Star Trek: The Next Generation - Heart of Glory

While as a Star Trek TNG fan from my youth, and remembering Heart of Glory quite fondly, I do admit that this isn’t a patch on where the Klingons would go in terms of quality storytelling in the future of the series. But you had to start somewhere and some introductions into the Klingons of the TNG era was needed in order to develop Worf some and give his species a chance to inhabit an environment they clearly felt uncomfortable in. The opening of the episode is a bit of a slog for some; I have noticed critical feelings towards how the Enterprise crew meets two healthy Klingons, located on board a Talarian cargo vessel quite far from home, located near The Neutral Zone, with a third clinging to life after suffering wounds soon to be determined as caused by a battle with another Klingon Battle Cruiser (trying to locate them due to defecting, actually anti-alliance, wanting to embrace their roots and return to a warrior race, before peace with The Federation). I don’t mind it. I liked the early suspense of Riker, Data, and LaForge (sporting a feature in his visors called “visual acuity transmitter”, allowing Picard and the Bridge to see through his perspective while on board the fatally damaged Talarian vessel) on the dying vessel, suffering severe hull rupture with toxic gas and increasing heat nearing critical. The vessel wreckage as the trio investigate for the life signs read on the Enterprise is a nifty bit of set dressing with the impression of just how much damage it took emphasized effectively. The visual acuity transmitter got some attention, with LaForge trying to make sense of how he can navigate when the likes of Picard remain at odds with the different shapes and colors that sort of lack true definition. It does give us an idea of just how special LaForge is and how others with “superior” sight take for granted such sense of area and space before them. LaForge, to his credit, isn’t woe is me, thanks to the great LeVar Burton’s energy and enthusiasm, trying to guide Picard around the vessel…them locating the hull breach is really neat considering the wall before LaForge would not have been noticed otherwise.

As a kid, I recall how neat it was to see Worf interacting with Klingons on the Enterprise, serving as a type of tour guide for them while they either try to recruit him to their cause, mutinying against the alliance between Klingons and the Federation. Worf struggling with what he feels inside—the Klingon blood coursing through his veins and the duty of a Starfleet Officer—is well realized, but this was more or less a beginning, not a full-fledged story arc within one episode. Korris (Vaughn Armstrong) and Konmel (Charles Hyman), after performing the Klingon Death Ritual (Worf there to join in) on their fallen comrade, continue to work on Worf, questioning where he stands in terms of his own people as opposed to the uniform he currently wears. I think Star Trek fans expected eventually that Worf’s back story would get some much needed elaboration. The Romulan attack on Khitomar (explaining his distaste for that species), the deaths of his parents, the adoption by a Starfleet Officer and his wife and raising on a farming colony, the obvious inferred bigotry (Korris mentions it in a barrage or flurry of aggressive declarations that Worf does not dispute) being a Klingon raised among humans, and the eventual joining to Starfleet where he would end up on the Enterprise; Heart and Glory fills in some details.

The eventual arrival of a Klingon Cruiser to pick up the two criminals sets off a plan of action where Korris and Konmel, confined to a brig after a standoff involving a child entering the mix as Worf is asked to choose between them and Yar, with her Security Detail, makes for a good tense moment. Worf knew that the child would not be kidnapped as Yar might have thought, informing as much. But Worf requesting Commander K’Nera (David Froman) to spare the two rebelling Klingons and failing to secure their sendoff to a death of honor gives us a chance to see the Klingon Starfleet Officer address the importance in how their species considers the end of life. To die without honor is horrifying to a Klingon Warrior. Worf using the phaser on kill to end Korris’ life (Konmel, despite getting some dialogue and mocking Worf about being tamed by humans, is ultimately taken down just as they escaped the brig) in Engineering as he threatened to fire upon the Dilithium Crystal Chamber allowed for a proper Klingon Death Ritual. Using different parts located on their armor/suits while in the brig allowed us to see Klingon ingenuity…what looked like decorum ultimately when pulled apart from their suits can be locked into a weapon.

Picard and Dr. Crusher being able to see the Death Ritual up close, startled and fascinated by it because it was not something humans had access to, included as further detail into Klingon ways of life and death was a welcome insight. Worf’s ongoing crises, ultimately remaining loyal to Starfleet/Enterprise, I thought was  established somewhat successfully. I don’t think anyone felt he would turn on the Enterprise so early in the series, but the dilemma was indeed a certainty…there was an inevitable story about Worf and the Klingons waiting to be told.

Worf having to assure Picard he had not plans to leave Starfleet when offered a position with K'Nera is a light moment needed after such an intense situation for the Klingon Officer. He was nearly overwhelmed by Korris and Konmel as they approached him quite upclose and personal about his true heritage, his true nature, the Klingon he was maintaining and controlling instead of embracing. This was my personal favorite part of the episode, his realizing that although he is Starfleet, that side of him that remains truly Klingon is very important to him. *** / ****