“A Matter of Honor”
Teleplay by Burton Armus
Story by Wanda M. Haight, Gregory Amos, and Burton Armus
Directed by Rob Bowman
Season 2, Episode 8
Original air date: February 6, 1989
Star date: 42506.5
Mission summary
It’s National Brotherhood Week here in the Federation and one byproduct is the Officer Exchange Program, meant to foster understanding among the various Federation fleets. A Benzite ensign named Mendon, whom Wesley initially mistakes for Mordock (tact: he does not have it), beams aboard to join the crew. Picard summons Riker to some virtual skeet shooting and suggests that a Starfleet officer should probably participate in the exchange, too. There’s a nearby Klingon vessel, the Pagh, and he’s hoping for a volunteer. Riker raises his hand.
PICARD: Any particular reason?
RIKER: Because nobody’s ever done it before.
That’s the spirit!
Riker decides to prep by reading up on Klingon military customs. He’s a little disturbed at what he finds, and approaches Worf for some clarification:
WORF: When and if the Captain becomes weak and unable to perform, it is expected that his honorable retirement should be assisted by his First. Your second officer will assassinate you for the same reasons.
RIKER: The method of attrition must take a little getting used to.
WORF: The Klingon system has operated successfully for centuries.
RIKER: It is different.
WORF: Many things will be different.
Oh they will be. To begin the transition, he heads to Ten Forward and feasts on Klingon delicacies: heart of targ, pipius claw, and of course, gagh, serpent worms. He offers some to Pulaski, who shudders at the thought. Picard, too, backs away, though he claims he envies Riker because “we know so little about them. There is so much to learn.” Eventually he makes his way to the transporter room, where O’Brien expresses reservations about the assignment, and Worf slips him an emergency transponder, just in case.
Meanwhile, Mendon is settling right in on the bridge, where he systematically harasses random crewmen about ways in which he could improve the ship’s performance. It’s apparently a Benzite trait to be “eager to please,” but his behavior puts off the rest of the bridge crew. He even manages to piss off Worf with his commentary–never a good move. The Pagh approaches and prepares to accept Riker onboard. During the beamover, though, Mendon notices something on the wing hull. It’s a bacterial colony eating away at the ship. He does an analysis but doesn’t mention it to anyone onboard. Rather, he feels this is a good time to waltz up to Picard to bring some line items to the captain’s attention. Picard politely but firmly instructs him to observe the chain of command and speak to his superior officer, Worf. Oof.
Riker settles into his new gig on the dimly lit Pagh with some male dominance rituals. Captain Kargan makes Riker swear to die for his new ship, but the second officer doesn’t believe he will and challenges his authority. With a gut punch (so honorable) Riker asserts his dominance and takes his place as the First. In no time, he becomes just one of the guys, eating gagh and joking about sex. Both he and the Klingons are surprised by how much they have in common:
KLAG: Commander, would you say you’re a typical Federation officer?
RIKER: I suppose so. Why?
KLAG: Well, it’s just you’re not what I expected.
RIKER: In what way?
TACTICS: You have a sense of humor.
RIKER: I was thinking the same thing about you. In all my dealings with Klingons, including our Lieutenant Worf, the thought never occurred to me of Klingons laughing.
TACTICS: There is much about us you do not know.
RIKER: That’s why I’m here.
KLAG: You should ask.
The Enterprise isn’t having such a thoughtful moment. Worf has discovered a microbial infection on the ship’s hull, and it’s growing rapidly. Mendon finally volunteers that he noticed it earlier on the Klingon ship, and Picard and Worf are baffled at why he didn’t mention it before. He says he was only following regulations: in the Benzite fleet, one does not mention a problem unless it has been fully analyzed and a resolution determined. Picard informs him that this is not so here, and urges him and Worf to come up with a solution and locate the Pagh to inform them of the problem. Alas, they’ve already discovered it, and Kargan immediately assumes it was an attack by the Enterprise. Despite Riker’s protestations that that’s paranoid delusion, Kargan engages the cloaking device and heads on an intercept course to destroy the offending flagship.
The two ships “meet,” but the Klingons refuse to reveal themselves and prepare for an attack. Riker is given another test: an order to betray the secrets of his former ship, to aid in its destruction. He refuses, and earns a little respect. The Enterprise, meanwhile, has discovered a way to eliminate the microbes and transmits that information over hailing frequencies. For some reason Kargan still believes this is an elaborate act of war and prepares to fire. In a last-ditch effort, Riker retrieves the emergency transponder from his boot and suggests the Pagh get a little closer–within transporter range, say. They do, the Enterprise picks up the emergency signal, and Riker attaches the transponder to Kargan so that he and not Riker is beamed directly to the Enterprise bridge.
Riker takes command of the Pagh and orders the Enterprise to surrender. They do. Everyone wins!
