being a Klingon warrior were due to Worf not teaching him. Although when he was a child Alexander said he didnt want to follow the Klingon traditions I think Work, quite often took the easy way out. Instead of actually being a father the Alexander he chose to send him away to his parents when things got tough.

 

[mirandafave]

Well I think there was nothing wrong with the character showing up in DS9. If he hadn't done so in the run then afterwards people would be commenting on the fact Alexander didn't ever come see his father and Worf mustn't have cared too much for him, etc, etc.

However, it is true that the fashion in which he was used was maybe poorly executed, I think it was another way of trying to view Klingons. Worf is the very pinnacle of an honourable Klingon by virtue of his human upbringing and desire to overcompensate his Klingoness. Martaok and Gowran are perhaps the models of actual warriors - honour mixed with a certain savagery. But many people complain that other Klingons were depicted as drunken empty vestiges parroting on about honour and a good day to die stuff. So showing a sensitive kid trying to model himself after his father and make him proud, even though he is plainly not cut out to be a warrior, is a different slant.

Perhaps it would have fitted better as commented above that Worf didn't contradict himself about Alexander having to prove himself as a warrior. And what would have fixed that little arc would have been to show Alexander going off and having success in another field - thus proving himself to Worf.

As for the character turn around in Alexander - obviously writer's whim - but children as they go into puberty and into young adult life are forever changing their minds. So that's not that much of a leap of faith - especially in war time.

And yes his failure as a warrior probably does indeed stem from Worf's approach.
As to Jake - a bit of a blah character - but becoming a journalist and a writer hardly makes him a slob or a loser. And I doubt Sisko was disappointed in him as he himself didn't follow his father's footsteps. I did think there was something refreshing in having a Starfleet officer's child not want to join it. And considering how much pressure such a career is bound to put on such marriages and families never mind the danger, I think it ought to be more common not to want to be a part of it.

 

[Anwar]

It also didn't help matters that it's all but outright stated that Worf abandoned Alexander and never bothered contacting him for years.