Deep Space Nine 603 "Sons and Daughters"

We all love Klingon-centric episodes. What's not to love? Especially when an episode cold-opens with Dax and Worf getting it on, and then cuts to Bashir and O'Brien bitching about the Klingons and their ship which rescued them from being, you know, marooned in the previous episode. You know what, O'Brien, you're a tool. You deserve to suffer.

The cold open ends with the IKS Rotarran receiving its replacements for recent casualties in the war, and ain't fate a son of a bitch... because young Alexander Rozhenko has been stationed on the very Bird of Prey that his father is XO on.  Yes, this was probably orchestrated by Alexander himself somehow, and this is, of course, testament to the fact that being a total obstinate cock about everything runs on the male side of the Mogh bloodline.

So, Worf is, as we know a fine warrior and a man of honor.  However he is as good of a parent as he is a fun guy to go on vacations with.  So when Martok casually asks why the hell Worf didn't let him know why he didn't have a son (although with all the vetting that apparently goes on for admission to Klingon houses, I find it bizarre how this subject could possibly have not come up), Worf says it's a touchy subject and that he wants to handle it his own way.  But to nobody's surprise, Worf's way is to act like an asshole to his only son.  Which, I guess is sort of fine because the apple did not fall far from the tree.  Lots of father vs. son chest beating, and the kid slinks off.

The Kid may suck at knife fighting, but he can knock you out in a food fight.

What follows is one of my favorite Klingon-centric scenes in the whole of Star Trek.  Young Alexander goes to the mess hall to chow down on some brekit lung (yum.) and another Klingon officer decides to apply lessons he learned watching high school movies from 1980s earth by pouring a large amount of gravy on his lung dish.  Scandalous... but from the laughs he's getting from his entourage, you'd think it was made of his own urine.  The last straw is when the taunting bridge officer offers to swap out his blood wine for "an Earth beverage.  A glass of root beer... with a lump of ice cream?  Mmmmm!" (One of my favorite lines ever uttered by a Klingon).  So after Alexander catches on that he's being made fun of, the kid starts a knife fight by throwing his food at the taunting bridge officer hard enough in the face to physically knock him out of his chair.  Anyway, Worf probably heard people laughing and immediately got on his way to put an end to it, because he shows up and stops the fight.  Klingons think fighting is a form of recreation, and they enjoy it. That's why Worf put an end to it.  Because Worf is the fun police.

What I will say about Worf is that he's almost always very competent at what he does, making it all the more embarrassing for him that his kid is a complete screw-up in all things military. It's a shame, really.  Although I do recall Alexander-themed episodes of The Next Generation displayed his total ineptitude with fighting, and playing well with others for that matter.  So it's gotta be a constant reminder of Worf having done something wrong (the general sad shape of his son), and it being a constant reminder of failure.  And let's face it, Worf already had a few abandonment/daddy issues.  All the weirder that he kept sending his child away to go live in Minsk with his adoptive grandparents.  It's unlike Worf to run from a fight or confrontation of any kind, but his avoidance of parental duties is running of the worst kind.

One thing I love about Martok is that he was the guy who actually taught Worf social skills, and how to begin to behave like a Klingon, the people Worf always tried so hard to identify with.

There's an exchange between Alexander and Worf where Alexander is accusing him of being a crappy parent and an abandoner, and he is exactly right.  Worf's gotta face the truth at last because it's staring him in the face and he can't run from it anymore.

The Jem'Hadar show up and there's some shooting, and some ship trouble involving Alexander locking himself in a storage compartment, but the fact that he (sort of) starts sticking up for his son does bode some dynamism for Worf.  It's all summed up in the end when Worf basically admits that he's been a crap parent by offering to teach Alexander what he'll need to be a warrior in exchange for Alexander teaching Worf what he'll need to be a father.

Then they all have a ceremony with Martok where they light bowls of their own blood on fire and Alexander is rewarded with a badge that looks like the Wu Tang Clan logo.  Welcome to the house of Martok, Alexander, son of Worf!

Oh, and in the runner, Jake Sisko cons his way into the resistance cell they're starting up on the occupied station.  How he managed to not get himself pushed out an airlock by Odo's poor decision making is beyond me.  Also Kira, through a bit of soul searching, realizes that it is probably not a great idea to accept gifts of evening dresses from a guy who committed genocide on a fair portion of her own Bajoran people.  I think there's something in the water on the station.  Maybe it's the thin atmosphere.  I don't know...