L.A. Confidential (1997)

In the Star Trek universe, we have the Cardassian race.  In a Deep Space Nine episode, Garak and Bashir were talking about Cardassian Enigma tales.  Bashir’s main complaint was that all of the suspects were guilty of something.  Garak points out that the fun of the stories was to figure out who was guilty of what.  L.A. Confidential is a bit like that.  It seems that all of the main characters (and many of the suspects) are guilty of something.  If they haven’t done something yet, they will.

The movie is set in Los Angeles in the 1950s.  Ed Exley is a by-the-book sergeant who wants work his way up the ranks.  Captain Dudley Smith asks him if he’d be willing to bend the rules; since the answer is no, Ed probably won’t make it far as a detective.  Bud White is more of what Smith would consider a good officer.  He’s someone who is willing to beat the crap out of a suspect if it means that a guilty person goes to jail.  Then, there’s Sergeant Jack Vincennes, who’s not above taking some money.  He works with Sid Hudgens, who publishes a tabloid.  Vincennes also works as a consultant on a Dragnet-type show.  If money is changing hands, one of those hands probably belongs to Vincennes.

Early in the movie, several prisoners find themselves in a jailhouse fight with several police officers, including Vincennes and White.  Exley witnesses it, but is powerless to stop it.  Since Exley testifies, he’s given a promotion, but is not well liked by his fellow police officers.  Still, life goes on for White, Vincennes and Exley.

As detective lieutenant, Exley responds to a call involving several murders, including that of a former police officer.  This leads to finding three suspects who appear to be guilty of the crimes.  Exley is considered a hero for solving the crime.  He’s not convinced that this is all there is to it.  Vincennes agrees to help Exley look into it, which opens up a can of worms neither of them expected.

There’s that famous line, “It’s not what it looks like.”  In all of the television and movie that I’ve watched, this is probably the one time that the line was uttered where it was true.  The movie is complicated.  If you miss a detail, you may not understand the rest of the movie.  There are certain aspects of the movie that aren’t what you might assume.

Everyone likes to think that they’re a good guy and there are some good guys in all of this.  However, all of the main characters eventually do something that’s less than good.  That seems to be the distinguishing characteristic between the main characters.  Exley is the one that is most willing to follow the rules.  He does make a few mistakes, but he likes to think he tries.  The trick is figuring out what, exactly, everyone is guilty of.

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Star Trek The Next Generation - Episode 143 (Birthright: Part 2)

When a story carries over to a second episode, it usually does so completely.  When the first part of Birthright had ended, we had two story lines.  One had Data discovering his ability to dream.  The other had Worf finding a prisoner camp where his father might still be alive.  Data’s story didn’t carry over to Part II at all.  Instead, Part II focuses entirely on Worf.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, even if it was unexpected.

As you might expect, you need to have seen Part I to understand this episode.  In fact, you have to have a pretty good understanding of Star Trek in general to understand the episode.  Klingons and Romulans have been fighting throughout Trek history.  They’re blood enemies. It seems odd that a Klingon would allow himself to be taken prisoner by anyone, let alone a Romulan.  They would take death over capture any day.  This is why it’s surprising to Worf, a Klingon, that his father may have not only survived the attack on Khitomer but survived as a prisoner of the Romulans.

He does find a prison camp and is, himself, captured.  Regrettably, his father is not among those that were captured during the Romulan attack.  His effort was for naught.  Worf immediately asks why the Klingons didn’t kill themselves.  They tried to starve themselves, but the Romulans kept them alive for three months.  The hope was to trade them for information, but the Klingon government refused to acknowledge that a Klingon warrior would be taken captive.

The Klingons couldn’t go back, as it would dishonor their families.  So, the Romulan commander, Tokath, set up a prison camp to let the Klingons live out their days.   This is complicated by the presence of new Klingon children who know nothing of their heritage.  They think that the Klingons and Romulans are fighting an endless war.  It isn’t until Worf starts teaching them that they have any sense of who they are.

For his efforts, Worf is given a choice:  Settle down or be killed.  Worf chooses death, being that it would be honorable and all.  He even refuses help escaping, as that would defeat the point.  (What’s not mentioned is that he’s already missed his ride back.  He has no reason to assume the Enterprise knows where he is, so where would he go?)  Worf realizes that being killed would not only set one final example of what it means to be Klingon, but he would die a martyr.  It would be the final nail in Tokath’s coffin, so to speak.  Tokath relents and agrees to send Worf back, provided that he promise not to reveal the location of the camp.

