“Once More Unto the Breach”
Written by Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Season 7, Episode 7
Production episode 40510-557
Original air date: November 11, 1998
Stardate: unknown
Station log: O’Brien and Bashir are in Quark’s are arguing over the legend of Davy Crockett, when Worf interrupts. He says that if you believe in the legend of Crockett, then he died a hero and there should be no question in their minds. If you don’t believe in the legend, then he was just a man and it doesn’t matter how he died.
When Worf goes to his quarters, he is visited by Kor. They share a bottle of bloodwine and toast Jadzia’s memory, and then Kor asks a favor: he wants to be part of the war effort, but in his many years, he’s made too many enemies, and so cannot get an assignment to fight. He asks Worf for help getting him a command.
Worf goes to Martok, who is grateful for the interruption, as his aide, Darok, is burying him in paperwork. Unfortunately, to Worf’s surprise and dismay, Martok loudly refuses. He despises Kor and won’t allow him anywhere near his fleet. He then angrily throws Worf out.
Martok and Sisko go over a battle plan whereby five Birds-of-Prey will go on the 24th-century equivalent of a cavalry raid: small, fast ships zipping through Cardassian space and damaging multiple targets before returning home.
As Martok prepares for the mission, Worf again goes to Martok to ask about Kor, prompting Martok to angrily request the bridge to be cleared. Worf feels that, at the very least, he deserves an explanation for why he won’t give a command to an old man who wishes only to die as a warrior.
So Martok explains his animus: Martok was born of a family from the Ketha Lowlands, so not of a noble House, but with a history of service to the empire as soldiers. Martok’s father found someone to sponsor Martok to apply to become an officer. He passed the entrance exam, but one member of the oversight committee refused his entry: Kor. Because of Kor’s black mark, he couldn’t even become a soldier, so he signed on as a civilian laborer aboard a ship. However, when the Romulans boarded that ship, he comported himself well against the enemy and earned a battlefield commission.
Worf then reveals that he’s used his authority to give Kor a commission as an officer in the Ninth Fleet. Martok accepts Worf’s action, but says that Kor is Worf’s responsibility—Martok wants nothing to do with him. The best Worf can do is make him third officer of the Ch’tang. Kor—who has no memory of denying Martok a commission, his was one of hundreds of applications that crossed his desk when he was on the committee—agrees and reports on board. To Martok’s annoyance, the entire crew fangoobers Kor, especially Darok, the only other person who’s Kor’s age.
In the Ch’tang mess hall, Martok tells a war story, then Kor enters. Worf tries to distract Martok by asking about the battle plan, but it leads to Kor telling the story of the battle he and Kang fought against the Federation at Caleb IV, told to a rapt crew, and to Martok’s annoyance.
The fleet arrives at Trelka IV. Two ships do a strafing run on the planet and then leave orbit. One ship is destroyed, and the only Cardassian ship defending the planet chases the second ship, the Ning’tao. The other three ships in Martok’s fleet then decloak and attack the base, but they have better defenses than expected. Martok and Worf are both injured in the firefight, so Kor takes over and instead of ordering the retreat Martok wanted, orders them to keep firing. He then orders a message sent to Kang that the Federation outpost on Caleb IV will be taken within an hour. He’s completely lost touch with reality, but eventually Martok and Worf regain control of the situation and get them out, but only after heavy casualties are taken.
Martok, Darok, and a couple of officers enter the mess hall to find Kor eating alone. Martok and the officers then start to taunt Kor over his forgetfulness. Kor sits and takes it, until he finally gets up and urges everyone not to live too long, as the fruit of life is sweet when it’s fresh off the vine, but grows bitter over time. Later, Martok tells Worf that he’s dreamt of the moment when Kor found himself stripped of rank and title without a friend in the world—and now he’s finally had that moment, and he takes no joy from it. They both agree to talk to Gowron, find some fitting assignment for him on the homeworld that will keep him out of harm’s way.
The Jem’Hadar has detected the fleet, even though they’re cloaked, and have sent ten ships after them. They’re three hours from a rendezvous with the Defiant and a fleet of starships, but the Jem’Hadar will catch up in two hours. Worf has a plan whereby he can disrupt their warp fields and then engage them in battle to give the rest of the fleet time to reach the Defiant. He will take command of the Ning’tao and, along with six volunteers, distract the Jem’Hadar.
Darok goes to Kor and complains about kids today with their music and their hair and how they’re quick to judge and all the usual complaints older folks have about younger folks. He also shows Kor Worf’s battle plan. Kor then downs Worf with a hypospray and beams over to the Ning’tao to take over the battle plan.
