Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Birthright, Part I (1993) User Reviews

Solid start

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 4 December 2021]

Worf receives some potentially disturbing news about his family, whilst Data experiences a series of visions.

This is an interesting episode with two good character stories.

The Data story for me is the better of the two and involves a number of dreamy cinematic moments that Data attempts to interpret. Bizarrely though it comes to an abrupt conclusion, whilst Worf's adventure continues throughout the next episode.

As story arcs they are very different, whilst thematically quite similar with a lot of emphasis on the history and influence of their fathers. Both generate a lot of intrigue and build up intrigue for part two.

The crossover with Deep Space Nine is not necessary for the story and for me feels like a bit of a gimmick. On the other hand Alexander Siddig is good in his scenes with Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton and they make a likeable trio of nerds. I think Michael Dorn and James Cromwell are also good.

There is a moment when Data and Worf cross paths in the story with an exchange of dialogue that is probably the best scene in the episode.

For me it's a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.

Coincidental Father-Son Episodes--Sort Of

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 29 September 2014]

Of course, Part One is there to lay the foundation for Part Two. In this episode we have two coinciding story lines. The first involves Worf meeting an alien in a bar who, for a price, will give him information on the location of his father. Worf is intrigued because he has assumed his father is dead and his existence on a Romulan controlled planet would bring disgrace to generations of his family, including his son, Alexander. He and the alien embark on a trip to the planet. Meanwhile, Data has begun having strange, surreal dreams. He wanders hallways, seeing the same images of his "father"/creator. He tries to analyze these things, using the science of dream interpretation and Jungian symbolism. Since as an android, he shouldn't be dreaming, where is this coming from? Both plots are interesting but I have to admit, I wasn't totally grabbed at this point.

A visit to Deep Space Nine

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 13 August 2015]

This episode sees the Enterprise paying a visit to Deep Space Nine to help the Bajorans repair their aqueducts. This mission doesn't feature in the story though; instead we get two plot threads each involving crew members and their fathers. In the first an alien approaches Worf with news that his father is not dead after all; instead he has been in a Romulan prison camp for the last quarter of a century. If true this would bring disgrace on Worf as a Klingon warrior would rather die than be taken prisoner. At first he is furious and calls the alien a liar but ultimately he decides he must go to the prison camp and discover the truth. In the second plot thread Dr Bashir comes aboard the Enterprise to investigate some equipment found in the Gamma Quadrant. While testing it a plasma discharge strikes Data rendering him unconscious. While unconscious he has a strange vision of his 'father' Dr. Noonien Soong, when he is awakened he is determined to discover is meaning; first through a series of paintings then by repeating the accident but this time without being revived before the vision has run its course.

Since this is the first of a two part story it is all set up and little in the way of resolution. Having much of the story take place aboard Deep Space Nine was clearly designed to introduce fans of The Next Generation to that then new spin off series; unfortunately people who are already fans of DS9 are likely to be rather disappointed that the only main character from that series to appear here is Dr Bashir. Of the two stories Worf's is the more exciting and leads to a good cliff-hanger ending. Data's story is still interesting though as it is all rather mysterious and full of symbolism… it left me intrigued to discover what it all meant. Away from the main plots there are some nice details; most notably when Dr Bashir observes that Data breathes and has a pulse as well as asking whether his hair grows rather than the usual questions about his capabilities. Overall a solid enough episode but whether it ultimately proves to be a good story will rely on how it is resolved in part two.

TNG meets DS9!

[russem31 · 30 April 2006]

ST:TNG:142 - "Birthright, Part I" (Stardate: 46578.4) - this is the 16th episode of the 6th season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

This is a crossover episode, where The Next Generation meets its Star Trek counterpart, Deep Space Nine. the Enterprise arrives at Deep Space Nine where a mysterious alien named Jaglom Shrek (James Cromwell, the future Zephram Cochrane of Star Trek: First Contact) claims that Worf's father Mogh is still alive.

At the same time, an accident incapacitates Data, who claims while "unconscious" to have seen his father, Dr. Noonien Soong (albeit a much younger version than the one he met in "Brothers"). Dr. Bashir, who happens to be on the Enterprise, helps Data to reenter his dream state to learn more about his creator, while Worf embarks on a journey that takes him to a distant Romulan prison in order to find his father.

Trivia note: Siddig El Fadil guest stars as Dr. Julian Bashir, there's also a cameo appearance by Morn, we see Data's cat Spot. Chief O'Brien is also mentioned, having yet to fix the food replicators (now he is the Chief on DS9 and no longer the Enterprise). Also, nice musical homage to the Deep Space Nine theme at the beginning of the episode. And, we find out Data can grow hair, has a pulse, and can breathe if he wants to.

