Without a doubt, “Birthright” is TNG’s oddest two-part episode. Instead of one story split over two episodes because it was clearly too big to fit into a single one, it offers a story that was somewhat too big for a single episode, yet not really big enough (at least as written) for two…and pairs it with an unrelated mini-story. Part one gets some fairly routine setup work done for the larger (Worf) story while filling out its running time with Data’s dreams; part two then wholly abandons Data and digs into the “actual” Worf story. I definitely think that the Worf story would have ended up very rushed if all the setup hadn’t been gotten out of the way in the previous episode, so I can understand some of what the writers were thinking; still, the end result is a two-part episode that mostly just feels like two entirely separate episodes. Which, I don’t know, is…maybe fine, I guess?…but still feels a bit unsatisfying. Also, though, part two makes it clear that the Worf story was always the “A story,” with Data’s dreams kind of thrown into part one to pad things out—and that’s definitely disappointing, since (at least for me) the Data story was actually the more interesting (and I would have liked to see it developed into something more than what we got).
As for the Worf story (i.e., the whole of part two, which is what I’m actually supposed to be reviewing here): It plays with interesting ideas, but presents them in a hopelessly muddled fashion and seems to have no idea what it actually wants to say. So, we have a group of Klingons who were captured by Romulans at Khitomer while unconscious (and thus unable to trade their lives for their honor via violent resistance), and a remarkable Romulan military officer who felt enough empathy for his captives that he decided to abandon his whole life (family, career, etc.) in order to provide a place for them to live out their lives in secrecy after the empire realized that they had no value as bargaining chips. This is an intriguing scenario, but one that raises several significant questions that the episode doesn’t really address, such as: 1. If the Klingons feel that they have lost their honor and, to all intents and purposes, are “already dead,” why would they wish to go on living at all? (Indeed, L’Kor actually sneers at Worf’s willingness to forgive them for having been captured, remarking that he hopes that if his own son ever discovered that he was still alive, he would be “Klingon enough to kill me.” Yet L’Kor himself is seemingly content to live on—and in fellowship with his Romulan captor, no less!) 2. Why is the Romulan Empire willing to send regular supply ships to this little former POW camp? I’ll buy into the premise that Tokath pitied them enough not to simply execute them, but his superiors? The Romulan government? And then…given that his superiors apparently are willing to do this…why, then, did sticking up for the Klingon prisoners mean the end of Tokath’s miltary career? This all doesn’t quite add up. (Also, where did the other Romulans who live there come from, exactly?)
But that’s all back story. Fast forward a couple decades, and we have this anomalous little community of Klingons and Romulans living together peaceably, which, again, is a nice premise. But what, exactly, is the story that the episode wants to tell against this backdrop? It becomes clear (lamentably) that the younger generation who were born and have grown up here have been lied to about their community’s origins and the state of things in the outside world, and Worf is positioned as the serpent disrupting their little paradise, but the core conflict between Worf and the community’s leaders is, at best, extremely vague and unfocused. Worf is (of course) dismayed to find that the younger Klingons know little of traditional Klingon ways…but is his objection fundamentally about them not being taught things that he feels are important (and, indeed, being outright lied to about things in general) and allowed to “live as Klingons,” or is he mostly just bent out of shape about Klingons and Romulans not hating each other, and unable to see the Klingons in the encampment as truly “free” no matter what they themselves think or feel? Actually, it can’t just be the latter, because Worf goes through a little arc wherein he reconciles himself to the positive thing that this community has achieved after first instinctively recoiling from it (symbolized by his acceptance of Ba’el, offspring of a Romulan father and a Klingon mother)…but his attitude adjustment doesn’t resolve the conflict. But then, if it’s the former—if what Tokath and the Klingon elders fundamentally fear is the knowledge that Worf can and will impart to the younger Klingons, and the ways in which this will influence them—then why do they allow him to interact with them? I mean, they don’t even go so far as to ask him not to spill the beans about their community’s origins, or inspire the young folk with tales of Kahless, and so on! Things eventually come to a head when Tokath gives Worf the choice to either “live as one of them” or be executed, and maybe—maybe—what he means by the former is essentially “shut up and stop corrupting the young’ns,” but this is certainly not made explicit…and if that is the heart of the matter, then Tokath and the Klingon elders look pretty foolish for not foreseeing what would come of Worf’s presence and acting earlier to try to prevent him from influencing their children. Plus, one feels that the whole conflict could have been avoided if they hadn’t seized Worf at the beginning of the episode and forbidden him to ever leave, simply because he had learned of the community’s existence. Upon hearing their story, Worf is immediately sympathetic to their desire to preserve the honor of their families in the outside world by remaining unknown; surely he could have agreed to keep their existence to himself, and been allowed to go on his merry way? So, in short, there’s quite a bit that doesn’t fully make sense here. The result, unfortunately, is that the central conflict of the episode, rather than arising irresistibly from the collision between Worf and this anomalous little community because of who and what they each are, instead feels ill-defined and fundamentally unnecessary, and relies on the audience’s familiarity with well-worn tropes (the lone voice of truth disrupts the “peace” of a community founded on lies for the benefit of its leaders) to work at all.
