Heart of Glory - passing thoughts upon rewatch

[Qonundrum]

TNG's first foray into Klingon mythos is largely well-handled, and wide-ranged regarding their alliance. Later seasons and spinoffs would really dig into this much deeper, but as a springboard HoG is remarkably good.

As always, the music is first rate.

Rob Bowman's direction is sublime and innovative, getting a lot out of episodes like this and "Datalore".

Riker is itching to separate the saucer, all while Picard has to calm him down.

Geordi's neat VISOR transmitter would have worked better if they progressed the scene like the following instead of what was filmed:

PICARD: And Number One? Everything about this seems wrong.
RIKER: Agreed. It smells like a trap.
PICARD: Mister La Forge, are we close enough to use the Visual Acuity transmitter?
LAFORGE: We can certainly try it, sir.
RIKER: Let's go.

Just swapping two lines and perhaps changing or adding exposition would give the new feature a stronger reason to exist rather than "Let's waste a few minutes doing nothing all while this damaged ship is going to go boom-boom-splodey all urgently". Having said that, after a few minutes of seeing Data's big aura and Riker's outline, the episode puts the VISOR feature to good use as we see the bulkhead disintegrating from within.

Geordi's comparing Picard's bemusement over the visual vomit to a person in a crowded room filled with numerous discussions concentrating on just one and disregarding the rest was nicely handled.

If Data wasn't there to advise Riker and Geordi not to use their phasers due to the quantity of flammable gas surrounding them, would we then get 15 minutes of personal recordings from both of them fawning over the crew like what Tasha will do in a few weeks' time?

Konmel seems to know how to use a Federation brand replicator, despite other dialogue in the episode more than suggesting he and Korris have no knowledge of how the ship works and Worf hadn't taught them how to use it? (A shame Worf programmed it earlier; it'd be fun to have the computer state it's not programmed for those entrees with Konmel smashing the device in an overwrought fit of pique...)

This episode repeats the same gaffe in "Datalore" where the protagonist shows the villains all around the ship for a thrill. This time the hero being a nit-wit is Worf. You know, the fella who's gonna be like the main security dude in a few weeks from now?

Thankfully, other issues from "Datalore" are not repeated by crewmembers. Most notably Picard:

PICARD: I think, Number One, we cannot assume anything.

Isn't that Wesley's line, followed by "You'd actually listen if I were an adult, waaaaaaaaaaaaah!"/

The Klingon death scream is, to this day, really nicely done. And it's nice the show kept it as Klingon lore as well. Data even relays the Klingon sense of romantic poetry:

They are warning the dead, sir. Beware, a Klingon warrior is about to arrive.

Korris tells Worf that he is not well-known to his people. This changes via a retcon in season 3 with the discommendation arc. Being early in season one, however, the number of character background gaffes are remarkably few and if a better background is handled well, a retcon is easier to forgive.

Ditto for replacing "Kling" to "Qo'Nos" in STVI...

LaForge does Data:

Captain, that unidentified vessel is approaching us at warp five. Intersect one hour, sixteen minutes, thirty three seconds.

The concealing of weapons in small pieces is cleverly done and remains topical to this day.

There's a scene when Worf escorts the two Klingons to a guest room. Typical for season one TNG (think "big corridor outside of briefing room where people would otherwise walk beyond the exterior of the ship), the makers accidentally put corridors perpendicular to walls featuring windows to look outside the ship. This episode, as Worf and co walk into the room, reveals one such gaffe. Even better, when they leave the room on the other side via its double doors, the space accorded even more corridors that lead into outer space is mind-boggling.

Korris' death scene is fantastic.

Why is Worf so certain that Klingons wouldn't take hostages, which he says is an act of cowardice? Korris near the end is showingf signs of cowardice. (Or was the perceived hostage scene a nod to the audience, to send a subtle message that Korris isn't as noble as all that?)

To highlight the best Treknobabble of the episode:

DATA: It has restrictions. The information from Geordi's visor is so complex it is difficult to encode. Therefore the signal breaks down easily.
RIKER: That means it doesn't have much range.

Conflating processor power with transmitter power but Riker gets to the point that matters most.

The notion of renegade Klingons against the alliance and seeking insane amounts of glory is nicely done, as is the theme of the story revolving around the alliance in the first place. As is testing Worf's loyalty, something handled (to better effect) in his arc culminating in "Redemption".

Definitely 8/10

 

[Unimatrix Q]

It's actually one of my favorite Klingon episodes from all of the shows. The Klingons never were shown to be as alien psychologywise like in this one.

But what was shown in this episode, actually isn't much in line with what was seen of the Klingons in later episodes. They actually were more like a different species than the ones from later episodes, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise imo.

Not to talk about the hinted at possible Federation membership happening after some never mentioned again war, which they apparently lost...

All these things together made me believe that this episode like possibly the rest of Season 1 (and maybe even 2 and parts of 3) are set in a different timeline than the rest of 24th century Trek and Enterprise.