After the Ning’tao breaks formation, Darok brings a bottle of bloodwine to the bridge—they can celebrate their courage if they win. And if they lose, they can still celebrate their courage. To Martok’s surprise, Worf walks onto the bridge and they realize that Kor took over the Ning’tao. The Ch’tang gets out of sensor range before they can detect the entirety of the battle, but the Jem’Hadar never appear on their sensors again, so obviously Kor was successful. When Martok asks how he did it, Worf asks, “Does it matter?”
Martok opens the bottle of bloodwine and toasts Kor’s courage. Darok starts singing in Kor’s honor and everyone joins in—except Martok.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Worf suggests a big-ass graviton pulse will make the Jem’Hadar drop out of warp for a few minutes, which one ship could do.
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Kira tells Dax that she’d make an awful counselor: “You dreamt what? You’re crazy, get out of my office. Next patient!”
There is no honor in being pummeled: Worf is caught between a rock and a hard place, as he and Kor are comrades in battle and Martok is the head of his House—both his brothers in all but blood. To his credit, he navigates the treacherous waters pretty well, done in mainly by not realizing how mentally far gone Kor is. (Well, and also by letting Kor get the drop on him…)
The slug in your belly: Dax tells Kira that she keeps having the same conversation over and over again with people who knew her as Jadzia or one of the other previous hosts.
Rules of Acquisition: Dax talks to Kira about a dream she had about Kor, but Quark comes in late and eavesdrops on the conversation, which only uses pronouns, and mistakes it for Dax wanting to get back together with Worf. Later, Quark confronts her with a heartfelt speech about how that’s a mistake, prompting Dax to explain the misunderstanding, and also be very impressed by how passionate, how impressive, and how incredibly embarrassing that speech was.
Victory is life: Ten Jem’Hadar ships are taken out by a single Bird-of-Prey commanded by a senile Klingon. Sucks to be them.
Tough little ship: Martok contemplates bringing the Defiant along on his cavalry raid, but thinks it’d be better for them to wait at the border for his ships’ return to aid in fighting whatever enemy ships they’re trailing when they come back…
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet: When Dax says nice things to Quark, he immediately assumes that she’s in love with him. Because he’s that much of a dork (and Jake tells him so).
Keep your ears open: “I’m not hungry.”
“The food is for me—I haven’t eaten in hours. Men of our generation never stood on ceremony. We ate when we were hungry, we fought when we were angered. I miss the simplicity of those days.”
“I miss a great deal about those days.”
Kor and Darok shaking their fists and telling those kids to get off their lawn.
Welcome aboard: Back for his final appearance is John Colicos as Kor—in fact, it was literally his final appearance, as this was his last acting role before his death in 2000. J.G. Hertzler is back as Martok, with Nancy Youngblut (last seen in Voyager’s “Displaced”) and Blake Lindsley playing other members of the Ch’tang crew. And Neil Vipond puts in a superb performance as the weary Darok; he’ll be seen again with less makeup as Kleg in Voyager’s “Natural Law.”
Trivial matters: The episode’s title derives from the first line of the famous speech given by the title character in Shakespeare’s Henry V, Act III, scene 1 to his troops right before they attack a French castle.
The plot was, as is obvious from the scene in the teaser among O’Brien, Bashir, and Worf, inspired by the legend of Davy Crocket at the Battle of the Alamo. The show has dealt with this theme before, albeit in reverse, with the character of Li Nalas in “The Homecoming” and its two sequels.
This episode overtly establishes that the Klingons have a rigid class structure, with the warrior class atop it. It will be explored further in the Enterprise episode “Judgment” (which also features J.G. Hertzler as a Klingon).
Kor’s speech about the sweetness of life turning bitter is a callback to something he said to the Organians in his very first appearance in “Errand of Mercy.” His toast to Jadzia’s memory is reminiscent of the traditional naval toast, “To absent friends” that memorializes the dead.
When Kor tells the story about Caleb IV, he identifies his ship as the Klothos, which was also the name of his ship in the animated episode “The Time Trap.”
Your humble rewatcher told the story of how Kor received the title of Dahar master (and also where the title comes from) in The Klingon Art of War.
The bottle of bloodwine that Kor and Worf share is said to be 2309, the same year as the bottles Nog procured for Martok in “Treachery, Faith, and the Great River,” so it’s probably from that batch.
Worf references the battle at Korma Pass against T’nag, the story Kor told in “The Sword of Kahless.”
Twice, Martok uses “by the hand of Kahless” as an epithet, which has its origins in John M. Ford’s novel The Final Reflection.
While this is Darok’s only on-screen appearance, he also appears in The Left Hand of Destiny duology, written by J.G. Hertzler & Jeffrey Lang.
Walk with the Prophets: “How did that pompous old man hold off an entire Jem’Hadar fleet with only one ship?” Klingons have become an incredibly important part of the Star Trek universe, and one of the main reasons why they have is because of how amazing John Colicos was in “Errand of Mercy.” His oily charm, his charisma, his passion, his eloquent line deliveries—he was just magnificent. Every person who’s played a Klingon since then owes something to his performance.
