This episode tests my patience a little bit. It's like a conflict of good and bad writing. You could see that effort was being made but it was still being restrained as well.
I didn't care for the target range. It was a little better later on when they had Guinan and Worf practicing. Probably because the effects were a little better. This was too colorful like the place where Wesley was supposed to be taking his entrance exam for the Academy in Coming of Age. And it seemed empty. And although I know the captain needs to practice as much as anyone, it just seemed weird for him to be there. Perhaps it's because it seemed weird for him to be dropping hints to Riker to sign up to be an exchange officer on a Klingon ship. Almost like a father putting pressure on a child. I just wasn't buying the motivation. This part of the plot was kind of thin.
I'm not sure when having foreign exchange students in America has been most popular, but I know it was doing very well in the 80's. People from my small hometown area hosted a couple of different students that came to my high school. Anyway, I can only think that since these first two seasons were trying really hard to pander to young teenagers, that that must have been some of the motivation behind writing this episode. The enterprise also gets a temporary new crewman. You think it's the Benzite named Mordock from Coming of Age. Wesley thinks so too. But it's actually a Benzite named Mendon. It turns out that this particular race of people... really do... all look alike. You can infer a facepalm with that. I just don't know what was going through their "liberals aren't racists" heads sometimes.
Anyway Benzite means of operation are very different from the Federation's. Mendon gets on everyone's nerves by over-zealously suggesting improvements to the systems. Benzites also expect to have solutions to their problems before they're even reported. This ends up making everyone aggravated with the poor perfectionist, especially after he finally reports a bacteria that had been eating away at the hulls of both ships well after they'd parted ways, putting an interesting twist in the plot.
And the plot wasn't really a bad one. I just don't understand the time frames I guess. Worf gives Riker a transponder in case he needs to get out of there explaining that promotions happen by assassination of the captain often and it's perfectly fine. Okay, got it. It makes sense because Klingons are more aggressive. And when he gets over there, it starts out pretty good with Riker being challenged by the second officer and winning his place as an officer aboard a Klingon ship. It was great and fun to watch. He had to be as brash on the Klingon ship as Worf had had to be docile on the Enterprise.
He gets to learn that they prepare their food a little differently than the dishes he practiced on in Ten Forward for some nice, humorous moments. And it was somewhat of a time killer since the story was a little too simple as always. And they hadn't committed yet to the idea of Klingon dishonor as Riker bonds with one of them telling him to contact his dishonored father. But, still, there was a real effort being put forth here to develop Klingon culture. These parts were all part of the fabric that was woven for the Klingon culture as the show advanced, even if they were never brought up again. It was important and meaningful in the long run even though it was treated comically at this time.
Where this episode loses me is the attitude of the Klingon Captain. The Enterprise tries to come back to warn them about the hull eating bacteria and Kargan goes off the deep end. It's like, they were trying to develop the Klingon culture because they're not a nemesis anymore... but they still wanted to write them off as the Neanderthal war mongers of TOS at the same time. It was breaking Roddenberry's own rules (no wars with Klingons) because they still couldn't think of anything else to write about. And it's very confusing when you consider sixth Star Trek movie when it came out a couple of years later... the seeds of the alliance of the Federation and Klingons were sowed in that movie which took place while Kirk was still alive and running the Enterprise. So all of this time has passed and also there's a Klingon serving aboard a Federation ship, not as an exchange experiment but an enlisted, accepted, and trusted officer... however, Kargan's behavior would make it seem like the treaty was signed only a week or a month ago. The Enterprise is coming back? It must mean sabotage! Cloak the ship and prepare to destroy them! War! War! Grr! Klingons smash! So quick and eager to abandon any treaty that may have been in place for what I assumed must be years now. They just had such a hard time letting go of the old style that it kind of tore this episode into two different and disagreeable directions.
The end is wonderful. Riker butts heads with the captain on refusing to betray the Enterprise, but still tricks him into moving in close enough so that the transponder Worf gave him would work. He gives it to the captain and he is able to assume command without killing the captain - an intelligent way to work around that tradition. He continues in Klingon fashion by demanding a surrender of the Enterprise which Picard complies with to legitimize Riker's position on the Pagh. (But what about the alliance? I don't know... better not think about it too much...) They arrange for repairs to be made to the ships. It's clever and fun. And when Kargan returns, Riker gets himself dismissed from the ship in Klingon fashion which earns the captain's respect. More really good culture development that just clashes with Kargan's behavior up to that point and ends up not making a lot of sense. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one that notices these things.
I'm really torn about how to rate this one. The creative writing parts make me want to give it three and a half but the way they were still keeping the Klingons in the 23rd century makes me want to drop that to just three. I think I'll have to go with just three on this one. They did okay with this episode, but they can, have, and will do so much better.
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