UNCUT - Birthright Part 1 & 2 (TNG S6E16-17) | Star Trek Journey 257

The really interesting thing about Worf is because of his human upbringing, he has a very romanticized idea of what it is to be Klingon. True Klingons aren't as polished as he is and that's why, even though he longs for it, he can never be truly a part of his people.

The actor who portrayed Tokath (Alan Scarfe) was previously a different Romulan, Medak, in Data's Day. Makeup is quite different, but his voice is very memorable - " I am not willing to start a war... today"

1:19:52 Since when do Klingons cook their food??

This is the start of the peak of Trek - the whole crossover between TNG / DS9 / VOY and the movies was great, Enterprise too but there was a delay between Voyager ending and Enterprise beginning. The world building is insane

I don't hate these episodes and I think I called them a B or something in my patron take, but I guess it says more about how I feel about the episode that I don't feel like taking the time to watch the episode for this one along with the uncut reaction so I'll wait for the edit.

Great noonian soong impression!

Upon watching this again, I enjoyed it a LOT. This might actually be an S for me, or at least an A. Even with already knowing what happens.

This was before James Cromwell became THE James Cromwell. His breakout role was in BABE in 1995 with a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Then he took off in huge movie roles. And i just realized, a dozen others probably already posted this info. Lol

I saw the original "Star Wars" in theaters when I was 13. I loved the trilogy and watched it many times. I even did a report on it in college (which was still 10 years before the prequels). There is nothing about the character of Anakin in the prequels (or Clone Wars cartoon) that is even close to Darth Vader's personality from the OT. Not even sadistic jokes. Unfortunately, even though I showed the OT to my daughter first, she ended up liking the prequels more (yes, I disowned her ;-) ), When I see the perquels I do not think of Anakin as the character of Darth Vader as all. They are 2 separate characters.

Finally caught up with TNG but I've still only watched the first two reactions of DS9. I'll catch up, sooner or later. This isn't my favorite two-parter but not my least favorite, either.

I've always wondered if Mogh was actually captured or not. I don't believe for one second that the elderly Klingons would tell Worf the truth if Mogh was captured, because they'd want to preserve his honor as they do their own children.

Part 2 is one big skip. I’m trying to watch it now but it is dull as hell. Such a strange two parter.

If I remember correctly, there's something like 12 minutes of deleted scenes on the Blu-ray for this episode. All the deleted scenes are surprisingly good. There's an extended version of the scene with the Romulan jailer and worf's philosophical discussion that I really wish they'd kept in. Both make really good points and Dorn's performance in the extended scene is great. I agree with Josh. Part 2 is good but it drags at times. Maybe we could've used a small b story in part 2. Nothing major. Maybe just the enterprise trying to track down Worf. Still, a pretty solid in-season two-parter. I'm guessing they made this a two part story to offset some of the cost of building the prison sets.

Ya know after 32 years I still don’t know what to make of this two parter. I love the Data plot and that’s an easy S tier but the Worf plot i swing back and forth on. Theres a lot here I like particularly the ending and it is thought provoking I just can’t decide if I love it or am indifferent to it.

“Picard” is fucking dumb. Enjoy the good days.

@1:53:25 You're not my real space station, you're just my step space station!

I love seen when Worf is trying to escape and the two-phasers pointed at his head to go to a commercial is classic TOS shot.

If you FF over the Worf stuff, and skip Part 2 completely, this is semi-decent.

That ending is indeed goosebumps worthy, so much depth, so much emotion and understanding layered into two simple words from Picard. "I understand". Perfection.

My favorite imagery from Data's complete first dream is Spot in the captains chair. Even Data subconsciously understands Spot is in charge.

shout out to jonathan frakes' 2 line + leaning on console moments

also why does worfs love interest look 16 years old

i feel like this story was almost something really complicated and challenging to worfs character. klingons that genuinely dont want to fight, a population of klingons that have their own culture. that maybe keeping a blood feud going cuz "its tradition" isnt great... idk worf having to confront that, and confront his own notions of what it truly means to be a klingon, sounds like a more interesting story.

Data instinctively trying to help Bashir with his gadget, then having to remember he's there to stop him, is easily my favorite moment in the episode.

NOOOOO.... now I have to wait until Thurdsay.

The whole Worf plot line felt like a 90s Disney movie minus the power ballad.

For me this is the weak point in a Season i otherwise love. The first part had some stuff i quite liked with DS9, Julian, and Data. When Josh said part 2 dragged, i agree. For me these are C and D respectively. I usually skip these episodes.