By having him survive “Blood Oath” and return in “The Sword of Kahless,” DS9 gave itself a superb opportunity to give the first Klingon we ever met a proper sendoff, while telling an excellent story about the perils of aging and the double-edged sword of becoming a legend.
Just about everything works perfectly in the episode. We start with Bashir and O’Brien’s Davy Crockett argument, with Worf’s spot-on remark serving to cut the Gordian knot of their disagreement, while also giving us the episode’s theme in a nice little nutshell. Michael Dorn delivers it beautifully, too.
Indeed, the episode is full of amazing, nuanced performances. Dorn plays the low-key diplomat, trying to satisfy the needs of his honor toward both Martok and Kor, and mostly succeeding—but beating himself up when he can’t, because that’s how he rolls.
Colicos has to play Kor in so many different modes: sad, nostalgic, determined, confused, and batshit crazy in the heat of battle. But he hits every note perfectly, never more so than his final words to an unconscious Worf promising to seek out Jadzia in Sto-Vo-Kor, which carry a grandeur and intensity that shows his friendship, his gratitude, his heroism, and his nobility in one shot.
J.G. Hertzler has perhaps the hardest job, because he has to act like a total dick to a character we actually like without sacrificing what makes Martok so likeable as well. To his credit, he not only pulls it off, he never once makes us think any more ill of Martok. His righteous anger is completely justified, and I like the fact that it never entirely goes away. Even at the end when he opens the bloodwine and raises a toast to Kor—he can’t bring himself to join Darok, Worf, and the others in singing a song to his victory. The hurt is still too deep.
However the standout here is Neil Vipond. We already know Kor, Martok, and Worf, so the actors are able to build on what’s already been established. Vipond only has a couple of scenes, but his performance is so superbly lived-in that you feel like Darok has been there all along.
Beautifully structured, incredibly well acted, excellently filmed (the attack on the Dominion base is superbly rendered by director Allan Kroeker and the VFX staff), this is a glorious epic, a fitting end to a character who has been a part of Trek lore since its first season.
The episode’s only flaw is the Quark-Dax subplot. While it does give us an entertaining conversation between Kira and Dax (Kira’s assessment of her abilities as counselor is hilarious), and Armin Shimerman’s delivery of Quark’s speech to Dax is perfect, the story itself is yet another waving of a flag that says, “Hey look, we got a new Dax!” and it’s tiresome, and adds absolutely nothing to the story. The scene between Kor and Dax in the replimat (and the awkwardness between Worf and Dax in that scene’s middle) was enough to do that, the rest just felt like padding.
Warp factor rating: 9
Keith R.A. DeCandido got to write the character of Kor in the Lost Era novel The Art of the Impossible, the novellas Enterprises of Great Pitch and Moment (part of the Slings and Arrows eBook miniseries) and The Unhappy Ones (in the Seven Deadly Sins anthology), and in The Klingon Art of War.
You missed a Trivial Matter: This episode confirms that Kor’s old ship was named the Klothos, as in the animated series episode “The Time Trap.” It’s one of the rare times that something from an animated episode other than “Yesteryear” has been acknowledged in live action. (However, Kor called it a D5-class ship rather than the D7 it appeared to be onscreen. Then again, his memory was failing.)
Honestly, this is my least favorite Kor episode. Colicos is great as always, sure, but the whole story feels kind of labored and contrived, like the way it tacks on this Martok-Kor feud out of nowhere. I don’t even remember exactly why, but it just didn’t really work for me.
It was a good ep, I have really liked how DS9 has dealt with Klingons. I watched the original series and the movies and so on, but they never felt fleshed out until Ds9. Now they make sense to me, now I understand more about them and actually care about some of them.
Generally a very good episode, but I feel like the teaser lampshades the whole story far too much. It lacks subtlety.
I loved this episode because of Kor – how he was written, and how he was portrayed. I’ve experienced the decline of family members due to dementia, and this episode was incredibly poignant because of Kor’s falling victim to it. The scene where he’s transported back to Caleb IV in the heat of battle is frighteningly close to some conversations I’ve had with people living with dementia, and it’s beautifully done.
It’s entirely possible, too, that he had enough lucidity to defeat the Jem’Hadar. He’s clearly not lost his grip on reality completely, he’s managing quite well some of the time – but, often, someone with dementia knows they’re starting to lose it, and Kor surely does. His suicide mission is really the best option for him – rather than slipping into the depths of insanity and being unable to die as a warrior, he goes out on his own terms. He knows what’s coming, and he makes his exit in the way that helps the cause and gets him to Sto-Vo-Kor.
