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

A rather mixed message as Worf sows disharmony

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 14 August 2015]

This episode begins where the previous one ended; with Worf being captured by the Romulans. He soon learns that this is a rather unusual prison; the Klingons don't consider themselves to be prisoners and live in harmony with their Romulan guards in fact we later learn that some of the younger members of the society are of mixed Romulan/Klingon parentage. Worf is horrified to see these Klingons living so peacefully with the Romulans so sets about teaching them about their warrior heritage and Klingon honour. As he continues to destabilise the community Tokath, the senior Romulan, gives him an ultimatum; start living by the communities rules or face execution.

This, the second of a two part story, is rather strange; the first part had two distinct plot strands but this episode just follows one of them; there is no further mention of Data's visions and we never learn what the device Dr Bashir was investigating actually was… he doesn't even feature in this episode. Worf's plot thread is interesting but goes in an uncomfortable direction; Worf discovers a small, peaceful community where long-time enemies the Romulans and Klingons live in harmony and the youngsters have never looked on Romulans as enemies… instead of leaving them to live in peace he sets about lecturing then on how they should hate Romulans. Given that Star Trek has preached racial tolerance from its early days it is odd seeing a major character not only preaching hatred but it seems as though we are meant to think it is good that he is teaching the youth of this society to reclaim their warrior heritage. On the plus side the cast do a solid job; I've always liked Michael Dorn's Worf and it is nice to see him very much carry an episode while the rest of the main cast are hardly seen. Overall a very mixed episode; some good moments but also some uncomfortable themes.

More Klingon LIfe and Death With Honor Stuff

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 29 September 2014]

When Worf arrives on the planet, seeking his father, he encounters a couple of generations. One generation is a group of old Klingons who have accepted their fate, living in relatively comfort with a Romulan commander, who has actually married and produced children with a Klingon woman. What happens is the usual "right to express your Klingon being" stuff that is genetic, I guess. Worf walks in and begins to disrupt the culture. The children, who are mixed race, begin to feel alienated, leaning toward their Klingon side. For about the fiftieth time, Worf decides to become a martyr rather than allow himself to be held, which is fine, but he is so full of himself that he doesn't recognize the delicate balance that exists here. We also get an answer to Data's dilemma, his recurring surreal dreams. This is interesting, but in the scope of things, not all that big a deal. I have one concern with the Worf thing. Where is the Prime Directive here?

I don't agree with the hate directed towards this episode

[robert3750 · 8/10 · 21 August 2020]

Worf encounters a camp where Klingons live with their Romulan captors, one of whom even married a Klingon and produced a daughter. I see a lot of commentators here bothered that Worf wants to teach the young Klingons Klingon history and culture. It seems to me that those commentators are basically displaying their intolerance of Klingon culture, while at the same complaining that Worf isn't sufficiently tolerant. It seems they would prefer that the young Klingons not know anything about their heritage. Ultimately, it was their choice to embrace what Worf taught them, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's true that Worf did initially display racial animus towards the half-Romulan woman, but we saw him overcoming that, and if she had chosen to go with him, he would have accepted her as his mate. Sadly, she realized that Klingon society would never accept her, so the camp was the only place where she could be accepted for who she was.

Klingons and Romulans.

[russem31 · 30 April 2006]

ST:TNG:143 - "Birthright, Part II" (Stardate: 46579.2) - this is the 17th episode of the 6th season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Worf is now captured by the Romulans AND the Klingons at the Romulan prison camp in the Carraya System, finally learning that his father did indeed die in battle as he thought. But, it turns out things are NOT what they seem for the Romulans and Klingons have been living in peace here, with the former Romulan prison leader Tokath actually married a Klingon! Also, the Klingon children of the former prisoners also are not taught the Klingon ways.

Now, it's up to Worf to give these children their "birthright". In the process, he learns more about this camp, about another secret Tokath is keeping. And perhaps, he can learn to overcome his on biases in the process. Watch and see!

Among the least of the two-part episodes.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 29 November 2014]

This second part of "Birthright" is better than the first part, though neither are especially good compared to the other two-parters from the series. In fact, most of the other two-parters are among the best shows--and so I was expecting so much more from this one.

The first plot from part one involved Data having a near-death experience and trying to replicate it. However, inexplicably, this plot is completely abandoned here. Instead, the entire episode is about Worf once he lands on a planet filled with prisoners from the Kitimer Massacre and their children. Their Romulan jailers aren't exactly harsh with them--they're more like members of the same very passive and peace-loving community. In fact, they're like a model that illustrated that both races can live happily as peaceful beings--so it's up to Worf to destroy all this and show the Klingon children that violence, honor and death are the best ways.

