In the ninth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine,\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>Worf is asked to join an expedition lead by Kor and Jadzia to attain a mystical Klingon sword. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I liked this episode. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not stellar \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some of the pacing in the middle of it is odd \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great chance to see where\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>can take Worf. After eight episodes where he was slowly added to the crew, I was ecstatic about a Worf-centric tale that was ALSO about finding treasure. YES. THANK YOU. PERFECT.<\/p>\n
But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s put aside my love of treasure-hunting tropes and heists. (Except let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s NOT because I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.) I want Worf to get the same treatment as the other characters on\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine<\/i>. I love how gritty this show often feels, and I adore that the writers are willing to stick the characters in relentlessly complicated situations without giving them easy answers. I think you can see the\u00c2\u00a0start<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of that here in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sword of Kahless.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The episode starts off as an infectiously joyous adventure between Jadzia, Kor, and Worf, especially since all three of them know how important the Sword of Kahless is to the Klingons. After the season opener, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a\u00c2\u00a0new<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0meaning behind this sword: perhaps it can be used to repair relations between the Klingons and the Federation.<\/p>\n
This excitement doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let up once they travel to the Vulcan excavation site, or when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re faced with a puzzle inside the museum chamber, and when they actually\u00c2\u00a0find<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the sword of Kahless? Oh, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a magnificent scene, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. You truly get the sense of how\u00c2\u00a0huge<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0this discovery is. (It also helps that it looked like no other bat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122leth we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen.) Unsurprisingly, the Lethean from the cold open appears IMMEDIATELY after this, and Toral is there, too, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mess. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find the struggle between the trio and the Duras house all that interesting. The\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0universe is full of Klingon in-fighting like this, so I was pleased that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sword of Kahless\u00e2\u20ac\u009d went in a drastically different direction.<\/p>\n
That being said, the direction the writers take is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a little muddy, I suppose. I think that they tried to do two things at once: a story where Worf must cope with disappointment he feels towards his idol, and a story where the mythological power of the Sword of Kahless makes these two Klingons act horribly towards each other. Both are fascinating ideas that are touched on in far less time than they deserve. I wonder, though, if I felt this way because the sets for this episode are so repetitious and homogenous. I feel like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen those caves a million times, you know?<\/p>\n
Regardless, I think there are seeds of a greater idea here. I was entertained by Worf’s realizing his boyhood hero was not exactly the person he thought he was. Kor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to handle, given his drunkenness and his penchant for hyperbole and exaggeration. But in this specific context, those flaws are exacerbated. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that Kor begins to imagine himself as the true leader of the Klingons. Yet once Worf starts to fall under the spell of the Sword of Kahless, this episode becomes something else. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great! But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much of it because that transition happens so late in the episode.<\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to deny how bizarre it was to watch a scene where Worf very much appeared to be entertaining the idea of DROPPING KOR OFF OF A CLIFF. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 HOLY SHIT. THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S FUCKED UP. Extremely fucked up! And the Kor and Worf fight viciously over the Sword, and I also can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny how shocking that felt to me. Worf was getting dirty already. Truthfully, though, my favorite part of this episode was Jadzia, who turns into a babysitter for two adult men who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep their delusions of grandeur or their hands to themselves. BLESS HER HEART FOR\u00c2\u00a0LITERALLY STUNNING BOTH OF THEM<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0WHEN THEY WON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T STOP. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like a metaphorical rolled-up newspaper to the head, and both of them deserved it. Without Jadzia, this whole journey would have ended in disaster. JADZIA FOR PRESIDENT.<\/p>\n
So floating the Sword in space is probably a good idea. I think it would have been easier to portray it as an object with a\u00c2\u00a0literal<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0magical power, but I found the imagined power way more meaningful. The misguided hope they felt for themselves overpowered their senses, and it made Worf and Kor do awful things. I look forward to further Worf storylines, but I definitely hope the scripts are a little tighter than this one.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sword of Kahless\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the ninth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine,\u00c2\u00a0Worf is asked to join an expedition lead by Kor and Jadzia to attain a mystical Klingon sword. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[640,614],"tags":[615],"class_list":["post-5666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-space-nine","category-star-trek","tag-mark-watches-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
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