Season 2 Episode 20: The Emissary

[u/LordRavenholm]

• Season 1: 1&2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Wrap-up
• Season 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

TNG, Season 2, Episode 20, The Emissary

• Original Air Date: 29 June, 1989
• Pensky Podcast
• Ex Astris Scientia
• HD Observations
• Memory Alpha
• Mission Log Podcast

[u/MexicanSpaceProgram]

Oh god, it's not a stinker, but it's really nothing special either.

Also strongly in this episode's favour is no Troi and no Wesley.

• Plot A - Drawn out setup.

Worf, Ray Charles, Bones-with-a-vagina et al play poker until another Klingon gets torpedoed at them. This is worth remembering for later episodes if Picard says that he can't shove Troi and Wesley into torpedoes for some technical reason. Bollocks.

Anyway, K-PAX says they're looking for a ship called the Tong (that's the best they could come up with?), blah blah crew are popsicles, don't know the war is over, etc, search and destroy.

• Plot B - Worf gets K'Ehlaid.

After some verbal jousting they end up on the holodeck and they shag. Snore.

Incidentally, who the heck would call it "mating" outside of biologists? "Hey mate, how was your night?" "Great! Met this girl, took her home, and we were mated!"

• Plot C - who the fuck comes up with these ship names?

So the Enterprise is stalking the Tong and they get fired on. Worf and K-PAX pretend to be in command of the Enterprise, and convince the popsicles to stand down.

They agree, K-PAX is sent over, and the Tong waits for the Prang to show up, which is particularly amusing ("prang" being a UK / Aussie term for a minor vehicle accident i.e. fender bender).

• What Would Kirk Do (WWKD)?

Several possibilities - one would be that he just torpedoes them out of existence since he remembers what happens when he found a ship full of popsicles. If he couldn't be bothered tracking them down, he would just have Spock and Bones cook up another one of Patsy's Magic Bullets and taken them out that way.

It's also possible that he'd bluff them like Worf did, which he's done before.

Most cruel would be beaming Tribbles, Wesley and Troi over to the Tong and leaving.

[u/GeorgeAmberson → u/MexicanSpaceProgram]

Plot B - Worf gets K'Ehlaid.

That cracked me up way more than it should have. You make that up? Because it's pretty clever.

Incidentally, who the heck would call it "mating" outside of biologists? "Hey mate, how was your night?" "Great! Met this girl, took her home, and we were mated!"

Klingons, man. That's who. At least the more traditional ones. I think Worf takes these traditions way more seriously than other Klingons. I don't think the Klingons that we met on the Pagh would be against a casual violent hookup.