Deep Space Nine 7x7 "Once More Unto the Breach"

rating: ****

the story: Kor discovers that it's a good day to die.

what it's all about: This is the episode Deep Space Nine kind of tried making for four seasons, and finally got it right.  This is its answer to "A Matter of Honor," the Next Generation episode where Riker serves aboard a Klingon ship, and as such is as close to a Klingons-only episode as Star Trek is ever likely to get. 

It's also a follow-up to the earlier "Blood Oath," in which original series Klingon warrior Kor (plus a few others) returns to the franchise for one last glorious adventure.  In "Blood Oath," Kor is among friends and as such has trust that he'll be taken at face value.  When he next resurfaces, in "Sword of Kahless," he first comes across Worf, who represents the current generation he probably has been shielded from for years, and they quickly develop a rivalry.  In "Once More Unto the Breach," it isn't Worf that's the problem, but Martok.

Like the last few episodes, this is another guest-star spotlight, and it falls both on Kor and Martok, for whom this serves as his most personal episode, in which we learn about his background and how it's connected to Kor (not in a positive way, alas).  It's the first time two guest-stars of any species dominate an episode, so it's nice that it happens for the Klingons, long a franchise favorite.  It's a little weird that Worf plays second third fiddle in such a Klingon-heavy episode, but that also speaks to how he's finally found Klingons (well, Martok anyway) he's completely comfortable around.

Anyway, this is also an episode about aging, which is something Star Trek has done before (we can start the conversation with Kirk, really), but never before quite this intimately, with the subject of the study in such a vulnerable position.  When we saw Sarek (in the eponymous Next Generation episode) in a similar predicament, the main thrust is placed on a debilitating illness, not his age.  The whole matter becomes especially poignant for a Klingon, of course, because Klingons have some pretty rigid expectations about dignity, as we've seen elsewhere.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - One of the great Klingons episodes.
• series - A war story that necessary.
• character - Operates as a Kor and a Martok episode.
• essential - And as a study of aging, in a way that had been done before.

notable guest-stars:
John Colicos (Kor)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)

Deep Space Nine 4x9 "The Sword of Kahless"

rating: ***

the story: Worf joins Dax and Kor on an epic quest.

what it's all about: "Sword of Kahless" was always an easy episode to underestimate.  On the surface it might seem gimmicky and unnecessary, Deep Space Nine struggling to find relevant stories for a character (Worf) who had already experienced an incredible and in some ways franchise-defining arc in Next Generation (storytelling that helped form the basis of Deep Space Nine itself).

But it lays down two very important foundations for Worf in his new series: first, it introduces the idea of his relationship with Dax, and it finally gives him another Klingon to work off of who's happy to be a Klingon and isn't actively seeking a way to sabotage Worf's standing in the Empire.  Kor, an original series Klingon who returned in the landmark "Blood Oath" earlier in the series, was more a lead-in to Martok, who would emerge as one of the most important recurring characters of the series and one of Worf's defining relationships, but that hardly matters.  When he returns in the final season ("Once More Unto the Breach"), his appearance in this episode takes on greater resonance.  Watching as Kor, Worf, and Dax struggle to figure out each other is the real pleasure of the episode.

"Sword" also helps demonstrate all over again how important Kahless is to Klingon culture, as well as put a definitive spotlight on the Klingon weapon, the bat'leth, that was already an iconic element of Star Trek lore at this point, but had never really been the focus of an episode before.  We'd seen Worf and other Klingons use these fancy curved blades, and heard of how Kahless created the first one, but it somehow seems so much more important when it becomes the object of an active obsession.

A treasure hunt was the subject of popular fiction dating at least back to Treasure Island, but more contemporary storytelling had Indiana Jones become an icon in this kind of adventure.  "Sword" came before a glut of more recent stories, most famously Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, began to flood the market, even before Lara Croft made it cool again in video games.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A fine addition to the Klingon tradition.
• series - A fine next step in Deep Space Nine's Klingons.
• character - Works quite well for Worf, Dax, and Kor.
• essential - It's not groundbreaking, but it'll do.

notable guest-stars:
John Colicos (Kor)

Deep Space Nine 2x19 "Blood Oath"

rating: ****

the story: Dax reunites with three legendary Klingons for one last glorious adventure.

what it's all about: Anyone who ever questioned Deep Space Nine's place in the greater franchise needs to have a look at "Blood Oath."  Forget the whole Dominion War.  Forget the heavy serialization.  Forget the seeming departures from Star Trek's ideals.  Forget all of that.  "Blood Oath" may be the single greatest access point any fan could hope for, the most unlikely, and at the very least the best episode of the second season.

