Episode Review – Code of Honor (Next Generation, Season 2)

 For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here.

Overview – The Enterprise arrives at Ligon II to negotiate a treaty with the Ligonians. They hope to obtain a rare vaccine that is only found on this planet. After meeting with Lutan, the leader of this proud people, he becomes enamoured with Picard’s chief of security, Tasha Yar. Lutan abducts Yar, and makes known his intentions to marry Yar, which draws the ire of his current wife Yareena. She challenges Yar to a fight to the death.

 

Score: 1/10 – Ah, “Code of Honor”, likely one of the worst episodes of all of Star Trek. It is one of the few episodes where almost every person involved in it, including the cast, felt it was anywhere from embarrassing to sub-par to, as Johnathan Frakes so delicately put it, “a racist piece of s@#*”. The story is fairly straight forward in itself, but the way it was pulled off just does not sit well. The Ligonians were cast by entirely black actors and were made to heavily resemble the stereotypical African tribesmen. There is also a heavy dose of sexism as the women of Ligon II are treated like objects by some of the men, especially Lutan. Add to that a script that is clunky and characters that are so brand new (depending on where you were in the world, this was either the first or second episode to be released after “Encounter at Farpoint”) that the actors were largely still trying to find themselves, and you have a very awkward episode. There are some elements of the episode that were not bad (the fight sequence between Yareena and Yar was fairly intense at times) and the score is very well done, but the weaknesses of the episode were largely responsible for the collective bad taste left behind after viewing.

                      

Relevance – 1 point. Very little that is established here is actually relevant later on in the series. Data’s attempts to understand humor is brought up multiple times before and since, so his continuation of that here does not seem to be very relevant. Having said that, there is one point for relevance that I can give this episode. Wesley mans a bridge console for the first time, as he is asked by Picard to man Ops for a while, and at the end of the episode the good captain suggests that young Wesley will have other opportunities in the future.

 

Continuity - 1 point. Character continuity takes a hit. Yar accuses Troi of tricking her into admitting that she has some base attraction towards Lutan. First of all, I really find the whole sequence to be forced, and Yar describes Troi as her friend. To be honest, there is little that has been established to suggest that the two are friends. Colleagues and crewmates, yes, but friends? Not so much. I think that line could have been better written. I also found it hard to believe that Yar needed to know she had a base physical attraction. I am surprised that she found herself attracted to Lutan at all, as his sexist attitude would completely turn off a woman of Yar’s mettle. I found the story continuity a bit lacking. They talk about this vaccine that will save millions of lives with more people becoming infected as the episode progresses. So why is the Enterprise only receiving reports on the number of people contracting the Anchilles fever? Surely if the plague is as serious as it is portrayed to be they would be receiving casualty reports that include deaths. Sorry, there are too many plot holes to keep the point here. Universe continuity, on the other hand, does appear to be intact here, so not a total waste.

 

Character Development – 1 point. This is one of the very few Yar-centered episodes, and yet her character does not move along or progress here. She is the same at the end as she was at the beginning. In the previous episode “The Naked Now” we learn far more about her and see so many different sides of her. In this episode, she is a good little soldier who wins a fight while being the object of lust by a tribal lord. However, I do give a point for Wesley’s development. This ties in with the section on Relevance, but the fact that he is allowed to man a bridge station is a big step forward for him and his relationship with Picard, so that should be noted.

 

Social Commentary – 0 points. I keep scratching my head here and I really cannot think of anything truly meaningful here. Maybe this is my bias against the episode talking, but what do we really learn? To fake a death to trick a misogynistic culture? Admit when you are attracted to a misogynistic tyrant? No, there is really nothing here about societal commentary that I can identify in this episode. If anything, this episode serves as a reminder that we must be diligent in not allowing crude, sexist, and racial stereotypes to be shown.

 

Cool Stuff – 0 points. Nothing stands out as “cool” in this episode. When I look at the parts that weren’t bad or offensive, such as the battle between Yar and Yareena, I must admit that not being bad isn’t enough to be considered as excellent or cool. So no points for this section either.

 

Rank – Crewman (4 points). The first season of any show is bound to have some missteps as writers, actors, and producers are all trying to find their footing. Here is a big one for TNG. I will say that there is a historical reason to watch this episode, though. Garrett Wang, who would go on to play Ensign Harry Kim in Star Trek: Voyager, has said that this was the first episode of TNG that he ever saw. He hated it so much that he chose not to watch any others. A few years later he thought he would give the show another chance and found it on TV. It was this episode again, so he wrote off the entire show. When he went to audition for Voyager, he had no real connection to Star Trek, even though he was a big sci-fi fan. It was after getting cast that he started to watch TNG and DS9 and became a fan of the shows. He has admitted that if he had been such a fan before the audition, he likely would have been really nervous and would have blown the audition. So, I guess that redeems “Code of Honor” to an extent. Right?

 

 If you would like to read other reviews from the Next Generation, click this link.

If you would like to read an episode review from any of the Trek series, click the following link to get to the series catalog. If the episode you want reviewed has not been done yet, then feel free to request it in the comments and I will see what I can do. 