While the show is interesting and would have made a nice single episode of the series, it is no better and SHOULD be since the other two- part shows are all very, very good. Only about average.

Missed Opportunity part II

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 18 May 2018]

This episode actually is a precursor to Worf's bad side, which is looked at in more detail in Deep Space 9 once he joined that show.

If Dax had been around, she would have punched him.

But this episode is True Worf. He could be such a IoD nga'chuq!

I hate to say "Racist Worf", but he was this way in "The Enemy", too. He could really naDevvo' me off sometimes.

Maybe that is why his character had to endure so much, first Key'lehr, then Dax.

This episode deals with Worf's Father's fate, and that in itself is yet another missed opportunity. It's the mother of all missed opportunities.

This is the first time we get to hear actual Klingon music, and Worf gets to explain about what it means to people who had forgotten what it means, and to kids who did not know.

Actually this episode deals with a subject that hits a deep nerve with Worf: The Attack on Khitomer and the killing of his parents by the Romulans, via the traitor Duras. Suddenly, Worf is surrounded by Romulans and apparently docile Klingons. He can't take it. He won't take it. But there are Klingon kids there, and Worf has a heart for them. Of course this causes a conflict with the Romulan leader of the camp, a conflict that didn't need to happen.

And in true Worf fashion, he never backs down. This could have been a catastrophe, but Worf was lucky this time: That he was loved by a person whose existence offended him. That's a situation that could melt the hardest ice, and it does.

But I do agree with one reviewer: Worf's obsession with Klingon Duty, Honour and Principles could be at times, tiresome.

But that did not cause me to love the character less. It just made him more of a real person.

Directed, for the first (and last) time by Dan Curry, who was very involved in creating the atmosphere of Trek through the 80's up to Enterprise. Most of the Klingon weapons, he designed, and figured out how they all worked. He even developed Worf's "Tiger Crane" style of training.

Their swords into plowshares

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 13 May 2020]

In the previous episode Worf is given information about Klingons who did not die at the infamous Kittimer massacre. One could be his father.

When he investigates he finds that Klingons and Romulans are living together learning of all things agriculture. This offends Michael Dorn's Klingon soul and his very presence brings about a cultural counterrevolution.

Best scene iks Worf with a Klingon boy on the hunt. When he's done the kid knowws what its like to be a Klingon.

REVIEW 2022

[iamirwar · 9/10 · 27 September 2022]

Although this is a TNG double-header, I did write and upload a review for part one of this episode on that review page.

Remember, we are in search of Worf's father, but things haven't gone according to plan. Clearly, Jaglom Shrek has been making up stories, but why? What was the purpose of bringing Worf to this world?

This story clearly gets its inspiration from the rituals of Imperial Japanese soldiers and their attitude to capture and honour. Add a juxtaposition with the attitude of the hippies that followed within a generation, although inverted. There are also hints of the Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner series of the late 1960s.

Although a good story it has taken a descending trajectory from what the first-half promised. I have included this one as part of the Klingon arc which develops throughout TNG and continues into DS9.

A bit harsh of Worf to bad-mouth the Romulans infront of the young Be'al.

Deep rooted mistrust and hatred span many generations. This is so true of the real world.

Worf endeavours to win hearts and minds. Nice that they skinned the dead targh before they presented it at the dinner table. It was bound to happen though, wasn't it.

* Unlike previous two-part episodes, I have decided NOT to review this episode as a double-header with Part One. This is because although the Worf aspect of the story is a continuation, the Data story is not continued here. I feel this may have worked better had the Androids story been concluded here and maybe used one or two DS9 members in support.

This Episodes Clue: Admiral Noyce

(Answer's to all episode clues will appear in the reviews of season seven, episode 25: All Good Things, Part One.)

Plantation

[bgrayedinboro · 6/10 · 1 April 2022]

Sorry I'm late to the party. I just watched this again after 30 years and read all the reviews and I believe many of you missed something. Many of the actors playing the Klingon "prisoners" are Black. The actors playing the Romulan "overseers" are White. The Romulan "master" has sired a daughter with one of the Klingon "prisoners" and Worf is repelled by this, perhaps because he senses that the relationship between her parents was not exactly consensual. There is even a scene where the Klingons are shown working in a field growing crops. I guess this was a little too subtle for some, but I think the writers might have been flying below the radar of popular culture to comment on the complexity of American plantation society. After all, this is Star Trek.

