Plot Synopsis: As the House of Duras is nearing victory over Worf and the forces of Gowron, Picard works to expose Romulan interference in the Klingon Civil War. Data wrestles with his first official starship command.
Plot A and B Analysis: After a brief synopsis of the first Redemption episode the teaser opens in the middle of Klingon battle, Kurn’s ship being attacked by two other Birds of Prey. Kurn uses a sweet unorthodox tactic to win, then we shift to Picard persuading a Starfleet admiral to form a blockade between the Romulan/Klingon border, as he’s convinced the Duras family is getting help. Plot A is about the Klingon Civil War, plot B is closely related: Data’s first official starship command with a recalcitrant first officer. This is a fast-paced episode with a lot of content. The three main themes are Picard working to expose the Romulans (and Sela), Worf living in the Klingon empire and fighting a losing war, and Data’s challenges with his command. It’s excellent throughout, but might feel as though the writers are trying to cram a little too much into 45 minutes.
Favorite Scenes: The scene where we find out about Sela is one of my favorites, it hits all the right buttons. Finding out Tasha Yar was executed was almost like losing her again, for me. Think about it, this is a character who has essentially ‘died’ three times now! My other favorite scene is, of course, Data using his expertise to reveal the Romulan interference in the civil war. Worf’s moment at the end where he spares Toral’s life is also good. Kurn reminds him it’s the Klingon way to kill him and Worf replies, “I know. But it is not my way.” I think that is moment when he figures out who he really is. In the final shot of the episode you see that contrary to the end of Sins of the Father where all the Klingons were facing outward, here they are all facing inward, united again.
Use of Cast/Characters: Picard has a lot on his plate between the Federation blockade and Sela. He really is the one directing the blockade as well as applying indirect pressure on the Romulans to try and run it. Riker on the other hand doesn’t have much to do. Data gets some great character development dealing with his first command, as we are not sure how he will deal with his first officer, Hobson. As usual, he does a great job. This could be termed a “Worf episode,” but it feels as if he is just one of the players in part two. His biggest gain is that he has been struggling with his identity as a Klingon, finding his way for the entire series, and I think he gets it figured out in this episode. Troi, Beverly and Geordi have almost nothing, though we do learn it was Geordi who came up with the idea of the tachyon blockade to foil the Romulan cloak. All of the guest stars are pretty great and do their jobs well, though if I’m being nitpicky I don’t think Fran Bennett is much good as admiral Shanthi.
Blu Ray Version: Some of the spelling of some of the ships in the blockade were corrected for this version. The shot of the bombardment of the house of Duras was really improved for this version.
Nitpicks: Worf was supposed to be on Gowron’s ship from what we’re told in part one. How did he end up on Kurn’s? At 2 minutes in Worf says the aft shields of their ship are gone. Why then, does it show the Klingon ships behind them shooting them and hitting their aft shields 20 seconds later? In the 30th minute when Sela is issuing orders to Lursa and Worf is present, why isn’t he shocked at seeing ‘Tasha’? Tachyons. I don’t like Tachyons. They first occurred in Deja Q, and they appear again here. Finally, I’ve always wondered why the Romulans didn’t just take a big left and go around the whole blockade altogether?
Overall Impression: While this episode is about a lot of things, I consider this episode the one where Worf finally figures out how to be himself and a Klingon at the same time. Not only does the Klingon civil war get decided, but his own inner war between his Klingon heritage and his Human upbringing get resolved as well. It’s terrific to see Denise Crosby again, and Data’s part is icing on the cake. This episode is a worthy fulfillment of the promise of part one. It’s times like these that I wonder if I’m too stingy with that fifth star, though. While I liked everything about this episode, it’s just not quite as good as part one. It seems a little bit rushed, and we could have had a full episode around each of the three stories here. I rate this episode 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: This is the actual 100th episode of the series. Check out last episode’s review for a fuller explanation. Dan Curry talked about how he got the effect of the surface of the sun: “I sprinkled oatmeal on a light table and put an electric motor on it so it vibrated a little bit to create a sizzle, and took that flat pane of sizzling oatmeal and wrapped it in an electronic device over an imaginary…sphere. By making a negative of it and tinting it orange, it looked like the cells on the surface of the sun.” I think Dan is awesome. The bridge of the Sutherland is actually a redress of the galley of the Enterprise–A from Star Trek VI. The Duras sisters will be seen again in the DS9 episode Past Prologue, then back to TNG for Firstborn, then finally the Generations film. Toral will be seen in DS9 too, in The Sword of Kahless where he again tries to take over the empire *rolls eyes*. Here’s the story from Denise of how she came up with the idea for Sela:
I sort of thought, what if Tasha had a child that now would be about the age of her mother when Lieutenant Yar was killed. And she was this sort of love child from this relationship, but was raised by Romulans a la Dances With Wolves.” She pitched it to Rick Berman. A couple of months later Rick called back and said they want to do it, but instead of having a baby with Castillo (from Yesterday’s Enterprise), she has a baby with a Romulan general.
Missable/Unmissable? This episode is definitely unmissable, and the next one is even better.