Star Trek: The Next Generation didn't exactly hit the ground running with its first season, and even the stars of the show agree this episode is bad.
SUMMARY
- Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 had its weakest episodes, including the widely regarded failure "Code of Honor."
- The episode's casting choices and one-note portrayal of the Ligonians now feel racist and outdated.
- Despite its flaws, "Code of Honor" and similar episodes laid the groundwork for the phenomenal storytelling in later seasons of TNG.
Star Trek: The Next Generation struggled to find its footing in its first season, and even the show's stars agree that one episode, in particular, might be TNG's worst. Most Trek fans agree that TNG season 1 contains the series' weakest episodes, and it's become a common saying that the show gets good when Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) has a beard. This happens in season 2, which truly does contain some stand-out episodes, including the excellent courtroom drama "The Measure of a Man" and the introduction of the Borg in "Q Who."
Thankfully, there were enough promising elements in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 for the network and most of the stars to stick with the show. From the beginning, TNG had a wonderful cast of compelling characters and some truly great performances, with Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Brent Spiner as the android Lt. Commander Data as particular early standouts. TNG would really hit its stride in season 3 and would go on to produce some of the best science fiction television of all time. But the TNG season 1 episode "Code of Honor" remains a widely regarded failure by fans, critics, and even the show's stars themselves.
Star Trek: TNG's Actors Agree Season 1's "Code of Honor" Is The Series' Worst Episode
"Code of Honor" follows Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-D crew as they host the leader of a people known as the Ligonians. When the leader, named Lutan (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson) sees Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), he is impressed by her fighting skills and her status as the Enterprise's Chief of Security. Lutan then kidnaps Yar, claiming her as his "First One." Lutan's previous "First One," Yareena (Karole Selmon), challenges Yar to a duel, and the two fight, but manage to trick Lutan into handing over his leadership position to Yareena.
Fairly early on, the consensus seemed to be that "Code of Honor" was just a bad episode, with very few redeeming qualities. Star Trek: The Next Generation star and director Jonathan Frakes has made his dislike for "Code of Honor" clear in multiple interviews, even going so far as to call it a "racist piece of s***" at Star Trek Las Vegas Con in 2011. Michael Dorn, who played Klingon Lt. Worf on TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, dubbed "Code of Honor" "the worst episode of Star Trek ever filmed" at a TNG reunion panel in 2013. In a 2012 interview with TrekMovie.com, Brent Spiner referred to "Code of Honor" as "that one episode that we all knew was bad very early on."
Why "Code Of Honor" Is Still A Star Trek: TNG Embarrassment
Several different elements contribute to making "Code of Honor" a bad episode. For one, someone behind the scenes of TNG made the decision to cast only Black actors to portray the primitive Ligonians, which feels racist in hindsight. The Ligonians' culture is one-note and none of the Ligonian characters get much development. The Ligonian leader's obsession with Tasha Yar borders on creepy and the episode doesn't seem to know what it wants to say about gender roles. The story progresses slowly with little action, and even the main characters don't come off particularly well.
Beyond this, "Code of Honor" relies on several outdated clichés and borrows some of the worst characteristics of Star Trek: The Original Series. So much of this episode would fit right in on TOS, from the cheesy hand-to-hand fight to the death to the overly dramatic music. The one redeeming scene comes when Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) attempts to explain humor to Data, but this short scene cannot overcome the many shortfalls of the episode. Still, even "Code of Honor" has a few glimpses of the greatness that would come in later seasons of TNG.
Star Trek: TNG Recovered From Season 1's Bad Episodes
While Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 admittedly contains several missteps, the show improved drastically in subsequent seasons. Thankfully, the passion and dedication of Star Trek fans prompted Paramount to order TNG directly to syndication, allowing the show to reach a larger audience. TNG season 1 suffered because of several behind-the-scenes issues, such as a constantly shifting writer's room. Many of the characters were not yet fully fleshed out, and the actors had yet to hit their strides. By TNG season 2, many of the kinks were ironed out and the quality of the stories improved drastically over season 1.
The quality and popularity of TNG would continue to increase for the next couple of seasons, with the two-parter connecting seasons 3 and 4, "The Best of Both Worlds," marking a particular high point. "The Best of Both Worlds" and several other episodes of TNG are widely regarded as shining examples of science fiction television. With around 25 episodes per season, it's not surprising that some episodes would prove to be more successful than others. While "Code of Honor" may still be somewhat of a black mark on the series, it, and episodes like it, laid the groundwork for the phenomenal stories Star Trek: The Next Generation would go on to tell.
Post a Comment