Worf, functioning as a metaphor for a surprising historical figure

[ColonelPuntridge · 7/10 · 6 April 2021]

Who are the most Klingon-like people (and characters) in history and legend?

In this episode, Worf behaves more or less like one of the least violent, least Klingon-like people in history: a mild-mannered, gentle, gay man, who teaches young people to explore their identities and learn what they really are, and gets condemned to death by the local authorities for "corrupting the youth" and for undermining the central concepts of society. Would you ever have imagined Worf as ... Socrates???

"There is no room in my heart for shame."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 27 March 2024]

When Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) uttered that quote in my summary line I had to wonder if I heard it right. Spoken to the Romulan leader of the colony he founded on an unnamed planet, it was a complete departure from Worf's warrior mentality that was so heavily present in Part One of this story. For Klingons, death in battle was considered an honor compared to the shame of being captured, but here, with Romulans and Klingons living in harmony together under the leadership of Tokath (Alan Scarfe), Worf appeared conciliatory for a moment, before reverting back to his Klingon roots.

Injected with a boridium pellet so he could be tracked following an unsuccessful escape attempt, Worf takes a different approach by taking a young man under his wing, who happened to be the son of a mixed Romulan/Klingon marriage. When Toq (Sterling Macer Jr.) learns a bit about his Klingon heritage while on a hunting trip with Worf, it awakens a fire in him that kindles a desire to be free of his only known existence. This poses a major problem for Torath, who issues an ultimatum to Worf to cease and desist in his influencing the Klingons in the colony, or face execution for disrupting the status quo. When Worf chooses death in keeping with his warrior heritage, Toq joins him at his side, followed by other Klingons from the colony who have been influenced by Worf's teachings and forceful stance. Torath is moved by his Klingon wife's (Jennifer Gatti) sympathy, and his daughter Ba'el's (Jennifer Gatti) love for Worf. With that, Worf was free to return to the Enterprise with the promise never to reveal the Romulan/Klingon community living in harmony on the planet below.

With all that, was there ever any closure for Data?

So much for peace and happiness......

[faithless4734 · 3/10 · 17 March 2020]

This is ridiculous. Worf comes to a place that two enemy peoples have learned to live together in peace, even intermarriage and his bigoted ways destroy that peace. So much for Star Trek and their ideals. Let us also not forget that Worf was AWOL as he did not have permission to leave and then of course we have to look at him stealing these young people from the only way of life they know and dumping them into a strange and unknown life and way of life with no family or friends and no real skill sets.

I don't care if you live in peace, I don't like it

[tomasrrp · 2/10 · 13 May 2017]

Frankly, I hated this episode. It reflects that fascist attitude of a small group of people that live in America (those who call themselves Americans): "I don't care if you live in peace, harmony and happiness, I don't like the way you live 'cause that's not the way I live and I'm always right so I'll destroy it".

I've been watching Star Trek my whole life, I've watched all the series, and all the movies and always felt it was universal and inclusive, even "open minded", but this time it was quite an offensive message it left.

Disappointing conclusion

[snoozejonc · 5/10 · 5 December 2021]

Worf attempts to influence a peaceful Klingon-Romulan community to be more violent and aggressive.

This is an odd one to say the least. Personally I found it frustrating because there was the potential for another Klingon classic here but it went unrealised.

I'll start off with positives. The story has a great premise and a strong lead performance from Michael Dorn. These factors make it relatively intriguing and watchable to the end.

Unfortunately some aspects do not work for me. Toq, played by Stirling Macer Junior, is written in a silly way that makes the central plot feel somewhat implausible. His change of character is quite preposterous in how it's shown. In fact, when he appears in full Klingon battle costume it becomes almost laughable.

The relationship between Worf and Ba'el is poorly done even by Star Trek standards of screen romances. There is no chemistry between the two characters and when Worf mentions loving her, it comes so out of left field I wondered if I'd actually missed something.

Some exchanges of dialogue sound quite unnatural. "I've brought something dangerous to your young people: knowledge" Worf says like he's narrating a chapter of his autobiography. There are others that make me role my eyes too.

