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 2x15 "The Trouble with Tribbles"

rating: ****

Memory Alpha summary

I think everyone knows about this one.  It's one of the rare episodes from the series to receive sequels ("More Tribbles, More Troubles" from The Animated Series, "Trials and Tribble-ations" from Deep Space Nine).  It's a classic.  I don't really need to justify that statement.

The question is, is the legacy of "The Trouble with Tribbles" a positive one for new fans to consider?  So often, when that question is raised, it's with episodes existing fans thought rubbed them the wrong way.

via Crackerjac Jane

The thing is, it's a great episode for fans.  It's easy to love, very lighthearted, not in the sense that it doesn't take itself seriously, but that it's hard to be inundated with all those Tribbles and take a different tone.  It's instantly iconic.  It's basically the peak of the whole second season, everything the creators wanted to accomplish encapsulated in a single episode.  The minor characters have significant moments (it's Uhura who's responsible for spreading Cyrano Jones' "harmless" creatures; and this is the episode where Scotty and Chekov defend Kirk and or the Enterprise's honor: "But you heard what he called the keptin!"  "Laddie, don't you think you should...rephrase that?").  The Klingons are involved.  The story is presented as a dynamic representation of what the Federation is and how Starfleet is involved.

Yet...it's kind of silly, isn't it?  How is a casual fan supposed to take it seriously?  One imagines that a viewer coming across it in 1967 might have determined that this series was just a bunch of nonsense anyway.  The thing is, Star Trek as we know it now literally would not exist without it.  Chris Pine's Kirk is exactly the Kirk we find in "Trouble."  William Shatner tended to take a sober approach to the character, except in this episode, where he wears a perpetual bemused expression.

"Trouble" is what the new movies are, to some extent.  It's not what most of the series, or indeed franchise, actually is.  I think I like the lighthearted tone, though, but balanced, the way J.J. Abrams approached it.  "Trouble" is what you get when everything matches the dynamic Kirk and Spock and McCoy have been striking all along.  It's the tone matching the main characters for a change.  And it's arguably the best episode of the series because of it.

And yes, that's one of the iconic Klingons present and accounted for, Koloth, one of the three who later reappear in DS9.  What more can you ask for?

four quarter analysis
franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
William Campbell
Charlie Brill
Stanley Adams

Star Trek 1x17 "The Squire of Gothos"

rating: ***

Memory Alpha summary

In the first visit to Gene Roddenberry's "god box" since some of the earliest episodes of the series ("Where No Man Has Gone Before," "Charlie X"), Kirk matches wits with a being of considerable power, whom later fans equated with Next Generation's Q.

Although similar to the earlier and later "god box" episodes, "Squire of Gothos" is probably more comparable to "Shore Leave" in that Trelane's activities are a lot more fanciful than outright menacing, except for the character's vast abilities.  Just as famous as the character himself is what he's ultimately revealed to be, a l'enfant terrible, a child who at the end of the episode is reprimanded by his parents.  A true twist ending!

The parallels with the later Q character are so obvious that Peter David incorporated the connection into his novel Q Squared.  Another quasi-sequel was actually the semi-complete original cast reunion in the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before," which borrows the twist ending.

Probably an episode best kept to fans of the series, although its importance should be stressed.  Even if it were mere coincidence, there's much more of Trelane in Q than all the androids of the series combined in relation to Data.  Still, it easily stands out from the pack and comfortably distances itself from similar episodes.  Roddenberry's obsession with god-like beings is certainly apparent enough.  Once in a while he just had fun with it.  And thank goodness!

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
William Campbell