"Playing God" was just the warm-up...Dax's evolution from "just a pretty face" to one of the best characters in the series was completed with "Blood Oath," in which three actors who had portrayed Klingons in the original series reprise their roles: William Campbell as Koloth ("The Trouble with Tribbles"), Michael Ansara as Kang ("Day of the Dove"), and John Colicos as Kor ("Errand of Mercy").  Ansara would actually appear once more as Kang in Voyager's "Flashback," while Colicos' Kor would return in Deep Space Nine's own "Sword of Kahless" and "Once More Unto the Breach," but "Blood Oath" is the one chance to see all three at once, a dream team of Klingons if there ever was one (Worf and Martok would both join Kor in his final appearance, in case you wanted another dream team).

When fans think of episodes featuring characters from other series, they typically bring up Next Generation's "Sarek," "Unification," and "Relics" as the best examples, a trilogy that is pretty tough to compete with, but where "Blood Oath" triumphs over them is telling a completely unexpected story, one where the Klingons, each of them originally presented as villains by the way, as the heroes, the transformation Worf helped initiate finally completed, well before Deep Space Nine had actually begun heavily featuring the classic aliens (with the addition of Worf in the fourth season).

"Blood Oath" is unlike any other episode in the franchise, a full Klingon romp, following Klingon ideals.  And in the center of it?  Dax.  The least likely character possible, right?  Remember that Dax is actually a Trill, a joined species, and that Jadzia was the latest host, and that the previous one, Curzon, had been a Federation ambassador to the Klingons (how Sisko met Dax).  If we never really got to meet Curzon, "Blood Oath" more than adequately presents how Jadzia was able to follow in his footsteps, embrace his legacy, and yes, make it possible for that later romance with Worf to happen.

It's a completely magical experience.  After the early series attempts at bringing in familiar Next Generation characters, many fans probably never even dreamed such a thing was possible.  This is exactly how Deep Space Nine fully came into its own.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - An update of original series Klingons?  Heck ya!
• series - A killer way to represent the difference between Deep Space Nine and the rest of the franchise.
• character - All those Klingons, and Dax.
• essential - It's positively irresistible. 

notable guest-stars:
William Campbell (Koloth)
Michael Ansara (Kang)
John Colicos (Kor)

Star Trek 1x26 "Errand of Mercy"

rating: ****

Memory Alpha summary

It's the debut of the Klingons!  Need I say more?

Well, okay.  The whole dynamic for the rest of the series is there right from the start, which is only natural, given that this is coming (finally!) near the end of the first season, so most of what Star Trek would settle into being had been established.  That means that the Klingons who show up are exactly the kind of Klingons who would show up in other episodes.

Unlike the Romulans who preceded them, the Klingons are presented with ongoing potential, which is probably why it was so much easier to explore them.  The Romulans were certainly interesting in "Balance of Terror," but their Cold War analogy was limited to the war itself, which to that point in history had become more and more remote a possibility (besides the proxy Vietnam conflict).  No, if American viewers were to see alien versions of the Russians in space, they would more likely succeed as competitors. And that's exactly what the Klingons were.

Between Starfleet and the Klingons for this episode stood the Organians, the latest in a long line of omnipotent, meddling aliens, who impose peace between the foes (it didn't stick).  That particular aspect of "Errand" has grown less significant over time, the more nuanced the Star Trek landscape has become.

But Kor stuck around.  Oh, did he!  One final counterpoint with the Romulans, whose figurehead had gone unnamed in his duel with Kirk, the first Klingon we meet is named, and three decades later becomes all the more important to franchise lore thanks to a series of appearances in Deep Space Nine (all while being portrayed by the same actor, John Colicos).

That alone makes this episode easy to revisit, even if the Organian elements have failed to age as gracefully.  The link Kor makes between eras makes "Errand of Mercy" comparable to "Space Seed."  Arguably it's far more enjoyable to see the young Kor in action than the young Khan (unless we're talking Into Darkness).  Often fans of the series claim that it managed to buck the trend of the later ones by having its greatest material in its first season (the other tended to struggle with that).  I don't think that's necessarily true (the second season is much more consistent), but "Errand" is the kind of episode you can point to, beyond "Balance" or "City on the Edge of Forever," where it's clear that no matter the growing pains this was a series that really had managed early on to find its footing, and the lasting influence of the Klingons is a testament to that.

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
John Colicos