110 – New Ground

Grade: C+

Summary

Worf’s mother visits the Enterprise to let him know that she is bringing his son Alexander to live on the ship with him. Meanwhile, the Enterprise will participate in a study to see if there is an alternative to warp drives by using a wave of energy instead. If it works, LaForge could find himself out of a job.

Commentary

These Worf-centric episodes are usually pretty good, and through this one, we see a completely different side of his character. What would it have been like to have Worf as your father? I think it’s a nice change from the stereotypical Klingon warrior stuff that we have seen so often in this series.

The warp wave was interesting, if not predictable. Of course we know that the Enterprise is going to save the day, and the wave isn’t going to be terribly successful. Sorry if I just ruined it for you, but honestly, this should not be a surprise at all. I guess it really doesn’t matter much because the focus of the episode is on Worf’s relationship with his son. And that part is done pretty well.

But I thought there was too much manufactured drama at the end of this episode. Just as soon as Worf finds out Alexander is stuck in one of the science labs (or something), he asks permission to leave the bridge to go get his son out of harm’s way. Riker has to join him too, of course. But this ship is so large and there are so many officers serving on it, shouldn’t they try to find someone else to rescue Alexander? Wouldn’t there be someone else closer who could get there faster? I would have thought so anyway. The problem with that, though, is that we wouldn’t have the artificial drama that is so necessary to make this episode work at all. Personally, I think it works fine to have Worf rescue Alexander, but it seemed a bit cheesy and contrived when I watched it again recently. That’s really the main reason I rate this episode low.

Of Note

At one point in this episode, LaForge mentions that this is an event similar to seeing Zefram Cochrane make his first warp flight. Then in the First Contact film, he actually helps pilot the ship that finally reaches warp speed.