It's also interesting to note that Worf will join the DS9 cast 2 years down the line.

Birthright parts I and II: A complete missed opportunity

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 18 May 2018]

This happened at DS9!

When I first saw Picard and Crusher walk into the Promenade, I was expecting more interaction with the DS9 cast.

It didn't happen.

Oh, we did get Alexander Siddig El Fadil onto the Enterprise, but there would have been:

Picard arguing with "The Sisko" about Aqueducts

Worf and Odo catching Quark in some crooked "enterprise"

Riker getting Fleeced by Quark and Rom the first time he ever plays Dabo...

And Howlin Mad Broccoli screwing up the Holosuites, he gets trapped in one with Geordi.

That's what could have happened.

I really don't know why there were not more Crossover eps like this, of course the first DS9 ep was a crossover, involving Picard, O'Brien, and The Sisko.

But there was a real opportunity here, to totally merge the casts of both shows. I have always wondered why it never happened. It could have even happened in the TNG Movies, while DS9 was still on the air.

But all we got was this meager episode.

As an episode, important things happen for Data and Worf and Data did get to spend time with Bashir. Even though Bashir forgot to put his shoes back on for his last walk down the Corridor.

Within the parallel Data/Worf stories there is an internal continuity. The Data story is rather interesting, but the Worf story, that's another missed opportunity.

And of course this is one of James Cromwell's 3 TNG Appearances, this time, well, see if you can guess who he is? It took me a few viewings for me to figure out who he was in this.

Look also for Tom Paris' "father" Richard Herd. And Harry Kim's fiance from "Non Sequitur".

It's not that this pair of episodes were not good, But a huge missed opportunity: TNG and DS9 were the most watched shows from this time period, they could have done so much with this.

A gilded case --

[thevacinstaller · 8/10 · 25 April 2021]

I will be discussing parts 1 and 2 with potential spoilers for both.

I enjoyed how the episode put Worf's prejudices against Romulans under some pressure. The commanding Romulan officer actually sacrificed his career to maintain the prison to save the Klingon prisoners from being executed and by all accounts is a fair and reasonable jailer. Season 6 is continuing the idea of developing the Romulan's are more than just villains. The heart of the episode is the exploration of Worf's response to the imprisonment and cultural repression that the Klingon's have endured/maintained over the years. Even though the imprisonment was an act of mercy they are still prisoners and this trickles down to the unaware offspring. I enjoyed thinking over the idea's presented in this episode ----- How many people currently live in a prison (real or emotional) and don't actually realize it? Worf ends up being the jailbreaker not by use of force but by being the Klingon cultural guru and igniting the inner warriors of the young Klingons.

There was a nice little touch towards the end of the episode when Worf's teenage love interest (Ba'el) appears to choose to stay behind with her parents (as a 'prisoner') instead of exploring the unknown. That's how life works sometimes ---- some choose to live in a comfortable prison instead of exploring an unknown freedom.

Overall, a solid well executed episode with some deeper questions to ponder.

Unlike most two-parters, this isn't particularly good or special

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 29 November 2014]

"Birthright: Part 1" is an episode meant to connect "Star Trek: The Next Generation" with its new spin-off series "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" which debuted around the same time as this episode. Oddly, however, the only real tie-in is seeing the station as well as Dr. Bashir and NONE of the other station regulars. This is quite odd-- like a half-hearted tie-in show.

When the show begins, Dr. Bashir and Data are talking a lot about stuff. Then, unexpectedly, their little experiment in engineering runs amok and zaps Data with a bazillion volts. He's inoperable for about 30 seconds and during that time he has what seems like a near- death experience with his creator, Dr. Soong. During the rest of the show, Data tries to come to terms with this.

The other plot involves Worf. Some alien approaches him and says that Worf's father did NOT die years ago during a Romulan attack but is STILL being held prisoner. He then gets this mercenary guy to take him to this planet to investigate.

Overall, we have two plots that are just okay...nothing more. The show is odd for a two-parter because not a lot of consequence occurs.

REVIEW 2022

[iamirwar · 10/10 · 27 September 2022]

Stardate Feb 20, 1993: We have arrived on the space-station Deep Space Nine, now where have I heard that before? I should add at this point that it is only a couple of months since I completed my tour of duty on DS9, having re-watched the entire series. For reasons I cannot explain, I did not complete a review of my experiences, but I will revisit the station soon to do so. In the meantime, I believe this is the first time I have been back on the station since I started my TNG review. For that reason alone, I almost feel like I've come home. I understand that when this episode of TNG was first broadcast, DS9 had only aired half-a-dozen episodes. Indeed, the most recent DS9 would have been the Dax episode.

