Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 2, Episode 20
“The Emissary” is very much a spiritual sequel to “Heart of Glory” in that it drops some more substantial Worf lore while continuing to fill in more of how Klingons are fitting into this 24th century TNG era. Whereas the ill-fated Korris of “Glory” was a Klingon who was philosophically out-of-time with the era in which he found himself, “Emissary” goes totally literal with the same premise by featuring an entire ship of newly-awakened Klingons who have been in stasis since ye olden war times. And it introduces one of the best secondary characters of TNG for an entertaining and well-formed second season episode.
It’s an interesting theme that runs throughout both episodes in regards to the Klingon race. TNG did excellent work in delineating a culture that was on one hand technologically advanced while at the same time beholden to an ancient culture of strict rituals and archaic social roles. It helped give the Klingons an interesting personality as a people, while providing them with a deep-set internal schism that was a source of much drama. Once again that contradictory nature plays out through Worf as a source of interpersonal conflict with another Klingon.
The crew is just Enterprisin’ around (the name of my kid-friendly Trek spinoff that didn’t quite take off) when they get an urgent message from Starfleet HQ to divert somewhere to pick up someone in order to do something. It’s all very mysterious and top secret, and the crew seems so hilariously put off by it. Like, is this the first classified mission you all have ever been on? You literally take orders for a living. They react with all the enthusiasm of a teenager who’s been asked to pause their game to go take out the garbage. Madison may have never asked to be born, but you guys did ask to be in Starfleet. Just sayin’.
The wacky part is that the special mission emissary isn’t being transported by ship, but stuffed in a class 8 probe traveling at warp 9. Ooh, the Spock funeral special! I wonder if they played the bagpipes when they launched this sucker, too. I’d request “When the Levee Breaks” if it were me. I would just want to hear that on the bagpipes.
The sequence of the Enterprise meeting up with the probe is cool – they have to match speeds, tractor it, and then beam the sucker aboard. Such a feat seems like a very delicate operation, but it proceeds without a hitch.
Pulaski and Riker greet the occupant of the probe – Klingon Ambassador K’Ehleyr, played with saucy charm by Suzie Plakson. I absolutely adore her in this role, she’s such a cool and charming lady. Pulaski is quizzical about her vital signs since they’re atypical for a Klingon, but as it turns K’Ehleyr is biracial – her mother was human.
Meeting with Picard and the senior staff, K’Ehleyr already seems to know Worf and playfully teases him in front of everyone. She’s a phase pistol!
K’Ehleyr proceeds to explain their mission – an old Klingon ship sent out 75 years called the T’Ong has sent an automated signal that it will be awakening and heading home. They’ve apparently been in cryogenic stasis and will be awakening soon. And since they’re from an era when the Klingons were still at war with Federation, they could cause a lot of mayhem for all the nearby human colonies.
The Klingon Empire have already sent its own ship (the P’Rang) to intercept the T’Ong, but it’s two days away. K’Ehleyr is incredibly pessimistic about reasoning with these guys, and states that Picard will have no choice but to destroy them. Picard of course immediately refuses that course of action and orders his crew to find another way, assigning Worf to K’Ehleyr to brainstorm some ideas. After everyone leaves, Worf tries to squirm out of the assignment, but Picard is hilariously not having it at all.
Troi shows K’Ehleyr to her quarters, and they have a nice scene together in which they bond over their own split alien heritages. K’Ehleyr seems very much at odds with her two halves, and even says that she feels she got the worst of both sides. She characterizes her Klingon side as a terrible temper, even a monster fighting to get out. Plakson really sells how disturbing she finds it, but also her habit of masking with humor. She inhabits the character so well and provides a lot of shades and nuances to K’Ehleyr – she’s instantly so three-dimensional and overflowing with charisma. Please be warned that this level of K’Ehleyr fangirling will continue throughout this write-up. 😍😍😍
K’Ehleyr meets with Worf for their assigned duties. I love her very fashionable and provocative outfit – and she even admits that she was late because she was making herself as hot as possible. Worf, the paragon of maturity, refuses to even look at her. Much as “The Measure of a Man” did with the testy relationship between Picard and Louvois, we only get little hints of their backstory, but never the whole thing. I appreciate that, and we don’t get the stilted expository dialogue that two characters would give in a lesser show. They originally hooked up six years prior, but for some reason things didn’t work out and Worf is not happy about it. They even get a little musical theme that’s quietly romantic and epic. But he refuses to rehash any of it and is steadfast at carrying out their assignment.
