Not one of my favorites. As they continued to unpack the Klingon culture this one just doesn't really fit in with everything else and was a poor vehicle for the point they were trying to make.
It starts with a shift change. Riker is taking over in the morning for Data who was on duty overnight. Worf was supposed to take over at tactical, but he's late and not responding when Riker calls him to the bridge. He has the computer locate him in his quarters and goes there to find him huddled in a trance before a fire that he'd built in his room, smoking up the place. He snaps out of it pretty quick,but of course word gets back to Picard who reprimands him for neglecting his duties. But, because he's Picard and the crew are all so tight now, he also is concerned and asks him what's wrong. Worf explains that he was trying to summon a vision of Kahless. His experience on Carraya in the Romulan prison camp has thrown him into a spiritual crisis of sorts. As he told the young Klingons there of their heritage and Kahless, he found himself doubting his own beliefs - Kahless, Sto Vo Kor, etc. They were eager to believe while he, in his own heart, was more hesitant about believing. Picard suggest the holodeck as opposed to setting fire to his quarters, but Worf insists that the setting and circumstances must be genuine to produce a vision. Picard understands. He asks him if there's any place he can find the experience he's looking for and Worf tells him of a temple on Boreth. So, Picard gives him leave but warns him that he needs to settle the matter once and for all. So Worf goes to Boreth and we see him out of uniform with his hair down. It's a nice change of pace for the buttoned up Worf. They're chanting in the fire caves amidst the incense and and fire trying to summon visions of Kahless. A young Klingon in the group named Divok becomes worked up and claims to be seeing a vision of Kahless. He nearly walks into the fire as he says the Kahless is beckoning to him.
The priest Koroth approves the boy's vision calling it powerful and assuring him of future service in Sto Vo Kor. Worf is visibly jealous and frustrated. He's been there for ten days and has had no tangible experience to speak of , so he decides to leave. Koroth intercepts him though and tries to build him up by encouraging more prayer and claiming that the temple is a place for questions not answers. He reminds him that Kahless had also promised to return one day. It comes off as what a lot of people think is religious doublespeak. See, I'm always uncomfortable and a little suspicious because I know the liberal nature of Star Trek and I'm not sure if this is how they see Christians or if they're drawing from ancient mythologies since Klingon spirituality is based on Norse lore. But I can't be too troubled either because instead of being put off, Worf regains some hope from this conversation and goes back to the temple area alone which has a variety of weapons and a painting of Kahless. He stands by the painting and promises Kahless to try harder to gain understanding. So, later in the fire caves he's chanting with Divok again and suddenly from out of the smoke behind the fire Kahless appears. He's dressed like Kahless from the portrait. Worf is elated at seeing him. And Divok freaks out because he can see him too since the visions are usually personal and not shared by everyone. Divok runs out to get the others and when they come back they can all see Kahless too. He announces that he is Kahless and that he's returned. Koroth asks for proof though, so Kahless tells him the story of how his bat'leth was forged. This story had been left out of the sacred text and was known only to the priests so that they would know if the real Kahless had returned. So after little resistance, they bow to him as their god.
But Worf doesn't want to take this at face value because he's seen too many strange things on the Enterprise over the years and Kahless can tell he's unsure. He goes to see Worf. He calls him by name and claims to remember appearing to him in a vision when he was a child. Worf gets a tricorder to scan Kahless anyway. It can't do much more than confirm that he is definitely a Klingon. But Worf remains skeptical and at a party thrown in Kahless' honor he continues to ask questions and defends it as an honorable thing to do. Kahless takes it as a challenge, so they have a brief battle and seem equally matched. Kahless breaks it off after a few minutes instead of fighting to the death as Klingons always do. He's also a little winded. But he merely starts a jovial rallying call to the other Klingons with emphasis on Klingon pride, so everyone just lets the matter slide. Worf is impressed. Kahless, Koroth and his assistant Torin are brought aboard the Enterprise. Gowron had been informed and wasn't happy about it. He will be joining them shortly because he doesn't trust a Klingon ship to transport this supposed Kahless. Crusher wants to runs some tests to determine that he's not a shape shifter or something sinister. The priest isn't thrilled about it, but Kahless is impressed with seeing his first star ship and happily consents. He knows who he is and has nothing to hide. Picard and Geordi already suspect that this Kahless is either a knowing or unknowing puppet for someone else's intentions and others like Riker and Data logically note that he doesn't appear to be supernatural, but Worf doesn't want to discount that he could really be Kahless because he wants to believe and observes the importance of faith in these matters. The temple is recreated on the holodeck for everyone's convenience and Worf and Kahless begin to bond, with Worf believing more and more as time passes. He warns Kahless that Gowron will oppose him, but his countenance is like that of a saint. He's sure of himself and his ability to unite the Klingon people once and for all.
Gowron arrives with a sacred knife that is said to have the blood of Kahless on it. Koroth throws a fit because nobody is allowed to touch this artifact, but Gowron wants irrefutable proof that this is the real Kahless and demands a DNA test. As an honored guest on board, Picard goes to Kahless to tell him what Gowron wants and, once again, he happily submits. Beverly gets everything set up and they run the test. There's a continuity error here, as with other DNA tests, the results usually took hours or days. In this episode it's done in minutes as she shows the matching DNA strands. Gowron is truly shocked and Worf finally believes and finds great joy in the discovery. The priest immediately want to start making plans with Kahless about what to do with the government, but Kahless would rather spend time with Worf. Worf offers him Warnog from the ship's replicator, apologizing for it not tasting exactly the same. But Kahless can't tell the difference. He also can't give Worf any details about Sto Vo Kor. Both of these things are puzzling, but Worf is still ready to accept his explanation of not having clear memories because he's a traveler on a transcendental plain. You can also see there's no malice in this character. He's convinced of his duty to the Klingon people and can't wait to start. Later, Worf tries to bring Gowron on board with the new era of things to come. Gowron is certain that Koroth is using Kahless to take control of the Empire, and Worf can see the sense in that. He also tries to impress on Worf the urgency of the fact that the Empire is already dividing, how his own men are turning away from him to serve Kahless, and that he can't stand against the increasing multitudes that want to be ruled by Kahless. But Worf clings almost naively to the idea of Kahless uniting the Klingon people once and for all and begs Gowron to just listen to him and hear him out.