 

[Qonundrum]

I always thought Q was ribbing Worf when snarking how the Federation defeated them "so easily" as this was almost 100 years later and not all historical documents would necessarily reflect what happened fully, though it's a "plot hole opportunity" regardless. But this was a few years before STVI and part of me does wonder if there could have been a confrontation that led to a defeat as opposed to the impressively complex intrigue and mayhem in TUC. I vaguely recall a lot of usenet chatter over continuity complaints back then on this as well. It never ends, and the more entrenched the viewer the more they're not going to remember every episode's nuance (there's an ironic thrill right there). Maybe it's a good thing that recent articles are saying "Picard" is not a sequel to TNG, which implies one should enjoy the show for its own merits (and assuming the viewer likes what they see irregardless of past episodes because, like the viewer, the script writers can't remember everything all the time too.)

Then again, I also didn't think too much into why Mario likes to rescue a princess named "Peach" instead of chasing some bonkers gorilla and kidnapping its infant for the circus, which is actually quite cruel but I digress. She was clearly a "Raspberry", what with all those giant mushrooms dancing around her and teasing him that she's moved to another castle all the time.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I've always liked this episode as well, and yeah, a lof of it gets picked again up later on TNG. My favorite scene is the one in which Jean-Luc goes into full nerd mode about LaForge's VISOR tho. But I also like the ending when Worf is like "I was just being polite, sir." and Jean-Luc's like "Ah." I just love me some of those classic first season moments!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

This episode was the first Trek appearance of my favorite actor (Vaughn Armstrong ) so I give it high marks for that reason alone.

 

[cgervasi]

To highlight the best Treknobabble of the episode:

DATA: It has restrictions. The information from Geordi's visor is so complex it is difficult to encode. Therefore the signal breaks down easily.
RIKER: That means it doesn't have much range.

Conflating processor power with transmitter power but Riker gets to the point that matters most.

This actually makes sense. It's a result of Shannon's Law. The more data you want to send, the more power you need. If you have a radio link with 10kbps data, a good radio can receive signals weaker than -100dBm. If you want to stream video, say over a Wi-Fi link, you -60dBm. If you want to get the full throughput of a high-speed Wi-Fi link you need -40dBm.

The two ways to get more data are a) a higher symbol rate, which increases the signal bandwidth or b) encode more bits per symbol, which requires a higher signal to noise ratio (SNR). The wider bandwidth receiver for option A will have a higher noise floor, requiring a more signal. So either way you slice it, you need more power to transmit more data. If you have two transmitters of equal power, one sending little data and the other sending a lot of data, the one with more data will break down more easily and have less range.

 

[cgervasi]

This makes me think of how when I first saw this episode I thought these Klingons were completely different from TOS Klingons. Over the course of the show, the Klingon honor culture became firmly established. Now when I watch TOS Klingons I can easily see them as part of the same honor culture. TNG handled this really well, changing them in an interesting way but in a way consistent with what we saw of Klingons in TOS.

 

[Mojochi]

Korris tells Worf that he is not well-known to his people. This changes via a retcon in season 3 with the discommendation arc. Being early in season one, however, the number of character background gaffes are remarkably few and if a better background is handled well, a retcon is easier to forgive.

I don't see any conflict with this plot point. What do we know to say that Worf would be well known before Mogh is branded a traitor? Basically, no one would've thought much about Mogh's family, all but Worf being considered dead, & Worf himself long lost. It isn't until light is shed on the Khitomer massacre that questions of treason come up, & Duras has to cover his father's tracks.

So it's Duras himself, that is why people begin to know who Worf is, once he shifts blame to someone everyone believed would be an easy scape goat. So it's certainly possible that prior to the treason allegations, Worf is a forgotten member of that society, like Korris says

 

[Qonundrum]

I don't see any conflict with this plot point. What do we know to say that Worf would be well known before Mogh is branded a traitor? Basically, no one would've thought much about Mogh's family, all but Worf being considered dead, & Worf himself long lost. It isn't until light is shed on the Khitomer massacre that questions of treason come up, & Duras has to cover his father's tracks.

So it's Duras himself, that is why people begin to know who Worf is, once he shifts blame to someone everyone believed would be an easy scape goat. So it's certainly possible that prior to the treason allegations, Worf is a forgotten member of that society, like Korris says

Ooh, now that works beautifully!!

This actually makes sense. It's a result of Shannon's Law. The more data you want to send, the more power you need. If you have a radio link with 10kbps data, a good radio can receive signals weaker than -100dBm. If you want to stream video, say over a Wi-Fi link, you -60dBm. If you want to get the full throughput of a high-speed Wi-Fi link you need -40dBm.