I remember being somewhat disappointed that Data’s story didn’t carry over to this episode, although it would factor in to later episodes.  Instead, the episode focuses almost entirely on Worf’s story to the point of nearly excluding the rest of the cast.  There were only maybe two or three scenes, basically to establish that the crew knew that Worf was leaving and that they’d be looking for him.  That search is cut short when Worf makes his own way back.  (Surprisingly, no one seems to question that this is onboard a Romulan ship.)

People have brought up that Worf is full-on racist in this episode, not doing anything to hide his contempt for Romulans.  This is nothing new.  He’s always let it be known that he can never forgive the Romulans for killing his parents.  He let a Romulan die when he was the only one that could have saved the Romulan.  Worf hates Romulans.  He’s even revolted when he finds out that his love interest is (gasp) half-Romulan.

The episode seems to focus on Worf maybe growing a bit and challenging the status quo on a planet where the adults made the choice and condemned any children they had as a result.  Those children didn’t ask to be put in that situation.  They wrongly believe that the war still goes on.  Worf takes it upon himself to make the parents see this.

The question seems to be what right Worf has to destroy their way of life.  That way of life was only intended for the parents.  I have to wonder what would have happened if Worf hadn’t come along.  Would the camp have continued long after the parents had all died?  In a hundred years, would there still be their descendants living isolated from the rest of the galaxy?  I imagine that the parents probably didn’t think this far ahead.  It’s possible that eventually, those descendants would have wondered off on their own.

Yes, they have a situation where Klingons and Romulans live in peace, but there’s a reason that they have to keep it a secret.  Neither side would accept this.  Even Tokath had to give up his military career.  This is to say nothing of Ba’el, the half-Romulan, half-Klingon love interest.  Where would she go?  Sure, she might be accepted by the Federation.  She might even go to live with Worf if Worf could accept that.  Either way, she’d never be able accepted by either side.

It’s maybe not what I would call the best episode of The Next Generation, nor would I call it pivotal.  It does make you wonder.  It wouldn’t be easy to have a lasting peace between two sworn enemies.  It could be done in small groups like this, but it would take a major shift in thinking to do it on a large scale.  Worf does grow a little in this respect, but I don’t think it’s a lasting change.  In the end, it’s more of an interesting parable.


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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 142 (Birthright: Part 1)

Data and Worf share a certain bond.  Both serve on the Enterprise as outsiders.  Granted, the Enterprise has people form lots of different races, but Data is an artificial life form and Worf is the only Klingon serving on a Starfleet vessel.  Even more, both lost their fathers at a young age.  Worf’s father was killed in a Romulan attack whereas Data’s creator was presumed to have been killed in an attack by a space-dwelling entity.  In Birthright, both have to deal with their respective familial pasts.

The Enterprise is visiting Deep Space Nine about some Bajoran aqueducts.  While on the station, Worf is approached by a Yridian claiming to have information indicating that Worf’s father is still alive in a prison camp.  Worf tells the Yridian to take a flying leap because a Klingon would rather die than be captured by a Romulan.

On the Enterprise, Data finds DS9’s Dr. Bashir in sickbay.  He’s testing some device that he assumes is a medical device.  Why does he assume that it’s a medical device?  Probably because he’s fresh out of Starfleet Academy.  Why is he testing it himself?  Maybe it was those engineering extension courses we’ll learn about later.  Data tells Bashir that he’s not authorized to be there before inviting him to engineering to properly test the device.

Data and Bashir hook the device up to the ship with the help of Chief Engineer La Forge.  The first thing Data does is stand right in front of it before letting someone else flip the switch.  So, of course he gets hit by an energy discharge and is knocked unconscious.  When he wakes up, he tells La Forge and Bashir about a dream he had of his creator.

Data finds Worf to talk about it.  Worf decides to find his father while Data decides to try the experiment again.  This time, Data has a complete dream where his father tells him he’s off to a good start, subconsciously speaking.  Meanwhile, Worf finds the Yridian again and demands that the Yridian bring Worf to the prison camp.  If he’s lying, Worf will send him on that flying leap.

It turns out that there really is a prison camp and that Worf’s father really did die in the Romulan attack.  Worf is initially urged to leave, but it’s too late.  The residents of the camp can’t risk anyone drawing attention to their existence.  Why not?  We’ll have to find out in the second part.  The episode ends with Worf being captured.