Really brilliant last performance for John Colicos. Absolutely touching.
It actually makes me kind of sad that Kor’s last interaction with the crew was of them all making fun of him and so he never got to realize he’d re-earned their respect. Maybe a Klingon doesn’t care about all that touchy feely stuff, but that whole mess hall scene reminded me uncomfortably of similar scenes in my own adolescence and…icky feeling.
I actually don’t quite understand Worf’s remark about Davy Crockett (as wonderful as his delivery and shut down of the argument was) – why wouldn’t it matter how he died if he’s a ‘normal’ man? Or maybe he just meant that if he didn’t do all those great things, it’s not worth debating about? I actually know pretty much nothing about Davy Crockett and the Alamo so that whole part kind of went over my head anyway.
Another excellent episode and spot on review, both made better by a reference to my favorite Trek novel, The Final Reflection.
@5: The short version is, there are some (fairly suspect) reports that Davy Crockett was not killed during the battle of the Alamo, but in fact surrendered and was captured and subsequently executed. This is, naturally, offensive to those who prefer the legends of the heroes of the Alamo bravely fighting to the death. What Worf was saying, I think, is that the legend is what makes Crockett worth talking about: otherwise he’s just a regular Joe who’s been dead for centuries.
I also want to say that, as somebody who’s seen loved ones brush with dementia, I also found Kor’s plot touching. John Colicos was just magnificent.
I did very much enjoy the episode, for the acting, and for its study of a quite difficult subject. However, I have to say there was one other rather glaring flaw in the episode.
Worf uses his authority to grant Kor a position in the fleet. He promises he will keep him out of Martok’s hair. And he does this, by appointing him third officer ON MARTOK’S OWN SHIP. He had four other ships to choose from, and could have given him a position on any one of them, but his solution to preventing Martok from having to deal with him is to give him a position where he will be stading directly behind Martok all the time he is on the bridge? Obviously nothing else in the episode would have happened if he hadn’t done that, but it still seems incredibly dumb.
I thought it was pretty bold for Ron Moore and the staff to basically build a story around a semi-recurring character, instead of focusing on one of the main characters (I can only guess Piller would have disagreed with this approach). This basically left Worf without an episode to call his own. Michael Dorn was definitely a secondary player on this episode. Most of his character development this season was devoted to the closing arc.
But I also believe DS9 has more than earned the right to choose such an unconventional storytelling choice by this point in the series (as they would again by building Paper Moon as a Nog story).
And let’s face it. The episode works beautifully. It’s the end for a legendary secondary character that has been in the minds of fans for 31 years since his introduction. And John Colicos makes every moment his own. Whoever decided to have him survive Blood Oath was a genius. This was the most fitting end for the character. And somehow Ron once again manages to challenge Klingon culture and bring it to a new level, through the concept of legend vs. reality.
Agreed…it did seem shoe horned in…but in a final series season, I suppose that’s to be expected. Still, Klingon episodes generally don’t agree with me for you see I’ve never trusted Klingons and I never will. I could never forgive them for the death of Kirk’s boy.
This is one of my favorite episodes because of the performances in it. Kor is the last of the Originals still standing and he gets to go out in a blaze of glory just like he wanted before his dementia gets even worse. I’m just a bit sad to see him go and Calicos final performance is something memorable for fans. I’ll always remember him as the oily evil Baltar though from the original BSG.
Good episode, but I was bothered by several of the minor flaws others have pointed out and just didn’t find it all THAT memorable. I’d have given it a 7.
Next episode’s when things really start ramping up. :)
Christopher: thank you! I’d actually intended to put in a Trivial Matter about the Klothos when Kor mentioned it, but I got so caught up in Colicos telling the story that I forgot to put it in.
Also: Martok and Kor’s backstory was no more “labored and contrived” than learning in season 4 that Sisko was first officer on the Okinawa before he served on the Saratoga, or that Kira’s resistance cell leader was still alive in season 3, or the names of all of Dax’s previous hosts until season 3, or that Tain was Garak’s father in season 5, or the backstory on Rom’s ex-wife/Nog’s mother in season 4, etc., etc., etc. Considering how little of Martok’s or Kor’s lives we actually knew anything about prior to this episode, there’s nothing at all labored or contrived about what this epsiode establishes.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@13: I can’t really explain my problems with the episode, because I haven’t seen it in a long time. But it just didn’t feel convincing to me.
SF Debris, in his review of this episode, offers up a fascinating ‘what if’ rearding Martok’s backstory:
What if Martok hadn’t been able to earn that battlefield comission? Kor’s discrimination could have ended up costing the Empire its key commander during the Dominion War.
And without a Starfleet-friendly Martok leading the charge, there’s no telling how the Klingon war effort would’ve gone.