Then, too, the eventual resolution seems to me to be problematic on both a plot level and a thematic level. Tokath, at the prompting of the elder Klingons, agrees to let any of the younger generation who wish to leave with Worf do so, and upon returning to the Enterprise, Worf spouts a cover story about the Klingons whom he brings with him being survivors of a crash. Okay, great…but what’s next for them? Are they to go live on the Klingon homeworld, where they will surely be cultural misfits at best? Will the sudden appearance of a group of young Klingons who can answer no questions about their family backgrounds, and who claim to have survived the crash of a ship that never really existed, raise no questions anywhere? That’s the plot issue. Thematically… If we’re to give Worf the benefit of the doubt and assume that his main objection to the community was that it was founded on lies and deceit, then what does it mean that he ends the episode by lying to Picard (and the outside world in general) about what he found, and the Klingons whom he “rescued”? (It seems clear that Picard himself grasps some of the truth of the matter and understands what Worf is doing, and that Worf expected and intended this. I have mixed feelings about this; I can understand it, and it’s probably what’s best for all involved, but Picard has been defined as a character who feels strongly about integrity to the truth, so part of me wants for him to at least be conflicted about the situation. Granted, the story doesn’t have time for that and isn’t really about Picard in any case…but still.)
The episode also features a little proto-romance between Worf and Ba’el, which is a very mixed bag. From a story perspective, it made perfect sense to go this route, and the idea of Worf starting to develop feelings for a woman and then learning that she’s half-Romulan, and having to wrestle with his own prejudice, is solid. But…is it just me, or does Worf come off as more than a little creepy? It’s not clear exactly what the age gap may be between him and Ba’el, but she’s young enough to be alternately answering to her mother obediently or sneaking around behind her back, whereas Worf is (obviously) fully adult. I would certainly feel more than a little awkward in his place! Also, the writers make the usual mistake of leaping straight from “these characters are attracted to each other” to Worf admitting that he loves Ba’el (a girl he barely knows, and who shares none of his fundamental values)…and then turn around and have the two of them choose to part ways (presumably never to see each other again) a few scenes later, with scarcely a regret evident.
Having said all of this… Somehow, the episode is not terrible. In all honestly, it’s very much on the line between two and three stars for me, but I’ve chosen to give it three because I do think that it’s trying to explore interesting issues, and its characters come across as sympathetic, and I find it agreeable enough to watch (even if a bit eye-rollingly predictable in places). Despite all the muddle and nonsense, we do see some growth from Worf, who first moves beyond his rejection (in part one) of the mere possibility that his father could have been captured alive to a quick acceptance of the Klingons who were captured (“there is no room in my heart for shame”), and then confronts his prejudice against Romulans and finds it in himself to embrace the half-Romulan Ba’el. Plus, however much I might wish for various things about the scenario to have been fleshed out better, the whole idea of this group of Klingon ex-POWs who have made some kind of peace with their “dishonor” and created a community, in secret, wherein they live in harmony with Romulans, is one that I rather enjoy (and Tokath, the Romulan who sacrificed everything rather than execute them for no good reason, is also an interesting figure). There is much here that needed more thought, and the episode should be much better than it is. (I haven’t even touched on all the problems. For instance, the swiftness of the young Klingon Toq’s transformation into an enthusiast for traditional Klingon ways is silly. Also, as various commenters on Jammer’s site point out, the episode turns Worf into a generic mouthpiece for traditional Klingon ways, which is honestly not the rather more complicated character we’ve seen grow and change over the past six seasons, constantly struggling to reconcile Klingon and human values. So, not great…but still, points for an interesting premise, and for the ambition (even if not realized) to explore interesting ideas.