Star Trek 249: Birthright, Part I

249. Birthright, Part I

FORMULA: Sins of the Father + Brothers

WHY WE LIKE IT: Spot in the captain's chair. (Oh, is that just me?)

WHY WE DON'T: The Worf plot suffers from padding.

REVIEW: A strange sort of two-parter begins here, because I believe the Worf story could have fit a single episode. For one thing, there's a lot of fat that could be cut from it, like Worf going back and forth on his decision to go looking for Mogh, and for another, there's a long (complete) B-plot about Data learning to dream, and a visit to Deep Space 9 to help promote the show as it was starting. But do away with all that, and you could certainly scrunch the two parts together.

But I suppose the Data thread isn't big enough to warrant its own episode, so perhaps that's what happened to the structure. That third of the episode, at least, is interesting. Bashir gets to guest-star and brings up some original points about Data's biomechanics. Does his hair grow, does he have a pulse, and ultimately, can he dream? The visions aren't very inspired, but then Data has little to no experience with subconscious imagery. And you never quite "get it" when somebody else tells you their dreams. But in the end, it's a neat way to write in a conversation with Dr. Soong, and the final dream really is magical, especially the flight out of the Enterprise and back in. Note also the first appearance of the striped orange Spot.

As for Worf, he has the usual conversations about honor and filial duty (a vision that will become important later in the season is also mentioned), he becomes insubordinate, breaks a table, intimidates an Yridian and goes traipsing through the woods in search of a Romulan camp. Michael Dorn makes Worf rather dangerous and on edge here, and it plays well. Peeping at Ba'el skinny-dipping isn't his best moment however. The mystery of the camp is left for the next episode...

LESSON: Androids actually dream of electric birds.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Though its threads are thematically linked, Birthright feels rather disjointed, with gratuitous use of the Deep Space 9 environment (and Bashir) and the incongruous Data and Worf plots. Watch it to get the lowdown on Data's dreaming in time for Season 7's Phantasms, and of course, to know what's happening as you get into Part II, but don't expect anything above average.