By Keith Alan Morgan on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 07:43 am:

At the beginning of this episode the Romulans are mentioned and Picard says that is a name he hasn't heard in a while, but in the earlier episode Angel One, they had to rush to the Neutral Zone to deal with the Romulans.

Before transporting over to the freighter, Geordi turns on his Visual Acuity Transmitter and Worf said they were receiving. So how come we didn't hear any comments on the view from the peanut gallery..., I mean, the Bridge? The view of the Transporter room must have looked just as strange as the freighter, and Riker was standing in front of Geordi at the time, but Picard didn't ask what that shape was like he did after they were on the freighter.

They are on a rescue mission in a ship that is filled with toxic gasses and is about to blow up and the survivors are behind a stuck door and time is of the essence, but Data has to ask permission to force open the door???

Data says that this may be the first time outsiders have seen the Klingon Death Ritual. If no outsiders have ever seen it, then how does Data know it exists?

Yar is leading a Security Team to get the Klingons and the short guy in back looks like he's trying to peer over the shoulder of the taller guy in front of him.

This appears to be the first instance of my favorite Security maneuver. The two short Security guards flank the Klingons, while the taller, more muscular guards walk behind them.

Yar checks the pulse of her Security Guard to find out he's dead, but she just glances at the Klingon and knows he's dead. How did she know? Do dead Klingons smell like rotting fish? (Or lilacs?)

One of Riker's jobs is to protect the Captain from harm. So why did he let the Captain go down to Engineering, where an armed, rogue Klingon waited?

At the end of the episode the Enterprise heads off for Starbase 84. Wait a minute, didn't the Klingon tell Worf that they stranded the freighter's crew on some planet? Shouldn't the Enterprise start searching for them?
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By Chris Booton on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 02:40 pm:

Yar checks the pulse of her Security Guard to find out he's dead, but she just glances at the Klingon and knows he's dead. How did she know? Do dead Klingons smell like rotting fish? (Or lilacs?)

I think his carcus was smoking from the phasor shots he took, this is they knew he was dead.

Anyway, did anyone think to search these guys for weapons or to scan them? Certainly the can detect a took apart phaser?
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 04:11 pm:

>Data says that this may be the first time outsiders have seen the Klingon Death Ritual. If no outsiders have ever seen it, then how does Data know it exists?>

I supsoe he has heard 2nd & 3rd hand (Or applyable appendage) accounts of it.
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Tuesday, April 20, 1999 - 05:59 am:

About the Klingon Death Ritual, I suppose non-Klingons could have heard about it... screaming Klingons aren't exactly subtle.

Keith, about your nit regarding the Romulans. Although on TV 'Angel One' came before this episode, this episode comes before it chronologically, due to Season 1's messed-up order of stardates.
(Heart Of Glory - 41503.7
Angel One - 41636.9)

Early on in this episode, Picard says "Now, there's a name we haven't heard for a while..." meaning of course the Romulans. Evidently Picard's definition of "a while" is quite short, because Romulans were mentioned in "Angel One," which comes before "Heart of Glory" both in show order and stardate order!

(As an aside: does this mean that the Enterprise got to the Neutral Zone after "Angel One" only to find nothing happening? Talk about an anticlimax...!)

Captain's Log: We've arrived at the Neutral Zone, but instead of Romulans all we see is a cube-shaped ship scooping up our outposts. Since it's not the Romulans we will resume our usual patrol.

In the book, Phil wonders about Korris' reference to "The traitors of Kling." You know, it occurs to me that Kling could be a city, or mythological reference in Klingon history. Phil assumed that it was the name of the Klingon homeworld, me thinks.

Keith Alan Morgan: "Before transporting over to the freighter, Geordi turns on his Visual Acuity Transmitter and Worf said they were receiving. So how come we didn't hear any comments on the view from the peanut gallery..., I mean, the Bridge?"

I think Worf responded that he was receiving the visual - he probably was watching at his station. Later, when the away team beams over to the freighter, Picard asks that the visual be displayed on the main viewscreen. It is only Picard that makes comments and seems enthralled by Geordi's SFX (which is out of character for him, especially since he puts the away team in danger by delaying their mission so he can talk about the aura around Data).

NIT: (IMHO) Troi is missing.

In "Hide & Q", Worf says that the Klingon fantasy woman comes from a world "now alien to him"...so if Klingon babes are considered "alien" to Worf, why does he participate in the Klingon Death Howl?

