Homeward (S07E13)
Airdate: 17 January 1994
Written by: Naren Shankar Directed by: Alexander Singer
Running Time: 46 minutes
Throughout the seven-year run of The Next Generation, Lieutenant Worf proved to be one of the most iconic and, arguably, the most popular character in the entire series. Stories centred on that character and his fascinating background – his discommendation, his struggle to balance Klingon honour with Starfleet duty, his turbulent family history – consistently provided material for many great episodes. Ironically, however, the character's fans never had the opportunity to see how Michael Dorn, the actor playing that character, looked without the heavy prosthetic makeup that transformed him into a Klingon. This issue would be partially addressed near the series' end, in the Season 7 episode Homeward, which finally gave viewers a glimpse of the man beneath the ridges.
The plot begins with the USS Enterprise-D receiving a distress call from Boraal II, an M-class planet where the Federation maintains an observation post to study the primitive local civilisation of the Boraalans. The post was manned by Dr. Nikolai Rozhenko (Paul Sorvino), a scientist who also happens to be Worf's foster brother. Rozhenko has sent the distress call because the planet is undergoing a process of atmospheric dissipation that will render it uninhabitable. When the away team finds the post abandoned, Worf is temporarily surgically altered to look like a Boraalan in order to find his brother – a sequence that offers one of the episode's genuine pleasures, since Dorn's unmasked face, even beneath Boraalan prosthetics, is a rare treat for long-time devotees.
It transpires that Rozhenko has set up a force field shield around the caverns where a group of Boraalans have taken shelter. When he contacts the Enterprise, he informs them of his plan to preserve the Boraalan race and civilisation from annihilation by creating an artificial cavern aboard the ship, where the survivors would stay before finding a new home. Picard, however, rejects this plan, citing the Prime Directive, which must be adhered to even if it means letting an entire race be annihilated. This is the moral crux of the episode, and it is here that the story begins to divide its audience.
Yet Rozhenko, apparently aware of such an eventuality, has made a back-up plan that he now puts into practice. He secretly transports the survivors into the Enterprise's holodeck, which has been made to look identical to the caverns, thus maintaining the illusion that the Boraalans are still on their homeworld. Faced with a fait accompli, Picard reluctantly agrees to Rozhenko's plan and ultimately sets a course for the planet Vacca VI, which is to be the Boraalans' new home. Their stay in the holodeck, however, causes new problems, because La Forge warns Picard that the hologram will not hold for the two days the journey will take.
Meanwhile, Worf, who has been estranged from his brother, almost comes to blows with Nikolai after learning that he has impregnated a Boraalan woman named Dobara (Penny Johnson), and that he actually intends to stay and live with the Boraalans instead of returning to his Federation duties. In the meantime, Vorin (Brian Markinson), a young Boraalan village chronicler, accidentally leaves the holodeck and ends up in Ten Forward, where he experiences profound culture shock. After Dr. Crusher says that she cannot wipe his memory, Picard offers him two alternatives: stay and live on the Enterprise, or return to his people but promise that he will not say a word about his experiences. Unable to decide, Vorin opts for ritual suicide – a bleak and unsettling turn that lends the episode its tragic dimension.
The rest of the story is happier for the Boraalans and even for Nikolai. When they reach Vacca VI, they are flawlessly transported to the new world. Worf and Nikolai reconcile, and Nikolai tells Worf that he will take Vorin's place as chronicler – a fittingly poetic resolution to their fractured relationship.
Homeward is one of the more divisive episodes of TNG for trekkies, and much of the reason has to do with the Prime Directive, a Star Trek concept which, when well thought out, can result in fascinating episodes but, more often than not, is applied inconsistently. Here Picard, who was in Who Watches the Watchers rather flexible about the issue – willing to bend the rules to save lives – acts as an incredibly cold and cruel bureaucrat, sticking to the principle even if it means genocidal annihilation. The Picard depicted in this episode is difficult to reconcile with the character who personally experienced being doomed to extinction in The Inner Light, where he lived an entire lifetime as Kamin on the dying planet Kataan. Having felt the terror and grief of a civilisation facing obliteration, his willingness to let the Boraalans suffer the same fate rings profoundly false. It is a great irony of the series that the same captain who wept for the Kataans could calmly sentence the Boraalans to death by committee.
Another flaw of the episode is the relatively late, soap-opera-style introduction of Worf's foster brother. The character was, however, indirectly mentioned years earlier in Heart of Glory, and here he is played by Paul Sorvino, an actor who, somewhat realistically, portrays him as a middle-aged man and a character very different from the authority figures Sorvino played in gangster films. Sorvino has good chemistry with Dorn, and the two very convincingly play estranged brothers; their scenes together carry genuine emotional weight, even if the sudden appearance of a previously unseen sibling feels narratively convenient.
The episode also benefits from Penny Johnson in the role of Dobara. The actress made a good impression on the Star Trek team and would later appear in Deep Space Nine as the recurring character of Kasidy Yates, Captain Sisko's love interest. Her warmth and dignity here foreshadow the strength she would bring to that later role.
The subplot about Vorin becoming culturally contaminated and being unable to absorb the shock was probably introduced by scriptwriter Naren Shankar as a way to illustrate why the Prime Directive makes some sort of sense, and why applying it, at least in some instances, would do more good than harm. It is a noble intention, but it sits awkwardly alongside the episode's central conceit, in which the Directive is used as a justification for what amounts to genocide.
In the end, Homeward is not a bad episode, but the mishandling of the Prime Directive makes it very disappointing and keeps it from living up to its potential. It boasts strong performances, an intriguing premise, and a rare emotional focus on Worf's personal life, yet its central moral argument is so muddled that it leaves a sour taste. For a series that had so often wrestled with the Directive in nuanced and thought-provoking ways, this late-season entry feels like a step backwards.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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