TNG Flashback: Sins of the Father

When the proposal to remaster Star Trek: The Next Generation for high definition was being tested, a special Blu-ray disc was put together featuring the series pilot and two other episodes well liked by the fans. One of those was "Sins of the Father."

A Klingon commander named Kurn comes aboard the Enterprise to serve as first officer, recalling the officer exchange program in which Riker took part. After some initial friction with the crew, Kurn's true purpose in being there is revealed -- he is the younger brother of Worf, and is there to learn if Worf's heart is truly Klingon. Kurn has come to tell him their deceased father has been accused of treason by the Klingon High Council, and asks Worf as the oldest brother to challenge this falsehood to restore the family honor. But as a trial unfolds, a dark truth is gradually revealed: Worf is deliberately being set up to take the fall on behalf of a powerful and influential Klingon family.

I was never as much into the Klingons as it seems so many Star Trek fans are. I generally found Klingon episodes to be merely "good," and not "great." That said, "Sins of the Father" is a landmark episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is the moment when the show embraced serialized storytelling. Sure, the character of Q made some recurring appearances. A scene here and there might briefly reference a past event from an earlier episode. But short of that, the closest the series really came to continuing a plot over multiple episodes was the loose connection between "Coming of Age" and "Conspiracy." "Sins of the Father" introduced the machinations of Klingon politics, left Worf in disgrace among his people, and teased a Klingon civil war. All these ideas would be paid off in multiple future episodes. As writer Ronald Moore put it, the ending of this episode (Worf leaving the council chamber after his discommendation) simply demanded a follow-up.

This episode is also pivotal in another way, as it represents the first time that Star Trek: The Next Generation won an Emmy award. They won for Best Art Direction, based on the strength of the set design for this episode. The Klingon Great Hall was a massive space, cheated on camera to look even more massive. All filming in the set was first done in one direction (for example, facing the "throne" and the Klingon logo), and then the entire set was redressed to face the other direction (the entrance) in order to double the apparent size of the space despite the limited size of the stage. And it's only the grandest of several sets built or radically redecorated to depict the Klingon homeworld (which the characters steadfastly avoid naming in this episode). The brilliant matte painting of the building's exterior is another highlight (and rendered impressively with lightning in the HD re-master).

This was the episode that cemented writer Ronald Moore's reputation as the man who writes the big Klingon episodes. This script was actually a blend of two outsiders' spec scripts (more on that in a moment), but Moore was the one who championed them to production. To help sell head writer Michael Piller -- who was not a Star Trek fan prior to working on the show and didn't really know the Klingons -- Moore prepared an extensive memo summarizing their culture. Moore incorporated what little had been defined in the original series and the films with many ideas suggested in one of the Star Trek novels (The Final Reflection, by John M. Ford). The end result was the template for everything the Klingons became in all subsequent Trek series.

However, I feel that foundational writing may have been a bit stronger than the episode itself. I mentioned that this episode was built from two separate script submissions, and I feel the seams show awkwardly in the final product. The teaser and first act deal with Kurn coming aboard the Enterprise to serve as first officer. He drives Wesley and Geordi to complaints, he threatens Riker's life when Will tries to get him to tone it down, and he goads Worf at every turn. It's the beginning of another fascinating "ripples in the pond" story that really upsets the status quo on the Enterprise.

...except that story is abandoned after less than 15 minutes.The rest of the episode deals with Worf's gradual disillusionment with his own people. We meet Duras, a truly weaselly Klingon who takes glee in tarring others with the brush he himself ought to be tarred with. He's nothing we've come to associate with being a Klingon, right down to his slightly effete demeanor and his Facebook-ready duck lips. Both of these two stories are brimming with dramatic possibilities, and you can add to them essentially a third element: the revelation that Worf has a brother. Any one of these feels substantial enough to carry an entire episode, but they're all stuffed in here. The episode is still good in spite of this, but certainly not because of it. A lot of potential feels to have been cut short.

This may be a Worf episode, but it's really Patrick Stewart who gets a chance to shine. Picard's role in this episode starts from the precedent established in "The Measure of a Man" -- when one of his officers is in legal trouble, he'll step in as a defense lawyer. But since Klingon culture is the focus this time, this isn't about Picard delivering any moving speeches. He certainly gets some zinger lines (such as his response to Duras' taunt about his lack of fighting experience: "you may test that assumption at your convenience"). But he also gets physical too; he gets in a knife fight! Stewart's lobbying for more "shooting and screwing" was beginning to pay dividends here. You can tell he was having a blast playing the bluster here.

The guest stars in this episode are also strong. Charles Cooper plays Klingon leader K'mpec, a washed-out old man somewhat similar to the Klingon he played in the film Star Trek V. Needless to say, the writing here is worlds better. Patrick Massett is great as Duras, a villain you want to reach into your TV and strangle. He would gradually shift more from acting to writing; after a stint doing both on the series Friday Night Lights, he wound up working with Ronald Moore again as the writer of several episodes of Battlestar Galactica's prequel spin-off, Caprica.

But of course, the main man is Tony Todd as Kurn. He's probably best known for his roles in the Candyman and Final Destination movies, and the over-the-top cheesiness of those films really does him an injustice as an actor. He's a very skilled performer, and is one of the reasons my favorite Star Trek hour of any series (Deep Space Nine's "The Visitor") is so good. A longtime Star Trek fan, Todd auditioned four times to be on The Next Generation before landing this role. It's hard to believe it took that long for them to see how brilliant he was.

Other observations:

• There's a clearly deliberate choice in this episode to change the lighting scheme and create deep shadows. I think it goes too far. Though appropriate in the Klingon council chamber, you can't even see Kurn when he first beams aboard the Enterprise, nor read his facial expressions in his quarters when he reveals himself to Worf. Too much detail is lost in the shadows.

• Jonathan Frakes is a tall man. (I mean, look how he sits in a chair.) But they make Tony Todd even taller; Kurn towers over Commander Riker.

• It's a great moment when Worf asks Picard to take over as his "cha'DIch, as Picard already knows the appropriate response to give in Klingon. (Which I've read translates to "I accept with honor. May your enemies run with fear.") This was actually Patrick Stewart's suggestion, and a very good one at that.

• When the knife fight with Picard begins, he has a little trouble getting his weapon clear of its sheath. I'm not sure if this is Patrick Stewart's own mistake (he doesn't get to fight much on this show, after all), or a deliberate acting choice to make the audience fear that Picard is outmatched by his opponents.

• There are some slight inconsistencies in the pronunciation of Klingon names in this episode. Worf's father is sometimes "Mogh" and sometimes "Morg." The Klingon leader is "K'mpec," but more often sounds like "K'mpoc."

• The moment when Worf bitch slaps Duras is a wonderfully effective callback to earlier in the episode.

I would give "Sins of the Father" a B+. It does come together well, but it is overstuffed. Still, even if it's not a top shelf episode in my book, it deserves recognition for the more advanced, serialized storytelling it began.