Many have commented that Worf is written as bigoted and quite unbecoming of a Starfleet officer. Whilst I agree that Worf is not portrayed in the best light here, it is not the first time in the series. In the more celebrated episode 'The Enemy' he is quite prepared to let a sick Romulan die out of pure hatred for the race, so these are consistent aspects of his character. I don't think this is necessarily bad as there needs to be mixture of personality types to keep a show interesting. However, this is the most unlikeable he has appeared to me as a character. I'm not sure if the portrayal was meant to be that of an exciting rebellious figure, but he comes across as an out of touch cultural fanatic.

The production values are generally good and most performances are great. For me it's just the writing that's below the usual standard for what is a very good show.

Worf, Your Discrimination is Showing

[Samuel-Shovel · 3/10 · 15 July 2020]

In "Birthright, Part II" Worf finds himself on a prison-cum-commune planet where Romulans and Klingons now live in peace. The original Klingons are old and would prefer to not return and face dishonor at being captured in battle. Their offspring, a mix of Klingons and Romulans, live off the land. Worf shows up and tries to convince them all to embrace their Klingon heritage.

This is a bad look for Worf. He comes off as a bigot and a jingoist. Here we have a planet living in peace and in total happiness. He shows up and tries to hand down some violent customs to the young'uns. He basically Shane's Gi'ral for being half-Romulan, telling her that neither race of people would ever accept her. Worf just comes off looking like a total jerk in this episode. I'm glad he doesn't blow their cover, but still... A disappointing conclusion to the two-parter.

Also we never find out Shrek's motivation for lying to Worf in the first place. I don't understand we he brought Worf there?

Does not really connect with Part 1

[Davidd418 · 5/10 · 19 September 2022]

I think most would agree Part 1 was great starting with the Enterprise at Deep Space 9. What is strange about this two part story is that they don't connect very well... there were two stories one following Worf and the other following Data and the Doctor from DS9 but then in part 2 suddenly we see nothing of Data and the Doctor.

The story that was shown in part 2 was just following Worf in captivity. The overall story of part 2 didn't seem well coordinated. It felt like Worf came in and destroyed everything in a peaceful culture when he was supposedly just supposed to be looking for answers about his father. I feel like it wasn't fair of him to destroy or upset a rare peaceful life shared between a few Romulans and Klingons who have come to peace with each other.

Flawed reasoning

[jhbbunch-62880 · 5/10 · 7 September 2018]

Worf wants the Klingons to be great hunters and warriors. The young Klingon he teaches to be a hunter kills an animal. And slaps it down on a table to show everyone that he is now a great hunter. That's what you do when you want to be a hunter. You kill animals. So the warrior thing. How does that work? You've got Klingons and Romulans in this place. How does a Klingon prove he is a great warrior? Duh! Using the hunter reasoning, kill a Romulan and slap him down on the table. That the elder Klingons joined Warf and could not see the obvious flaw is dumb.

Innappropriate

[darkdementress · 4/10 · 18 May 2020]

Another creepy case of a star trek man who's attracted to a woman half his age.. Even in the 90s that was pretty tabo and gross! Definitely not ok. And i don't understand why all the Klingons are wimpy and peaceful just because they are prisoners?? Or how worf left on this trip without anyone from the crew knowing.

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.

If I enjoyed part I then part II was even better. When Worf penetrated what he thought was a prison camp to find a community, the sense of being in a little lost world that had been hidden from the rest of the galaxy was beautifully captured. I was surprised to find out that the jungle surrounding the camp was made up of hired potted greenery on a sound stage but may have been fooled by the use of photographs of the real jungles in South East Asia for the establishing shots. Skilful.

The guest actors, especially Alan Scarfe as the Commander turned community leader, Tokath, are a little too sympathetic to explain some of their subsequent behaviour (no, of course he wouldn't have really executed Worf) but their moral dilemmas are at least properly debated. Mr Scarf is a Star Trek and Science fiction regular and many would agree that this is one of his his best roles.

These stories involve fictional races with fictional traditions and mores but we are asked to consider whether Klingon families would really consent to be separated like this so that the youngsters can claim their Birthright while their dishonoured parents pretend to be dead. It's a tribute to the writers that we care but also impossible to reconcile with real life human behaviour.

This is the season's Worf episode and I don't think Michael Dorn complained. He got to wear his black commando outfit again, teach Klingon culture and sing hunting songs. What works less well for him is the budding romance with Ba'el, played Jennifer Gatti. The actress would return to Star Trek in Voyager but in this episode she is probably too young to be kissing Michael Dorn. Or maybe those Klingon teeth just make it impossible.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.