When Kargan is beamed back to the Pagh, he’s understandably furious. He orders Riker back to his station but now-Captain Riker stands his ground–and gets backhanded for it. Kargan, having now officially regained his command, kicks Riker off the ship. Klag seems impressed with Riker’s handling of the situation such that all saved face. The injured Riker returns to the Enterprise, where Worf of all people welcomes him home.
Analysis
Finally, we’re starting to get to the series I know and love!
I confess inordinate fondness for this episode. Maybe it’s just a rebound affair after the dreck of season 1, but I enjoyed this one more than anything else we’ve re-watched thus far. It’s thoughtful, it’s funny, it’s fun! The Officer Exchange Program is such a brilliant notion and one so likely to fail, and yet here it succeeds. The culture clashes are played for laughs, but never only for laughs, and the misunderstandings feel human and not absurd. It’s also just so funny. It was so difficult to choose a best line. What about Picard’s line that he would have chosen more palatable options, and Riker’s response that these were the more palatable options? Or Worf’s remark that his wanting to protect Riker was a matter of “efficiency”? The characters have finally come into their own enough to rib and joke with one another, and the writing has matured beyond Look I Am Telling A Joke.
What I love most about this episode (take note: this may be the only time I ever say this) is Riker. I love that he approaches his task with absolute relish. He’s not scared or even nervous. He’s thrilled at the prospect of doing something new, of meeting these people, and most importantly, he remains judgment-free about their culture. Where Picard and Pulaski cringe at the food, he eats it up with relish. He’s surprised by some of the Klingon customs, but he takes it all in stride. He plays by their rules, he refuses to be offended by their insults, and he shows a genuine curiosity about their lives and their families. He’s not slumming it. He considers them peers and equals. He doesn’t waltz around talking about how superior his own culture is or come home thanking the FSM to be back among the civilized, for once. He also never feels entirely at home, and in that sense gets closer to understanding Worf than anyone else ever will.
There are two things that really drive me crazy, though, and they’re why it’s not even close to a Warp 6 in my book. The first is the weakness of the Mendon story. Poor Mendon can’t seem to get things right, but I appreciated that no one on the bridge tried to make him feel badly about it. Mendon should not have approached Picard, but Picard apologizes to him, saying it was his responsibility to ensure he was familiar with protocol and he failed. Good, right? But that story never goes anywhere. It’s clear that Mendon gets something out of his experience on the bridge, but the bridge crew doesn’t get anything by Mendon being there. There is no exchanging, no learning, you just watch Mendon be awkward and screw up a lot and that’s not particularly edifying. Similarly, why is it that no one calls out Wesley for his totally racist welcome? (“Hey, Mordock! Oh you’re not Mordock? Well you all look the same to me, I mean how do you even tell each other apart?” *facepalm*) No one learns anything about the Benzites, and Mendon never gets a chance to prove himself–to show that Benzite discipline and protocol has a purpose, and it may seem weird to we Feddies but it makes perfect sense when you confront a situation that a Benzite would ordinarily confront (which the ship never does, of course).
The second is Kargan. He’s a fool. All of the interactions with Klag are great, and then you have Kargan, who’s an incompetent idiot. I really can’t fathom why the writers wasted this great opportunity to show a fantastic Klingon captain, and instead gave us another Kruge. Kargan’s fears are absurd. I love it when he wonders aloud what the Enterprise is doing, and Riker suggests: “Ask them!” I really wish we had been able to see a top-notch, impressive, admirable Klingon leader. What if instead of the Enterprise the Pagh had encountered some other ship, maybe Romulans or even other Klingons? And more importantly, demonstrated by their handling of the situation that the Federation approach isn’t the only one or even necessarily the best one, and that Klingons know their own territory and how to deal with their own people better? Where’s the lesson Riker could learn? The whole face-off with Picard is idiotic and I hate it more and more every time I see it. Maybe they were going for the “even great allies have total morons” theme?
Lastly, a question. So women obviously serve aboard Klingon ships. Yet when Riker asks after the crew’s parents, they all say their mothers are at home and care only about the deeds of their fathers. Are the women aboard anomalies, or is their “honor” not gained by glorious death? Is it like a required two years of military service before you go home and wear revealing clothes, scheme ineffectively, and pop out babies? (Oh Star Trek, you have so far to go on women. It’s okay, I’ll wait.)
Torie’s Rating: Warp 5 (on a scale of 1-6)
Thread Alert: Why is it that Mendon dons a Starfleet uniform for his assignment, but Riker does no such thing? Look at that smug smile from someone not willing to wear the tunic while in Rome.
Best Line: KLAG: Klingons do not express feeling the way you do.
RIKER: Perhaps you should.
KLAG: We would not know how.
RIKER: Yesterday, I did not know how to eat gagh.
Trivia/Other Notes: According to prop master Alan Sims, the gagh was actually long brown noodles, while the rokeg blood pie was turnips in pumpkin pies, dyed red. He used chicken feet as pipius claw, animal organs as heart of targ, and other things such as fish, eyes, squids and octopus. So basically, dim sum.
John Putch, who played Mendon, is the same actor who played Mordock.
