Weekend Trek “Let He Who Is Without Sin…”

I had heard this episode was particularly bad.  And you know what?  It is!

My god, the cringe is strong with this one.

Dax and Worf are going on vacation to Risa.  Why Risa?  Beats me.  Is it because Vanessa Williams lives there?  That’s a decent reason, I suppose.  Maybe people should stop taking vacation tips from Riker.  Nothing good ever seems to happen there.  Regardless, Worf and Dax are going.  Worf wants things to be private.  Dax told everyone.  Then Bashir and Leeta ask to go along, both promising to stay out of the couple’s way.  Then Quark comes along because it was the only way Leeta could get time off.

There’s probably some good comedic possibilities for having Quark come along, but he doesn’t really do anything.  Bashir and Leeta pop up from time to time, mostly because they are performing a Bajoran break-up ritual.  It’s mostly about the two of them having fun separately, then doing some sort of ceremony and wishing each other well.  Quark’s disappointed.  Then both men are shocked that Leeta wants to hook up with Rom…who isn’t in the episode.

That’s all I want to say about that.

As it is, the episode largely focuses on Worf and Dax.  Dax is all about having fun.  Worf is all about restraint.  Klingons aren’t generally like that.  So, when some party poopers give Worf a pamphlet and say how the Federation is unprepared for, well, anything like the Borg or the Dominion or the like as long as there are places like Risa to have fun, he’s actually inclined to listen.  Fun sucks to these people, and it’s not a “traditional value”.

I’d say they were stand-ins for some group or other in the real world, but they seem too lame.  They just want people to stop going to Risa and be more serious.  Worf approves for…reasons.  To the point where Worf helps them take over the planet’s environmental controls.  When he isn’t hanging out with those guys, he’s arguing with Dax, saying he wants her to take things like their relationship more seriously while she wants him to lighten up and enjoy himself.

It’s a lot of tediousness.  There was no hint prior to this episode that the two were having problems, and they just repeat the same things over and over again, except every so often Worf is chatting with the party poopers or Dax is chatting to Vanessa Williams.  Finally, when Worf makes it rain like a jungle planet like Risa should, the two talk, and Worf explains why he’s so serious and uptight.  Is it because of what happened with K’Ehleyr?  Because that would make sense.  She did die a horrible death just as they were getting close again.

No, actually, Worf accidentally killed a kid in a soccer game when he was a kid, and since then he realized that as the only Klingon in a world full of humans, he had to hold himself back at all times.

OK.

Yeah, just OK.

Worf has commented on how fragile human women are before.  The story is a little unexpected, but Dax’s reply is that he needs to trust her because…wait, why does that lead to the need to trust her?

And then when the jerks use the weather machine to start an earthquake (Risa-quake?)…wait, how does a weather machine start quakes?  Now, Worf and Dax can work together to stop them because…trust?  Um, OK.

So, their relationship healed, Worf finally enjoys his vacation.  I think.  I don’t care.

I hope the next one is better than this sad excuse for whatever it is.  Tedious arguments, a lesson that doesn’t quite add up, and a group of jerks who think relaxing is bad, but their best stunt before they get the weather machine is uncharged rifles and running around and ripping down those gauzy curtains that are everywhere.  As terror groups go, I’ve seen more terrifying ones…like the Pakleds for starters.