It’s nice to have continuity here. Data did find his father in an earlier episode only to actually lose him.  I imagine that Dr. Noonian Soong planned on raising Data himself.  The fact that the appropriate circuits were activated was an accident.  I was hoping that it would be carried over in the second part.  When the episode first aired, I’d have to wait an entire week to find out that Part II would be all about Worf.  I’d have to wait to see Data explore his dreams again, but it would be worth it.  We’d have at least one really interesting episode come out of this.

As for Worf, his family has been very important to him.  Because his father was said to be a traitor, he had to accept dishonor and discommendation for a good part of the series.  When he found out he had a brother, he hid the fact to protect his brother.  Family is important to Worf, as it is to all Klingons. This is a fact that will come into play in the second part.

My only regret here is that the Deep Space Nine aspect isn’t played up that much.  This is probably for two reasons.  First, Deep Space Nine was airing concurrently with The Next Generation at this point, meaning that the actors would have been busy.  Terry Farrell was supposed to guest star, but a scheduling conflict prevented that.  The second reason is that any actor would presumably have to be paid for said guest appearance.  Thus, you’re probably not going to have too many actors from the other series dropping by.

It’s an interesting episode that sets up another interesting episode.  It’s assumed that you have some familiarity with the series, although it’s not entirely necessary.  The key points are explained, although newcomers won’t understand it as regular viewers would.  At least there’s no shame in binging on The Next Generation.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 59 (The Hunted)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Most of the time, the various Star Trek series were able to get a point across with subtlety.  You might not get the point right away.  Even if you did, it was more like, “Oh.  I see what you did there.”  On a few occasions, it was about as subtle as a flyswatter to the forehead.  Repeatedly.  One of those flyswatter episodes was “The Hunted.”

The episode starts with the Enterprise visiting Angosia.  They’re applying to be in the United Federation of Planets.  Everything looks good.  They just got out of a messy war, but they seem to have recovered nicely.  They’re a peaceful race that values the intellect above all.  There’s just one slight problem:  Roga Danar.  He’s escaped from a prison colony on Lunar V.  The Angosian prime minister, Nayrok, warns the crew to be careful.  He has a long list of crimes and is very dangerous.

He tricks the crew a few times, but is eventually beamed aboard.  As per the warning, it takes five Starfleet officers to subdue him.  Once in captivity, he has nightmares so strong that Counselor Troi senses them.  She goes to see who this troubled person is only to find out that he’s very calm and rational, much like any other Angosian.  It’s hard to believe that he’s some madman, except that it took five Starfleet officers to subdue him.

Here’s the thing:  That long list of crimes against Angosian society doesn’t exist.  It’s a military prison, but Danar has committed no crimes.  The Angosian military created these genetically and psychologically enhanced soldiers.  After the war, little attempt was made to undo what was done.  They were made to defend themselves at all costs, so the littlest threat would provoke them to kill someone.  The solution was to move them all off world.

Danar will escape by any means necessary, including busting out of a transporter beam.  I know.  I didn’t think it was possible either.  It’s never mentioned how he can do this and I’ve never seen it done before or after.  I think this is done simply because the writers couldn’t think of another way for him to escape.  Either that, or it’s to show that this guy really is that good.  I’m going with the first one, though.

When the episode first aired, I remember thinking that it was an obvious take on how we don’t treat returning veterans that well.  Even if I didn’t fully get that war changes a person, I got that veterans don’t always get access to basic stuff they need and that we need to treat them better.  Upon rewatching the episode, it comes across as a very blunt criticism.  I don’t really want to get into this, though.  I’ve never served in the military and I don’t know that it’s my place to comment.  I would, however, like to see a veteran’s response to this episode.

Danar points out that it was his bad timing that got him caught.  I wonder what would have happened if he had tried to escape when the Enterprise wasn’t there.  The Federation might never have known about Angosia’s dirty little secret.  Oh, and if Prime Minister Nayrok looks familiar, yes, that’s James Cromwell.  Yes, that James Cromwell.  There’s not much makeup, but it’s kind of odd seeing him as an alien.

This is one of those episodes I don’t know that I’d recommend watching unless you were set on watching them all in order.  Technically, I’m reviewing the episode on VHS and I don’t know that I’d recommend buying VHS to begin with.  (Can you even buy the VHS episodes new?)  Instead, put your money towards the season set. 

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