Spoilers Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

[jian]

Nothing good ever happens on Risa unless it happens off-screen. Do we actually see the vacation? Time for disaster.

Part of what helps Star Trek really stand the test of time is how on point and current their social and political commentary was, and coming home last night and watching a Star Trek episode where a self-righteous moralizer starts scolding the socially (and sexually) liberal vacation goers to the point of actually threatening violence hit different, as the youths would say.

That said, the bad in this episode in particular:

Wow, these are two people who absolutely do not belong together, like obviously the attraction is there but he takes his tantrum that far and you think you can reconcile? You think that it's worth it? Don't get me wrong, the bit of backstory about why Worf is such a humorless stick in the mud compared to... literally every other Klingon was excellent, like it always felt weird about how he always considered himself to be an expert on all things Klingon when he genuinely seems like a terrible Klingon has always been an odd part of his character, and it's nice to see them exploring that more deeply here. But girl. You could do so much better. You don't need to fix him.

But seriously, Worf was so terrible for so long in that episode that we, as an audience, were owed getting to see him in the gold spandex bathing suit. You can't just hang that gun on the wall earlier in the episode and then fail to fire it. For this reason alone 1/10, many notes.

Yeah, it’s a terrible episode in a whole bunch of ways, not least the moralising on both sides. It’s a really bad start to the Worf-Jadzia relationship and thankfully it’s never that bad again. But Let He Who is Without Sin is easily my least favourite DS9 episode.

And yes, Worf is a terrible Klingon except by accident. Even by ruthlessly training to be a much better fighter than other Klingons, Worf is a terrible Klingon, since AFAICT no Klingon except maybe Martok does anything as boring and dishonourable as, you know, actually try hard to be good at something. But Worf lacks insight into how bad a Klingon he is and how Klingon culture is fundamentally hypocritical and rotten*, and needs Ezri of all people to point it out to him.

*Seriously, taken as read, Klingon culture is racist, sexist, ableist, imperialist, colonialist, brutal, intolerant, and obsessed with the appearance of honour in the way that many of the worst human cultures have been. It basically only exists to make humans feel superior. If it wasn’t for Worf and Martok, it would have no redeeming features whatsoever.