I didn’t get the impression that he destroyed all 10 ships, just that he delayed them enough where they could no longer catch up with the Klingon ships in time.
I was really impressed at the effects shots in this one…the attack on the base certainly, but the shots of the Klingon ships flying around DS9 was totally new to my knowledge as well. Maybe they spent too much here and that’s why they had to reuse so much footage later in the season.
I thought it was a fairly enjoyable Klingon episode though. I’d give it a decent rating. I really like Darok. I bet Hansel likes saying his name.
What a great sendoff for Kor and final performance for the great John Colicos.
Just out of curiosity, was there any relationship with the old John Wayne oater ” The Horse Soldiers”. Some of the story beats did seem a little more similar than just coincidence.
Considering Behr’s love of 1950’s films, it wouldn’t surprise me.
The main part of the episode was fine, but I have to say that the whole Davy Crockett reference in the beginning was yet another example of the most irritating phenomenon in Star Trek: the assumption that 20th century American popular culture and the recent history of the United States is so well-known and ubiquitous that people will still be totally familiar with it 400 years into the future. Yes, I know it was all done for the benefit of American viewers, but it still makes the vision of future in ST feel less believable and less real and more like “just a show”.
The weirdest thing about this whole Alamo and Davy Crockett business is that they decided to make Bashir and O’Brien, and Englishman and an Irishman, the ones who are obsessed about it. I bet if you mentioned the names “Alamo” and “Davy Crockett” to English and Irish people of today, most of them couldn’t tell you much more about them than that they are somehow related to American history of the 19th century. Yet we’re meant to believe that hundreds of years into the future these English and Irish characters are still obsessed with all this American stuff. If this was an isolated incidence, you could just write it off as an individual quirk of O’Brien and Bashir, but as you watch this and other ST series, it seems all the characters (even the aliens) are well versed in the 19th and 20th century American culture. If they really needed to include the Alamo and Crockett references, they should’ve made Sisko the one to obsess about it. That would’ve at least made more sense, as he is American and is shown to have an interest in 20th century American culture.
But the worst thing about the writers choosing to refer to Davy Crockett is that it makes the whole analogy in the episode indecipherable to those who aren’t familiar with Crockett’s life story. Even though I don’t understand the rules of baseball, “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” didn’t bother me that much, because all that I needed to know about the sport was explained in the episode, and it was obvious you could’ve replaced baseball with any other sport without the plot changing that much. But when I first saw this episode I, like most Europeans, was only vaguely aware of Davy Crockett as some sort of Western hero, and I didn’t know how he lived or (supposedly) died. The whole comparison between Kor and Crockett was lost on me. So the heavy focus on American history and popular culture not only makes ST’s future feel less believable, it also means some of the references won’t be understood by non-American viewers.
@20 I don’t mind the 20th century references, given the alternative is to create a bunch of ficitional future movies, musical compositions, scholars, etc. A few here or there are okay, but to create gobs of fictional future (to us) history opens up potential problems later with continuity, or becomes too much work to create and keep track of.
On top of that, references to fictional history would likely require considerable explantion/exposition in the episode, which can chew up time and feel forced in or not relatable. Not everyone gets every reference, but to force in ficitional history might not be a huge improvement.
I suppose a possible explanation for non-Americans being aware/well-versed in US History might be that Starfleet Academy is in San Francisco, USA. It would seem that even Irish and English folks would be studying in the US. Like anyone studying abroad, the local history/culture is probably investigated/explored. On top of that, there may be extensive history courses at the academy (have they ever said there weren’t?), in Earth history as well as other planets. The Earth history might involve a good chunk of US history, given the relative position of the United States in the world now. Certainly, even 24th century Earth folks would be more likely to know some US history than say Chilean history.
Also, you mention the Irish/English angle. Bashir and O’Brien also reenact the Battle of Britain in one (or maybe more) episode, which would be more home-baked history for them.
#20
This American saw Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and was totally lost at all the references to Shakespeare. (Of course I was only 8 years old at the time.) But it taught me something about another country’s culture. Sure, it didn’t make much sense for a Klingon to be obsessed with some dead Englishman’s writings from centuries ago, but it opened up a new world for me. And I credit this movie, along with the TNG episode “Hide and Q”, for my appreciation of Shakespeare today.
And I’m sure I can list numerous other examples in Trek. Riker quoting Sun Tzu (Sun Who?) comes to mind. Anyway, the cross cultural references scattered throughout this franchise, despite their sometimes bizarre sources, was a great education for me. Something the American educational system failed to do, but I digress.
@13: Doesn’t having Martok come from a lower class conflict with the references in “You Are Cordially Invited” about the House of Martok being one of the great houses. I wouldn’t think a Klingon house could rise from never even producing an officer to great house status in a single generation.
