Sons of Mogh

ST episode
series = Deep Space Nine
name = Sons of Mogh


ep_num = 86
prod_num = 48
date = February 12, 1996
writer = Ronald D. Moore
director = David Livingston
guest = Tony Todd as Kurn
Robert Doqui as Noggra
Dell Yount as Tilikia
D. Elliot Woods as Klingon Officer
stardate = 49556.2
year = 2372
prev = Return to Grace
next = Bar Association"Sons of Mogh" is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of "".

Plot

Worf gets an unexpected visit from his younger brother Kurn. Kurn quickly lands in a holding cell, but he is released into Worf's care. When Kurn wakes he confronts Worf about the dishonor Worf has brought upon the House of Mogh after rejecting the Klingon Empire's war with the Cardassian Empire. The house has been disbanded, its land and ships all seized. Kurn has lost everything he cared about and has lost all honor and Worf has taken it away without suffering the consequences. Now he wants Worf to give him back his honor the only way he can, by having Worf ritually kill him. Worf begins the ceremony, but Jadzia Dax realizes what Worf is planning when she hears of the incense he bought from Quark. She and Odo interrupt the ceremony once Kurn has been stabbed, but soon enough to revive Kurn. Captain Sisko is furious and forbids that Worf complete the ceremony.

Worf visits Kurn where Kurn tells Worf that he is not truly Klingon. Kurn points out that despite initiating the ceremony, Worf did not threaten and vigorously fight Dax and Odo to continue the ceremony, nor did he come ready to kill Kurn in the infirmary. Kurn, without an honorable life or death, places himself in Worf's hands. While Worf thinks about his situation, he gets Kurn a position with Odo's Bajoran police force. However Kurn loses his position when he allows himself to be shot without any attempt to defend himself.

A subplot throughout the episode is mysterious explosions accompanied by cloaked Klingon birds of prey near Bajoran space. One of the Klingon warbirds suffer severe damage and is forced to dock at Deep Space Nine. Eventually it is discovered that the explosions are due to malfunctioning mines, and that the Klingons are mining the space around Deep Space Nine in preparation for a future war. Worf proposes to Kurn that they go undercover to discover the mine locations and activation codes on the docked bird of prey. Kurn is appalled, but Worf appeals to Kurn's sense of family and the idea that this will discourage Gowron's ambitions (which Kurn agrees will ruin the empire). The mission is at first successful, and with Kurn's up to date knowledge of the Klingon military they are able to access the files, but they are interrupted by a Klingon officer. Worf pretends that he has a superior rank and seems to be able to send the officer away, but once Worf turns his back Kurn shoots the officer. Worf is shocked and insists that the man would not have killed him, but Kurn shows that the man was bringing a knife. Kurn's intense depression is enhanced by the fact he killed a man attacking in defense of the Empire. Worf gives the information to Sisko, but he is disillusioned by the fact that he was not able to realize the Klingon officer was going to kill him - feeling that a real Klingon would have. He comes to the conclusion that he is not of the Klingon or human world, but he only has his Federation rank, and Kurn has nothing at all. Worf has no idea what to do, since he no longer feels able to exercise Klingon honor and kill his brother, but Dax offers him a solution.

Worf finds Kurn drunk in his quarters contemplating suicide, a solution he would welcome were it not so dishonorable. Kurn reveals to Worf that while he never understood his brother, he always considered him honorable in his own way and that his greatest regret was that they were separated. Worf agrees and injects his brother so he passes out. Meanwhile on the "Defiant", Major Kira detonates the mines and flushes out the cloaked birds of prey. The next scene is Worf talking to Dr. Bashir, revealing that they are wiping Kurn's memory and giving him a new identity. Kurn - now "Rodek" - is then entrusted to a family friend who agrees to take him in as a son. Kurn has lost all memory and accepts the situation. In the last scene he looks to Worf and asks him, "Are you my family too?", to which Worf replies "I have no family."

Background information

This represents a continuation of a struggle in Worf's character seen throughout "" and this series between his identity as a Klingon and a Starfleet officer. While in this episode he concludes he does not fit into the Klingon world, in later episodes he is accepted once again as a Klingon when he is adopted by General Martok and his house.

The episode contains one distinct discrepancy. Dr. Bashir, renowned for his commitment to medical ethics, agrees to perform a life-altering surgery on Kurn without his consent. While Worf would have been able to act as Kurn's medical guardian had he been incapacitated in some way, in the episode Kurn appears to simply pass out due to alcohol consumption and is subsequently transferred to the sickbay.

External links

*StarTrekDS9 article|68256|Sons of Mogh