Best of Star Trek TNG---Heart of Glory

"Heart of Glory" is one of the better episodes of the first season which had quite a few stinkers. This episode was written by Maurice hurley, Herbert Wright, and D.C. Fontana.

It begins when the Enterprise gets a distress call from the neutral zone of a Talarian cargo freighter that's been badly damaged in a conflict. The away teams finds 3 Klingons, one of which is badly wounded and near death. They beam the survivors aboard just in time before the freighter explodes. Worf asks permission to see to the surviving Klingons in sick bay.

The Klingons claim that they were merely passengers and that the Talarians were taking them to an outpost. They were attacked by a Ferengi cruiser and unknowingly entered the neutral zone in the heat of battle. They tricked them into lowering their shields and that's when they opened fire.

Worf offers to take them to their quarters for rest. Captain Picard is suspicious and decides to investigate their claims. The two Klingons are surprised to learn that a Klingon is serving on a federation ship and taunt him about it, but Worf remains slow to anger. While dining with them, they learn that their comrade is dying. They go to sick bay and perform the Klingon death ritual (one of the highlights of this episode.) It is a warning to the dead that a Klingon warrior is about to arrive.

This is where we get Worf's background story of how he was rescued during the battle of Kitamor and raised by human parents. He and his step-brother joined Starfleet when they came of age. The Klingon guests attempt to reach the warrior within Worf by saying how being cut off from his Klingon heritage may have caused him to lose his strength, culture, and dreams of glory.

We also learn the truth, that the Klingon's destroyed a Klingon vessel harboring those they feel have betrayed their culture and now they are hunted by the Klingon Empire as traitors.

A captain of a Klingon vessel tells Captain Picard that they are wanted fugitives and Picard orders them under arrest. They willingly go but hatch a plan for escape. Worf pleads with the Klingon captain to spare their lives and not let them die with dishonor, but to no avail.

When the Klingon's use a weapon to lower the force field, one Klingon is killed while the other, Korris, escapes to main engineering. He heads to the warp engine core and threatens to phaser it. Worf confronts him. Korris tries to talk Worf into letting him take the battle bridge to escape but he soon learns that Worf is not about to betray the Enterprise. Instead, Worf tells him he looks for battles in the wrong place. It is within the heart that battle lives to be overcome rather than looking for a fight without. Worf fires his phaser. The Klingon falls and Worf holds him in his last breathe and performs the death ritual.

Captain Picard asks the Klingon captain if they have any burial or preparations for their Klingon bodies to which the Klingon captain replies, "they are only empty shells, dispose of them as you see fit."

This episode was well acted and exciting and gave us a look at Klingon values and customs. Vaughn Armstrong as Korris was exceptional.