Another DS9 episode! I'll go back to alternating between DS9 and B5 again in January. Nothing like balancing a 26-episode season with a 22-episode season. Especially when they started and finished in completely different months when they were originally airing.
"Rules of Engagement"
This episode started off with something I didn't remember at all. I remembered the nightmare Worf had of the Klingons capturing the Defiant. But I didn't remember him waking up in a holding cell! So that caught me by surprise. When Odo told Worf he better rest up because he has a long day ahead of him, I knew what was in store. But, when I first watched this episode back in 1996, I don't remember, but I must've thought to myself, "How did Worf get into this mess?!" Great camera work, by the way, during the dream sequence, when the Klingons declared victory and held up their bat'leths. It all felt very surreal. Perfect for a dream. Or, in this case, a nightmare.
At one point in 1996, I read in a magazine, probably either Starlog or Starlog's official DS9 magazine, Ron Canada said that he viewed Ch'Pok, the Klingon Prosecutor he played, as a Mental Warrior showing the different types of battles Klingons fight. It's interesting to see Klingons in "battle" in a courtroom, and we hadn't really seen this type of a character since the Klingon Ambassador from the TOS Movies.
Ch'Pok tries to make it look like Worf knowingly attacked Klingon civilians instead of military targets. He's hoping to make the Klingons look more sympathetic to the Alpha Quadrant. And episodes like this (along with "Homefront" & "Paradise Lost") make it clear to me that Starfleet in the 24th Century is indeed the military, no matter how much TNG tried to dress it up as something else.
Ch'Pok argues that Worf should be tried by his own people since he was acting as a Klingon Warrior, even though he's a Starfleet Officer. He tries to use a holosuite program of Worf's that simulates an Ancient Klingon Battle to show that Worf has a killer instinct and he'll intentionally kill civilians. In my opinion, this is an extremely faulty argument. If this were Present Day, it would be like accusing Worf of being a killer just because he plays video games. Worf plays a conqueror on the holosuite, but that doesn't make him a conqueror on the battlefield, because he wouldn't throw away his Starfleet career just for some momentary glory.
One thing the defense doesn't bring up, which proves Worf doesn't behave like other Klingons, is when he chose to spare Toral's life in "Redemption, Part II" (TNG). "Kill him. It is our way!" "I know, but it is not my way." That right there alone proves that Worf doesn't automatically think like other Klingons.
To set the stage: The Defiant was aiding Cardassian convoy in a warzone where Klingons might strike. Worf orders the Defiant to fire in a combat situation and ends up hitting a civilian Klingon freighter that suddenly decloaks. What would Klingon civilians be doing in a combat zone? And why would civilians be cloaked? Those are the questions I've had while watching this. Those two things don't make sense. It reeks of a frame-up of Worf. Hold that thought.
Trying to frame Worf doesn't stop on the battlefield, it happens in the courtroom as well, when Ch'Pok baits Worf into becoming so angry that he attacks him. Ch'Pok tries to make it look like Worf would attack someone unarmed. I would argue that Worf used no weapons to attack Ch'Pok, even though he shouldn't have hit him, and Ch'Pok could've hit back. And it obvious that Ch'Pok was arguing in bad faith since his intention since he was intentionally trying to anger Worf and keep him from being able to think straight.
Back to the thought I was holding. I didn't remember how Odo found evidence to give to Sisko to clear Worf. But I do remember Sisko's "isn't it possible?" speech. Interesting that the Klingons would use a list of people who died in an earlier incident in a list of people who would've been killed when Worf opened fire. That was sloppy on the Klingons' part. As sloppy as having a Klingon civilian ship with a cloaking device. And yet, if it weren't for Odo, they would've gotten away with framing Worf. Even without remembering how Worf was cleared, I remembered thinking something was suspicious as I was re-watching this episode just now.
It would've been easy to just end with Worf being cleared, but luckily this episode went the extra step. Sisko asked Worf if he realized what his mistakes were. Worf said he shouldn't have accepted the assignment and he should've checked to see who was on the ship he fired on before he fired. Seeing Worf realized that showed true growth. And Sisko, seeing that as well, said that Worf would make a fine Captain one day. And it makes me wish we could've seen a series with Worf as Captain of the Enterprise-E in the '00s. Hot take, but I would've much preferred a series like this over ENT, but only if the DS9 writers had written it. Getting to see a Captain as unconventional as Worf would've been interesting. Even though I understand Michael Dorn would've been sick to death of the Klingon makeup by then.
Because of the type of this episode this was, I had to look at the credits. Teleplay by Ron Moore. Story by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson. Weddle and Thompson followed Ron Moore onto Battlestar Galactica and For All Mankind. And probably other shows in-between. Between those shows, DS9 in general, and what I saw from this episode in particular, I think they'd be pretty good at writing a military series set on Present Day Earth. It's not the type of thing I'd normally watch, but I'd check it out if they were writing it.
Overall, this episode was much better than I remembered, And I remember already liking it to begin with. It's something I appreciate more now than when I was younger. Overall, I give it a 9.
"You forgot to mention the flashbacks!" No, I didn't. I'm mentioning them now! It was a neat narrative device, but sometimes I think it felt out-of-place with an episode that was dead serious and meant to feel as "more real than real" as a Star Trek series on a 24th Century deep space station can.