Episode Review - Yesterday's Enterprise (Next Generation. Season 3)

For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here

Overview – A time rift has Picard’s Enterprise encounter the previous ship that bore the same name, having been transported about two decades into the future. The appearance of the older Enterprise vessel causes the timeline to change and has the Federation in the midst of a brutal war against the Klingon Empire. In addition to the war, Lieutenant Tasha Yar was on the bridge of the Enterprise, not having died two years prior. The only person who seems to have any recollection of the previous timeline is Guinan, and she tries to convince Picard to send the Enterprise-C back to restore the timeline.

Tasha Yar is back.

Score: 10/10 – “Yesterday’s Enterprise is one of those special landmark episodes that makes a bold move in the story telling in that it admits that they got something wrong and are trying to fix it. In this case, it was the past death of Tasha Yar. She had died in the late first season episode “Skin of Evil” and both the fans and those involved in the making of the show had felt dissatisfied with it. This was a collaborative effort between Trent Christopher Ganino and Eric Stillwell and it was thought that as well as telling a fun story, it would give Tasha Yar a more meaningful death. What we were given was a great episode that is usually in people’s Top 5 TNG episodes (it’s ranked #4 on mine). We see a much different Enterprise here and the tone is considerably darker than most of what has come before. The amount of detail that went into this new reality was impressive, down to the finer points like having a male voice for the computer and much more spartan sets. The new Enterprise has one function, and that is war. Throw in the mystery surrounding Guinan and the return of a beloved character that many felt was gone too soon, and mix in some exciting battles, and you get a classic episode. These types of episodes where we see the what-could-have-been scenarios play out are always fun. It allows us to see things we wouldn’t expect, such as Riker getting killed by an exploding console. Originally, we were also supposed to see the deaths of Data and Wesley Crusher, but those were cut from the story. That would have been fun and added to the intensity of the final scene, but we still get a good dose of that when Picard mutters “That’ll be the day” as the Klingons demand his surrender and the good captain jumps behind the weapons controls. We also get some great guest stars with Tricia O’Neil as Captain Rachel Garrett and Christopher McDonald as Richard Castillo, and their characters quickly became fan favourites. Overall, this episode is gold on many levels.

The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-C

Relevance – 3 points. One point scored for bringing back Yar and giving her a death that has meaning. Being snuffed out by a giant, evil oil-slick is not the best death that one can imagine, and Tasha deserved better. Another point is scored as this story ultimately leads to Denise Crosby returning as the half-human, half-Romulan Commander Sela. The third point? Well, it’s likely less epic but definitely noteworthy. This is the episode where Worf gets his first taste of prune juice. His love for the beverage will carry on throughout the rest of TNG and DS9 as well.

Two Enterprise captains meet

Continuity - 2 points. Character continuity is hard to measure in an episode as anything that is different with our characters is going to be attributed to the fact that this is an alternate reality. Still, our characters continue to act in familiar ways, and everything that is slightly different makes sense. Even the absence of Worf and Troi in the alternate timeline makes sense. Worf, being Klingon, is obvious. For Troi, it makes sense that her skills would not be necessary on a warship. Universe continuity is also intact here, but again the differences (e.g. at war with the Klingons) is are easily explained with the time rift. Where I am going to dock them is on story continuity. In the closing scene, where Guinan asks Geordi to tell her about Tasha Yar, Geordi is still wearing the more military-like uniform of the alternate timeline. A minor oversight on the part of the producers, but it is enough.

Look at Geordi's cuffs. He's wearing the wrong uniform.

Character Development – 1 point. OK, this is a hard one for me. Any character development is almost a moot point as whatever happens gets reset when the timeline is restored. So, I will look at it this way, the most development goes to Guinan (not a main character), Picard (but it gets voided when they successfully return the Enterprise-C to its proper time), and Yar (who used to be a regular cast member but is now a guest star). Well, I can stretch it a bit and give a single point here. The impact of this episode will not be truly felt until “Redemption: Part II”, so the minimal impact on Worf’s love a prune juice will get us a single point here.

Worf tastes prune juice for the first time

Social Commentary – 2 points. The actions of the past often have unforeseen impacts on the future. Just as one ship sacrificing itself to defend an outpost could prevent a devastating war, our own acts of kindness, no matter how small, can end up changing someone’s life in a way we cannot predict. In addition to that little message, there is also the theme of second chances that is given here. When Tasha learns that she had died a meaningless death in the other timeline, she knew that she had a chance to make a difference. How many of us would want to do the same? Some food for thought.

Castillo and Yar

Cool Stuff – 3 points. A point for the great amount of detail given in the alternate timeline. New uniforms, new set designs, all of it was cool. Seeing Tasha Yar again was also very cool. I quite enjoyed her character and was sad to see her killed off in Season 1, so any reason to have her brought back is great, and they way they did it was very cool. I also found that having two Enterprises of different eras was fun. Having Garrett and her crew wearing the movie era uniforms was also a good attention to detail.

Riker's fate in the alternate universe

Rank – Admiral (21 points). I cannot fully express how amazing this episode is. It brings a much-needed closure to one beloved character and opens up the possibilities for another. While the tone is dark, the impact is enlightening. If this is not on your Top Ten list of the best TNG episodes, perhaps you need to rewatch it.

A tale of two Enterprises

If you would like to read other reviews from the Next Generation, click this link.

If you would like to read an episode review from any of the Trek series, click the following link to get to the series catalog. If the episode you want reviewed has not been done yet, then feel free to request it in the comments and I will see what I can do. 

Let us make sure that history never forgets the name "Enterprise"