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Episode 17: Sins of the Father

Getting a lot of family lately.

Picard isn't fully comfortable with Kurn, but does his best to be tolerant. Love the loyalty he shows to Worf. Speaking in the Klingon language is beautiful.

Riker initially struggles to accept that he's temporarily lost his job. Tries to be helpful to Kurn, but it isn't appreciated.

La Forge is exasperated by Kurn. Keeps up his sarcasm.

Worf is straining himself to be so stoic. Having his patience snap is a great moment. I quite like the way Dorn speaks the line when he announces his presence to the Klingons. A mixture of projection to make himself heard and anger at the insult to his family. Continues to be the poster boy for honour and is apoplectic with rage when the depth of the deception is revealed.

Crusher offers caviar and lends emotional support to Worf.

Troi seems to be the only one Kurn is vaguely decent to.

Data is confused by Wesley's behaviour. It's quite nice seeing the whole crew chip in to clear Worf's family's name.

Wesley gets into a right nervous flap over Kurn's command.

K'mpec is fairly reasonable, even if he is in on the conspiracy. Quite liked Kahlest. Duras is fairly standard.

Kurn has an air of smugness and overt formality to him that immediately conflicts with the family atmosphere. Makes it clear that he dislikes everyone from the start. The slimy way he deliberately baits Worf is a delight. Gets a bit friendlier later on. His initial behaviour made me wonder if this was some plan against his brother, but he's actually alright. Lightly bowing his head after being forced to shun his brother is a wonderful closing shot. Man's in intense emotional pain.

The captain's mess is wonderfully awkward. I like that Kurn is kept in shadow when Worf confronts him to show that he has a secret. The pyramid like design of the Klingon manages to effortlessly present a fully formed culture. I'm seeing influence from both Mesoamerica and east Asia. Once it's clear that a conspiracy is afoot, the very next scene starts on the Klingon empire symbol, which is a nice way of showing that image is what this is really about. The mist covered streets do a great job of showing that this society is in decay. Picard's fight scene is much better than the previous attempt.

It was mentioned previously in this topic that the decay of the Klingon empire will be a recurring theme going forward. If this is how it starts, I'm excited to see how this arc continues. Honour is a very weird thing. Aside from the list of honourable actions being very arbitrary, there's the matter of image, or how it's more important to look honourable than it is to be honourable. The potential civil war is only a real threat because honour has proven to be an impractical way to structure a society. Maintaining the illusion and keeping some measure of peace requires performing paradoxically dishonourable actions. And, naturally, its a powerful family that insists on this farce. Regardless of values, the highest echelon in any society will always have the capacity to subvert decency whilst pretending to be an exemplar of it.

What I found especially interesting is how even sincere honour is shown to be counterproductive at best. K'mpec says it straight, but the best thing, for both Worf and Kurn, would be for them to ignore this. Honour, however, demands that Worf either destroy his society, be executed or be basically exiled. Despite being betrayed by his society, hes still willing to fall on his sword for it. The only concession he makes is to slightly attack his own honour by hiding the truth and, even then, Picard is confidant that the opportunity to spill the beans will inevitably come. All this runabout has actually accomplished is wound Worf's faith in Klingon values and make him look like a cowardly idiot in the eyes of his society. And that's without getting into the nonsense of having a family be responsible for the actions of one of its members. I mean, Duras is an arse, but he shouldn't be in this situation, either. One of my issues with tragedy, in a great many franchises, is how the victims are all too often completely arbitrary. Here, however, Worf is a victim of his own values. He's incapable of ignoring this problem and he suffers because of his own decision. This is the kind of tragedy I like.

Worf episodes tend to be pretty great and this is no exception. The ending being difficult to swallow feels earned for once.

On holiday, so, you lucky souls get a twofer. Allegiance, next.