"Rules of Engagement"
This episode started off with something I didn't remember at all. I remembered the nightmare Worf had of the Klingons capturing the Defiant. But I didn't remember him waking up in a holding cell! So that caught me by surprise. When Odo told Worf he better rest up because he has a long day ahead of him, I knew what was in store. But, when I first watched this episode back in 1996, I don't remember, but I must've thought to myself, "How did Worf get into this mess?!" Great camera work, by the way, during the dream sequence, when the Klingons declared victory and held up their bat'leths. It all felt very surreal. Perfect for a dream. Or, in this case, a nightmare.
At one point in 1996, I read in a magazine, probably either Starlog or Starlog's official DS9 magazine, Ron Canada said that he viewed Ch'Pok, the Klingon Prosecutor he played, as a Mental Warrior showing the different types of battles Klingons fight. It's interesting to see Klingons in "battle" in a courtroom, and we hadn't really seen this type of a character since the Klingon Ambassador from the TOS Movies.
Ch'Pok tries to make it look like Worf knowingly attacked Klingon civilians instead of military targets. He's hoping to make the Klingons look more sympathetic to the Alpha Quadrant. And episodes like this (along with "Homefront" & "Paradise Lost") make it clear to me that Starfleet in the 24th Century is indeed the military, no matter how much TNG tried to dress it up as something else.
Ch'Pok argues that Worf should be tried by his own people since he was acting as a Klingon Warrior, even though he's a Starfleet Officer. He tries to use a holosuite program of Worf's that simulates an Ancient Klingon Battle to show that Worf has a killer instinct and he'll intentionally kill civilians. In my opinion, this is an extremely faulty argument. If this were Present Day, it would be like accusing Worf of being a killer just because he plays video games. Worf plays a conqueror on the holosuite, but that doesn't make him a conqueror on the battlefield, because he wouldn't throw away his Starfleet career just for some momentary glory.
One thing the defense doesn't bring up, which proves Worf doesn't behave like other Klingons, is when he chose to spare Toral's life in "Redemption, Part II" (TNG). "Kill him. It is our way!" "I know, but it is not my way." That right there alone proves that Worf doesn't automatically think like other Klingons.
To set the stage: The Defiant was aiding Cardassian convoy in a warzone where Klingons might strike. Worf orders the Defiant to fire in a combat situation and ends up hitting a civilian Klingon freighter that suddenly decloaks. What would Klingon civilians be doing in a combat zone? And why would civilians be cloaked? Those are the questions I've had while watching this. Those two things don't make sense. It reeks of a frame-up of Worf. Hold that thought.
Trying to frame Worf doesn't stop on the battlefield, it happens in the courtroom as well, when Ch'Pok baits Worf into becoming so angry that he attacks him. Ch'Pok tries to make it look like Worf would attack someone unarmed. I would argue that Worf used no weapons to attack Ch'Pok, even though he shouldn't have hit him, and Ch'Pok could've hit back. And it obvious that Ch'Pok was arguing in bad faith since his intention since he was intentionally trying to anger Worf and keep him from being able to think straight.
Back to the thought I was holding. I didn't remember how Odo found evidence to give to Sisko to clear Worf. But I do remember Sisko's "isn't it possible?" speech. Interesting that the Klingons would use a list of people who died in an earlier incident in a list of people who would've been killed when Worf opened fire. That was sloppy on the Klingons' part. As sloppy as having a Klingon civilian ship with a cloaking device. And yet, if it weren't for Odo, they would've gotten away with framing Worf. Even without remembering how Worf was cleared, I remembered thinking something was suspicious as I was re-watching this episode just now.
It would've been easy to just end with Worf being cleared, but luckily this episode went the extra step. Sisko asked Worf if he realized what his mistakes were. Worf said he shouldn't have accepted the assignment and he should've checked to see who was on the ship he fired on before he fired. Seeing Worf realized that showed true growth. And Sisko, seeing that as well, said that Worf would make a fine Captain one day. And it makes me wish we could've seen a series with Worf as Captain of the Enterprise-E in the '00s. Hot take, but I would've much preferred a series like this over ENT, but only if the DS9 writers had written it. Getting to see a Captain as unconventional as Worf would've been interesting. Even though I understand Michael Dorn would've been sick to death of the Klingon makeup by then.
Because of the type of this episode this was, I had to look at the credits. Teleplay by Ron Moore. Story by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson. Weddle and Thompson followed Ron Moore onto Battlestar Galactica and For All Mankind. And probably other shows in-between. Between those shows, DS9 in general, and what I saw from this episode in particular, I think they'd be pretty good at writing a military series set on Present Day Earth. It's not the type of thing I'd normally watch, but I'd check it out if they were writing it.
Overall, this episode was much better than I remembered, And I remember already liking it to begin with. It's something I appreciate more now than when I was younger. Overall, I give it a 9.
"You forgot to mention the flashbacks!" No, I didn't. I'm mentioning them now! It was a neat narrative device, but sometimes I think it felt out-of-place with an episode that was dead serious and meant to feel as "more real than real" as a Star Trek series on a 24th Century deep space station can.
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