“Reunion” (4×07)
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“Sins of the Father” ended with the various Klingon characters making an uncharacteristically pragmatic choice to preserve the stability of the empire at a cost to their honor. In this episode, those compromises bear bitter fruit at a fateful moment of transition in leadership.
K’mpec, the Chancellor who had conspired in the plot to blame Worf’s father for the Khitomer Massacre in order to shield Duras’s powerful and influential family and prevent a civil war. For his troubles, K’mpec has been poisoned and nears death. Charles Cooper was terrific as K’mpec; he is a politician amidst a race of warriors, but he doesn’t act selfishly. Even though most Klingons wouldn’t consider his actions brave or honorable, K’mpec acted in what he saw as the best interests of the Empire. Even as he’s dying, he remains focused on keeping the empire together under a trustworthy leader.
The biggest ask of the episode is that the Klingons would accept a Starfleet captain mediating their leadership succession. I still don’t know that I entirely buy it, but the episode does work to justify it. K’mpec is on death’s door and out of options. From their dealings in “Sins of the Father”, K’mpec knows that Picard is honorable and trustworthy, and he needs a neutral third party he can trust to examine the evidence with objectivity.
The fraught nature of the proceedings also justifies the return of Suzie Plakson as K’Ehleyr, the half human-half Klingon Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire who had first appeared in “The Emissary” in Season 2. I really liked the pairing of Worf and K’Ehleyr as lovers; K’Ehleyr is the perfect foil for Worf; he has spent his entire life trying to reconcile his human upbringing with his Klingon heritage. And here is K’Ehleyr, who seemly effortlessly keeps a foot in both worlds. And while Worf has chosen to embrace his Klingon side, K’Ehleyr gravitates toward her human side. There is also something delicious about someone as self-serious as Worf falling for someone as irreverent as K’Ehleyr.
I was sorry to see her killed off here, but because of my investment in her character and their relationship, it has real impact. Worf is normally so tightly controlled that it’s a bit shocking when Michael Dorn completely lets go, letting Worf’s grief and rage bellow out of him. And a newly orphaned small childbearing witness to it makes that moment particularly visceral.
Also unusual is that Worf just stone cold kills a guy, makes no apologies for it, and carries on with only a written reprimand on his record to show for it. I think we as audience accept it because Duras was so unlikable: He’s a spoiled little rich kid who dumped his shit on Worf’s doorstep, and then killed the love of his life. He felt that his family’s influence would protect him as it had in “Sins of the Father“. He didn’t anticipate how far Worf would be willing to go to avenge K’Ehleyr’s murder, nor how quickly his cohorts would abandon him once they understood the situation.
Jonathan Frakes directed this episode. While he wouldn’t have the chance to make Trek look truly cinematic until First Contact there are a number of touches in this episode that feel more sophisticated than your average episode. Where he really shines, though, is making sure all of the character work stays front and center. There are a lot of competing personalities and agendas here, and the script and the direction manage to keep them all clear to the audience.
Impacts on Star Trek Continuity:
This episode introduces Worf’s son Alexander, conceived when Worf and K’Ehleyr reconnected in “The Emissary”. While he is three-quarters Klingon, his mother has raised him in the Federation. So he doesn’t have much connection to his Klingon heritage until he meets Worf. This is the only time Jon Steuer played the character, but I thought he did a great job. You could see Alexander taking in everything he was being exposed to. And the temperament of Steuer’s young Alexander contrasts most starkly with Worf.
While this episode provides an effectively fraught and dramatic start to their relationship, I don’t think the franchise ever knew what to do with Alexander. Part of that was probably just due to the production limitations: minors work very restrictive hours, and the makeup required for a Klingon child limits the time on set further. But I also don’t think Worf’s personal life was fleshed out enough at this point to make him a compelling father. On the other hand, Worf by the end of DS9, who had loved and lost so much more, could have made a great onscreen father.
Do Klingons reach physical and mental maturity much faster than other species? Or is Alexander just another “victim” of soap opera rapid aging syndrome that they hope the audiences won’t notice?. “Reunion” takes place in 2367, while “The Emissary” took place in 2365. Building in time for the pregnancy, Alexander shouldn’t be more than a year and a half old. But he comes across more like a five or six year old here, and closer to a ten or eleven year old when he reappears a year later (in story time) in “New Ground”. By DS9, he’s a teenager.
Strange as it seems, given how ubiquitous they would become in Klingon fight scenes going forward, this was the first episode to feature a bat’leth. This episode presents it as a distinctive family heirloom rather than the type of weapon in most common use for melee combat.
This episode also marked the debut of the Vor’cha-class attack cruiser, the first Klingon vessel created specifically for TNG. It’s a beautiful model that compares favorably to the CG Klingon ships that have been created since.
While Duras doesn’t survive the episode, Worf still needs to clear his father’s name and so the Worf vs. Duras arc will continue.
With Duras dead at Worf’s hands, Gowron becomes Chancellor more or less by default. Robert O’Reilly makes his debut as the character in this episode; he would reprise the role in three more TNG episodes and then seven DS9 episodes. His is what I imagine Richard Nixon would have been like as a Klingon warrior.
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