TNG - Birthright

[MerelyAFan]

Chuck's just posted Part 1 (focusing on Data's storyline) with Part 2 coming next and covering Worf's story in both episodes.

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/t242.php

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/t243.php

Honestly, while Worf's stuff is okay, I don't recall the plot overall being so meaty that it clearly required one and half episodes for it. Data's story is a bit on the nose in places by still fascinating in execution and I kind of wish there'd been more subconscious exploration in the series with that, perhaps without the creepy influence aspect that something like Phantasms featured. The Bashir subtext of his interest in Data is also a great catch by Chuck, and really demonstrates why its probably been one of the most sensical ret-cons in the franchise.

[Rocketboy1313]

This is a smart way to break up the review.
I pretty much always forget the Data Dreaming is in the same episode as Worf Goes to Prison Colony.
While each story is good on its own... TNG Worf is in NO WAY able to measure up to Data in character development, and the Data side of the story utterly crushes Worf's in this department. I also like the retroactive, "Bashir's fascination with Data because of genetic enhancement" observation, that is the sort of interpretation that can only happen with a long running status quo being used to inform past actions.

I think what would have helped to elevate Worf's story, and bear with me here. If Dax was able to team up with him. That Kurzon had known something about the potential for lost survivors from the attack that made Worf an orphan. If THIS had been the first meeting of those two characters and they had bonded over this story, Worfs story would have been better at the time and would have been legendary in retrospect as it would have planted the seed of their future relationship.

Shit, they could have made it a three part crossover with numerous characters banging into each other on a bunch of topics. For instance,
1) Have Picard and Sisko with a B-plot about Star Fleet defensive operations that ends up devolving into a screaming match about the Borg.
2) Have Ensign Ro meet Kira and have them talk about how Bajoran military might adapt into Starfleet or if Bajor even belongs in Starfleet. Kira's part was originally for Ro, this would have allowed each character to be distinguished from the other and open the door for Ro to guest star on DS-9 in the future.
3) Have Wesley Crusher show up and meet Jake and Nog, to show the contrast of how young characters were handled between the two programs.
4) Have Guinan meet Quark.

The whole point of having a shared universe with continuity is so that you can have situations like Thor meeting Spiderman and Wolverine. If you are not going to take advantage of that then it all feels distant and numb.

[clearspira]

Making Bashir genetically engineered was a stroke of pure genius. Not only does it explain why he was such an idiot in the first few seasons (because he was deliberately trying to be annoying to mask his secret - no one in the galaxy was believing this guy to be a super genius) but it opened many exciting possibilities for storylines.

And I sense that they MAY have tried something similar with Neelix. Remember ''Fair Trade'' and how he all but admitted to being a con artist stringing the crew along? They could have completely reinvented him there; all of the dickishness that he is guilty of swept away by the simple notion that yeah, he really is little more than an incompetent, jealous, draft-dodging, small time junk dealer who is running from his past. Unfortunately, unlike DS9, Voyager was addicted to the reset button.

[Yukaphile]

The intro quote was pretty damned sweet. Never saw him do that before!

I am happy this episode got to be the DS9 crossover "Chain of Command" never was. Gives me a yuuuuuuuge nerdgasm.

I do remember Chuck talking about how Bashir got bumped to "Birthright" in TNG because of "Move Along Home" and call me crazy, I like "Move Along Home."

Can't believe Chuck missed a perfect spot to insert another Romulan marijuana joke! Or is that Janeway's vice and not his? Maybe that stuff is more potent.

Am I the only one annoyed by the retcons done to Data? "Well, you're breathing." Fast-forward to Insurrection. "Data doesn't breathe." Er... guess that's another way that movie sucks.

OMG, I died when Chuck covered up the Worf segment of the Data subplot with a joke, hahahaha! "It makes more sense in the original Klingon" indeed!