Christopher Collins (Kargan) is perhaps best known by my generation as the voice of both Cobra Commander and Starscream. He’ll return three more times in the Star Trek universe: once more in TNG (as the Pakled Gregnedlog in “Samaritan Snare”) and twice on DS9 (“The Passenger” and “Blood Oath”).
Brian Thompson (Klag) will forever be to me the Alien Bounty Hunter from The X-Files. He’s in Star Trek a lot: DS9’s “Rules of Acquisition” and “To the Death,” Star Trek Generations, and a recurring role on Enterprise as Romulan Admiral Valdore.
Previous episode: Season 2, Episode 7 – “Unnatural Selection.”
Next episode: Season 2, Episode 9 – “The Measure of a Man.”
This right here, this is the corner. We are standing on it and next week we will turn it. Of course, after that we will then get lost and go wandering all over hell and gone, only occasionally glimpsing the corner again. But this is definitely where the show started to click.
It’s a solid 4, maybe a 4+. We could round up to a 5 I suppose. Aside from the problems Torie mentions, my biggest complaint is the “promotion” system the Klingons use. It’s straight out of “Mirror, Mirror” and it’s really not terribly efficient or stable. I think later on they stepped back from it a little, but more than anything it just feeds stereotypes.
I wonder if making Frakes eat disgusting things was a thing. We aren’t that far off from him having to chow down on meal worms.
This was the best experience I’ve had during the TNG rewatch. There was still a bit too much that the human characters are perfect — it would have been nice for Riker to screw something up and have to recover, try/fail cycles can make for good stories — but overall this story clicked.
I agree w Tori that the Klingon Captain was a bit carboard, just a little backstory could have redeemed him quite a bit. (Like he once got surprised by an enemy who used a ruse and he’s vowed never to get snookered again.)
This Riker I like. The one who is willing to do something totally insanse because no one has done. The glory hound, jumping from the rock into the water while everyone else is worried aboud ‘gators and snakes. This sort of character would often jump in over head, and of course a character in over his head is called a story.
As noted, this tees up a couple of the most important story arcs of the series. Really sets the table, so to speak.
Troi is notably AWOL throughout this episode. The way in which her special relationship with and knowledge of Riker is described, coupled with the manner in which her senses are supposed to work, would have quickly resolved the central drama point. She would have sensed that which is cloaked.
I assume that is why she doesn’t appear, her presence would unwind the story, but it does speak to how poorly “the ship’s psychic counselor” was initially conceived on the TNG drafting table, where her very presence should arguably tip over any suspense. I’m surprised they didn’t think to bring on Q as science officer….
All around, a refreshing episode.
(and, I’ll add, really dumb for the ship’s counselor to be absent during an officer exchange program)…
Buffoonery has been a Klingon trait for so long it would have been out of character for there to be a Bird-of-Prey without some aboard, I submit.
@1 DemetriosX: I remember liking this one a lot when it first aired. I don’t recall it being a watershed moment in series quality, but in retrospect I think you’re right. It might also be the high point of Rikerdom.
@5 S. Hutson Blount
This episode also highlights the importance of Riker’s beard. Baby-faced Potsie could never have pulled this off. He could have single-handedly thrashed every single member of the crew and still none of them would have taken him seriously. The beard gives him just enough maturity.
This may also be the first time he gets his hair mussed. Riker is usually perfectly blow-dried and hair-sprayed (given these were the Pat Riley years, we should be glad he didn’t wear a ton of hair gel), but when he lets his hair just do what it wants, it’s usually a sign that things are serious.
While serving as a semi teaching assistant for an anthropology course on Science fiction, I paired this with “Who Watches the Watchers” for a double bill of how TNG deals with some anthropological/cultural study issues.
I agree that while there are some weaknesses, the overall treatment of cultural difference in Federation/Klingon culture is pretty great.
Gagh is always best served live.
This episode was a revelation, or at least a relief.
And, yes, Riker’s open-mindedness and fair treatment of Other cultures serve as the first real sign that humanity might have evolved a little bit by the 24th-and-a-half century; his actions speak much louder than Picard’s preaching (through no fault of Patrick Stewart’s of course).
It’s hard to believe that Burton Armus, who wrote this ep, is the same guy who wrote The Outrageous Okona. Maybe that one wasn’t entirely his fault?
Additional:
The wearing of revealing clothing and ineffective scheming are required during the two years of military service, not after.
This is the episode in which Riker really comes into his own, as a believable and likable character. Jonathan Frakes’ performance is wonderful. He has great comedic timing and an expressive face that made most of these jokes work in a nicely subtle way. I like his attitude of wanting to try something new, just because “no one has ever done it before,” and how he wholly embraces every aspect of Klingon culture with an open mind.
This is one of the first episodes we see how important it is to understand another culture in your dealings with them, and how well it can be done; no wonder that Riker ends up being a go-to person for first contact missions. On top of that, his defining characteristic as a ladies’ man is played for laughs here and kind of works against him. Do you not like women, Will Riker?
