The Enterprise is enroute to oversee and aid in the testing of a new-type of FTL travel, the Soliton Wave. The Soliton Wave works by a transmission station on a planet generating a "wave" of energy and projecting it into a ship in orbit the ship then rides the wave to the destination planet where another wave is generated that will dissipate the original one.
The test initially seems to be successful as the ship is able to enter warp without generating its own warp-drive and the performance of the wave proves to be more efficient than conventional warp engines. But things quickly go wrong when a disruption in the wave causes it to unexpectedly grow and increase in size. The test ship is destroyed and the shockwave from the wave's increase in size and the exploding ship knocks the Enterprise out of warp and temporarily "grounds it."
Communicating with the origin planet, they learn that at the rate the wave is increasing in size and energy that by the time the wave reaches the destination planet the receiving station will not only be unable to stop the traveling wave but it will take out most of the planet.
Once the repairs are completed the Enterprise works to intercept the wave and they devise a plan to stop it. They will overtake the wave, fire torpedoes into it, and the detonation of the torpedoes will dissipate the wave. The ship weathers the ride through the wave fairly well but suffers some damage, mainly to the shields which would have prevented rear sections of the ship from getting flooded with radiation when the wave dissipates. The area is evacuated but another life-form is unconscious in a bio-lab that is on fire and the fire-suppression systems are off-line. That life form is...
Alexander, Worf's illegitimate son. Worf's parents felt they were too old to handle raising another Klingon child and have brought Alexander back to Worf so that he can be raised on the ship. Worf struggles through the episode not only with being a new, single, parent but with the disobedience Alexander expresses which lead to him being in the now damaged bio-lab. Worf has most recently considered shipping Alexander off to a Klingon school, hoping there Alexander will learn the discipline he's lacking.
Riker and Worf are able to rescue Alexander -along with two endangered alien sock puppets- before the radiation would flood the area that would have been impacted (which apparently is just outside the doors to the lab) the wave is stopped and Worf and Alexander agree to try the greater challenge of trying to live with one another on the ship.
This is not too terrible an episode, and I believe an episode pushed by Michael Piller to re-introduce and play on the idea of Enterprise having families on the ship. Thinking that opportunity was wasted when Alexander was originally shipped away to live on Earth with his grand parents.
It's certainly an interesting and viable idea but it's not played out well through the rest of the series with most episodes dealing with Worf and Alexander are sort of painful.
To his great credit. Michael Dorn does a great job in this episode through his facial expressions and general mannerisms. From his slight smiling and "son and mother" interaction with his adoptive mother, his moments of annoyance with Alexander and shame at himself for not knowing something as simple as Alexander's birthdate. And a very touch scene during a counseling session with Troi where she also comes across as a very warm and effective counselor and she uses the death of K'Ehleyr to help realize the struggle both Worf and Alexander deal with.
Sort of odd scenes in the show that while there to show the struggles of being a working single parent it seems to me the technology of the 24th century would have made unnecessary. Like enrolling Alexander in school and needing details (like how to spell his last name) you'd thing a few-seconds of communication with the schools on Earth would have made the enrollment easier, as well as Alexander's medical data.
But Dorn plays the role very, very well and I'm sure it's a struggle many real-world single parents can understand.
The Soliton Wave parts mostly is a B-plot. though I guess if you really wanted to read into it could be seen as an allegory to the struggles Worf and Alexander are going through. I'm also not sure what practical use or advantage the wave has over warp-drive. The depiction of it here seems like both the origin planet and the destination planet need a machine that can generate and then dissipate the wave. So, then.... How does one "explore strange new worlds" if it needs the destination to have the means to to take them out of warp?
And if the ultimate plan is for ships to be able to generate their own wave and dissipate the wave then that sort of removes the advantage of a ship no longer needing to carry around "bulky warp engines" since I doubt the equipment to generate and dissipate the wave would all that much less "bulky" than a warp core and engines. Plus, it kind of looks silly.
This is also an episode where the characters demonstrate 2-dimensional thinking. At one point they say the wave is too big to circumnavigate (the exterior shots of the ship and wave contradict this but we'll chalk that up to SFX limitations. But were it true it need to be pretty damn big to prevent the Enterprise from going around it at it's maximum warp speed. But, more than that, the suggestion is never made to go OVER (or under) the wave (rather than through it.) Certainly it's not creating so much disruption that it's generating interference for infinity above and below it?
In then end, an okay episode but doesn't motivate me one way or another to it being good or terrible. It's just... there.
Anyway. I did some figuring and it turns out we'll be done with going through the series on January 5... 2016.
Also. next week? Ughhhhhhhhh.
