I don't care for this episode for many reasons.
To begin with, this is a Crusher-heavy episode. Which means we'll be treated to her pushing personal beliefs onto others and using condescension and hectoring to get her way. And in this episode she's turned up to an eleven.
But Worf is a Klingon. He's more Klingony then all other Klingons we've met. He is rigid, tense and mostly humorless. And above all, he follows the tenets of Klingon life and honor with a rigidity that most humans don't understand.
For Worf, losing his ability to move about on his on means he has lost his honor. He is no longer a warrior, capable of defending the Federation or his Klingon homeland. It's as if he is already dead, or worse, like a warrior who has been captured but not allowed to die.
I can't understand that mentality, no one on the Enterprise can understand it either. For humans, it's a matter of changing your outlook and working with what you've got. One can still live a great life and give as much back as before.
I personally don't view this episode, or Worf's beliefs or decisions, based on real life, but within the confines of the Trek 'verse. And within those confines, Worf has a right to end his life, when and how he desires. It is not up to me, and it doesn't matter what I think.
Yes, he has a son to think about, but in Worf's eyes, he would only bring shame to Alexander in his current condition. It sounds crazy, but it's part of the show and part of this character. And Worf will never change.
As someone else stated in their review, Riker's anger when discussing Worf's suicide with Picard, makes him look more unhinged than he's accusing Worf of being. I don't understand what the writers were trying to portray with Riker here. All of the bridge officers know Worf as well as anyone can, but act like this request is coming out of left field. Riker is shocked and so angry he can barely control himself. What? First of all, why is he so shocked? He knows Worf and he knows Klingons. They take their deaths as seriously as they take their lives. So he doesn't want to assist Worf in his suicide. Rather than tell him that and explain why, they have him looking completely unstable and lashing out at Picard.
Then we have the visiting doctor, Dr Russell. Crusher has a problem with Russell right away when she learns how the doctor does her work. She experiments on people who are injured beyond response to regular, known medical treatment and will die if a new treatment is not found. And Beverly explicitly states that this is what she has a problem with: treating patients in emergency situations who have no alternatives. But how else will new treatments ever move beyond experimental, if they aren't done on someone who needs them? It isn't ethical to experiment on patients who don't need radical medical care, but that's not the issue here. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, or missed some crucial dialogue, but I felt this was simply more of Crusher pounding someone else over the head with her own beliefs.
In Worf's case, he was going to commit suicide one way or the other. Despite Beverly's littler tantrum saying she'd put him under restraints if she had to, Worf would not be in her sick bay forever, and he would do what he wanted as soon as able. Therefore, why not let Dr Russell try her new treatment? Which, of course, does work. And yet, Crusher still acts petty and unprofessional when Russell comes to tell her goodbye.
This isn't a great episode, IMHO. It feels like the writers didn't know where they wanted to go, so went everywhere without giving any story line full meaning. They either needed a two-parter or less thrown in.
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