TNG - A Matter of Honor

[LordFeagans]

I think that Chuck's 5 out of 10 score is fair. For me, this episode is forgettable. It's not great like "Q Who" or "The Measure of a Man", it's not terrible like "Shades of Grey" or "Up the Long Ladder". It's average to the point that when you're asked to name 70 TNG episodes off the top of your head, ten per season, this one doesn't come to mind. Hell, the only I was asked about this episode was in a Star Trek trivia challenge some friends and I had one time in high school where I was asked "What is the title of the episode where we learned that Commander Riker's chair can swing around 180 degrees?"

[Thebestoftherest]

His beard does a better job than him.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Really the only thing that TNG lost after season 2 was consistency in compelling Riker plots.

As Mike and Rich from Red Letter Media point out, Riker after season 3 basically existed to ask the questions that the scientific officers could then answer.

I remember them saying that lol.

Really, boneheaded Riker not knowing how to think was the scariest part of that season 6 episode. Namely where he can't even appropriate Geordi's techno babble.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

His beard does a better job than him.

[Linkara]

What I don't see is how the Benzite idea of seeing a problem, but not doing anything about it till they've got a solution, wouldn't have been drilled out of them when they hit Starfleet Academy? Surely by then, everyone would know the established protocol inside and out, as well as why a process is done the way it's done? Hell, they even cover that mentality in an episode of Voyager (Learning Curve as I remember). Starfleet might not strictly be a military system, but I'd want my fellow crewmates to be competent enough to ask how high to jump if Picard etc orders them to, but also point out just how impractical it would be in those season 2 uniforms.

Also, it's also a tragically stupid example of how to do things. If there's a problem, then someone needs to be notified of it, regardless of what the problem is. He should have reported it to Worf, who then could inform Picard, Data etc, if he'd deemed it necessary, which it would be, since Worf would know he couldn't either eat it or kill it. And that's just an example of a small-scale problem (relatively speaking). If the Borg turned up and the Benzite saw a cyborg gimp stumbling after him, there is no immediate solution, other than run away.

Well, bear in mind a few things
-Despite the uniform, he's not in Starfleet - he's part of the officer exchange program. It's likely he wore it out of a sense of "I'm part of this crew, I should dress the part" but Riker didn't really feel a need to do the same.
-It's likely the Benzite way does not refer to, say, an immediate problem like a Borg cube approaching, but rather an odd anomaly like this space rust or whatever - he doesn't know what it is exactly yet and has nothing to offer about it, so he wants to actually have something to report before he does so. If the thing had already eaten a hole through the hull and risked the ship, I'm betting he'd probably have reported it.

I rather like this one, but Chuck's score is more than fair. It's not the deepest or more important episode, but it's fun and I like Riker's story and a proper introduction to TNG-era Klingons. I tend to skip over Mendon's plot because he's so insufferable and the story, while good, doesn't really set it above a lot of other good episodes of TNG.

[Archanubis]

Ah Chris Collins. Whether he's looking for things to make his ship go or commanding outdated KDF Bird-of-Preys, he's always making trouble for the Enterprise in those early years. Or trying to shoot Megatron in the back.

This episode is basically the reason everyone loves TNG era Klingons, and there would be [and still is] calls to have a Trek show set exclusively on a Klingon ship.

Fun fact: author Keith R.A. DeCandido actually wrote a four-book series detailing the adventures of the crew of the I.K.S. Gorkon, which featured Klag (the Klingon whom Chuck calls "Klang" throughout this review) as the ship's captain.

Not sure I agree, but the occasional episode one on wouldn't be so bad. As long as it is the TNG version. Well, maybe the TOS version would be interesting, but only TOS flavour [maybe minus the brownface] and TNG era flavour.

You mean like the handful of the episodes in DS9 when they added Martok as a recurring character?

Just as an aside, did anyone else have a problem with sound levels between the clips and Chuck's analysis or is it just my end?

Yeah, I noticed it too. I've noticed it in previous videos, too. I tend to chalk it up to Chuck needing someway around the copyright bots.

[Mercury01]

Here's a fun piece of trivia for you: the Klingon captain is played by Stephen Root.

[clearspira]

The only TOS Klingon woman was a damsel (like all TOS women tended to be), then there is the one with the muscles in Star Trek 5 who proved that the original Sulu was very much not gay after he and Chekov sexually harassed her, then there is Chancellor Azetbur (I dunno how to spell it) who apparently did such a bad job that the council ended up MORE sexist after she left it, and now we have these women - who are thirsty for Riker. That's it.

Klingon women have a terrible run in Star Trek. Most of them are there to be sex objects - even the Duras sisters. What could have been a great plot about sexism (again, well done Azetbur) really was not helped by the cleavage armour. (Great idea btw, wearing armour with huge gaps over the heart among a race known for fighting with bladed weapons).

Its stuff like this that I think makes Star Trek a bit hard to defend nowadays as this ''great liberal utopia''. By modern standards its right wing as hell in many places tbh.

[Al-1701]

His beard does a better job than him.

Burton must be like "Now you're just showing off, John."

[tvindy]

Klingon women have a terrible run in Star Trek. Most of them are there to be sex objects

What about L'Rell?