Heart of Glory

DVD, TNG S1 (Heart of Glory)

Some links to traditional Trek, some new ideas, and another tantalising mention of the Romulans covers a bit of clunkiness in execution. The chief draw of which is Worf's first confrontation between his duty and his Klingon heritage. You live with them, but you are of us, tries a desperate Captain Korris (played by the prolific Vaughn Armstrong, his first of many Trek roles), to convince Worf to abandon his ship and set off to rediscover the true Klingon way through battle and harsh survival. But Worf has already made his choice, earlier when he sees the first sign his loyalties may be pulled both ways at the confrontation in the corridor. At that point he doesn't have to choose, and in his relief corrects Tasha on her assumption: Klingons would never take hostages.

That close call gives him time to understand the situation he's in, which he's seemingly never faced before, and his answer to the misguided Korris is that the old ways aren't honourable - the honour is in duty and loyalty. Unfortunately, like General Chang in 'Star Trek VI' Korris can't take living in peace with the Federation, or anyone really, so Worf must phaser him. It's unclear whether it was the phaser that killed him or the fall through the floor (they obviously didn't make engineering with heavy Klingons in mind!), but another Klingon does get killed by phaser when trying to escape, and himself kills a Starfleet security officer - granted the disruptor was bound to be set to kill, but do Starfleet crew need to use kill settings?

Dennis Madalone as one of the security guards killed doesn't do as well in the acting stakes as the stunts, here, which is fair enough as he was a stuntman, but his wild line seemed wierd. Even Picard says a few things that don't quite fit in with the characters. That uncertainty of the production extends to Worf - they don't want to close down potential stroylines so they give as few details as possible, and far from being the famous Klingon of Stafleet none of his countrymen have heard of him. Okay, so he's still relatively young, I suppose, but even he doesn't have a definitive answer that he's the only one in Starfleet, which is odd when in later episodes Klingons tend to villify him for it. Maybe it was for his choices in this episode?

The Klingons were well introduced, with the long build up of the rescue aboard an atmospheric freighter about to explode. But again, LaForge's little toy, as fun as it is for the Captain to share his perspective, seems a little out of placeand frivolous. They're going over to look for survivors, they find the ship will explode, but they fiddle around and even when they find the Klingons they don't hurry much at first! But all the rough edges are forgiven for bringing one of the most important races back, the first for the series.

They wanted to distance themselves from the films and original series which led them to concentrate on new ideas, but after the failure of the Ferengi to make an impact (apart from the wrong impact - even a Klingon in this episode notes they were not worthy adversaries), it was good they could turn to an established race, especially as they use the peace between the Federation and Klingons, which hadn't exactly been set in stone, to create a new angle on it, test Worf, and show that even in the 24th century Klingons deep down want to go round fighting all the time! Importantly it also gives more insight into this race, and into Worf, a character not originally even meant to be a regular.

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