I have to admit, I was only half watching this episode initially, as it looked firmly directed into ‘blah’ territory – a Klingon officer learns to love the Enterprise crew and accept the way that they do things.
And then, about a third of the way in, it was almost like the writer decided ‘nah, I’m not going to write a boring episode. I’m going to write a good episode instead’. And then what was looking like the dullest episode in a while suddenly shifted from first gear into fifth.
Worf had been given a little bit of backstory before now, but this is really the start of a whole new story arc for Worf and the Klingon empire that will go on to produce a bunch of great episodes. It’s well written and well acted, and it’s also particularly brave for Star Trek in that this is really the first time that an episode of this nature ends without the restoration of the status quo.
172 down, 565 to go.