The dialogue and acting are also great throughout. Although I found the Klingon captain a bit dense, he seems about on par with most of the commanders we’ve seen so far. I loved Riker’s rapport with the first mate though.
The plot is a little contrived and the Benzite story is not fully satisfying. I think we can excuse Wesley for making the faux pas he does, since Mendon is actually played by the same actor as Mordock, but it’s true that the crew doesn’t learn much from him–and he’s a little too easy to dislike. I’m much more bothered that Enterprise wipes out a new life form without even making an attempt to study it!
I didn’t even miss Troi or think about her once in this episode, which is rather telling. I don’t think they even made an excuse for why she wasn’t around. Maybe she was the first one they shipped off for this exchange program.
I’m wavering between a 4 and a 5 on this one, so I think I’ll just round up and give it a warp 5 for now. It’s definitely a sign of greatness to come.
Going with the same actor might have been a cost saving measure against the cost of costuming the Klingon characters – they already had the molds for the appliances for him. I saw that scene with Wesley as a storytelling tool to establish that he’s a different character. Additionally, I can read that scene as a twist on “they all look alike to me” to suggest a species where numbers of them can look alike.
Had this been a two part episode or a movie, the Mendon story might have been more developed but as a single episode, they had to focus on the more important story which was with the Klingons.
@Eugene #10
Hmm, you made me wonder — how would James Kirk have handled being in Riker’s shoes? Probably with smug superiority — not fair to judge him from his actions on Rura Penthe but his dinnertime with the Klingons was certainly a contrast to Riker’s.
Also it occurs to me that the boneheadedness of the Klingon captain is much less striking if we just compare him to a Starfleet admiral. Maybe they’ve mistranslated his rank.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that while this was overall a decent episode, I’m less fond of it than most, for a potentially controversial ( in fandom terms ) reason.
I rapidly tired of the ‘Klingon culture’ episodes. I never liked the fact that when the “Next
Generation” started they, almost arbitrarily, switched the characteristics between the Romulans and Klingons. In the original series, the Klingons were the clever, underhanded double-dealers. Honor was never mentioned and the ends always justified the means ( see ” Friday’s Child”, “A Private Little War” and “Elaan Of Troyius” ). The Romulans were generally honorable and duty-bound ( see “Balance Of Terror” and “The Enterprise Incident” ). But in neither case did either culture act like a bunch of drunken Vikings.
I see some of these TNG Klingon episodes and often wonder how these bone-headed slobs ever achieved space flight. I can understand wanting to explore and enrich their culture, since they were among the most popular adversaries of TOS, and I can understand wanting to make Worf stick out from his Federation compatriots, but some of this “warrior” mentality makes little sense. Promotion by assasination? Drunken head-banging just before a battle? Women are not warriors ( except when they are )? It hardly seems like these guys have the mental capacity to survive any battles, much less win.
I guess I’m just a curmudgeon who resented the arbitrary changing of established cultures. As the series went on, I often found myself rolling my eyes when an episode would end up being Klingon-o-centric. I just found these guys tedious to be around. I guess I wanted the sly malevolent intelligence of a Kor rather than the thick-headed stupidity of a Kargan.
Yay! dep1701 said it, so I don’t have to. I don’t like Bumpyhead!Klingons. I liked the old version better, with sly, underhanded, I’ll-do-anything-to-anything-with-anything-to-get-ahead TOSser Klingons WAY more fun than the I-have-the-honour-stick-firmly-wedged-in-my-butt-and-watched-too-many-noble-savage-movies TiNGer Klingons. They took the sneaky role and gave it to the laughable bouncy whipboy Ferengi, and turned the Romulans from pseudo-space-Romans to Maoist Partyites.
Mwahahaha!
/curmudgeonly
Oh, crap, I missed a slash somewhere. Well, that’s me, never bothering much with slash around Star Trek.
—indeed–allow me to voice my less than enthusiastic recommendation for this episode–these are building blocks still– but there is none of that first season stench–the really good example of a complete quality episode is our next installment—yes–i agree this is a riker episode–some good stuff here–never doubted his courage–he dove into that pit filled with metamucil and printer’s ink didn’t he?—eating that xeno-exotic food is one thing, but the restrooms on that ship must be barbaric—and then you have to put up with the klingon captain being a douchebag–what happened to kellicams as a unit of klingon measurement?—i don’t care for fish face really–he needs some blue lipstick–and his breathing device can double as a support for his head when he falls asleep in class—the phaser range targets remind me of the windows logo for some reason–especially when i turn on my windows 7 computer—
I don’t dislike the changes to the Klingons from the original series, because I never felt like they were much different from humans, except in their obvious villainy. So I appreciate any attempt to give them a “unique” or at least distinctive culture all their own, as well as a more alien look. However, I’ll agree that the Klingon-centric episodes were never my favorites, mainly because they were also heavy on politics that don’t interest me.
