Yeah, the explanation involving Worf's past was rather thought out... a pity the rest of the story is such jumble, as I started writing out my reasons for saving it earlier:
For every story, there is an idea. There is acting. There is execution of said idea via plotting/plot handling. And the breadth of the idea comes in handy too.
DS9: "Let He Who Is Without Sin..."
Idea and its breadth/scope: 10/10: Only DS9 could show more beneath TNG's superficial, shiny happy surface. With the Borg and Dominion wanting to take over, the somewhat obvious question arises on how open a society can be - as well as preparedness. Also note "The Lights of Zetar" from TOS which manages to sidestep this question in ways that beg it to be asked. How to do this? Show some people who have concerns but go nutters and overboard, complete with silly name of "New Traditionalists"* since they don't have the level of information that higher ups have. It's natural for Worf to be drawn to this idea and to do what he thinks is "the right thing" if the stakes are high enough, regardless of subplot used to get him there. This, of course, leads to:
Execution of said idea, combined with plotting: 4/10: The ending alone takes off 4 points since nothing happens to Worf as a result of his actions, which are as significant as they are palpable. He caused sabotage. 1 more point vanishes because the episode is too wishy washy and freely uses the RESET BUTTON(TM), not just in WHAT does, but managing to not even put in any underlying reason (satisfying or otherwise, eg. location of Risa in proximity to the borders where the Dominion and Borg and a swarm of gigantic dust mites might try to squeeze in... sheesh, going back to the Memory Alpha planet would alone have buoyed this story back up!) In short, there's very probably no discernible reason for these folks to be making any tangible point. Indeed, people work on duty shifts and can take holiday/vacation time as well so there's always enough staff.
Speaking of "squeeze in", this episode also revolves around ending sexual relationships, over there on Planet Sex (Risa, as established in TNG to make someone feel happy, and then honed down so the audience wouldn't feel icky and creepy after watching it) spreading disease-free sex is apparently as easy to get as going to a water faucet to fill up eight ounces' worth of water. The break-up scenes are a nice how-to, as if 150x the number of audience that reflected the size of the adult population in America were watching to be educated on how to do breakups in the 24th-and-a-half century, which is where Duck Dodgers lives, that's how daffy this story ends up being - despite some solid ideas that deserved better... This subplot is one I'm giving 1 point off to, and that's being generous.
Acting: 7/10: Monte Markham is surprisingly bland as the leader of the group, but with a couple standout scenes. He's pretty much doing a similar presence as Blanche's gay brother in "The Golden Girls" (another good series, with him in a set of must-see episodes that are extremely well handled for the late-1980s.) He was also the $7 Million Dollar Man, where his performance was better than both of these put together... B+ for trying. There's also Vanessa Williams. She's passable, and gets "Death by
* Oops, it's "New Essentialists". "New Traditionalists" is an album by new wave/punk band Devo...
. And the ending was a gut kick. No way this episode should have beat out dreck like "Ferengi Love Songs", "New Ground", or "Let Him Who is Without Sin..."
