5-10. New Ground

Worf must deal with his troubled son.

THE PLOT

Worf's human mother (Georgia Brown) visits the Enterprise, bringing Worf's son Alexander (Brian Bonsall) with her. Worf believes this is just a short visit, but his mother has other news for him: She has brought Alexander to stay. "Alexander has been having difficulties," she explains to Worf. She and Worf's father are too old to keep up with the boy and his needs. "He needs his father," she adds - and with that, she is gone, leaving Worf with the son he barely knows.

It's a major adjustment for Worf, made more difficult by Alexander's issues. As his mother warned, the boy lies frequently. He takes things that belong to others and behaves like a bully in class, starting fights and then blaming others for his misbehavior. Worf reacts badly to this rebellious behavior, insisting that he will enroll the boy in a Klingon school - but his feelings for his son come to the fore when the boy wanders into the wrong part of the ship during a dangerous mission, putting his own life in danger!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Recognizes Worf's difficulty in balancing his duties with being a new parent and gives Worf leeway to take care of his son. When Alexander is in jeopardy at the end, the one and only good part of the ensuing scene is this: While Picard will give Worf and Riker as much time as possible to rescue the boy, he will ultimately fire the ship's photon torpedoes and condemn Alexander (and possibly his two officers) to death if necessary.

Worf: In his own way, he is as bad at dealing with emotions as Data is. He has a strict code of honor, and believes that it should provide the answer to every problem. He tries applying this to his own son's petty thievery and lying. Honestly, his initial speech about the importance of honor isn't bad, and would have a reasonable chance of working with a young adult. But children don't respond to reason the same way adults do, and Alexander's acting on emotion frustrates Worf even as his pride stops him from seeking help. In an episode that is, at best, flawed, Michael Dorn's performance anchors the character material for Worf, giving these predictable proceedings more value than they actually deserve.


THOUGHTS

"Alexander has been having difficulties."

As soon as I heard that one sentence, I cringed. I remember finding the Alexander episodes interminable when watching the show with my father back in the 1990's, and I find that I'm rarely enthralled by the purely "interpersonal" episodes of TNG even now.

That said, the first 30 minutes or so of New Ground isn't that bad. It's trite, to be sure, particularly when Counsellor Troi starts babbling cliches about Worf and his son exploring their feelings... together (I actually started laughing a bit at that point). But Michael Dorn does a reasonably good job at showing Worf out of his depth in a situation in which simple physical courage isn't necessarily enough. At the 30-minute mark, the episode was at least on track to receive a "4" - not exactly good, but far from horrible.

Then the ending happened.

You can see from a mile away that, when things go wrong with Dr. Latex-Mask's science project, Alexander will end up being in danger and Worf will have to save him. That's not a surprise, and it's not necessarily even a problem. But the way in which it plays out is so hackneyed and downright silly, it just becomes impossible to keep a straight face.

Alexander is pinned beneath some cheap-looking "wreckage" props that are too heavy for Worf to move. Then the boy pipes up something about how his leg hurts, and Worf suddenly eats his spinach, develops Popeye muscles, and moves the wreckage prop with ease... and, apparently, no harm to himself afterward. Just when things can't get any sillier, Alexander (despite an injured leg and smoke inhalation) makes Riker rescue a cage with some bad finger puppets inside because "They'll die!" The final shot has Riker clutching the two finger puppets while Worf holds Alexander and dramatic music swells.

A tag scene, in which Worf rescinds his prior edict to send Alexander to a Klingon school and instead allows the boy to stay with him, just adds one more eyeroll to the mix. The good news is that Alexander can now disappear into the "irritating characters" drawer again, with no need to even mention him until the next time Worf needs to deal with his annoying son's issues.


Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: A Matter of Time

Next Episode: Hero Worship

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4-02. Family

Picard receives a frosty homecoming.

THE PLOT

The visible scars have healed, the nightmares have ended (or so he claims)... but his protests to the contrary, Picard doesn't quite feel ready to be himself yet. While Enterprise is receiving a much-needed refit, Picard decides to take a vacation, returning to his childhood home in France. "what better place to find yourself," he observes, "than on the streets of one's home village?" As he returns to the estate now belonging to his brother, Robert (Jeremy Kemp), going through the difficult process of reconnecting with family members that are now strangers, he finds himself weighing the question of whether he truly wants to continue as captain of the Enterprise.

