Redemption II

DVD, TNG S5 (Redemption II)

Worf doesn't come off in a very positive light. He questions his Captain and younger brother, Kurn, sounds a bit (I hesitate to say it) cowardly, or at best 'conscientious' which is not the Klingon way, in his various dealings, and (it's painful to say it), he looks a little bit soft compared to the other Klingons… Urk, that was difficult to accept - he gets bested by only two Duras family-hired Klingons, which doesn't even match what Picard did, and then it takes all his effort to deck a Romulan guard, allowing Lursa and B'Etor time to escape! Kurn and Gowron have to keep egging him on and reminding him of his heritage and he generally sticks out like a sore thumb. Maybe that's why he was so quick to ask for a return to Starfleet duty?

Data, the other fish out of water in the episode, fares significantly better than his colleague. Though he must put up with a First Officer of equal rank and equally high levels of bigotry and racism ("we don't accept Klingons as Counsellors, so why should we accept an android as Captain?"), and only loses his temper a couple of times. What's that, loses his temper? But surely Data doesn't have a temper. Whether it was his own little experiment in emulating the correct expressions at a time of dissent, or whether that guy was so obnoxious and un-Starfleet as to actually provoke a reaction in the emotionless man, he certainly let loose a sharp tongue and a brace to the mainsail! It might have been that guy was so cross because he didn't get his own seat to sit in, and Data might have wished for better than a redress of the Enterprise's Battle Bridge, but with Klingon ships, Romulan ships and the High Council, I imagine set-building took up a rather large chunk of the budget!

The look and scope of the episode was enhanced by the extensive use of non-Enterprise locales. The best was the Klingon party, which was typically rowdy, violent and loud, showing us famous traditions such as head-butting and drinking with the enemy that would become familiar in succeeding seasons. The Romulan side of it isn't so well catered for, but we still get to see a bit of a Warbird, though still not enough to give a sense of what the bridge layout is, or how many decks they have. Not that that's a concern amidst all this political turmoil. But it's actually the quiet scenes that stand out for me as the best: Guinan seeks out Picard just at the moment he is most alone with all his main men off commanding other ships, to give him her unique personal insight into the fate of the Enterprise-C, and Commander Sela comes aboard to give the Captain her personal history and clear up the bizarre, but brilliant similarity between her and Tasha Yar, gone, but as ever, not forgotten! It's brilliant to hear the fate of a character that was already dead, came back in an alternate timeline, went back in time and then became involved in an important historical event.

I'm not sure it was fair to pin the blame on Picard for all the events, because we don't know that Sela was the driving force behind the Romulan desire to destabilise the Klingon/Federation treaty, and to be precise she wasn't sent back by this Picard, but his alternate self from a war-torn timeline. And to be even more precise she went back against the Captain's advice anyway! Maybe Guinan just wasn't happy at having her intuition questioned so she decided to make up that bit about it being Picard's fault as he'd never know one way or the other! It all rings true of 'Star Trek Nemesis' and Shinzon's being angry at his human genetics. Like Picard and Worf last episode (and Spock in 'Star Trek XI'), Sela was walking a bit of a tightrope between two worlds. Perhaps she felt she needed to prove herself to her fellow Romulans and so spearheaded this strategy? She seemed to show some regret at getting her Mum executed.

There's something special about Worf and Kurn entering into battle in a Bird of Prey, even if they do get pounded. The brothers working side by side wasn't something we were going to get, since they were of two different cultures really. Although the Klingon scenes are fairly energetic they hadn't yet got the essence down properly - the ships are too light, bright and tidy, the essential atmosphere hadn't quite been nailed down on a TV budget, but it was getting there. What wasn't getting there was in some of the attitudes displayed: basically the female characters are given short shrift while the men all get to be involved in the battle plans, or that's the way it comes across, which is quite strange for 'Star Trek'. Yes, there were female characters in positions of importance, but the only ones that get lines are Troi and Crusher in a brief moment with Picard. It's also most unsettling to have a Starfleet Lieutenant Commander, trained at the Academy, with a career of exploration behind him, presumably, purveying such strong anti-Android sentiments!

The effects are less than impressive once again, with the unwieldy models having a slow battle and the sun not looking particularly attractive or with a sense of scale. The raining down of energy bolts on Klingon buildings was pretty good however, and the story keeps things moving nicely. Questions remain as to the fate of Lursa and B'Etor, and even more so Toral, but they'd all be back in the future. Riker getting the chance to command at last isn't given much space to unfold, relegated to a viewscreen conversation, but Picard and he do share a warm look when he leaves the Ready Room, so that conveys some of the situation. O'Brien's importance continues to rise, as now he takes over Worf's position at Tactical. I wonder if this was part of a deliberate agenda to increase his profile in readiness for his move to the new series 'DS9', the following season? For some reason new, swishy trails were added to the logo for this season. I'm not sure whether that was a good move or not. And the title isn't 'Redemption, part II' as usual, missing out the 'part'...er part.

The whole business with the sensor net of ships was very unrealistic to me, since space is so BIG! How was that little fleet going to cover the whole of the Romulan/Klingon border to prevent ships slipping through? You can say that this was the closest part of the border to where the Duras supporters needed back-up, but even then it can't have been too difficult to go around or above this little net in space. I also found it hard to accept that Picard would so easily take Worf back - he did, after all, resign his commission, not take a leave of absence as has happened at other times. Still, Picard knew what a good officer he was, and was no doubt impressed with his refusal to, in his eyes, murder the helpless Toral who was too young to stand a chance.

Maybe I'm misjudging Worf. He comes away from playing with the bad boys with his integrity intact, and while he's not yet the almost-invincible super-hard warrior of 'DS9' he had to grow into that naturally and believably. He had some 'fun', he did what he saw was right at the time, so you'd think Kurn and Gowron could give him a bit of a break!

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