Disappointed Chuck didn't comment on the similarities between "Birthright" and "Descent." I guess I'll be the first to comment on it then, in that Data risking his life here is fully consistent to that episode. Though Geordi's resistance feels... weird. Then again, in this episode, he did say if he went over a certain percentage of power less or something, he'd shut it down.

Man, the scene where Data is flying through the corridors and over the ship feels so 1980s, even though this was the 1990s, lol.

Poor Worf, beaten once again, and by Data, who will always be a bigger fan favorite.

Yeah, won't lie, I always found "Birthright Part I" more interesting than "Birthright Part II." Sorry, Worf fans.

[Yukaphile]

@Rocketboy1313 Holy shit, Dax teaming up with Worf before Season 4! And it would even plant the seeds for their eventual relationship! Alas, if only the scheduling issues didn't make that impossible. Because Bashir and Dax in the same TNG story would make me squee as a fanboy.

[FaxModem1]

Frankly, the Data story is interesting and both well written and well shot. The Worf story is....ugh. Okay, so they establish that Worf finds a place where Romulans and Klingons live in harmony, even if they had a horrible start as a prison colony. And what happens? Well, Worf is a big ole racist who starts pitching a fit that Klingons just want to live a peaceful life, play games, sing songs, and not kill everyone different from them. Worf puts a stop to all of that, and the episode sides with him for it. Even as a kid, I didn't side with Worf on this one. Still don't now when I am an educated adult.

[Mecha82]

Like many have already said Data story is far better of two stories while Worf story in other hand is not making me think that maybe they should had focused on Data story and dropped Worf story alongside with 2nd part.

[Yukaphile]

I do agree the Worf story feels kind of pointless. It adds to the continuing "stay with your own kind" mantra the franchise of that era preached, in that these Klingons are responding to "racial instincts," somehow, even though they've lived a very peaceful life in the colony, and wanna return to their homes? Wanting to see their roots is one thing, the second part doesn't promote that, though. Not in a way that doesn't feel racist, imo. Worf also romances a Romulan hybrid, but... nothing comes from that, and... seriously, what was the point? This is why the Data story feels stronger to me. And yet, as I said, it's another way Worf keeps losing. Even in a story meant for him, he gets overshadowed.

[Rocketboy1313]

Star Trek's "Stay with your own kind" issues bother me more and more when I recall how cultural exchange is such a fun concept. Deep Space 9 is once again my go to with positive examples of this in the margins, with discussions of Root Beer and the Repetitive Epic genre.

The idea that Klingons wouldn't just steal Earth culture (Shakespeare in the Original Klingon) but embrace some aspects of it (Klingons following old styles of Bushido or Chivalry) or some bit of Earth culture causing a major upheaval in the Klingon Empire (Imagine the Sikhism of Khan spreading to Klingon sects that enjoy the idea of a religion that teaches preparedness for war, but does not seek it out).

Extend the idea out further. Ferengi learning about Adam Smith? "The Prince" being required reading by Romulans for how to deal with Earth diplomats?

You remember the cadre of super villain mad scientists from Voyager, the Think Tank? What about multi-racial groups of mercenaries that form during the Dominion War? Good way to bring back the Orion culture, Nasicaans, Talarians?

I don't know, it has to be easier on the makeup department to only have to apply one or two sets of make up appliances in a given episode.

[Yukaphile]

It goes far past that and extends into romantic relationships. Who does Sisko primarily date? Black women. I mean, real interracial and interspecies relationships are seemingly very rare, for as much as Kirk's status as a legendary ladies man who'd bed green women is, it's largely an exaggeration. The most we see is Worf/Dax, a black man and white woman, a Klingon and a Trill, and Sisko once boned Mirror Dax. That's the extent of our "diversity" in the 1990s. Shit, ever since I was a kid, I'd wanted my first lover to be a black woman, and a woman of DEEP and RICH black color, because I thought it was beautiful, and I'm as white as you can get. I am SUPER WHITE.