It’s not that we necessarily didn’t like this episode, it’s just that not a great deal actually happens in this episode. There’s plenty of world-building, plenty of references to past events in the Star Trek universe, plenty of characters interacting casually with other characters, but in terms of diegesis, it’s a skosh dilute.
Synopsis of “The Way of the Warrior”
The Promenade swarms with Klingons. However, the warriors aren’t their antagonistic selves. Martok tells Sisko they’ve come to fight the Dominion.
We contribute a bit more to our ongoing holodeck canon. Kira complains to Dax that she feels silly in a make-believe construct as Dax attempts to coax her in letting her hair down. This outlook on the holodeck experience presents to these podcasters as wholly unrealistic, even in the paradigm of alien races being entitled to their own opinion.
What being, alien or not, would reject the ability to create an environment and scenario of their choice which is indistinguishable from reality? It would be the same as someone rejecting not just a dish of food, but the food itself. The holodeck is merely a substrate for experience, not the experience itself. That’s the charm of it: it facilitates a preferred fancy.
Somehow we stumble upon a boring conversation concerning the meaning of honor in the Klingon culture. (An honorable mention to the spelling correction gods who’ve bestowed upon us the ability of fictional words like “Klingon” to be considered spelled correctly.) It’s mentioned by Worf in this episode that “There is nothing more honorable than victory,” justifying the use of cloaking technology by a race that has ostensibly founded its identity upon the notion of honor.
So, according to Worf, hiding is okay as long as the battle is won. This feels a bit like a perversion of the concept of honor. Most of our exposure to the Klingons’ supposed obsession with honor through Worf, who is in fact an honorable fellow. But perhaps the actual Klingon expression of honor and nobility is more cynical and corrupt.
Sorry, this episode is so boring. But is it really our fault? We’re merely the mouthpiece of clarity for the episodes we watch. So if the episode doesn’t have much to offer, well, neither will we. Hopefully, next week will be better. Bye.
