“The Emissary” is written by: Richard Manning and Hans
Beimler, based on an unpublished story by: Thomas H. Calder, and is directed by:
Cliff Bole. It was produced under
production code 146, was the 20th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 2, the 46th episode overall, and was broadcast on June 26,
1989.
Being completely honest, seeing the credit of ‘based
on an unpublished story by: Thomas H. Calder” is odd. It’s not the only time a short story has been
adapted into an episode of Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series
had quite a strong episode adapted by Larry Niven from a short story separate
from Star Trek. “The Emissary”
may be another example of that, however, its author Thomas H. Calder is
slightly more elusive than an author like Niven. This is apparently his only credit and searches
for the author bring up a Thomas Calder who debuted his first novel in 2021,
indicating likely that this isn’t actually the same Thomas Calder. It is certainly possible that Thomas H.
Calder doesn’t actually exist and this is another case of someone using a
pseudonym from production that was unhappy, it is the antepenultimate episode the
second season and behind the scenes tempers were coming to a head, Tracy Torme
would have left the show with the previous episode after disputes with Maurice
Hurley, Hurley would leave the show at the end of the season, and the finale
would have to be shot in basically a weekend.
Except that doesn’t quite work considering the actual script is credited
to Richard Manning and Hans Beimler who would stay on well into the third
season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, so it’s very possible that
this was based on an unsolicited pitch and as the credit specifies an
unpublished story, it is also very possible that it was a Star Trek
short story or maybe even novella that is just being adapted into an episode of
television to fill the run as “The Child” was an unused script for the unmade Star
Trek: Phase II.
The episode is the second Worf centered episode of the
season after “A Matter of Honor” and is actually the stronger of the two. Now this is also an episode of Star Trek:
The Next Generation that is tackling the experienced of people of mixed
ancestry, and I am a white man writing about this so my opinions should not be
taken as nearly the final take as to the biracial experience, or the experience
of people of color. This is an episode
where a Klingon ship with a crew in suspended animation from the time at which
the Federation and the Klingon empire were at war, an emissary is sent to the Enterprise
to intercept this ship, and the conflict is how to interact with these Klingons
to come to a peaceful resolution. The emissary
of the title is K’heylar, played by Suzie Plakson, a Klingon with a human
mother and a romantic history with Worf.
The episode is essentially a romance of a woman torn between two worlds
and trapped in her own cycle of self-loathing that Plakson plays brilliantly, K’heylar
clearly has her own internalized racism against herself. She is convinced that these older Klingons
cannot possibly be reasoned with, that Worf’s romantic affections and nature as
a Klingon wants to essentially own her, and that the anger she feels towards
the world is in her nature to be shunned and suppressed. “The Emissary” is fascinating and elevated because
K’heylar’s damage isn’t actually fixed by the end. Much of the interpersonal conflict is with the
proposal of marriage between her and Worf, something that is left with the
answer that she would, but is clearly not in the right place herself for
marriage. It’s a story of learning self-reflection
and going onto the path towards acceptance, but not actually getting to the point.
The conflict with the Klingons is reserved for the
final act, and part of where “The Emissary” doesn’t quite work is that it
leaves the ending of the episode open with no guarantee that this plot thread
will be followed up upon. It is Worf who
knows how to use trickery and bluff the Klingons into surrendering by masquerading
as a superior officer, leaving the door open for K’heylar to become essentially
a therapist to integrate them into the present.
This is also an interesting parallel to the opening poker game scene,
Worf winning at poker precisely because he does not actually give away any of
the game, claiming he does not bluff as a Klingon which is clearly in and of
itself a lie. It’s the additional
complexity to a character who really only started on this show as a background
player, never meant to be promoted to a main cast member and still already
having three whole episodes of focus while other main cast members have yet to
properly get at least one. Michael Dorn
as an actor clearly just took the part by the horns (or in this case forehead
bumps) and ran with it, even in this episode going above and beyond what the
episode probably even required. Dorn is
always playing it straight, the sequence in the middle of the battle and
marriage vows in the holodeck could once again be a really silly scene of trying
to write an alien culture. Dorn sells it
entirely and it is just elevated to be fantastic.
Overall, “The Emissary” may be an episode whose roots
will never be quite known, but it’s also an episode that actually examines what
it’s like to be different even if from the perspective of two screenwriters who
are white. It’s about that inner turmoil
of not being able to achieve self-acceptance, feeling stuck in stereotypes that
have been engrained as a false piece of biological essentialism. It’s also one of the few episodes of Season 2
of Star Trek: The Next Generation that doesn’t feel padded with extra
material to reach the runtime. Shame it’s
ever so slightly open ended, or else it would be a contender for one of the
best of the season. 8/10.
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