@23: Klingons may be classist, but they reward battlefield prowess. Apparently Martok was just that good. When we first met him (or rather, the Changeling who impersonated him), he was the right-hand man to Chancellor Gowron himself. Anyone that close to the center of power would be considered “great,” and thus so would his House.
Oddly enough, despite Kira’s certainty that she’d make a terrible counselor, she ends up becoming a vedek in the novels. (Which, admittedly, never worked for me, but it’s an irony worth noting.)
-Andy
@23: “Soldiers of the Empire” tells us that it was Martok’s military career that gave the House of Martok its influence. Houses seem to come and go, and rise and fall – witness the House of Mogh’s fraught history – so I can believe that Martok’s success is what made his a Great House so quickly.
Redlander @22
Sadly, I doubt the American educational system is alone in having these faults. Not a lot of schools would consider Sun Tzu a required reading before college. And even then, the requirement is usually limited to some obscure course like Asian thought or military philosophy. I certainly wouldn’t have read it if the family library didn’t have a copy. Along with most of what I’ve read of Shakespeare.
Quoth Tuomas*: “But the worst thing about the writers choosing to refer to Davy Crockett is that it makes the whole analogy in the episode indecipherable to those who aren’t familiar with Crockett’s life story.”
Not if the viewer is actually paying attention, as Bashir pretty much gives Crockett’s entire life story right there in the scene…….
Anyhow, it’s not like the Alamo is the only thing Bashir and O’Brien have done on the holodeck, and the other stuff they’ve done has not been American (European fighting during World War I, Celtic stuff, the secret-agent stuff).
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Don’t forget the Viking program, as Rom will ketch about in “It’s Only a Paper Moon”.
@24: If Martok’s rise to prominence was entirely linked to Gowron’s ascension I could see that. However, Martok seems to have been a respected figure in the Empire even before Gowron became Chancellor. (Based on the age of Martok’s son, it seems likely Martok married Sirella well before the Klingon Civil War. And given Sirella comes from a family that at least believes it is of imperial lineage and is very proud of that ancestory, its hard to believe she would have married Martok if he wasn’t already from a great house.)
@22/27: I have no trouble at all with the Sun-Tzu reference. It’s a major work in Earth history that’s been around for well over a thousand years already, and while many of us may not be familiar with the details, we’re familiar with the book’s existence and its general concept. Of course it would still be noted just a few hundred years into our future.
And the idea of a book of precepts about military philosophy is important enough to have appeared spontaneously elsewhere, with The Klingon Art of War first being published in the Year of Kahless 450, well before first contact…
Ashcom: the fleet is only five ships, and they’re small Birds-of-Prey that don’t have particularly large crews. So the number of positions available to officers was probably pretty limited to start with, and Martok also said that Kor was his responsibility, which meant he had to balance his need to keep Kor away from Martok with his equivalent need to keep Kor close to himself.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
#31
I have no trouble with the Sun Tzu reference either. Riker would know. But a poor kid growing up in the Midwest did not at the time. Again, thank you, Star Trek.
I think we can explain or hand wave all this cross cultural stuff we see in Trek by the simple fact everyone is ultra well educated. They know everything in the future!
@28 KRad – not to be an utter pedant (*grin*) but it was World War II – O’Brian and Bashir were playing at the Battle of Britain.
@32 – The number of crew on the ship is irrelevant. Worf could have transferred any crew member from any of those ships to the Ch’tang and put Kor in their place. Being transferred to the lead ship of the fleet and being a command officer to the commander of the fleet is going to be seen as a prestigious move to any Klingon officer, they are not going to have any problem with this. As for Kor being Worf’s responsibility, Worf is second in command of the fleet, wherever Kor is placed, he is Worf’s responsibility. It makes no sense when told to keep him away from Martok to then put him directly onto Martok’s own bridge whatever way you try to rationalise it away.
@28: I don’t know if I’d agree that the spy program isn’t American. Sure, it’s nominally based on James Bond, which is an English creation, but the Bond films have all been co-produced with American studios like MGM/United Artists and Columbia Pictures, and their primary production company, Eon Productions, is based in England but owned by an American company and founded by an American and a Canadian.
@30: You’re getting the cause and effect of my premise backward. I’m not saying that Martok’s status is the result of his association with Gowron; I’m saying his association with Gowron is evidence of his status. Gowron is, after all, a consummate politician; he wouldn’t have made Martok his chief advisor unless Martok had already held high status and esteem.