The two ways to get more data are a) a higher symbol rate, which increases the signal bandwidth or b) encode more bits per symbol, which requires a higher signal to noise ratio (SNR). The wider bandwidth receiver for option A will have a higher noise floor, requiring a more signal. So either way you slice it, you need more power to transmit more data. If you have two transmitters of equal power, one sending little data and the other sending a lot of data, the one with more data will break down more easily and have less range.

Good point!

From my initial mindset, which I didn't hone as well as I could have: A slight addition to Data's dialogue between penultimate and final sentences would have cleaned that up, which was my original thought/misperception as encoding data and transmitting it are usually from two separate systems (processing/encoding, transmission across the wireless network)... It still is correct, what Data said. I was also debating saying "technobabble" but "Treknobabble" is so much more fun, and you're right on Shannon's Law.

 

[Armus]

Heart of Glory is a distinctly first season show. It begins with a mystery and a discovery, an exploding ship, and an exciting transporter rescue. I think if it was produced a few years after the early scenes would have been cut and the identities of the Klingons would have been revealed much earlier.

If I'm not mistaken Michael Dorn was ready to quit TNG until he saw the script for this episode.

 

[Vger23]

This episode and S2's "A Matter of Honor" are probably the best that the TNG era in total handled the Klingon race.

 

[Timo]

That the centerpiece Klingons in this episode are examples of "early weirdness" is swept under the carpet by the fact that they are supposed to represent a sect that is at odds with the government.

What's cool is that this sect subsequently appears to take power - or at least is part of the platform on which the next bunch in power rides to the Great Hall. Worship of Kahless and his exacting ways may be part of the Klingon culture at all times, but the idea that people should actually take his ideas literally seems to be alien to these aliens in the years between ENT and "Heart of Glory" (except, of course, to Worf who learnt Klingondom from reading old fairy tales). Yet Gowron appears to insist that his followers also follow the hero code and march to their certain deaths while swinging swords under religious fervor, something only drunk Dahar Masters would have done under K'Mpec and the like...

A nice detail that may have been unintentional: Riker identifies the freighter as Talarian by spotting the national symbol on her hull. That is, the realization perfectly coincides with the symbol becoming visible as the ship turns - convenient when it in later episodes becomes clear that this particular design is found in the hands of all sorts of allies and adversaries.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Marc]

When TNG started it's run in Australia they started showing episodes out of order. Heart of Glory was broadcast very early on.

Also not sure who didn't get the memo about the taking of hostages - Korris or Kruge.

 

[Farscape One]

The first season of TNG was aired out of order when it first aired in the US, too.

Ironically, if you watch that first season by stardate order, it's even messier.

By far.

 

[Lance]

As always, the music is first rate.

One I hadn't noticed, but have done more recently, is there's a few subtle reprises of Goldsmith's Klingon Theme from The Motion Picture in there. A nice touchstone.

Riker is itching to separate the saucer, all while Picard has to calm him down.

Korris tells Worf that he is not well-known to his people. This changes via a retcon in season 3 with the discommendation arc. Being early in season one, however, the number of character background gaffes are remarkably few and if a better background is handled well, a retcon is easier to forgive.

That the centerpiece Klingons in this episode are examples of "early weirdness" is swept under the carpet by the fact that they are supposed to represent a sect that is at odds with the government.

What's cool is that this sect subsequently appears to take power - or at least is part of the platform on which the next bunch in power rides to the Great Hall. Worship of Kahless and his exacting ways may be part of the Klingon culture at all times, but the idea that people should actually take his ideas literally seems to be alien to these aliens in the years between ENT and "Heart of Glory" (except, of course, to Worf who learnt Klingondom from reading old fairy tales). Yet Gowron appears to insist that his followers also follow the hero code and march to their certain deaths while swinging swords under religious fervor, something only drunk Dahar Masters would have done under K'Mpec and the like...

It seems to me that there's a general sense of distrust among the Starfleet crew about Klingons -- not just specifically these Klingons -- Riker reacts with surprise, fear and more than a little suspicion, Yar misjudges the 'hostage situation', and the crew in general seem generally clueless about Klingon customs (eg the Sickbay scene). I do however feel like all of this is easily retconnable, not least because there's a line in Season 6 or 7 about how as little as within 15-20 years before TNG season 1 there were still Klingon raids going on in Federation space, suggesting it has not been completely smooth sailing for the alliance since the Khitomer accords. And the backstory hinted at in "Yesterday's Enterprise", of the path not taken, certainly suggests tensions could still have boiled over into war up to the Enterprise's sacrifice at Narendra III....

 

[Timo]

Knowledge of Klingon culture in the UFP might actually diminish a lot once the Klingons cease to be active enemies in war.

It's not as if the Klingons would actively become more involved in UFP affairs at that point, for any discernible reason. They managed fine without until then, both during the 23rd century period of war and in the century before that; and while they seem to have other ways of dealing with alien scum besides war (the town on the homeworld with Orions and apparently also Romulans in residence), this could simply mean they feel no need to add further alien scum to their contacts list.

Timo Saloniemi