Good point. IIRC the Chief actually had some fun with that one in the original NextGen Guide.

Basically Worf's attitude toward his Klingon heritage was just another of those first-season crinkles that the creators needed to smooth out...along with Troi's hair/costume, the engine's matter/antimatter ratios, and the Ferengis' phaser whips/furry cloaks.

When Worf and Picard leave the bridge to go to Engineering, Picard doesn't delegate the conn.

After Data asks for permission to force the door in the damaged ship frieghter, he places both palms on the door and pushes. He seems to give a look like "hmm, funny that didn't seem to work". He then grabs the bottom of the top part of the door and slides it up, which makes sense. Why would you try to open a sliding door that's open a crack, by pushing on it?

How did Yar figure out that Korris was armed? The guard that called for help saw the forcefield go down, but I don't think he saw their weapon, or he didn't report it. When Yar arrived, Korris was gone, Konmel and two guards were dead or severely wounded, and the only weapons around were the guards' phasers. From what I was shown, I would have assumed, they tricked the guard into entering, disarmed him and shot him, then shot the second guard after Konmel went down, then for some reason, Korris dropped the phaser and bolted. They didn't know that they built a weapon and used it. It would probably take an autopsy that Yar couldn't do even if she took the time to determine that a different weapon was used on each of the guards. So, how did she figure it out so certainly? She might have speculated he had somehow gotten a third weapon and took it along, or it's SOP to assume a fugitive is armed, but based on what she was seeing, why would she assume it?
Another nit. Worf told the Klingons that the ship separates so the stardrive (which I guess is better armed than the saucer) can maneuver better. First of all, the reason we got back in the pilot is that the saucer runs to safety carrying non-essential crewmen and civilians. It could be both,I'm sure, but we never see the Enterprise separate and the stardrive fighting any better alone. Yes, Arsenal of Freedom has a saucer separation with an evacuation, but after that we only see separations done for tactical reasons involving both pieces fighting. Also, the stardrive doesn't seem well-armed. The main weapon the Enterprise uses tends to be the phasers on the saucer, not the torpedoes in the stardrive. Was Worf embarrassed to tell his fellow he was on a ship full of people who give a hang about civilians? Also, why would the separation ability be brought up in casual conversation? Wouldn't both it and the capabilities of the Enterprise's stardrive section be classified information? Allies or not, the Klingons are not Starfleet and shouldn't know this stuff. If they found out about it through spies, why would Klingons, even renegades, discuss it with a Starfleet officer, and announce "our leaders know the capabilities of your most powerful ship."? Of course they may want a war with the Federation, but they aren't sure where Worf stands, and he might have told his superiors and they'd get stuck in the brig. Of course the real reason it was brought up was as a plot point, so Korris could demand the stardrive be given over to him. Of course we don't deal in reality here.
Finally, weren't Korris and his buddies candidates for the Klingon version of the Darwin Award? First, they hijack some poorly-armed rustbucket of a freighter in the hope of going on some glorious campaign of conquest. Then after they luck out against a Klingon ship, they get rescued by an advanced Starfleet vessel, and by some fluke, meet the one Klingon in their entire organization, one who grew up on a Federation farming colony and has good reason to be loyal to Starfleet. They try to inveigle him in their insane plan to take over the Enterprise (never tell them the odds). Finally, the ringleader of these wackos pulls a gun on the warp core, thinking Starfleet officers would hand over half their ship to him. Apparently Korris bought the propaganda that the Empire must have put out about humans being total cowards. I think Korris lied about his credentials, and was really a frustrated janitor who couldn't cut it as a warrior.

Chris Diehl: ..then for some reason, Korris dropped the phaser and bolted.
Luigi Novi: Why in the world would Yar think an escaped Klingon prisoner would throw a weapon away? Yar isn't dumb. She knows that the Klingons might've hidden weapons on their person.

Also, why would the separation ability be brought up in casual conversation? Wouldn't both it and the capabilities of the Enterprise's stardrive section be classified information?

I don't think it would be classified, but more one of those known features that you could read about in the 24th century equilivent of Aviation Week and Space Technology or Jane's Fighting (star) Ships.