I’m sort of with the others on the Alamo, but for different reasons. I find it hard to believe that the 24th century would view the guys fighting to appropriate territory from Mexico to further the extension of slavery as the good guys. (And I find it hard to believe that Sisco, having had problems with the Vic Fontaine scenario, would be any more happy about his officers playing those guys than he would if they’d chosen Wehrmark soldiers in the fall of Berlin…)
@20: when I watched this episode again years later, and saw the tabletop terrain littered with toy soldiers, I put it together: The Alamo, the Battle of Britain, Clontarf, etc… O’Brien and Bashir aren’t just playing pretend in the holosuite, at least not in the same way as other Trek holo-adventures – they’re *wargamers*, or re-enactors, or both, in all but name. If that’s the case, never mind merely knowing the events of Davy Crockett’s life; they’ve probably obsessively researched their chosen ‘periods’ down to the right number of coat buttons and style of mail shirts…
@Ashcom: Remember, Worf is also a Starfleet officer and the product of the enlightened Federation philosophical system first and foremost. Two people don’t get along, but you know they are both good guys? Well the Starfleet/Federation way is to try and facilitate their acceptance of each other. For all Worf tries to be the most Klingon Klingon ever, he’s still very much coming at it from a Federation point of view.
It probably wasn’t even something he was conscious of doing, it is so ingrained that if you are a Starfleet officer, you help and conciliate enemies. His choosing that position for Kor is the perfect Federation move, it places them both in proximity and puts Kor as Worf’s direct subordinate where he can guide Kor’s responses and help him demonstrate his skills (in theory). It is just so Starfleet, no wonder it falls apart so badly.
krad, I don’t really agree that Martok’s didn’t become less likable, at least in the short term. The entire time he was mocking Kor in the mess, I was getting more and more upset with him, and how dishonorable I considered his actions. Maybe it was in character for a Klingon, I don’t know, but I sort of hold Martok to a higher standard. That kind of behavior would suit Gowron, but Martok is supposed to be better.
Just found these rematch posts. Keith/krad you know a lot more about trek than I do so maybe you could tell me if I’ve got things right about kor.
This is the same guy who shot 200 organians in the original series right? Technically they weren’t dead but the intention was there. I’m guessing the rest of his career had similar moments of brutality. He’s never regretted his actions far as I know. So why does ds9 celebrate him yet demonise someone like dukat?
I’m not overly bothered, I still like the episode and kor, but the klingons in general do seem to get away with a lot more than other races without being damned for it.
@20. I don’t have an issue with Bashir/O’Brien playing the Alamo and arguing about Crockett- country of origin aside they are both romantics and military buffs at heart and would be drawn to it. It’s like 21st century Americans reenacting the civil war, or being fascinated by the 300 at Thermopylae- it’s not about the native context but rather the fascination with the struggle against odds. The Battle of Britain and the charge of the light brigade were two other military historical (and Britush) fascinations of theirs as well.
As far as Martok and Kor, I actually like Martok a little better for it. In some ways it humanizes him. It would be cliche if he was overtaken by the valor and honor- instead he realizes he’s seen something amazing but just can’t let go of his emotions. Had it been any other Klingon he’d have been celebrating but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it for Kor.
As far as the rise of the house of Martok though, I get where he rises in fame/prestige, but what about wealth? Did he get a large inheritance via Sirella (it’s suggested that while Martok is an up jumped commoner she is of the aristocracy)? Was he awarded land and wealth with his successes? Is Klingon Society quasi-feudal and there are non warrior/aristocrats who have to pay him rent?
Quoth Christopher: ”
I don’t know if I’d agree that the spy program isn’t American. Sure,
it’s nominally based on James Bond, which is an English creation, but
the Bond films have all been co-produced with American studios like
MGM/United Artists and Columbia Pictures, and their primary production
company, Eon Productions, is based in England but owned by an American
company and founded by an American and a Canadian.”
Oh, please, the movies are completely British, going so far as to title one of the movies Licence to Kill, spelled the silly British way. ;)
Plus, the program was also based on such British productions as Danger Man and Our Man Flint….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@43: I daresay the program was also based on The Man from UNCLE, which was created by Ian Fleming but produced in America. Heck, Andrew Robinson’s whole characterization of Garak from day one was largely a Napoleon Solo impression.
Not to be too pedantic but the specific quote is from Act 3 Scene one in front of Harfleur. Sorry, my theater major is showing.
Otherwise this is one of my favrite episodes and is a worthy sendoff of Kor.
@44: And one of the most prolific writers for that show was none other than DS9’s Peter Allan Fields.
@40: You’re right, Martok’s mockery was immature and stupid. However, as a big fan of Martok (the guy who totally upstaged Worf as “the Klingoniest Klingon of all), I think it’s only here and a couple other rare places where we see his normal, mortal personal weaknesses in a way that keeps him from being a Marty Stu character. So I’m glad of it, in a way.
As for Kor’s harsh actions in his 23rd-century career … that would be a sticky issue. How much should we overlook that an individual did terrible things that they did when they were culturally accepted at the time? For example, in our day, an old person who seems nice enough, but who was verbally abusive to black people in support of Jim Crow laws in the 40’s? That’s a hard question, and it would be even harder with people who routinely live longer (Klingons seem to reach 150 pretty often, and Vulcan life expectancy seems to be more like 190).
