Worf is interesting because he has that classic second-generation immigrant attraction to the lost purity of the home culture he's never really known--something that I don't think the showrunners ever fully and consciously recognized about the character (and thus never really let him grow beyond it/become fully self-reflective about it).
I'm not sure why, but Cromwell's alien sort of looks to me like what you'd get if you combined a Xenomorph and Winnie the Pooh.
At Kotsko’s request reposting some thoughts I had after reading this piece on “Birthright.”
"Birthright" is kind of a messy episode (and a little unusual in TNG's Klingon episodes in its focus on more amorphous cultural legacy when the usual thread is politics, Worf's family's position in the High Council, etc.) but I think the key defense of it is this society is a creation of detention. Yeah the Klingons and Romulans are living in peace... with the Klingons as prisoners of the Romulans, never allowed to leave the planet. Worf's somewhat problematic awakening of their warrior culture is part of a path to self-actualisation for those who have only known that prison. There was also an acknowledged Malcolm X influence (Spike Lee's biopic had been released just the previous year) in situating Worf as someone who radicalises the youth by teaching them about their history. So there's something there. It's not a two-parter that wholly works (and I think the Odyssey read here is interesting because in an earlier iteration they really would find Worf's father Mogh in the camp) but I do get what they were going for.
Interesting to me that neither spock nor worf claim their human influences at all, apart from a lingering love for their mothers. Doesn't really speak well of the power of human ideals! Hadn't really thought about it before, but making the non-federation aliens so over-powered by their nature really does have a modern or regressive racist tinge to it yeah. Trying to imagine utopia but unable to envision conflicts that weren't rooted in modern or even regressive stereotypes.
You might be interested in the current run of Star Trek comics, which had a crossover last year wherein the clone of legendary Klingon warrior Kahless leads a fascist "Make Qo'noS Great Again" military coup that seduces Worf's son Alexander. While definitely limited by its liberal politics, it at least broaches the idea you mention of a rot at the heart of Klingon culture that is never addressed festering into reactionary coups.
Interesting! I haven't dug into the current run of Star Trek and Defiant, because some of the initial setup seemed frankly crazy to me (teaming up Lore and Old Spock?!). Maybe I should dip in.
An uncomfortable angle is that Worf is usually in the wrong when interacting with other Starfleet officers --- he's pushed to operate in ways that are less aligned with "warrior values" --- while when dealing with other Klingons his dedication to those values is narratively framed as good. Doyleanly, they want it both ways: the thrill of a warrior culture "over there," keeping the purity of Starfleet civilization "over here," with Worf as the hinge --- Klingon culture is implicitly inferior to the Federation's, so he has to be taught, but as he's the Federation's Klingon he also has to be the most Klingon Klingon.
There are analogies there with Data's superb capabilities being highlighted/useful/important when dealing with opponents or natural obstacles, but who explicitly recognizes (and is seldom offered a supportive counter-argument) them as insufficient and perhaps negatives to his value wrt other Starfleet officers.
Echoes there, maybe, of the Colonialist trope of the savage sidekick who's superior to his peers in "savage skills" but still inherently inferior to the protagonist in part because of those same skills/attitudes?
I pondered for a bit if the same cannot be said of Spock --- he out-Vulcans the Vulcans when he has to, while the nominal cultural ideal in Starfleet remains non-Vulcan. But he's much more self-confident than Worf or Data, and Kirk treats him as a fully realized peer in a way Picard doesn't treat Data or anybody treats poor Worf.
I'm watching TNG for the first time and was very interested by the episode, the re-reading of your post and the comments here!
TNG's cultural ideology is very cringe in general, with its strict cultural evolutionnism coupled with a basic 1-to-1 identification of species and culture. In this context, it seems the lesson of the episode is indeed that racism is true, and that Klingons are wired to a certain behavior once it is revealed to them. In this context, the "Malcolm X vibe" that I also strongly felt maybe makes matter worse ?
However, I feel that in the narrative of the episode, 1/ the basic problem of the colony is that it is entirely based on lies and shame and that the lives of the young Klingons are indeed being unduly constrained and impoverished because of this. In this context, Worf appears as a powerful preacher, who tells a very self-affirming message with the promise of a rich culture and deep mysteries, to which the young are immediately attracted in only by contrast to their impoverishment (they are litteraly prisonners, after all).
And 2/ when "Nausicaa" confronts Worf about his racist reaction, she appears (at least to me) entirely lucid, in the right, and devoid of prejudices, in a direct contrast to Worf. This entire thing is weird, though, since Worf was in love with another half-Klingon who rejected this naturalisation of Klingon culture.