OK, Luigi, if Yar thought that was a possibility, why didn't she have them searched, put in another suit of clothes and then put in the cell? Also, considering the situation, should there not have been more security around the cell, since it would be almost a given that the Klingons would try to escape? There was one guard and he was not facing the huge, clear entrance to it and watching them. Shouldn't he have had a buddy or three standing by him just in case? Also, Korris got a rather odd look on his face after the fight outside the cell. He seemed to decide something. IIRC, he put down the phaser and grabbed Konmel's gun, then ran to Engineering. I am guessing he didn't think the phaser would take out the warp core, or he wanted to go down holding a Klingon weapon. It kind of plays into the idea that he is not very competent as a warrior.
Brian, I am sure there are publications like the ones you cite in this future. However, saucer separation for the reasons Worf mentioned seems like the sort of thing you keep close to the breast early on. At this point, the Galaxy class is new, and I get the feeling saucer separation is a new innovation. Maybe if this episode was in season 7, I could imagine it becoming more common knowledge. But if I were running Starfleet, I would not want my officers telling foreign military personnel (at this point they didn't know they were wanted), even those from allies, about the more advanced capabilites of our ships. On the other side of the coin, if I were a Romulan commander, and knew how well a separated Galaxy class ship fights, I would try to damage the locks that hold them together. In addition to being a weak spot in the hull, I want to keep the ship burdened by the saucer. I thought of that pretty fast and I am not a miltiary officer. How long would it take the Romulans after reading about it in Jane's?
Finally, what do they teach Starfleet security officers about Klingons? I find it hard to believe these two are the first Klingons they ever encountered who did the trick with the gun parts and the device to shut off the forcefield. Surely, Starfleet has had plenty of Klingon uniforms to examine, and has done so. I don't believe that these two are special forces-types wearing a special version of the uniform. Also, why did nobody tell Yar about Klingon culture and fanaticism, or at least about how desperate criminals think? Korris has nothing to lose, and comes from a culture where dying to kill your enemies is considered noble. He's not going to care if he dies blowing up the Enterprise. He's dead either way, and if he does blow it up, he thinks he'll be a hero. I'm not even going to get into the weak security around the Klingons' cell, because that has been addressed well enough.

Chris Diehl: OK, Luigi, if Yar thought that was a possibility, why didn't she have them searched, put in another suit of clothes and then put in the cell?
Luigi Novi: Because security in Trek has always been lousy. That she should've had them searched better is a given. That she assumes they were armed only makes sense.

Chris Diehl: Surely, Starfleet has had plenty of Klingon uniforms to examine, and has done so. I don't believe that these two are special forces-types wearing a special version of the uniform.
Luigi Novi: And what do you base this belief? They very well may have custom made their uniforms to hide weapons parts. Criminals often find new and clever ways to evade detection when committing crimes.

Btw, may I respectfully and humbly suggest better breaks between paragraphs?

Yes, Starfleet security has been pitiful for a long time. But that is no excuse for blatant incompetence of the sort demonstrated here. It is a sizable example of Short Show Syndrome. Had they done their jobs in a reasonable way, they're prisoners would not have escaped.
I imagine that Starfleet has had many chances to study a Klingon uniform, because they have fought several wars against the Empire. Wouldn't they take a few corpses (assuming no POW's could be had) for study, and wouldn't some researcher study their uniforms for a variety of reasons (e.g., to learn how well they protect the wearer, what gear their troops carry, simple curiosity)?
My nits are based on assumptions, but so are all nits. We assume that the fictitious universe we are shown operates like our own. You make assumptions about how scientific laws work, and I make them about behaviors and strategies. I think we can all reach the same conclusion, that the Star Trek universe works however the situation demands, and our assumptions don't fit it. As a result, we are having fun with their universe.

I tried to put spaces at the start of each paragraph to indent them, as is traditional at the start of a paragraph, and it didn't work.

Use a double return instead, Chris.

And if you don't want to waste an entire line, do what I do. Put three or five hyphens where a new paragraph begins, and format them in white, making them invisible against the white background.

Chris Diehl: My nits are based on assumptions, but so are all nits. We assume that the fictitious universe we are shown operates like our own.
Luigi Novi: But if I "assume" something for the purporse of a nit, there has to be a reasonable basis in fact or logic for it.

Chris Diehl: You make assumptions about how scientific laws work, and I make them about behaviors and strategies.
Luigi Novi: (Depending on what you mean by the word "assumption") I don't make "assumptions" about how scientific laws work, I simply refer to the established facts about them. When Phil pointed out that light reached the Enterprise much faster in Tin Man than it should have, he didn't assume the speed of light, he referred to the speed of light that has been scientifically established.

