Code of Honor by: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron and directed by: Russ Mayberry

 

“Code of Honor” is written by: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron and is directed by: Russ Mayberry.  It was produced under production code 104, was the 4^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 12, 1987.

 

The two-part pilot and third episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation came directly from minds that worked on the original series with Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana, two writers very much from the 1960s for better and for worse.  “Encounter at Farpoint” and “The Naked Now” are both episodes that feel as if there are from the original series to their detriment.  “Code of Honor” is the first episode to be from a writer not connected with the original series: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron are the ones who write their only episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation, although Powers would write an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Likewise, this was the only episode of Star Trek to be directed by Russ Mayberry.  It is also an incredibly racist and sexist piece of storytelling, and somehow nosedives the already rocky quality of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The bigotry on display is something that is really indefensible, something that the cast and crew were clearly aware of when making it as director Russ Mayberry was fired during production and replaced with an uncredited Les Landau.  The entire aesthetic of creating an alien race of humanoids entirely played by black actors costumed in tribal gear, defined by a culture of honor and domination of the few female characters there are is just blatantly a caricature of cultures.  The dialogue given to the Ligonians, mainly in their leader Lutan, played by Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, is delivered in this clipped style, their culture is seen as primitive but they have a necessary resource for the Federation.  The conflict of the episode is getting that resource, a vaccine that the episode goes to great length to say is impossible to replicate so it must be traded, but Lutan becoming impressed with a mere female as Chief Security Officer kidnaps Tasha Yar.  She is held hostage as a potential mate for Lutan and forced to fight his previous wife to the death (through a weird and roundabout challenge that is part of Lutan’s plan), to get the vaccine and in the process transferring her lands to Lutan.  Read that back and tell me it’s not racist.

 

The sexism of the episode really affects both Yar and Yareena, Lutan’s current wife, both reduced throughout the episode to sex objects.  “Code of Honor” is clearly an episode that is focusing on Yar as a character, but doesn’t actually give her any real agency or character.  She becomes a plot device, made worse by Denise Crosby really struggling with a script full of weak dialogue.  For whatever reason Powers and Baron decide that Yar as a character actually has attraction to Lutan deep down, something that Counsellor Troi reveals through dialogue and a trick that both Marina Sirtis and Crosby are overacting.  It’s also incredibly annoying when before this point, in the previous episode both in terms of production and broadcast, Yar was established as having her own sexual trauma due to her upbringing.  Yes, that was established in a bad comedy scene, but as a character the entire premise of “Code of Honor” should have Yar facing her past trauma.  It is only made worse when the focus of the episode is not on Yar, but on Picard trying to get her back through diplomacy as well as getting the vaccine.  It’s trying to be an ensemble episode when it really should not be an ensemble piece, we are focusing on the men and how the Enterprise crew can’t treat this backwards culture with any real aggression for what is essentially crimes.  This is not some great commentary on hesitancy to act in dangerous situations and how that can lead to worse outcomes, instead everything in the episode turns out absolutely fine and there is no danger.  The only casualty in the episode is a no-named Ligonian extra and technically Yareena, who is magically brought back to life through science at the end.  The only other thing “Code of Honor” does is attempt character development for characters like Wesley and Beverly Crusher which is ancillary while Data is used for comic relief with Geordi and Worf outright doesn’t appear.

 

Overall, while I don’t know if the assessment of “Code of Honor” as the worst piece of Star Trek ever made is correct, but it certainly is the worst episode of Star Trek that I have seen, somehow worse than the worst of the original series in “The Omega Glory” and “The Savage Curtain”.  This is an episode that should have been stopped in its tracks before making it to air, even the script should have been stopped when every Ligonian except Lutan was specified to be black and then Lutan was also cast as black taking a script with heavy racist undertones and putting it into racist overtones under Russ Mayberry’s incredibly poor direction.  The sexism feels worse than anything Roddenberry wrote in the 1960s.  None of the regulars are having a good time or even giving a good performance making Star Trek: The Next Generation batting zero four episodes in in terms of good episodes.  1/10.