So I suppose the main reason Kor’s considered better than Dukat is because his atrocities were a lot longer ago … combined with a hope that the Klingon culture has matured morally in the interim.
@47: Which could’ve had merit in early TNG; “Heart of Glory” indicated that Klingons had outgrown their warlike past and those who still wanted to be warriors and conquerors were renegades. But later TNG/DS9/VGR got so caught up in the Space Viking/Samurai stuff that they ended up making the 24th-century Klingons just as bloodthirsty and warlike as their predecessors, to the point that it became unbelievable that the Federation considered them allies.
I never got the idea that Kor defeated or took out all of the Jem’Hadar ships, only that he slowed them down.
I’m completely at ease with Bashir and O’Brien being as familiar as they are with Crockett and the Alamo because they’ve already been shown to be devoted students of military history. This is no different than modern wargamers knowing a lot more about, say, Robert the Bruce than most of us do.
I know that I’m necromancing this comment thread, but just wanted to point out something that I noticed when re-watching this episode. Almost all of Martok’s bridge crew (at least a significant portion, and including both major speaking roles) are women. That’s a pretty neat decision.
Haha! Hello fellow necromancer! I’m doing a rewatch alongside you as part of being stuck at home. Enjoying it just as much as the last time! (And cool on the women!).
A couple of commenters have noted that Kor didn’t destroy ten Jem’Hadar ships, but only delayed them. And I agree.
However, whatever he did had to be magnificent! After all, it should have been the Jem”Hadar’s strategy to detail two, maybe three, ships to take care of Kor and the rest would have continued the pursuit of the rest of the Klingon squadron. But, somehow, Kor stops ten ships in their pursuit. Whether he destroyed ten, five, two or none, that is an astonishing achievement.
Lockdown rewatch, not only is this a superb send off for The Kor character it is a worthy final episode of focus for The Kingons of the TNG era, yes we will have more Worf centric episodes to come and the Klingons play a role in the final arc but this is the last main Klingon episode until Enterprise comes around and let’s be honest most of those were not much to write home about.
I guess the cast writers and crew knew that this would be the last episode to focus of the Kingons and the pulled out all the stops in the writing and acting department. You can pick spots off it and ask why Worf didn’t assign Kor to another ship In the fleet knowing how much Martok despised him but I will let this pass. I’m glad The Great John Colicos got this chance to bid farewell as it would have been a shame if his last appearance was the weak Sword of Khaless episode.
Lockdown rewatch, not only is this a superb send off for The Kor character it is a worthy final episode of focus for The Kingons of the TNG era, yes we will have more Worf centric episodes to come and the Klingons play a role in the final arc but this is the last main Klingon episode until Enterprise comes around and let’s be honest most of those were not much to write home about.
I guess the cast writers and crew knew that this would be the last episode to focus of the Kingons and the pulled out all the stops in the writing and acting department. You can pick spots off it and ask why Worf didn’t assign Kor to another ship In the fleet knowing how much Martok despised him but I will let this pass. I’m glad The Great John Colicos got this chance to bid farewell as it would have been a shame if his last appearance was the weak Sword of Khaless episode.
@55/chadefallstar: “this is the last main Klingon episode until Enterprise comes around”
There are a few Klingon-centric Voyager episodes after this, “Barge of the Dead,” “Lineage,” and “Prophecy.”
“let’s be honest most of those were not much to write home about.”
I think ENT: “Judgment” is one of the best Klingon episodes in the franchise.
@56. I think ENT: “Judgment” is one of the best Klingon episodes in the franchise.
Well… it’s alright… and of course helped by JG Hertzler’s presence, but I have deep problems with granting anything that Enterprise did as “best of” anything. But I admit I am deeply biased on that front. (I am not doing an Enterprise rewatch even if this Covid restricted life lasts another decade)
@57/chadefallstar: Every show’s quality is a bell curve, and just because one curve has a higher average doesn’t mean they don’t overlap to a large extent. If the best series, like TNG or DS9, can have some of the worst episodes of the franchise, like “Shades of Gray” or “Profit and Lace,” then it follows that even a weaker series like ENT is capable of having exceptionally above-average episodes like “Judgment.”
Good episode. What was the quote in “Errand of Mercy” that was referenced here? I googled my little fingers off!
“Errand of Mercy,” Kor to the Organians: “I hope you will continue to savour the sweetness of your life.”
“Once More…,” Kor to the Klingon crew: “Savour the fruit of life, my young friends. It has a sweet taste when it is fresh from the vine. But don’t live too long. The taste turns bitter after a time. “