As for behaviors and strategies, yeah, we can speculate or question them if they conform to or explain a nit, but that doesn't mean I can simply "invent" a conclusion out of whole cloth. There has to be a basis for an assumption, and there is no basis to conclude that these three Klingons not "special forces types," or that they didn't have their uniforms custom-made to conceal weapons, which isn't something I'd put past a Klingon.

Usually, if I want to make a nit about some character's behavior, I have to try to argue it with some line of reasoning. For example, when I cited Worf's behavior with J'Dan in the turbolift in the teaser of The Drumhead as a nit, I had to provide a reason why it was a nit; that is, if I said it was inconsistent, I had to provide a previous situation that was similar in all substantial respects in which he acted totally differently without any extenuating circumstance that would explain the difference. The reason I provided is that the three Klingons in this episode have pretty much the EXACT same motive for their actions in this episode as J'Dan had for his. But in your case, you didn't provide any particular reason why you felt these Klingons could not have been special, or custom-made their uniforms.

I can concede that the Klingons' behavior, no matter their background, seems motivated by desperation. It looks like their actions from the breakout forward were an attempt at Suicide by Cop. They could have been trying to force the crew of the Enterprise to kill them so they could die with honor. I just think the writers put themselves in a corner, and the only way they could get out of it required them to make Starfleet security look like fools for not securing prisoners nearly as well as they could have.

Also, I think my fascination with the detail of these Klingons having hidden, easily carried equipment attached to their uniforms got away from me. It, like so many other things on Star Trek, was a missed opportunity. Wouldn't Martok have loved to have a disruptor pistol hidden in his belt buckle when he was kidnapped by the Dominion? Maybe it would not be out of line to add a topic to these boards to discuss missed opportunities from various series and how we imagine them going had they been developed.

Yeah, that's another ongoing problem, Chris: Can O' Worms Treknology, or Pandora's Box Treknology:

If the Cardassians had technology in The Die is Cast(DS9) and the Federation in Apocalypse Rising(DS9) to keep Changelings from shapeshifting, why not install them all over starbases and starships?

If Fajo had a personal forcefield device in The Most Toys, then why doesn't everyone have them, if only for special circumstances, like combat situations and war?

If people can be put into stasis, then the dying Romulan's situation didn't have to be so urgent in The Enemy, and he could've been saved until picked up by his people, or Bochra was brought up to the Enterprise. Ditto for Willie Potts' situation in Brothers, Kamala could've been put back into stasis in The Perfect Mate, they could've stuck everyone in stasis to prevent Warp 10 mutation after Threshold(VOY), they could've stuck Kes in stasis in Before and After(VOY) to prevent another time jump, they could've stuck Harry in stasis to halt the spread of the 8472 infection in Scorpion part I(VOY), Doc could've beamed Harry or Jetal into a stasis chamber while working to save the other in Latent Image(VOY), they could've put everyone but Doc and Seven in stasis to protect them from the radiation in Inside Man(VOY), they could've put all the prisoners in stasis in Repentance(VOY), they could've put Icheb into stasis until they could find a way to keep his cells from necrotizing in Q2(VOY), etc.

Why in the world would Yar think an escaped Klingon prisoner would throw a weapon away? Yar isn't dumb. She knows that the Klingons might've hidden weapons on their person. - Luigi

Keep in mind that Chris is going by the details presented in the episode. That is to say, the most likely weapons Korris could have had on him (barring a concealed weapon) were accounted for -- the guards' phasers. Yet Yar still assumes he's armed... which is probably SOP.

NANJAN: The idea of the visual feedback from Geordi's VISOR comes from the movie "Blind Date" (co-starring Marina Sirtis) in which a man loses his vision & gets assistance seeing again via a surgical implant in his brain that allows him to see outlines of people & objects..however, there's no real substance....very simular to Geordi's VISOR. It's too coincidental to be an accident.

What does "NANJAN" mean? "Not a nit, just a nit"?!

"Not A Nit, Just A Note"...kinda like
"NANJAO"..."Not A Nit, Just An Observation"

It's possible that both were based on developments in imaging technology in real life, rather than one on the other.