Gowron goes to the recreated temple on the holodeck. Kahless is brought there to meet him. He sits in his throne and begins to tell a parable story about how he once found an old Klingon refusing to stand aside for a coming storm and was subsequently killed. His obvious hint is for Gowron not to make the same mistake. However Gowron, showing more intelligence than we're used to seeing from Klingons, asks him more details about the story since he was there. Like the name of the old Klingon. Kahless can't answer but insists that it doesn't matter to the cause that he has returned for. But Gowron challenges him and knives are drawn. They seem equally matched as well, but Gowron won't allow Kahless to break off the fight with a rallying cry as Worf did. Gowron is a superior fighter and quickly overpowers Kahless with intent to fight to the death. He is ready to kill him with his knife when Worf stops the fight. Gowron mocks the greatest Klingon warrior of all time and Worf can no longer deny that this is not Kahless. The memory gaps and the fact that he is not a great fighter are too much evidence to the contrary. But Kahless is confused now as well... even he is doubting himself with his mortal limitations. Both he and Worf want answers. Worf is very angry at Koroth and suggests that Gowron was right about him wanting to rule the empire through this fraud. But Koroth explains that he's not entirely a fraud; that he is Kahless returned, but that his memory problems have to do with the way he was returned. They'd cloned him. They found a way to program him with memories and experiences taken from the ancient texts. They also programmed in a memory of him coming to Worf in a vision because Worf had told Koroth of that when he first came to Boreth. Worf understandably feels violated and used. He's offended and outraged and decides to expose them. Koroth begs him not to because Gowron's corruption will infect all aspects of the Empire if they don't have a spiritual leader to rally around. It's this part of the underlying plot that seems like an inconsistency to me. In all of the previous Klingon culture episodes, it was the Duras family that was corrupt and scheming with Romulans. And although there was still some in-fighting and factions, Gowron was the legitimate and qualified head of the council. It's like we're missing a chunk of information here. He's definitely kind of a jerk like most Klingons are, but the audience hasn't experienced any of his "corruptions", so the priests' arguments seem baseless to me. I wonder if I'm the only one?
Worf leaves the discussion feeling more torn than ever. He goes to the recreated temple and sees some of Gowron's men there praying fervently. They still believe in Kahless and will pledge allegiance to him. Data is also there and his innocent questions and observations about faith help to bring things into perspective as he relates his own activation and how, upon being told he was only a machine, chose to believe that he could ultimately become more. Worf decides he knows how to deal with the situation. He enters a meeting in which Picard is trying to stop Gowron and Koreth from coming to blows over bringing Kahless to the homeworld. He announces that Kahless is a clone to everyone. Gowron is pleased and immediately begins to talk of putting Koroth and Kahless to death. But Worf also reminds him that the damage is done and that half of the Klingon population believes in Kahless and are willing to side with him. As a compromise, he suggests while Gowron remains the head of the council and the true leader of the Klingon Empire and that Kahless be elevated to the position of Emporer. It's a title that hadn't been used in thousands of years, but he would be regarded as Kahless' rightful heir and a spiritual figurehead with no actual political sway. Gowron asks Korath if it's acceptable and he defers to Kahless. Kahless declares that it is acceptable and proudly finds his purpose again. The priest and his assistant bow to Kahless and after a moment Gowron does as well since it's obvious that Kahless' heart is pure. As Worf takes Kahless to the transporter room, he's feeling empty again after the experience of finding Kahless and then finding out his existence isn't entirely genuine. And Kahless leaves him with the notion that Kahless' teaching are perhaps more important than Kahless himself and since his spirit is in the heart of every Klingon, it probably doesn't matter if he ever actually returns or not.
I mean, it's naturally a little disagreeable to me as a person of faith and sadly, there are a lot of Christians that feel this way about Jesus and his teachings. And showcasing the fact that the cloned Kahless had none of the supernatural abilities that Worf or anyone else had attributed to him fits in with the argument that Jesus was only a man. That's why I suspect this is a subtle attack on Christianity even though the Klingon faith was set up to resemble the Norse gods. Disagreeable but not surprising. So I think my biggest disappointment at this episode comes from the fact that even though they were more willing at this point to make some of the characters religious, they insisted on visibly declawing the religions. They sterilized the Bajoran faith at the outset of DS9 by establishing first thing that the entities in the wormhole were aliens, not gods. Fine, whatever... but then they felt the need to back track into TNG to make damn sure the Klingon faith was invalidated at any cost - including monkeying around with their own timeline regarding the Klingon civil war and suddenly making Gowron a dubious character when up til now he'd been on the up and up. It's bad writing, if nothing else. That's every bit as unacceptable to me as an attack on my faith. And it's just sad to see the lengths that athiests, militant or benign (I think benign in this case), went to to impose their own religion on the show. Three and a half stars.
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