4 – Code of Honor

Grade: F

Summary

Picard and friends visit a planet that has developed a vaccine for an illness that plagues a Federation planet. They need to open negotiations with this new planet to ask them to supply the vaccine. But before negotiations can proceed, the leader of the new planet abducts Tasha Yar. Then his current wife challenges Tasha to a fight to the death.

Commentary

This is probably the most ridiculous episode of the entire series. Really, a fight to the death between Tasha Yar and the ruler’s wife? Come on. How can anyone take this storyline seriously? Did anyone really think this was a great story when the series was produced?

Aside from that, it’s also blatantly racist. I honestly can’t believe this was even allowed to be created in the first place.

If there’s one good thing about this episode, it’s that the characters are finally starting to be more consistent with what we see in seasons 3 and 4. The actors seem to finally understand their characters. But the acting itself is just horrible. It is worse than what you’d expect from your local high school theater.

One thing about these first few seasons is that the series is very campy – much more than what you’re used to if you’ve only seen the episodes in seasons 4 through 7. There doesn’t seem to be much difference between the first few years of this series and Buck Rogers from 1979.

Of Note

Several of the actors believe this is the worst episode of Star Trek ever filmed. I think it’s a matter of taste, and “worst” could mean different things to different people. Over the years, Star Trek has earned a reputation for being inclusive and for breaking down racial and stereotypical barriers. Code of Honor in particular is not a good example of this, and in fact, many consider it to be inexcusably racist. Personally, I’m not sure which one I consider to be the worst episode of all of Star Trek, but this one certainly is among the candidates.