TNG: “Redemption” Parts 1 and 2

Date: April 22, 2020

Season 4, Episode 26 and Season 5, Episode 1

Musical Accompaniment: Some Classy Covers by Lindsey Stirling

Interstellar News: I’m going to treat this as one big episode, resistance to this change is still futile and will now be the new standard when dealing with two part episodes. Nothing new happened in the credits for Season 5.

Favorite Quotes:

Picard: You have manipulated the circumstances with the skill of a Romulan. My decision will be announced at high sun tomorrow. Excellent tea. Good day, ladies.

Of course he said “excellent tea”.

Worf’s One-Two Punch: “I have been told that patience is sometimes a more effective weapon than the sword.” and “We cannot regain honor by acting dishonorably.”

Hobson: Frankly, sir, I don’t believe in your ability to command this ship. You’re a fellow officer and I respect that, but no one would suggest that a Klingon would make a good ship’s counselor or that a Berellian could be an engineer. They’re just not suited for those positions. By the same token, I don’t think an android is a good choice to be captain.

Data: I understand your concerns. Request denied.

Hobson thinking he’s making good points (he’s not) and Data not taking any shit from this bigot.

Quick Summary:

Part 1: The Enterprise is heading to Klingon home world for Gowron’s installation and maybe to clear Worf’s name when they are intercepted by Gowron’s ship because he wants to avoid a Klingon civil war. Worf comes clean to Gowron about his discommendation, but Gowron is of no help so Worf requests a leave of absence and meets up with his brother. Just as Gowron is about to become the grand poo-bah of the Council, the son of Duras magically appears, along with his two sisters, who are in league with the Romulans and the shadowy Romulan lady from “The Mind’s Eye“.

The weird sisters try to manipulate Picard, with Earl Grey tea of all things, but he will not be so challenged. Worf enacts his plan but Gowron wants the Federation to intervene and the their ship is attacked. The Enterprise leaves, Kurn comes to aid Gowron, and family honor is restored. Picard denies Federation assistance and orders Worf back to duty, so Worf resigns from Starfleet. Worf gets the full senior staff send off and he heads to the Bortas. The shadowy woman reveals herself to be none other than Tasha Yar and my jaw is on the floor.

Part 2: Worf is serving on Kurn’s ship, who despite being the younger brother is a bad ass captain, and he is still trying to figure out what it means to be Klingon. Picard is trying to help even though he said he couldn’t, and proposes a blockade that Starfleet agrees to. Picard assigns Riker (as captain) and La Forge (as first officer) to one ship and Data to another, also as captain. The first officer on Data’s new ship is a bigot and poor O’Brien is back on tactical, based on what he shared in “The Wounded“.

La Forge sets up his net and Yar’s lookalike introduces herself to Picard as Commander Sela, Tasha Yar’s daughter. No one knows about the alternative timeline until Guinan uses her way to explain to Picard. The weird sisters get Worf alone and want him to mate with B’Etor, but he refuses their advances and offer. Sela tries to get one past the Federation but Data knows what he’s doing and his first officer finally acknowledges him as Captain. The Romulans retreat so they don’t get caught which leads to a victory by Gowran. Worf isn’t impressed with how the Klingons were acting, bedsides to spare the life of Toral, and returns to Starfleet.

My Thoughts and Impressions: There was very little Riker, La Forge, Dr. Crusher, and Troi over these two episodes, which I was sort of okay with. I barely realized they were missing because the story was so compelling and also, if I admit to my bias, I totally love Worf and Data and they really shined. Picard is growing on me too, but he’s the captain and he’s supposed to be awesome. Also, what’s up with female Klingons now being able to serve on the Council? Why did they have to be so misogynistic? The story could have been exactly the same with one of the sisters fighting for Duras’s place… ugh! Though I did think that the Romulans had done something to fake the DNA scan on Toral when they first showed up.

Picard has to walk a fine line but no where does he indicate that he’s chatted with Starfleet about this. Worf may have taken it better if he explained he needed to wait for orders, I mean Picard is a captain but no admiral. Also, I don’t understand why Picard was in charge of the blockade and just willy-nilly made people temporary captains? Worf also was put into a place where he had to choose, and he eventually did what he set out to do – restore order to the Empire. Data is great at solving problems but not so great at communicating all the time, which is funny because that’s totally a human problem too.

Some of the Klingons work with the Romulans, boring! We’ve seen it in several episodes past. I was expecting more if this was to be what it was all headed toward. Instead the Romulans give up the minute they get caught, blah! I will admit I wanted to watch “Part 2” to find out where the hell Sela came from and was saddened by Yar’s second death and third goodbye, but was satisfied with how they explained Sela’s existence. I missed the suspense that “The Best of Both Worlds” had, as that’s the best vehicle to compare these episodes to. While these episodes were not bad, they weren’t great either. They wrapped up some loose ends from earlier episodes and left a little so things could come back into play later. Data gets to command a ship, La Forge engineers a way to track the Romulans, and Worf gets his honor restored and figures out where he belongs. Rating them both as one big episode, because they were kind of super close, I’ll give this 6 Birds of Prey.

TA Out!