After some of the early characterizations of Worf as being barely in control of himself and downright animalistic at times it is really nice to see the writers taking him seriously and making him more of a full member of the cast. This is one I definitely remember watching when it was new, but only two parts stuck in my memory: the part where they transmit what Geordi sees onto the bridge for pretty much the only time ever and the Klingon shoe gun (actually made from various parts of their clothing, but definitely including parts from one their shoes). This episode takes place before Star Trek V was released but already it has started moving the Klingons from the TOS stereotype of bloody savage killers into the almost samurai realm they ended up in during DS9.
While investigating a report of a battle in the neutral zone they Enterprise encounters a damaged freighter. Riker prepares to lead an away team to investigate and for some reason they decide to test out a transmitter add-on to Geordi's visor that is never seen again. After messing around a bit they find three Klingons, one of the badly hurt. They almost don't make it back before the ship explodes. The injured Klingon is taken to sickbay and the others explain the freighter was attacked by a Ferengi vessel (Worf points out the damage wasn't from Ferengi weapons and they agree) and had to take over the ship and barely survived through a trick that destroyed the other vessel.
The two survivors go to their quarters and Worf joins them for a meal. There we learn Worf's background, he was orphaned in a massacre and raised by humans on a farming colony. The Klingons are horrified he has never lived with his own people but he assures them he has the blood of a warrior. They are called to sickbay and arrive in time to see the third Klingon die and we get to see the Klingon death ritual/howl. When he is alone with them again Worf insists on the truth of what happened. He learns they are opposed to the treaty with the Federation and stole the freighter to try and start a war. The other ship they destroyed was actually Klingon. Aaaaaaaaaand for some reason Worf doesn't report this.
A Klingon vessel approaches and demands they turn over the rebels. Picard is ok with this but learns the Klingons are with Worf near the battle bridge. Tasha rushes in with a security team and after some tense moments they Klingon rebels are taken into custody. Worf tries to plead with the commander of the Klingon ship to give them an honorable death, but the commander has no choice in his orders. Before they can be transported to the other vessel they assemble a gun from various pieces of clothing and have a device to knock out forcefields. The two escape killing a guard but one of them is killed by another guard. The other rushes to engineering and threatens to destroy the ship by shooting the dilitithium crystals. Worf tries to talk him down but is eventually forced to shoot the other Klingon with his phaser killing him and allowing him to fall through the extremely poorly engineered glass floors they have around the warp core. OSHA would not have liked the Enterprise. The Klingon commander is satisfied they rebels are dead and even offers Worf a place on his ship if he is ever tired of the Enterprise.
Review: Probably my favorite episode of TNG so far! The beginning section of them searching the freighter is way too slow, but once things get going it turns into an interesting tale of adventure. One does wonder if Picard would have been as happy with Worf at the end if he knew Worf knew the Klingons on board were trying to start a war with the Federation, but whatever.
8 out of 10
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