Things immediately get heated as they discuss the mission particulars. K’Ehleyr clearly does not think highly of the Klingons in their mission, and it seems intertwined with her own self-hatred. Plakson perfectly matches the intensity and ferocity of Dorn, and they’re soon face to face in a screaming match.
K’Ehleyr storms back to her quarters, where her rage boils over and she puts a fist through a table. Only the finest of breakable glass furniture for the Enterprise! And the floors, too. Troi chooses this exact moment to do her customary butting in, and K’Ehleyr shoots back one of the best comebacks in the show.
Troi meekly suggests that K’Ehleyr use their fancy holodeck exercise programs to burn off some of that aggression. K’Ehleyr finds Worf’s monster calisthenics and gloves up to do battle. I absolutely love her exercise battle jumpsuit. Hot pink dragon scale pattern, spiky black accent armor add-ons, it’s the best.
Worf returns to the bridge in a huff, and even gets a little testy with Picard before realizing he done goofed. He definitely needs to kill something in order to calm down and also mosies on down to le holodeque…
K’Ehleyr takes down three monsters by herself and catches Worf watching her approvingly. “Not much of a program,” she says bratfully, prompting Worf to start level 2. All the monsters come back to life and start attacking them again. I love the inhuman howling of the thing going after Worf. TNG of the early seasons was so delightfully nutty with this kind of stuff. Monsters on the holodeck, people getting gruesomely skeletonized by weapons, heads blowing up. Fun for the whole family!
Case in point: Worf finally finishes off the Skeletor dude by hacking a clean line right through him like a cartoon character. Now that’s what I call foreplay, volume Klingon!
Still worked up, K’Ehleyr attacks Worf but he effortlessly bats her away. The whole scene is pretty hot and wordlessly communicates how primal Klingon mating is. What with all the pheromone sniffing and palm perforation.
Rather than post-coital bliss, the two waste no time in getting into yet another argument. Classic K’Ehorf! He clearly doesn’t appreciate her sense of humor, and thinks that some people use it too much do so to cover their true feelings. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never said anything funny in my entire life.
Okay, I HAVE to talk about this image. K’Ehleyr is doing the absolute fiercest squat I have ever seen in my whole damn life. The entire continent of Eurasia and its millions of tracksuit-wearing Slavs could not hope to match how deep and ri-DONK-ulous this squat is. K’Ehleyr, honey: what is you doing and please don’t stop. Like, damn. She’s just channeling the spirit of the feline goddess Bast herself in the most sassy cat-like pose that would make even Eartha Kitt purr “Hmm, that’s a bit over the top, dontcha think?” The Khitomer Accords have an entire sub-section banning squats of this depth and magnitude. Even the Romulans agreed to them! But please proceed.
Anyway! After some barbed banter, Worf rises to his feet in order to “solemnize their union.” Apparently casual sex isn’t a thing in Klingon society, because according to Worf, K’Ehleyr is now his wife! It’s a very curious detail, since although Klingon society seems pretty steeped in tradition and solemn oaths, it seems incongruous to how raucous and fun-loving they are. After all, Riker was publicly propositioned by two Klingon women in a casual dining setting. I’m guessing that probably wouldn’t have ended in two marriages (or one big happy one).
The other possibility (and likelier explanation) is that this is an archaic, ritualistic attitude that Worf is acting out based off of his encyclopedic knowledge of his people. One of the consistent themes of Worf’s character is that he’s an expert on the text of Klingon culture, but his strict rigidity and honor of customs does not conform to how his people actually live as honorless heathens. And it’s also that he’s a big romantic nerd who doesn’t do anything casually or without intent.
K’Ehleyr’s panic at what Worf is trying to do quickly turns to anger as she refuses to become his wife just because they got biz-zay (thoroughly, and violently). I think the story maybe goes a bit too far in their conflict – although there’s clearly a lot of great physical chemistry between the two, they seem so fundamentally opposed to one another in almost every other respect. Personality-wise and culturally, they’re so mismatched – what did they even see in each other initially?
Later, Worf meets with K’Ehleyr again to try and tackle their mission. He brings Data along, and K’Ehleyr hilariously clocks him as a chaperone to keep them on task. Totally undeterred by his presence, she questions Worf’s sanity in trying to forcibly marry her despite the consequences to both of their lives and careers. Worf replies that honor demanded no less. I actually kind of love that about him; there’s a very black-and-white quality to all of his choices and actions. He means what he says and says what he means. There’s no half-assing or hemming and hawing about consequences. Worf is completely deliberate, transparent, and unapologetic about everything he does.
