Matter of Honor

[EnriqueH]

I just watched it this morning and I really enjoyed the stuff on the Klingon ship. I enjoyed Christopher Collins as the captain and Brian Thompson.

But my question is Wesley's friend, Mordock. What was the point of having him as a different character? Presumably they cast the same actor because the costume fit him from his previous appearance, but why not just make him the same character. Nothing in the storyline seemed to give much of a reason for it except a throwaway moment with Wesley about not assuming anything about the appearance.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

My guess (and that's all it is! ) is that the script called for an alien exchange officer. Maybe the idea came about when the actor was chosen, to make him a Benzite (?) based on his previous appearance. They just made him Mendon, and came up with the "geo-structure" stuff to explain his appearance, and gave him some lines with Wesley to tie it all up.

Plus, re-using the makeup would no doubt save some time and money.

 

[EnriqueH]

I keep thinking they should've just made him Mordock.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

I suppose that would've been easy enough to do, Enrique. When Wes thought it was Mordock, but said he couldn't have graduated the academy yet, Mordock could have said "We Benzites are fast readers, Wesley" or something.

Actually, they ended up creating one of the series' first real discontinuities of its very own . When Mordock won the exam, that instructor guy said "Congratulations, Mordock. You are the first Benzite in Starfleet" or something like that. If true, then where did Mendon come from?

 

[trekshark]

they should have kept it Mordock and had him not yet be a full ensign. Give him an academy uniform or a single hollow rank pip or something to indicate he wasn't commissioned yet and he was on 3 months of field study or something

 

[Armored Saint]

Actually, they ended up creating one of the series' first real discontinuities of its very own . When Mordock won the exam, that instructor guy said "Congratulations, Mordock. You are the first Benzite in Starfleet" or something like that. If true, then where did Mendon come from?

The error was having Mendon with a Starfleet uniform. Mendon wasn't in Starfleet, that's why:
1- He was there on an exchange program
2- He followed Benzite regulations instead of Starfleet's.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

The error was having Mendon with a Starfleet uniform. Mendon wasn't in Starfleet, that's why:
1- He was there on an exchange program
2- He followed Benzite regulations instead of Starfleet's.

Ooh, you're right! I think they both wore blue, didn't they? That probably skewed my memory.

Yeah, and the 'following Benzite regulations' was a big part of his problems on the Enterprise (annoying Worf to no end, either!)

I really need to watch these again...it's been so long!

 

[Timo]

...Of course, it might be that the exchange program includes both personnel who remain on the payroll of their native military organization and people who have actually transferred to Starfleet, with their native rank of course intact because it would make little sense to demote an experienced officer to a raw cadet. The former would continue to wear their native uniforms (as Riker and Kurn do); the latter would represent a longer-term exchange commitment and would wear Starfleet uniforms despite having attended some wholly different military academy.

It's more natural to just assume Mendon never was Starfleet, of course, but this other model would also account for the uniform difference.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[vulcan redshirt]

In which case, it would have made sense for Mendon to have been wearing a Benzite uniform just with a starfleet comm badge, after all Riker does not don Klingon uniform when on their ship.

 

[BillJ]

In which case, it would have made sense for Mendon to have been wearing a Benzite uniform just with a starfleet comm badge, after all Riker does not don Klingon uniform when on their ship.

Except they obviously had a Starfleet uniform that fit him and didn't want to spend the money to create another species space uniform that may not be used more than once.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

In which case, it would have made sense for Mendon to have been wearing a Benzite uniform just with a starfleet comm badge, after all Riker does not don Klingon uniform when on their ship.

Yeah, and later on Worf's brother Kurn wore a Klingon uniform when on board, too!

 

[Zippo and Flask]

I've always operated under the assumption:

1) Mendon arrived on the Enterprise wearing his regular Benzite uniform
2) Worf was introduced to him as his CO during the exchange program
3) Mendon soiled himself
4) Mendon received a replacement Starfleet uniform to wear as it was impossible for the cleaning processors to remove Benzite feces

 

[WillsBabe]

I need to pay more attention - I thought they were the same character!!

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

I need to pay more attention - I thought they were the same character!!

Don't feel bad, you probably could have sneezed and missed the explanation. It was basically:

Wes: Mordock?
Mendon: I am not Mordock, I an Mendon.
Wes: Sorry, it's just...a friend of mine, you look just like him.
Mendon: We are from the same geo-structure, naturally we look alike.
Wes: How do you tell each other apart?
Mendon: (thinks) We just do!

 

[WillsBabe]

I need to pay more attention - I thought they were the same character!!

Don't feel bad, you probably could have sneezed and missed the explanation. It was basically:

Wes: Mordock?
Mendon: I am not Mordock, I an Mendon.
Wes: Sorry, it's just...a friend of mine, you look just like him.
Mendon: We are from the same geo-structure, naturally we look alike.
Wes: How do you tell each other apart?
Mendon: (thinks) We just do!

LOL! Also, I think it's about 15 years since I saw the episode, too. Thanks for the explanation!

 

[Marsden]

It makes sense to me that some aliens may appear exactly identical humans and not to each other, it should have been done more often, it's a potential "real" problem with dealing with other sophonts. They might know each other apart by scent, or voice pitch, or they may have some low level telepathy that identifies them that a human couldn't sense very easily, they are "aliens"

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think it was because Mordock just entered the academy half a year ago.

Also I think the writers wanted to make a point of Benzyte being different from humans because all Benzytes from the same dome look like twins.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Also I think the writers wanted to make a point of Benzyte being different from humans because all Benzytes from the same dome look like twins.

It's hard to say, and for me that was the neat part about it. Was it a case of re-using an actor, and just going with the character (more or less) he had previously played, or was it written in in the first place?

Either way, it just seemed so natural. I liked Mendon, he was sort of a Barclay before there was a Barclay, with the self-confidence issue and whatnot.

People like to knock Wes, but one thing I really liked about him was his friendliness to new people, no matter where they were from. And Mendon was lucky to have been befriended by him.

 

[EnriqueH]

Wes was always nice to people, which is why I was shocked when he made some derogatory comments about the "fish looking" species that was in hibernation.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Wes was always nice to people, which is why I was shocked when he made some derogatory comments about the "fish looking" species that was in hibernation.

That's true. I suppose that was sacrificing one character's, well, characteristics, to highlight another's. In this case, Worf's "What a handsome race" observation.