Vaughn Armstrong (Korris) is a very busy guy in the Trek universe. He has guested on Deep Space Nine several times, Voyager a few times, and is seen on Enterprise as Admiral Forrest. According to TvTome, he has played more different characters than anyone else in the Trek acting pool.

David Froman (K'Nera) was Lieutenant Bob Brooks, one of the many police contacts that Andy Griffith had on "Matlock."

I assume either J. G. Hertzler or Jeffrey Combs comes in second.

I THINK it's Combs.

Actually, I'd say James Doohan could be number one, taking into account the number of times his voice was used in the original series and in the animated series. Nichelle Nichols would be high on the list, too, if her animated series work was considered.
Worf says that taking hostages isn't something a Klingon does. Really? It sure looked like Korris was considering it when he grabbed that little girl, and Commander Kruge used hostages to his benefit in The Search For Spock when he had Saavik, David Marcus, and young Spock.
While in engineering, when Yar talks to the bridge, she tosses her phaser from her right hand to her left to tap her comm badge not once, but twice! Can she not raise her left hand to tap her left collar bone area? Would she virtually disarm herself like that if she had an itch? Would she fuss around with a heavy phaser rifle to use her right hand to touch her commbadge? And this is the Chief of Security?
And shouldn't there have been a debris field nearby of the destroyed Klingon ship?
Phil suggested in the Guide that the Klingons shouldn't have been destroyed by primtive missiles, which makes sense, unless we consider the possibility that the missiles were beamed inside the Klingon ship and detonated.

Actually, Will, your Yar nit is a global nit. Given that most humans are right-handed, and (REAL WORLD: given that they're played by humans) assuming humanoids are as well, shouldn't the commbadge be on the right side of the uniform, so that the "free" hand can tap it?

It should be, but maybe the placement of the emblem/badge/name tag has something to do with it being near the human heart.

It's probably because the right hand is dominant that people use their right hand to put it on their chests. They're not thinking ahead to "Gee, what if I'm holding a phaser and need to tap my combadge?"

For years I would put my nametag on my left side until I read a few years ago that one should stick nametags on the right side so it would be easier to read when someone is shaking your hand.

One other thing. It is still a uniform and "badges" have been on the left hand side for all the incarnations of trek. Since traditions and regulations especially in military (or paramilitary depending on which version of starfleet you prefer) organizations it could be one other reason the comm badge is still on the left side.

And for that reason Yar should have had enough training to use her left hand and not disarm herself for several seconds. Watch how the phaser switches hands; she actually tosses it from hand to hand, rather than just grasping the weapon with her left hand, which means she could have dropped her phaser, it could have landed on the trigger and then BOOOMM!!! goes the warp core and Korris and everyone else.

I seriously think 24th century technology would come up with a phaser that doesn't fire when dropped on its trigger.

It is still a uniform and "badges" have been on the left hand side for all the incarnations of trek.

For Starfleet, yes, though not for Bajorans (not that it can be considered a nit against this episode.) I guess the Bajorans are a bit more utilitarian in their uniform design.

I seriously think 24th century technology would come up with a phaser that doesn't fire when dropped on its trigger.

I'd think they would invent fuses to prevent the consoles from exploding at the drop of a hat, too.

See what you get for thinking?

I think the Bajorans put their com badges on the right side of their uniforms just to be differant from the Starfleet guys, not because they are more utilitarian in their uniform designs.

Wesley and Troi do not appear in this episode.

Immediately after Konmel is phasered and Korris shoots the poor security guy and runs away, in the shot where Tasha arrives in the background, in the foreground you can see Konmel's mouth moving.

I figure he's probably mumbling "Oh sure Korris. Don't bother with the Klingon howling-for-the-dead thing for me. Just run along, I don't mind..."

Interesting essay at Websnark that sort of relates to this episode.

Obviously time is of no concern to anyone when the rescue begins...seeing how much of it was wasted to check out Geordi's visual hook-up doodad. We later find out that the ship will explode in five minutes...which would have been ten minutes if they hadn't dawdled.

NANJAO: It is after this episode, Worf begins embracing his Klingon beliefs and traditions whereas before this, he did not. (They were from a world now alien to him)

It's the only thing that makes sense for the change in Worf's behaviour.

By this time in the first season, they probably knew that Denise Crosby was going to be leaving the show soon, and they were going to have to make Worf more than just the Klingon on the bridge that he had been before this episode, so they started actually giving him a background and story line, which started in this episode.