Star Trek 153: The Emissary

153. The Emissary

FORMULA: Heart of Glory + The Neutral Zone + Where Silence Has Lease

WHY WE LIKE IT: K'Ehleyr is a great character. Worf's final solution. The music.

WHY WE DON'T: The sleeper plot is dubious.

REVIEW: Ok, to get this out of the way, suspension of disbelief must be exercised in this episode to explain how the Klingons ever thought that having a crew come out of suspended animation 75 years in the future would give them a tactical advantage. What was this suicide mission? It would probably have made more sense to say the ship entered a temporal anomaly by accident, etc., but it doesn't matter anyway. Once you buy the premise, the rest of the episode is outstanding.

Suzie Plakson made a good impression as Dr. Selar back in The Schizoid Man, but as the half-Klingon K'Ehleyr, she creates a strong, sexy, funny and smart character that's more than a match for Worf. All her scenes sing, from her mysterious arrival to her bloodlust to her relationship with Worf. K'Ehleyr is a very angry person that does not take well to being told what to do or to rejection, which causes sparks to fly often. As a result, we get a major character-building episode for Worf, planting the seeds of much to come (inluding his seasons on Deep Space 9). The rather sadistic mating reminds us these are aliens with alien attitudes and values, but does not detract from the romance. And K'Ehleyr has enough good scenes with other members of the crew to make us wish she's been a more regularly-seen character.

Worf's final solution is a good one, and he looks great in a Klingon uniform. Though we know he's sat in it before, I love the line "Comfortable chair". The holodeck sequence has some fun aliens, though I can't decide if Skeletor's death is cool or cheesy. Happy to see the poker game from The Measure of a Man return, but it goes on a bit too long, or is too slowly paced. On the musical side, the new Klingon love theme is a beautiful piece that adds a lot of value and poignancy to The Emissary.

LESSON: You're always attracted to the ones that could hurt you (or in this case, break you in half).

REWATCHABILITY - High: Everything combines to make you long for K'Ehleyr's return, as both the cast and the crew turn in one of the best Worf episodes ever.