Re: the comments about how DS9 looks too bright and clean in HD. I wonder how much of that is directly related to it being shot for an episode of TNG. There's about 20 mins of full remastered true HD DS9 clips out there (which obviously HEAVY SUPER SPOILERS if one is to view said footage), and it looks as dark and gritty as it does on these awful DVDs. If this show ever got a true re-master it wouldn't disappoint. Proof of concept exists.

Josh: "Oh cool, was that minor background character a female Bolian?" Yes yes, one of us. One of us. Check out the Half Romulan/Klingon's forehead ridges. They follow the same position of the Romulan forehead. Makeup department is on point. They did such a good job making it easy to appreciate on a rewatch, but subtle enough you wouldn't pickup on it BEFORE the narrative reveal.

This has always been the most boring two-parter to me, haha. Like, abysmally boring.

James Cromwell (Jaglom Shrek) was supposed to appear more in Part 2 but he broke his leg in one of the scenes.

So there's James Cromwell, on some sort of, star trek.

I always get something new watching with you two. 1) What WAS the gamma quadrant device? 2) What would Worf pay an Iridian trader with? 3) He wasn’t alive so how did the trade expect to get paid? 4) Geordi slagging off O’Brien’s engineering abilities with the replicators as if it must be his fault when it could be the best the shoddy replicators can do.

I've never noticed the directors of the episodes for the most part, until rewatching with you. Dan Curry, director of part 2, is a visual effects guy but I know him from behind the scenes videos as a knowledgeable martial arts guy, who worked with Michael Dorn on Worf's weapons and fighting and stuff.

Damn I should probably watch the episode again before giving my opinion that is years apart. I know I said part 2 was a snooze fest in patron takes, but now that I've seen it again it's actually a decent episode.

The Shrek park was supposed to be bigger. Cromwell broke his ankle (or something similar) and they had to cut a lot and change some things around.

I think Julian Bashir was the perfect DS9 character for part 1. The story revolves around discovery. Since we are familiar with Data, a character needs to be introduced to bring an innocent sense of discovery and intrigue. You are not going to receive that from Sisko or Kira. Chief is already familiar with Data. Odo lacks curiosity, and Jadzia has essentially lived many lifetimes, so she can't bring that innocence. Bashir is the perfect character because he's fresh out of Starfleet medical and has a healthy appetite for discovery and adventure. Data fills those needs for Bashir and Bashir fulfills Data's need to have a fresh perspective. Also, having seen all of Star Trek and seeing this two-parter at this time, I really think it is such an incredible episode and one of the best episodes in Star Trek. Additionally it is extremely relevant to Star Trek story and so presently important to our own reality. Having this as a two-parter I think is essential. They represent two sides of the same coin in order to provide relevance to our current day issues. Data's story shows the intimate story we can have with our family -- who we are because of our nature. Then Worf's story gives us the communal story -- how our community shapes us. All of this concludes by showing us how vital our stories are and how necessary it is to explore our identity. In both parts, an external variable influenced this introspection, indicating that we should not rely on chance to learn of our identity. Should our identity ever be suppressed, we could easily fall into a prison that disguises itself as freedom and a false characterization of ourselves. In the end that becomes a shackle suppressing our growth and our nature. This episode I feel performs extraordinarily well at portraying the importance and incredible value of introspection and examination of our external environment.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Did I miss the boys do the episode before this one? Being deliberately vague but I thought there was a particular episode between face of the enemy and this 2 parter.

Was that the three-eyed raven? Is Data Bran?

It’s awesome seeing DS9 in HD quality in this episode.

Don't get me wrong. I am pleased for those fellow Patrons who pay for early access. But with the 24 hours 'rule' now in place it is rather late in he evening to watch the eposide too. At least here in Central Europe. So PLEASE Josh and Alex, cut the gap at least to 20 hours. Thank you!

Fun fact. This crossover was supposed to feature Jadzia instead. They changed it to Bashir last minute. This might explain why there were no scenes with Crusher and Bashir as you would think there should be. Jadzia would also make so much more sense in Engineering with Gordie and Data. I feel they probably even kept most of the same lines.

I give this a bit of a higher score after this rewatch. I especially liked the monologue by Toq, the young man, after he brought in the game to be cooked. As an actor he really sold me on these feelings of a rekindled Klingon spirit.

