34 – A Matter of Honor

Grade: C

Summary

At Starbase 179, the Enterprise picks up four officers who will be working in the Officer Exchange program. Later, Riker agrees to a temporary transfer onto a Klingon ship, where he has a number of adventures.

Commentary

The best parts of this episode are the scenes on the Klingon ship, but overall, it’s not that great. It’s memorable only because Riker eats Klingon food and becomes the first Starfleet officer to spend time on a Klingon ship. But that isn’t enough to save this episode, which is otherwise pretty weak.

The soundtrack is pretty mediocre, and it’s as if they recycled music from the first season. The scene cuts as well as the overly dramatic dialogue really got on my nerves at times. And Mendon may be the most annoying character since Dr. Pulaski. Speaking of Pulaski, she thankfully only has one very short scene when Riker is trying out (dead) Klingon food.

Overall, I don’t care for this episode too much. There are some nice bits in it, but in general, it’s not one I’m going to want to see very much.

Of Note

At the beginning of the episode, Wesley Crusher mistakes the Benzite character who comes aboard the Enterprise as “Mordock”, the character he met in Season 1. But the character in this episode is called Mendon. Wesley doesn’t know how to tell them apart. The funny thing is that the same actor played both parts, so it’s hard to blame Crusher for the mistake. After all, the same character plays Data and Lore, and nobody can tell them apart either.