My enjoyment of this episode in particular mainly comes from seeing a Starfleet crew member deal with the Klingons in a respectful and honest way, which is probably the first time this has ever happened in the series, Commander Worf aside. And I appreciate the later episodes because they represent interesting, complex, and compelling character growth for Worf, and Picard steps up and actually starts to grok the Klingons too. Mutual respect for other cultures? Who would have thought?
DS9 ended up being even more into the Klingons, but somehow I never minded it as much. Maybe it just made sense because the show had a different tone and more of a warrior mentality, whenever they weren’t playing them for laughs with Quark.
I forgot to mention: This was the first time we saw Data as first officer, isn’t it? My first thought when Riker left was, Who are they going to get to replace him? And then I was like, oh yeah. It seems to me like the exchange program was kind of poorly conceived. Mendon is already a Starfleet officer, so this was really more of an internship for him, wasn’t it? (And wasn’t Mordock supposed to be the first of his kind in Starfleet?) It might have made more sense for Riker to switch roles with a Klingon, but I guess they already have Worf. On the other hand, that could have been a good source of tension, with a Starfleet Klingon forced to report to one who operates in the Empire, but I suppose they do this later on DS9 anyway.
@ 1 DemetriosX
Yeah, the promotion system doesn’t make much sense, and if people die gloriously left and right they’re not exactly going to have people with years of experience for strategic and logistical counseling.
@ 2 bobsandiego
Yep, I like this guy too. Way less of a bozo than the beardless wonder.
@ 3 Lemnoc
Like Eugene, it didn’t even occur to me that Troi was absent until you mentioned it. I had forgotten all about her! I don’t suppose that feeling could really last, huh.
@ 5 S. Hutson Blount
The high point of Rikerdom is, what, knee-level? :)
@ 7 Dave K
Oh, “The Picard”! I didn’t care for that episode but I can see the relevance.
@ 11 Ludon
You are correct. The Memory Alpha page on the actor, John Putch, has a quotation from an interview: “I was all very impressed by that [recasting him as Mendon]. I thought, ‘Ah, they love me, they love me.’ What they really loved was that it was me, because they’d spent all that money on making that blue head and it was form fitted to me…I don’t fault them for that. I would have done the same thing, but it’s funny how you are naive about these things when you’re just an actor.”
@ 13 dep1701 and @ 14 CaitieCat
I don’t have any issue with recasting the personalities. The original Romulans and Klingons were just too similar. I think grafting a samurai-slash-viking-slash-Hun sensibility onto the Klingon culture is probably the best contribution Ron Moore ever made. Vikings were some of our most successful sea explorers–wouldn’t it make sense that space vikings would be similarly expansive in reach?
They come across as silly in this particularly episode, but I think the show eventually does Klingons justice. They’re a species at a cross-roads. A highly militaristic culture is becoming obsolete in the age of peace, and they have to make the decision to step away from it if they want to survive in a “modern” era. Worf is a good example–he could easily become a relic, and personally struggles with these two sides to himself.
It’s not like the conniving, underhanded characteristics are lost. We’ll get the Romulans soon enough.
@ 17 Eugene
My understanding was that Mendon was an officer in the BENZITE fleet–not a Starfleet officer. Just that for exchange purposes, he was essentially an acting ensign.
Oh… Then I was confused by his Starfleet uniform. That makes sense then, and it does make me wonder why Riker didn’t change into a Klingon uniform.
Well Eugene, I can agree with you that the attempts to flesh out their culture were good, but I still am not fond of the way they turned out. In “Errand Of Mercy” Kor, while ruthless and battle-hungry, also seemed to be intelligent and cunning. He could also speak in complete sentences and appeared educated. If they had gone a little more along that route, I wouldn’t have minded so much.
There was a script written for the aborted “Phase II” series called “Kitumba” that would have based the Klingon culture more along the lines of the feudal Japanese warlords. Had this model been followed, it might have allowed for more continuity between the more erudite and intelligent Klingon schemers we saw in TOS and the more rough and tumble grunts we saw in TNG. Almost none of the Klingons we seem in this series seem capable of coming up with, or the patience to implement as subtle ( and I use the term loosely ) an idea as providing a culture with primitive weapons to conquer their neighbors, as we saw in “”A Private Little War” ( and believe me, it pains me to use that episode as an example ). The TNG Klingons would seem more likely to just arm their allies with obviously overpowering weapons… treaty be damned.
Yes, the Klingons in TOS were more like a dark-side reflection of human nature, but that was Coon’s point when he created them. If they wanted to have a warrior culture based on Vikings, they simply could have created a new species rather than alter the established natures of the Trek universe’s very best known adversaries ( admitterdly the Romulans suffered less from this switch, but I could have also done without the forehead ridges they mysteriously acquired during the 78 year gap ).
To me, spending time with these Klingons is like hanging out with a bunch of steroid using, drunken jock frat-boys, which is something I’ve avoided in my life as much as possible.