K’Ehleyr doesn’t find it so charming and seems to think it’s just a robotic adherence to rules and regulations. But I think she’s mischaracterizing this quality of his as a lack of feeling, when it’s actually the opposite. Whatever Worf feels he feels with all of his heart. He may be icy and terse on the surface, but there’s a deep and volcanic well of passion underneath it all. The glimmers of that are probably what drew her in in the first place. It ends up being a classical sticking point between men and women – men certainly have emotions, but typically don’t have the comfort women do in expressing them with words.
K’Ehleyr drops the issue and goes over their mission options. In a neat cut, she continues reviewing them with Picard and co. Their best option is to reach the T’Ong before they awake and keep them asleep until the other Klingon ship can deal with them. K’Ehleyr dismisses any notions of reasoning with the Klingons or even disabling their ship, since they might destroy it themselves to avoid capture. Picard can’t accept that his only option may be to destroy them.
They’re interrupted when the bridge detects the T’Ong on sensors. Hopes of an easy solution are dashed when they fire on the Enterprise and engage their cloaking device. However, the Enterprise’s more advanced sensors are able to locate them and they pursue. K’Ehleyr urges Picard to let them die like Klingons, but Worf says that he has another plan…
The Enterprise outmaneuvers and corners the T’Ong, which decloaks and attacks once more. Picard turns over the bridge to Worf, who opens up communications with the Klingon ship. Captain K’Temoc finds himself face to face with Worf and K’Ehleyr commanding the Enterprise in full Klingon regalia. Worf, playing the part of an imperious Klingon captain, bellows at the incredulous K’Temoc to stand down. Worf’s bluster and sabre-rattling proves enough to force K’Temoc to lower his shields and turn over command to Worf.
It’s pretty awesome, and not the first time we’ve seen a Trek hero bluff their way out of danger. Earlier in the episode, Worf tries to impress upon K’Ehleyr that Starfleet has taught him that problems can have many solutions, and indeed he comes up with a plan that no traditional Klingon or Starfleet officer would have. His unique experiences and cultural makeup prove to be an asset that resolves the crisis.
Worf sees K’Ehleyr off as she transports to the T’Ong to help the crew acclimate to their new time period. Her stubbornness gives way and she admits to Worf that their night together did have meaning, and that she was tempted to take the oath with him. They both admit that neither of them have ever had such strong feelings toward anyone. And indeed, there is an undeniable chemistry between them that seems to keep them chained to one another despite their great differences. Before she leaves, Worf confesses that he won’t be complete without her. It’s a big gesture, and him speaking openly about his feelings was what she has been wanting him to do.
“The Emissary” is a good little romance drama storyline that is enhanced with the intrigue of Klingon culture and a fantastic guest star. It helps to broaden Worf’s character and show a more romantic side of him – not just when it comes to love, but his strict adherence to the ideals of his people. K’Ehleyr is a great foil who matches his energy and strength. Star Trek is often about aliens in conflict, but it’s rarely personified in such a passionate and fiery way.
Stray Observations:
- So much of K’Ehleyr’s character seems like the basis of B’Elanna Torres in Voyager. It almost seems similar to the Ro/Kira and Nicholas Locarno/Tom Paris situations, where the producers wanted to use the preexisting characters but weren’t able to. Except K’Ehleyr wasn’t alive by the time Voyager started, so it definitely wasn’t that situation. Let’s say… creative recycling?
- It’s a detail that gets lost in the shuffle, but what was the T’Ong‘s mission? K’Ehleyr continually dismisses any scientific reason for them to have gone out on a 75-year cryo-tour, but it doesn’t really seem like a sensible military one either. My theory is that K’Temoc just pissed off someone in the high command so they made up some fake mission to get him out of their hair for several decades. Like when your mom gets annoyed that you keep reading her your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle episode reviews and she sends you to the hardware store to buy a can of striped paint and not to come back until you find it? That happened to other kids too, right? 😥
- Is the Klingon high command simply not able to send a transmission to the T’Ong to tell them to stand down and await further orders? I know they don’t like humans, but would they seriously not follow it? They’re military officers, for P’Ete’s sakes.
- Cryo-stasis, like genetic engineering, is one of those sci-fi staples that exists in the world of Star Trek but is mostly ignored. It seems kind of odd how little it ever comes up. Of course, Trek features super fast ships that can cross interstellar distances in days and weeks instead of centuries. So it ends up not being that big a part of typical space travel. But being able to reliably keep people on ice for decades (or centuries) seems like it should be a bigger deal than it’s ever depicted on Trek.
- That is of course Dietrich Bader as the backup tactical officer!
- I so love all the alien monster designs. Look at this dude’s face!
- Here’s my “K’Ehleyr fierce looks” mood board. I… have a problem.