I believe that at the time this episode: Birthright first screened, I hadn't yet seen a DS9 episode, and so this was possibly my introduction to it. I assume that was the idea of pitching the new show in with the successful current one that was TNG. It seems a shame that we didn't have more interaction between TNG and DS9 crew members during the run of the earlier show.

This would have been Worf's first venture onboard DS9, and already he has learned something that could be to his advantage.

Bashir has only been on the Enterprise a very short time but already he has shot Data. It is noticeable that the Data B-story here is as intriguing as the Worf mystery and we do get to see some wonderful views of the Enterprise. Data and Worf in search of pappa.

Unlike previous two-parters I have decided not to review these two episodes as one double-header, but instead I have reviewed each separately.

Don't forget to look up from time to time, the arboreal needle snake likes to attack from above.

Data Dreams

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 13 May 2020]

In this episode of TNG the Enterprise welcomes on board while they are docked at Deep Space Nine, Dr. Bashir. Alexander Siddig has found a piece of alien space equipment he thinks is medical.

Medical or not it gives off a charge that incapacitates briefly. When he wakes up Brent Spiner finds he's had a vision. If he were human he'd be considered to be dreaming.

After that we delve into the psyche of an android if indeed they have one to find the meanings.

The rest of this episode concerns Michael Dorn who is contacted by an alien saying his father is still aliv along with other Klingons from the Kittimer massacre of his youth. That is continued in the next part.

God made man in his own image - as so did Dr. Soong create Data.

[hbh-2 · 10/10 · 10 August 2023]

This episode has religious overtones in the way Data explores the hallucination he experience when his sensors get overloaded by the plasma beam: It makes him have a LSD like dreamstate experience where he first, with sinister overtones watches a blacksmith hammering on something, forging out something out of metal.

It turns out the blacksmiths face is Data himself, or his creator Dr. Soong, as a young man.

Data first try to imterprent his vision through artwork, 26 images of very elaborate styles and variations of his experience. It does not give definite answers, so Data wants to go back into this "state of mind" again. So they recreate the same plasma overload and off Data drift into a deeper state than the first.

This time Data experience meeting Dr. Soong and he get to talk to his creator. Explaining that the wing he hammered out was the moment when he created Data out of circuits and programming. That Data is the bird and his experiences up until that moment was him becoming the bird, but no longer a model, but alive. He tells him to spread his wings into the dream and fly off. We watch Data as he soars through Enterprise and outside into space, witness remarkable sights.

I almost cried when I watched this story as it contain so much of the very same information we humans have asked ourselves since we began to think and become self aware. Who are we, who made us?

As Data, we have a creator, be it a scientist or maybe we created ourselves, but in order to experience the creation we made we had to become it and evolve - up to the point where we acknowledge that we are the creators of the music and the dreams.

We are the music makers and we are the makers of the dream; "The soldier, the king, and the peasant. Are working together in one".

It's poetic and serves as one of Data's most profound moments in the whole of Star Trek Lore.

And of course there is the anti-Data: Lore. The Evil Twin. The Doppelganger. The one creature we have to meet on the threshold, he looks up at us from the Abyss, calling our name. "You are me and I am you". As the old saying goes by the brave people: If you can not meet with perfect balance in your heart, Lore will consume you and you become a "Black Brother", but in perfect union the veil is drawn aside and you may pass on into the City of the Pyramids, beyond space and time.

Nothing more, nothing less... just infinite and beyond!

"Your father is a part of you always."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 27 March 2024]

With "Star Trek" Deep Space Nine" airing its first show on January 3rd, 1993, this episode of Next Generation took the opportunity of a making a crossover episode to potentially alert viewers to the new series, even if this one aired a few weeks later. I've read a few reviewers here who lament the fact that there weren't more characters from DS9 in the story, but that's probably unfair considering how the new show had yet to establish itself. I speak from the standpoint of present day as I wasn't watching either program when they came out.