@ 20 Eugene
That’s what I assumed, since Riker is going to a Klingon ship, and we know that Mordock would be the first Benzite in Starfleet. The Memory Alpha page says he’s a Starfleet officer but that doesn’t make sense to me…
@ 21 dep1701
Oh I agree, but I think the Klingons do get smarter and more cunning as the series goes on. Except the ladies.
I was never a big fan of the Klingon centric episodes of later TNG either but I quite liked this one for the initial exploration. Riker’s enthusiasm is infectious; there’s no way I would have done it or eaten any of that stuff but I certainly admired him for it.
It’s not at all suggested by the episode but I always imagined that the reason Riker remained in his Starfleet uniform is because the Klingons didn’t think he’d earned the right to wear the human version of theirs.
I think it would have been a much more interesting episode if Riker’s dilemma had involved some other ship than Enterprise. It’s another case where they had a really good idea for an episode but just didn’t take it far enough.
@18 Torie, Eugene
When I said Troi was notably absent, I did not mean she was noticeably absent. The notable part is that if she had been around, the central drama point would unwind, based on what we’ve been told and seen of her powers (that let her sense people on distant ships and planets).
Klingons talk a lot about Honor (not so much about Duty), and I think there was a book out at the time of the series on the Way of the Warrior and Code of Bushido was in vogue. So it was a frame one could lay on an undeveloped race, and one Pappa Gene-o aggressively did not want in his utopian series. If you’re going to have peace between the Feds and some other race, then the other race has to show merit for the alliance. That is the box the writers found themselves in.
All of that said, as the series went on I think it became clear the whole Honor thing was a fraud, and Worf was the only one not in on the joke.
How many episodes end in Worf, attempting some Noble Act, being betrayed? In his one stint aboard a Klingon ship he gets clotheslined by a couple of lurking ignoble thugs. Some Warrior Race. And this was as it ever was—he was conned in that first Kling episode we saw last season.
Worf’s the only guy who actually believes the bullshit. We’ll soon see K’Ehleyr call “nonsense” on the whole fraudulent Kling-con, to his annoyance.
@21 dep1701
And yet, I think the series did a pretty good job of suggesting the empire was in serious dysfunctional decay. If the Klingons of TOS represented Cold War Soviets, then those of the TNG era were surely post-Glastnost, a time of great unrest that was grabbing headlines.* This decline was made clear in STVI, and seems to be the whole basis for their alliance with the Federation, ie, they were now a welfare client state. They hadn’t been an actual empire in many decades, just calling themselves one.
I think the entire Klingon story arc did a pretty good job in making this decline and degradation clear.
*I met the president of a college in Nakhodka in that post-Glasnost period of hyperinflation who told me his entire month’s salary wouldn’t buy him a pair of shoes or a sack of potatoes. US dollar bills were like the gold standard in Moscow.
PS– when I wrote “undeveloped race” in the previous point, I meant underdeveloped from a writers standpoint. Blank slate, other than some rough stereotypes.
@21 dep1701: Those weren’t abortive plans, I can only assume–the New Klingons are only a few wooden sandals away from being caricature feudal Japanese. Whether that’s an improvement over caricature Soviets is debateable.
@18 Torie
Good points. It’s worth considering that the glimpses of Romulans in TOS featured commanders of high insight and ethical consideration. Not so among their subordinates.
The Romulan commander in “Balance of Terror” was clearly at odds with the Romulan ethos and command imperatives, precariously so. The commander in “The Enterprise Incident” was infatuated with the Vulcan ethos to the point of disregarding her command imperatives. Both had a sense of Duty greater than their skepticism, though.
Some nobility operates in the background, obviously, but the TOS Romulans were mostly ravening wolves. The commanders we see are bucking that style.
I rather enjoyed the Klingon arcs on TNG (a little less so on DS9) and Gowron at least was certainly capable of the kind of behavior we’d seen from TOS Klingons. I’m also in general agreement with Lemnoc that what we see in TNG is an empire in decline. That could easily justify them reaching back to older traditions that had perhaps fallen by the wayside in the TOS years as a way of hoping to rekindle their former glory. The pragmatism of a Kang, Kor, or Koloth gets set aside for a return to the old ways that maybe eventually becomes something of a let it burn and go out in a blaze of drunken glory attitude.
Or you could blame it on whatever it was that they “don’t talk about” that produced the foreheads. It certainly seemed to have driven Kruge completely round the twist.
A thought on Captain Kargan. I’m thinking about that idea (in the corporate world) that you rise to your level of incompetency. So maybe Kargan had reached his level not long before this episode and as the low Klingon in the pecking order he was assigned the task of being there to have his ship available should the anyone on the Federation ship wish to take part in an exchange. (Why waste a proven commander’s time with such nonsense?) We happen to see him while he’s still proving himself to his crew.
Rising to the level of incompetency – the Peter Principle – is a Thing. The bank I’m working for in my day job is in the process of sacking our very efficient team, because there’s a VP who is a classic example of this. He’s…staggeringly incompetent. AMAZINGLY incompetent. But it would cost so much to give him his golden parachute, it’s cheaper to simply pay a few flunkies to run interference for his more stupid decisions.