Worf is interesting because he has that classic second-generation immigrant attraction to the lost purity of the home culture he's never really known--something that I don't think the showrunners ever fully and consciously recognized about the character (and thus never really let him grow beyond it/become fully self-reflective about it).
I'm not sure why, but Cromwell's alien sort of looks to me like what you'd get if you combined a Xenomorph and Winnie the Pooh.
Relatedly, I once wrote elsewhere that Worf is an adopted Black child in the "Webster" mold: https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/s/dhVLxOVkdq
At Kotsko’s request reposting some thoughts I had after reading this piece on “Birthright.”
"Birthright" is kind of a messy episode (and a little unusual in TNG's Klingon episodes in its focus on more amorphous cultural legacy when the usual thread is politics, Worf's family's position in the High Council, etc.) but I think the key defense of it is this society is a creation of detention. Yeah the Klingons and Romulans are living in peace... with the Klingons as prisoners of the Romulans, never allowed to leave the planet. Worf's somewhat problematic awakening of their warrior culture is part of a path to self-actualisation for those who have only known that prison. There was also an acknowledged Malcolm X influence (Spike Lee's biopic had been released just the previous year) in situating Worf as someone who radicalises the youth by teaching them about their history. So there's something there. It's not a two-parter that wholly works (and I think the Odyssey read here is interesting because in an earlier iteration they really would find Worf's father Mogh in the camp) but I do get what they were going for.
Interesting to me that neither spock nor worf claim their human influences at all, apart from a lingering love for their mothers. Doesn't really speak well of the power of human ideals! Hadn't really thought about it before, but making the non-federation aliens so over-powered by their nature really does have a modern or regressive racist tinge to it yeah. Trying to imagine utopia but unable to envision conflicts that weren't rooted in modern or even regressive stereotypes.
You might be interested in the current run of Star Trek comics, which had a crossover last year wherein the clone of legendary Klingon warrior Kahless leads a fascist "Make Qo'noS Great Again" military coup that seduces Worf's son Alexander. While definitely limited by its liberal politics, it at least broaches the idea you mention of a rot at the heart of Klingon culture that is never addressed festering into reactionary coups.
Interesting! I haven't dug into the current run of Star Trek and Defiant, because some of the initial setup seemed frankly crazy to me (teaming up Lore and Old Spock?!). Maybe I should dip in.
An uncomfortable angle is that Worf is usually in the wrong when interacting with other Starfleet officers --- he's pushed to operate in ways that are less aligned with "warrior values" --- while when dealing with other Klingons his dedication to those values is narratively framed as good. Doyleanly, they want it both ways: the thrill of a warrior culture "over there," keeping the purity of Starfleet civilization "over here," with Worf as the hinge --- Klingon culture is implicitly inferior to the Federation's, so he has to be taught, but as he's the Federation's Klingon he also has to be the most Klingon Klingon.
There are analogies there with Data's superb capabilities being highlighted/useful/important when dealing with opponents or natural obstacles, but who explicitly recognizes (and is seldom offered a supportive counter-argument) them as insufficient and perhaps negatives to his value wrt other Starfleet officers.
Echoes there, maybe, of the Colonialist trope of the savage sidekick who's superior to his peers in "savage skills" but still inherently inferior to the protagonist in part because of those same skills/attitudes?
I pondered for a bit if the same cannot be said of Spock --- he out-Vulcans the Vulcans when he has to, while the nominal cultural ideal in Starfleet remains non-Vulcan. But he's much more self-confident than Worf or Data, and Kirk treats him as a fully realized peer in a way Picard doesn't treat Data or anybody treats poor Worf.
I'm watching TNG for the first time and was very interested by the episode, the re-reading of your post and the comments here!
TNG's cultural ideology is very cringe in general, with its strict cultural evolutionnism coupled with a basic 1-to-1 identification of species and culture. In this context, it seems the lesson of the episode is indeed that racism is true, and that Klingons are wired to a certain behavior once it is revealed to them. In this context, the "Malcolm X vibe" that I also strongly felt maybe makes matter worse ?
However, I feel that in the narrative of the episode, 1/ the basic problem of the colony is that it is entirely based on lies and shame and that the lives of the young Klingons are indeed being unduly constrained and impoverished because of this. In this context, Worf appears as a powerful preacher, who tells a very self-affirming message with the promise of a rich culture and deep mysteries, to which the young are immediately attracted in only by contrast to their impoverishment (they are litteraly prisonners, after all).
And 2/ when "Nausicaa" confronts Worf about his racist reaction, she appears (at least to me) entirely lucid, in the right, and devoid of prejudices, in a direct contrast to Worf. This entire thing is weird, though, since Worf was in love with another half-Klingon who rejected this naturalisation of Klingon culture.