TNG would fail after erging its worst episode

One early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation was so bad, it had Michael Dorn worried that the show was doomed. TNG Struggled to find its feet in its first season as it struggled to find what kind of show it was going to be. Some early TNG Episodes would not be out of place on Star Trek: The Original Series, And some, like “The Naked Now” even directly retold stories of TOS. yet, TNG Season 1 did a few things right, establishing a beloved cast of characters led by Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Michael Dorn not only portrayed Lt. Toss over all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, But also continued playing the Klingon warrior for the last four seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Between the two shows, the TNG Films, and Star Trek: Picard, Michael Dorn made 285 appearances as Worf, More than any other Star Trek Character. With such a central role in the franchise, Dorn clearly has some expertise on what constitutes success Star Trek History. As such, be concerned about one particular TNG Episode was more than valid.

Why Michael Dorn Was Worried Star Trek: TNG Would Fail After “Code of Honor”

Thankfully, TNG has already been optioned for a full 26-episode season

Michael Dorn recently appeared as a guest on Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast, in you Where he discusses his time playing Star Trek toss. As Dorn talks about what so many people love star trek, Including himself, he mentions how Both Star Trek: The Original Series And TNG Offered “A morality play every week.” Then Dorn pauses for a moment before adding, “Except for one episode,” Which leads into a discussion about one of Star Trek Most infamous episodes, “Code of Honor.” As Dorn explained, the episode deviated from the show’s formula and subverted that Star Trek was supposed to be about, commenting:

Code of Honor’ … I actually thought … it was maybe the third or fourth episode … I actually thought that we weren’t going to make it out of 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 make a bad episode.

I think that they actually, when they went through the whole process, they went, ‘That’s a good idea. That’s a really good idea.’ Oh my God, you know… and I think they were watching the show along with everything, and they went, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ Because I’m telling you, they released it, and they took it out of the rotation. It wasn’t in any of the reruns.

Some Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast members have cited “Code of Honor” as one of the series’ worst episodes, and with good reason. Jonathan Frakes made his distaste for the episode clear, Go as far as it calls it a “racist piece of f***” At Star Trek Las Vegas Con In 2011, Dennis Crosby and Brent Spiner also referred to the episode as one of Tng S Worst, and Michael Darn once called it “The worst episode of Star Trek ever filmed.”

Why “Code of Honor” was Star Trek: TNG’s worst episode

“Code Of Honor” uses every bad Star Trek cliché

“Code of Honor” follows the Enterprise-D crew as they visit a planet called Lygon II to retrieve a vaccine. The leader of Ligon II, Luton (Jesse Lawrence Ferguson), becomes infatuated with Lt. Tasha Yar (Dennis Crosby) and kidnaps her to be his bride. While there could have been an interesting storyline in here somewhere, casting only black actors to portray the primitive Ligonians makes the whole story feel distinctly racist. Plus, none of the Ligonian characters get much development and their culture feels very one-note.

The plot itself also feels like something left of the worst kind Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes. The female characters have very little agency and are forced into an unnecessary fight to the death. And on top of all that, the episode is just plain boring. It’s doubly unfortunate for Denise Crosby’s Tasha Yar, as “Code of Honor” remains one of the few episodes in which she’s featured much. luckily, Star Trek: The Next Generation Continued to improve its first season and had enough of a fan base to get renewed for a second season and beyond.

Source: In you with Michael Rosenbaum