Worf also faces a struggle with family members. His human parents, Sergey (Theodore Bikel) and Helena Rozhenko (Georgia Brown) have insisted on visiting him aboard Enterprise, much to his evident discomfort. When they beam up, his adoptive parents seem only to be interested in alteratively telling stories about him and exploring the ship. But when they get a moment alone with Guinan, they confess their real reason for coming: Worry after hearing of Worf's discommendation on the Klingon homeworld.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: His assimilation by the Borg has left its mark on Picard. The utter confidence he always had is gone as the episode opens. There's a hesitance in his manner, an uncertainty in himself that was never there before. When he hears of an opening acting as director of a scientific project on Earth, he seriously considers stepping into the post. Given what we already know of Picard's situation, it is downright painful when his brother rudely snorts about how much he thinks Picard needed "a little humiliation," though I doubt when Robert says those words that he realizes just what Picard had truly gone through. Patrick Stewart is outstanding, and after effectively viewing what happened to him through Riker's eyes, it is good to have an episode with Picard in which the tightly controlled captain deals with the emotional fallout of his loss of control.

Riker: Though he's only briefly seen in this episode, it's worth noting how very much Riker is still in "captain" mode. He's overseeing the Enterprise refit, and he's clearly still the man in charge of the ship, even before Picard disembarks. Given that Picard returns seemingly fully back in charge of himself, it will be interesting to see if Riker has difficulties stepping back down (though I suspect Riker's development over the past few episodes will simply end up being forgotten).

Worf: I write down in my Season Three overview that I would really like to see some impact on Worf of his discommendation... and here it is, in the very next episode! Writer Ronald Moore even attempts to explain why Worf showed no reaction during the latter half of Season Three; he was being stoic, because his dishonor is his "to bear alone." When his parents refuse to accept that, telling him that while he may consider it too "human" of them, they are there for him, his harsh reserve breaks down and we see the esteem in which he holds them - an esteem he's apparently withheld throughout the episode more as a way of punishing himself than them. Michael Dorn is as reliable as ever, and I appreciate the way in which both actor and writers have picked up on each other's cues to gradually develop Worf into a genuinely complex character.


THOUGHTS

This is a rare Star Trek episode that has no alien threat, no mystery, no external action of the kind generally associated with the show. Instead, it is entirely centered around the characters and their emotional states. A viewer turning the dial and catching this part way through might take several minutes realizing that this is a Star Trek episode at all. Some probably dislike the episode because of this. But I think this was exactly the episode needed in the wake of The Best of Both Worlds. The events of that show were simply too momentous to thrust the characters straight back into adventures with Intergalactic Forehead Creatures plotting their destruction.

Ronald D. Moore showed himself to be one of the show's strongest writers very early upon joining in Season Three, and he does a good job with this character-focused installment. He picks up on Picard's control and confidence - which could be viewed as "arrogance," and is by his brother - and explores the ramifications of Picard losing both control and confidence. By making Picard's brother as stubborn as he is, only focused on trying to live in the past instead of the future, he provides an effective contrast between the two. It doesn't hurt that this story allows Patrick Stewart to share screen time with two other fine veteran actors, Jeremy Kemp and Samantha Eggar. With Theodore Bikel and Georgia Brown guesting in the "B" plot, this has to be one of the most impressive TNG guest casts of all, and the acting talent elevates the episode a lot.

There's also a "C" plot involving Wesley which is, almost surprisingly, not an annoyance. Thematically, it's a perfect fit for the Picard and Worf stories. My only real complaint is that the speech by Wesley's father is less effective than it should be, due to a guest actor who is technically adequate in his performance, but who somehow just doesn't convince.

The resolution of Picard's dilemma seems a bit pat and easy, and a part of me wishes that this could have been a feature-length episode or a 2-parter to truly, seriously deal with the fallout. As it stands, Picard has a fistfight with his brother, finally breaks down and admits how he feels about what happened to him, and then is completely recovered. More time would have allowed greater complexity. But in fairness, for TNG to make this episode at all is remarkable - to ask them to take twice as much screentime to develop it would probably fall under the heading of "Asking Too Much."


Overall Rating: 9/10

Previous Episode: The Best of Both Worlds

Next Episode: Brothers

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