This one starts out on a parallel track with both Commander Data (Brent Spiner) and Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) in a quest to connect with their fathers. Because Data experienced a surreal dream sequence when his positronic net became overloaded by a plasma shock, an attempt was made to duplicate the event so he could explore the mystery of the vision he had of seeing his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong. Apparently, the experience brought Data to a closer understanding of what it might like to be human. In Worf's case, a conversation with the Yridian Jaglom Shrek (James Cromwell) led to a voyage to a Romulan prison colony where it was claimed that his father was still alive. The story allows Worf to expound on his Klingon belief in the warrior tradition of his home planet, and how dishonor and shame would be brought to bear on him and his descendants if his father Mogh allowed himself to become a Romulan captive at the battle of Khitomer.

Informed by Klingon elder L'kor (Richard Herd) that his father did die, and shocked to learn that other Klingon survivors of Khitomer now live peacefully with Romulans, Worf makes haste to return to his rendezvous point with Jaglom Shrek, only to be detained by a pair of Romulan guards. L'kor states that Worf will not be allowed to leave the planet, as knowledge of the Klingon/Romulan coexistence would only lead to trouble for all concerned.

Data Accidentally Dreams, The Hunt for Worf's Father

[Samuel-Shovel · 5/10 · 15 July 2020]

In "Birthright, Part I" the Enterprise visits Deep Space Nine once again, this time to help with repairs. While there, Worf meets someone claiming his father is still alive, trapped on a Romulan prison planet. Meanwhile, an experiment on a strange device from the Gamma quadrant causes Data to experience his first ever dream. He tries to interpret what all this means.

Worf's family issues just seems to be the saga that will never end. After finally clearing his dad's name, here he finds out the man may still be alive. But as soon as he arrives on the planet, an old friend tells Worf that the rumour is untrue. We cut off the episode with the "trapped" Klingons appearing to be co-conspirators with the Romulans on the planet as they take Worf hostage.

Data's plot line feels like complete filler to make it long enough to be a two-parter. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it though. We get some really fun scenes between Data and Dr. Soong with some fun wide angle shots and a sort of surreal vibe over the whole thing.

Having a crossover episode, I figured we'd see more of the DS9 cast but so far (in Part I at least) we've only encounter Dr. Bashir. That's a bit of a disappointment. Hopefully we'll see more of the DS9 regulars in Part II.

Not a review

[kyvaughn · 4 June 2020]

Why is the area between Worfs head ridges so dark in this episode?

Oh girl..

[darkdementress · 5/10 · 17 May 2020]

This jungle is very dangerous and you need weapons and to be wary but hey let's put a naked clingon female baithing by herself in the middle of it.. So stupid.

A Senior Trekker writes.......................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 1 March 2022]

The Golden Age of Star Trek: we had the 6th Season of The Next Generation and the 1st Season of Deep Space Nice on our televisions, Generations on view in our cinemas and First Contact due out soon. This season of TNG contains some excellent stand-alone episodes and several spectacular two-parters, with only the occasional make-weight. Despite the length of time it had already been on the air, it still represents some of the highest standard of television Science Fiction ever broadcast.

This episode could be viewed as little more than the set up for Worf's adventures on a remote planet which is home to a long forgotten Romulan prison camp for the Klingons who were captured after the battle of Khitomer. After all, this part of the story is set up at the very beginning of Part I and does not really get going until Part II. Various bits of narrative seem to have been inserted to change it from a one-and-a-bit-length episode into a two-parter. That doesn't much matter if you are enjoying the various excellent storylines and only seems a bit weird if you try to break it down afterwards.

Well, quite a few "rule books" have been abandoned by this stage in the series and who would want to miss the cross over appearance of Doctor Julian Bashir from the fledgling series, Deep Space Nine? Alexander Siddig (at the time still going by the name of Siddig el Fadil) radiates the youthful enthusiasm with which his character joins the new series' regular crew and is an absolute joy to watch. If it was intended to encourage US viewers of TNG to try out the brand new DS9 then I hope it was a success. In the UK, because of the VHS release schedule, we had already had the chance to see Deep Space Nine and, for Star Trek cognoscenti, there was simply no going back. We were hooked.

Data's dream world is extremely imaginatively presented. A lot of work must have gone into depicting such a surrealistic view of the Enterprise interior and the symbolism, as illustrated in Data's fantasy paintings, is fascinating. These scenes have a freshness and a creativity which speaks highly of the continuing commitment of all concerned at this late stage in the series' run.

My favourite character, of course, is the cunning and rather repellent Jaglom Shrek, played to perfection by Hollywood A-lister James Cromwell. He exudes avarice and guile despite being encased in a full head of latex prosthetic; the repulsive worm-like detail of which stands up very well to high definition viewing. Even his hands are rendered completely alien and thumbless by some clever camouflage. Imagine having to go around like that for a prolonged day's filming? Now that's true dedication to the craft.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.