Maybe the Klingons have a really awesome pension plan?
I’m glad we’ve gone to the Peter Principle in this convo, because I think that’s the best way to interpret this whole “kill your superior officer, it’s your duty” thing — it’s an attempt to discourage people from rising beyond their level of competence. I mean, I didn’t take the presentation from this episode to be “the way you advance is to kill the guy in front of you” so much as “it is your duty to kill a superior if he is violating The Right Way Of Doing Things.” Obviously a warrior should be ambitious and aggressive, but that needs to be tempered by caution, and if you know that your inferiors are duty-bound to kill you if you show weakness or incompetence, that’s a good way to temper ambition with the wisdom of accurate self-assessment, or at least limit the damage done by someone who fails such a check.
Combine that with the British always-attack policy satirized by Voltaire as “we find it good from time to time to kill an admiral to encourage the others” and it really isn’t all that implausible that it could sort of work…
Unfortunately, given the above, I rather suspect not. But at least it’s not too burdensome to fully fund for 75 years…!
Ah, but then, Deep Thought, we run into the issue of the prevalence of vendetta within Klingon society. How does the underling prove the incompetence sufficiently to avoid the dead officer’s relatives? We still end up with long lists of dead, including the competent. Why? Because perhaps the incompetent’s relations are, say, Duras-like, also incompetent schemers who’d rather defend their honour by attacking their attackers than by being, y’know…honourable.
Like the orcs, or any more-or-less chaotic evil society, it’s not feasible as a large, technologically-advancing starfaring culture. Too much valuable skill and education lost every time someone shouts “kanly!”
“Oh no!” she said, metaconversationally. “I’ve crossed the streams!”
Taking it to a new level of meta,
Ye Olde Curmudgeone
CaitieCait raised the spectre of Duras, in which we see “family honor” and “family name” as other strains creating dysfunction w/in Klingon society. How is fragging (a form of patricide) even consistent with hierarchical rule and, one gathers, filial duty? It’s almost at the level of Mafia, where the wiseguys can put hits on one another but the dons are sacrosanct.
I suppose in Klingon culture anyone who places themselves in a position, either by incaution or incompetence or failure to maintain alliances (whether by blood or treasure), that they might be killed, they deserve to be killed.
Well it really depends on whether the fragging is an opportunistic thing or if it’s basically that the first officer has the responsibility to side with the crew if the mutinous sentiment is overwhelming. I think that a “kill your superior” rule would make a lot more sense in the context of ships operating outside of communications with headquarters — like Napoleonic seafaring ships or something, where the important thing is that the unrest get settled, as fast as possible. The Brits solved this problem with ingrained unquestionable hierarchical obedience — but I’m not really seeing that work so well for Klingons anyway, where there’s always this alpha male threat display… I suppose in theory the idea of the first officer as the crew’s spokesperson might be an alternate way to organize this?
Presumably what happens in space stays in space…
Well (to analyze something that defies analysis) we might suppose that in the Fallen Empire one tradition has imposed itself and is in conflict with other traditions. And maybe these traditions in conflict contribute to the fall.
One reason Russian society fell apart post-Glastnost was the controls of the Soviet police state fell away and another older, more durable tradition was re-exposed, that of the black market.
Here, perhaps the “honor and duty” thing was being supplanted by the less sustainable anarchy of “kill or be killed.” Or perhaps that “honor and duty” thing was an absolute fraud sham, a neoClassical kitsch interpretation of an older form, imposed in recent times to paper over the rapacity of the Klingon’s self-immolating new world order.
So you’re taking a sort of Heisenbergian view that we are, in fact, viewing the state of the Klingon culture, and are thus unable to recognize its concurrent trajectory?
Interesting.
@29 Ludon
Maybe suffering the indignation of Riker as First Officer was the punishment the empire imposed on Kargan’s crass incompetence. No real Klingon commander of good standing would suffer the indignity ;-)
The Peter Principle – Thanks. I can never remember that name.
This talk of an empire in decline has me thinking. TNG is in the post-Praxis era. Could that event, and the resulting fallout, have been caused by the early stages of that decline and could it be history’s first major disruptive landmark in the path of that decline? I’m thinking in comparison to the news stories coming out of China about events that ultimately get traced to someone’s greed and or ambition. Major rail crashes because someone decided to cut corners to pocket more of the money allocated for the project. Or, poisons introduced into food supplies. These are suggesting to me that China’s system is at least as corrupt as our system. Is it hard to imagine the Klingon government becoming just as corrupt? Neither we, nor China, have suffered an avoidable disaster on the level that the Praxis event seems to have been for the Klingon Empire. I can imagine how disrupted either of our governments would become if we do.
@39 Ludon
IIRC, wasn’t Praxis metaphor for Chernobyl?
TNG Klingon va TOS Klingons
I too will confess a fondness for the original Klingons. As I ahev said before, the NextGen Klnigons struck me as Space Dwarves/Samurais and they frankly weren’t that interesting to me.
