“Sins of the Father” is written by: Ronald D. Moore
and W. Reed Moran, from a story by: Drew Deighan and is directed by: Les Landau. It was produced under production code 165,
was the 17th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season
3, the 65th episode overall, and was broadcast on March 19, 1990.
It’s a miracle that Star Trek: The Next Generation
is a series that can do several episodes focusing on the Klingons, their
culture, and in the case of “Sins of the Father” their planet and get away with
it without a hint of irony. There is
something almost magical about the ability of an episode of television to be
able to put objectively silly images on screen, but bring together a cast and have
them play it entirely straight. The premise
of “Sins of the Father” is Worf having to fight for the honor of himself, his deceased
father who has been charged a traitor, and to his long lost brother Kurn, played
by Tony Todd. It’s also a direct sequel to
“A Matter of Honor” directly having Kurn serve on the Enterprise as part
of the cultural exchange between the Klingon Empire and the Federation, as
Riker did in the previous episode. The
first act structurally of the episode is entirely devoted to that cultural
exchange, this time with a lone Klingon not really integrating properly to
human culture. Klingon culture as
presented by writers Ronald D. Moore and W. Reed Moran emphasizes that
militaristic order and discipline over all else. Sure there’s the objectively hilarious line
about not killing someone at the supper table, but it is this obsessive
discipline that causes conflict among the Enterprise crew. It’s not enough conflict to fill an entire
episode, but it is enough to get to the reveal that Kurn is Worf’s brother,
done in private because Kurn isn’t implementing the discipline on his brother. It’s essentially the B-plot of the episode that
fully plays out before the rest of the episode making for a far more integrated
story.
The A-plot is Worf and his own struggle to clear his father’s
name, a man he never really knew, with evidence that he does not have nearly
enough to actually do. “Sins of the
Father” is an episode that actually becomes a tragedy, mainly because Worf’s
task in this episode is impossible.
There is exactly one piece of evidence in the example of a living witness
who refuses to testify, revealing a far larger conspiracy that could have
sparked a Klingon Civil War. Moore and
Moran leave the episode on this almost empty, dissatisfied note where Worf has
made a choice that is best for himself and his brother, one of self-sacrifice
and of humanity, one that is dishonorable but enough to save his brother. This is explicitly framed as a human decision
and not a Klingon one, but it is obviously the correct decision to make. It expels Worf from Klingon society, a
society that he never fully belonged to in the first place, and yet the episode
ends with a sense that he is not the one turning his back in the slightest. He still has his pride and his own personal
honor, something that Michael Dorn does without saying a word. Dorn also has impeccable chemistry with Tony
Todd as Kurn, not so much of showing any brotherly love but this incredibly
deep respect that only brothers can have.
The idea of love between the pair is something that would come had the
episode not ended the way that it does, that is part of the tragedy of “Sins of
the Father”. These are brothers in a
society that has left them inverse of one another. Worf’s public face is one of dishonor but is
internally is nothing but the peak of honor while Kurn is the inverse, his own
conscience of denying his family is clearly a pain on his own honor though Klingon
society sees him as a full member of society.
There is also this public power imbalance between Worf and Kurn, Kurn
being a commander while Worf a lieutenant, that isn’t actually examined much by
this episode. This is an episode after
all that swiftly gets against the chain of command, despite devoting time to
having Picard serve in Worf’s defense after Kurn is wounded in a fight. This is used more to further Picard and Worf’s
dynamic of respect between commander and officer, Patrick Stewart and Dorn play
it well of course, but it is one of those smaller elements of the episode.
The production design of “Sins of the Father” is of
note at being the first on-screen appearance of the Klingon homeworld. This is interpreted through the budget of a
television episode, but the matte painting and model exteriors designed by Richard
James are exquisite. The architecture is
particularly angular and the lighting design of the episode gives the episode
these fascinating alien colors mixing red and green in a way that almost
emulates certain uses of the two-strip Technicolor process. The interior sets are also excellent, even if
you can tell that they are a bit smaller in places than the script was
expecting. Les Landau directs the actors
around them quite well, the final shots of the episode with Worf being cast out
of society are particularly effective because of Landau’s direction. The episode received an Emmy for Best Art
Design which is a particularly notable contribution, but really it is the use of
lighting that ties everything back together.
It really does mean the episode is going to stick in the mind of the
viewer because the lighting despite a musical score that is just perfectly
average.
Overall, “Sins of the Father” may be the strongest
episode to focus on Worf yet, which is saying a lot because many of his
episodes had been the stronger episodes of the first two seasons. The layers it presents to Klingon culture
drive the episode after a first act that tricks the audience that it is going
to be a rather straightforward counterpart to “A Matter of Honor”, and the tone
becomes far more serious than the relatively light first act. Some of it cannot be adequately explored in a
45 minute television episode, but the script is tight with Ronald D. Moore once
again bringing his stellar character writing while Tony Todd steals the show as
Worf’s brother. 8/10.
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