When he made his debut in 1987, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was far from sure. The show would be the first to continue the adventures of Starfleet because they were represented for the first time in the original series “Star Trek” of the 1960s, and for 18 years had passed since the final and people were quite protective of the original series, the ratings were against them. Not only that, but the creator of Franchise Gene Roddenberry had even accepted the series in a rage crisis, and that meant that the first season of “The Next Generation” could be incredibly tough because the series found its place. If rough, in fact, that some of the actors were not convinced that the series was going to do it.
A first episode is fairly well accepted as one of the worst “next generation”, and it was so bad that Michael Dorn, who played the lieutenant of Klingon Worf, feared that the first season of the show was also his last. Visiting the podcast “Inside you with Michael Rosenbaum,” Dorn shared his feelings about the reasons why “the next generation” finally worked, but said that the fourth episode, the extremely controversial “code of honor” seemed to spell the fate of the series.
Dorn Thought Code of Honor was going to pour Star Trek: The Next Generation
While speaking with Rosenbaum, Dorn said that he appreciated the fact that the series said “The morality of the games” every week, but that “code of honor” was so bad that it made him doubt the series as a whole:
“… It was perhaps the third or the fourth episode … I actually thought that we were not going to do it from this episode … It’s not that I can’t tell you. You have to watch it … It was one of the worst episodes. And I don’t think they did it to have a bad idea. It is a very good idea.” “”
There are a lot of examples of times when the writers “Star Trek” thought that something was a good idea and it ended up aging like milk (be sure to consult the “Star Trek” scenarios which are downright inaccessible). However, the “code of honor” is particularly blatant. The episode represents Lieutenant Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) removed by a group called the Ligonians, who are a racist and crushed stereotype of various African cultures. The Ligonian chief, Lutan (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson) decides to make Tasha his first wife despite having already one, which led to a battle between women on the status. The episode is so deeply wrong that Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander Will Riker on “Next Gen” and made a certain number of episodes “Star Trek”, really wants the episode to be taken from the streaming. It’s pretty hard, but he’s not wrong.
The code of honor was a racist and poorly thought out mess
It is quite easy to identify how the racist “code of honor” is now, but in 1987, perhaps the writers behind “the next generation” thought that they did not hurt by depicting the Ligonians as African tribal stereotypes. They probably did not realize how much the sexist episode is, because women are treated as basic products and symbols of power and a little more, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) goes with some of the sexist ideas offered by the Ligonians. It’s really quite horrible and it is the antithesis of the progressive vision of “Star Trek”, which really makes it one of the worst episodes of all the franchise.
In a 2012 interview with Startrek.comDorn said he had no regrets about his stay on “next generation” even if some of his distribution comrades found some boring scenarios. He mentioned the “code of honor”, however, and noted why he did not staff regret the episode:
“There was nothing, really, that I want them not to do. There was an episode that I want them not, but fortunately, I was not in it.”
“Code of Honor” is not only a terrible episode, it is also an episode without Worf, and it is a crime worthy of a Starfleet court.