I love how they gave the Yridians this rodent like appearance AND made them information dealers. They're literally and figuratively rats. Yeah, this is a very mid 2 parter. Never really had anything against it, and it's a testament that to the quality of S6 that even when you have one of the season's less compelling eps, it's still not bad. In some ways I prefer part 1 just for the Data story. I like the idea that even though Soong is dead for several years now, in a way he's still there helping guide Data on his journey to become more human. Weird sequence, but touching in a way. Also since I know you've already seen that far ahead, it makes sense that Siddig would be so excited to be filming scenes on the TNG sets with that cast, considering his role in DS9 1x10 was cut short to make time for filming. Can't blame him for being happy to ditch the filming of that episode. Something else I noticed this time is how incredibly small Riker's role is in this episode. Between parts 1 and 2, he's got all of 8 or 9 lines. Regarding the story on the prison camp, I never understood why Tokath didn't just let Worf go. Like Ba'el said, they never knew anything was missing from their life before Worf came. What's Worf going to do? Bring dishonor to a bunch of klingons by telling them the parents they thought were dead have been prisoners for decades? Try to "rescue" a bunch of people from the only home they've ever known? Worf would have done exactly what he ended up doing and keep it a secret, and he wouldn't have had time to convince a bunch of their kids to leave with him. But then, I guess a theme of the episode was that Tokath just doesn't understand what drives klingons. Still the one older guy should have. I guess it's a runtime thing, but I found the speed of Toq's turnaround a little ridiculous. He clumsily tosses a javelin through a big ass hula hoop ONCE, and Worf is all "we should test your skills". Then after 1 single hunt he's a klingon warrior just like that. Ba'el being trapped between these 2 worlds was a bit more interesting, and the fact Worf was fairly quick to get over his hatred of romulans and accept her for who she was is real growth for him. That or horniness won out. Obviously though, she could never have left with the others without revealing the truth of what happened. It's pretty sad when you consider that not only will she likely never see Worf again, but many of her friends are now gone as well. While it's true she'd probably not be accepted on either Qo'Nos or Romulus, she would have been just fine on the Enterprise or anywhere else in the federation. B- for part 1, C+ for part 2

Shrek was modelled after a French wrestler named Maurice Tillet. Do a Google Image search for his name. You won't believe the resemblance.

In "The Game" Wesley reminds Data that they are about the same age. Data having only been "awaken" (reassembled) about 20 years prior. Keeping that in mind, Data still has awhile before he becomes an "adult" so even though his dreams are initiated early, it proposes that Soong made his neural pathways to mature as a human would. Also, hope you are getting more used to Worf's hair? All Klingons have long hair unless they are children. The Klingons even give Worf shit about his sash being a child's uniform. Alexander even has Worf's old hair style. This is showing Worf's growth into being a fully realized Klingon. Which this episode puts forward, as he is teaching these kids what it means to be Klingon.

I’m just wondering because deep space nine looks so good. The interior sets, the model.. it makes the galor class cruiser look like a puddle of shit, also speaking of the color of the galor class

Most disparate first and second halves since BSG “Greetings from Earth”?

Dan Curry was also a martial arts expert and developed both Worf’s Klingon fighting technique and designed the bat’leth sword.

There's a fun goof in pt 1. Right at the end, where it's the last scene with Bashir, they forgot to change Alexander Siddig's shoes. They used to use these white slipper-like shoes for close-ups because they were silent. As Bashir is walking away, you can still see him rocking bright white shoes. I don't think those are Star Fleet issued! If you're focused on Data, you won't notice it. But when you see it, you can't unsee it.

The dream sequence made me think about how beautiful the Enterprise set was. People have said that if you stood at a certain point along the corridor you couldn’t see the ends, and it felt like you were really on the ship.

Finally, a good musical score again. Worf does some nice tai chi moves in compound in part 2. I saw embracing the moon, parting the horse's wild mane, boxing both ears, just to name a few.

Instead of Worf at the replimat, should have given us Worf catching up with Keiko and Molly at Quark's. Smuggler is lurking there because.

Despite what I said in my take, geting more into "the lore" of the Klingons is never a bad thing. But how they executed it still left a lot to be desired

Sex Score board - No scores but a Worf Coulda - Shoulda. He would have got a bangin chip if he had just followed a well known fact so he would not have seen she was a Romu-ligon. Never pull a woman's hair until AFTER you start doin' it Targie-style.

Always felt that as a crossover this was such a wasted opportunity. It would have been better had the episode actually been about DS9. But there’s no reason either Data’s or Worf’s story couldn’t have happened in complete absence of DS9.

Bashir isn't wearing shoes in engineering, only black socks

Always loved how you handle(d) two-parters! Thank you for that! <3

Great way to start cruising into the weekend, Tomorrow night going to see Primus and Puscifer at deer Creek in fishers Indiana. This is shaping up to be a good weekend to Doctor Who, and more Target Audience to come