I do think that Trek has a history of creating a villian and then over time humanizing them so that they become less then enemy and more like us and strange faces. It kind of reminds me of a ple over at another site that Orcs are people too, but the problem with that appraoch for me is that is robs any real chance of alieness.
As far as this captain, yeah he’s pretty cardboard, but at least we have characters in interesting situation that is not solved by technobabble. (yes the microbes are, but the real crux of the plot if Riker and thte Klingons, which he sollves by applying his brash nature with his growing understanding fo their culture.)
@41 bobsandiego
Do you want stories of characters dealing with mindless violence? Such as Alien, ID4 or any of the Big-Dumb-Rock movies? Or, do you want stories with characters reaching out to meet new people and characters learn and grow through those encounters? I’d have lost interest in the Klingons had they remained the cartoon characters they were becoming in the original series. Yes. a new Klingon might have a new plan, but it would eventually get around to him having Nell tied to the railroad tracks for Dudley Doright to have to rescue to spoil the Klingon’s plan.
The Klingons were presented in TOS and TNG as beings capable of recognizing other races as intelligent beings and as being able to communicate with them. With communication can come understanding. With understanding can come trust. With trust can come friendship. That is a humanizing approach but it is also a storytelling approach. Each new level offers different storytelling opportunities which would keep the characters fresh. The Horta was very alien like until Spock was able to communicate with it. At that point we came to know its motivations and found something to respect in it. That’s what made Star Trek different from the public’s general attitude toward science fiction – they weren’t stories of bug-eyed monsters with ray guns and an unhealthy interest in our women.
The Klingons were the Soviets and they were the enemy but even in the original series there were suggestions that the time would come when the Federation and klingons would work together and might even become friends. Star Trek has a different style of storytelling from those other movies. There were no suggestions of Humans and the ID4 aliens working together. There were no suggestions of Humans and the aliens of Alien getting along as friends. I’ll go to Alien or ID4 for cheap thrills but for something to get me thinking, give me Star Trek’s storytelling, or James White’s stories, or those of Douglas Adams.
@40 Lemnoc
“IIRC, wasn’t Praxis metaphor for Chernobyl?”
Praxis was Chernobyl times a very big number supplemented with everything else going wrong. Praxis was worse than the worst fears of east coast residents during the Three Mile Island event. Had the Klingons lived only on their home world at the time, Praxis would have been – to borrow from Deep Impact ( a Big-Dumb-Rock movie) – an E.L.E. Praxis on an American scale could have been Three Mile Island, Calvert Cliffs and a few other reactors going China Syndrome at the same time due to mismanagement or poor oversight of the risks.
@42 “Do you want stories of characters dealing with mindless violence? Such as Alien, ID4 or any of the Big-Dumb-Rock movies? ”
That’s the think I consider the NextGen Klingon to be much more of the Big Dumb types than the TOSer Klingons. In Errand of Mercy we have Klingons athat are tough, smart, and capable. Those Klingons I can see having the advances advanced scientists, engineers, and technicians that are required for starflight. With NextGener I never got the impression you could have quite toughtfull Klingons.
I disagree that they are the Soviets, the producers and writers I think are much more inform by WWII than the cold war. (being Vetrans of that fight) I see the Klingons as the Nazis and the Romulans as the Japanese right down to that die before surrender sense of honor.
@41 & 44
I’m not really buying it.
In TOS you had three main instances of Klingons showing up. In one (Kang), they were more or less generic bad-guy-of-the-week bad guys and didn’t put up much effective (unassisted) resistance. Needed an omniscient space douche boosting ’em just to maintain par. In another (Koloth), they were treated as mostly comedic elements and never as a threat. In the third (Kor), they were reasonably competent, but you figure Kirk and Spock pretty much had the arms of these bad guys threaded through their legs and were jerking them up and down, frogmarching them howling through the village most of the time. So there’s, what, a thousand Klingons on Organia and Kirk made mincemeat of them? And this is their best showing in the series.
John Calicos was a great actor who could imbue just about any role with dignity and gravitas. You could throw an oil-soaked tarp over him, stick a fish head on it, and he’d make you weep and call for an encore.
A fourth Klingon, supposedly Kahless, showed up in Savage Curtain, but he was about as awesome and fear-inspiring a bad guy as Dennis The Menace armed with a slingshot. You know, if running away and hiding are indicators of dreaded awesomeness, Dr. Zachary Smith had it all over Kahless.
In the movies, Klingons are fairly nonsensical until you reach Undiscovered Country, which was heavily influenced by events already underway in TNG.
This is not so much a defense of TNG as a protest that Klingons depicted there were somehow a step down from Klingons as depicted on TOS.
Lemnoc, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I find it hard to believe that no one mentioned what was easily the single best exchange from the episode:
And then the whole table breaks out into a wholly appropriate round of laughter !
I like the next joke, also, when Riker nervously asks Klag if Vekma is serious. This episode is, shockingly, actually funny. D-X is right about this being the corner.