082: TNG: Redemption Parts 1 and 2

Welcome! Thanks for joining me today. Have you ever been given a leadership opportunity you weren’t quite ready for? If you’re like most people in leadership positions, I imagine you have. I’m going share examples of both the right way, and the wrong ways, to show up in those situations. I’m also going break down the critical mindsets and actions for you to truly support someone you work with, both in their professional aspirations, but also in their personal struggles that impact them at work. We’re going to do this in an epic two-parter. The final episode of the 4^th season and first episode of the 5^th season of The Next Generation, Redemption, parts 1 and 2.

<<Transporter>>

Quick note on how this is going to happen. This is a two-parter that has a lot going on in it. I’m going to recap it all as one story mixing up things from the two parts when they come together. Lots to recap in this one but I want to focus our time on the deep, deep, and even contradictory leadership lessons in this one, so let’s dive in!

Earlier in this 4^th season of the Next Generation, Gowron was determined to be the next Chancellor of the Klingon High Council. Captain Picard, because of his involvement in all of that, and the honor he showed the High Council was named the Arbiter of Succession, tasked with ensuring everything was done the way it was supposed to, leading to a smooth transition of power. Well, that’s not how things turn out. “We will have to move quickly to prevent a civil war.” I 2:20

The Duras family, who were also in the running to be the next Chancellor, have been working hard behind the scenes and have been getting families and Houses in their pockets. We meet Lursa and B’Etor, the Duras sisters, that have one heck of a run through TNG. They have found and introduced a new heir of their father, Toral, “I will challenge him. I am Toral, son of Duras.” I 17:37 and are claiming his birthright challenges Gowron.

Understanding the gravity of the situation, Picard talks to Worf. Late in the third season of the series, he received a discommendation from the High Council, shaming his name and his House’s. We touched on this in the 69^th episode of the podcast when we watched The Mind’s Eye. Well, Picard sees this as an opportunity for Worf to get this overturned and get his honor back. “Isn’t it time to confront the Council?” I 1:04

Worf meets with his brother, Kurn, and lays out the plan. They will lay back, avoiding any commitments, and wait for Gowron to be in big trouble. At the last moment, they’ll come in to save him on the condition he restore their family’s honor. “Your forces are weak, Gowron.” I 29:07 Kurn doesn’t like it, he wants to go after Gowron himself, “Gowron is weak. CUT Our leaders have failed us.” I 13:31 but he eventually agrees to follow Worf’s lead.

As the battle lines begin to be drawn, we see that the Duras sisters have not been working alone. No, their planning, their cunning, isn’t quite Klingon. Picard has suspicions early on. “Begin monitoring transmissions at the neutral zone.” I 6:25 They invite Picard to meet with them and try to convince him that the Duras claim is valid. Very much not the Klingon way of attacking an issue head on. In fact, “they have manipulated the circumstances with the skill of a Romulan” I 26:12 And that’s exactly what’s been going on.

As all of this is becoming clear, the attacks start. Duras loyalists attack Gowron’s ship. “A second ship is joining the attack. It has begun.” I 31:13 They ask for help from the Enterprise, but Picard orders the ship away and not to engage. This is an internal matter and the Federation aiding in any way could pull them into an all-out war with the Klingons. But, Worf’s brother Kurn comes through as planned. In Gowron’s darkest moment, the brothers Mogh make the save. “This is Captain Kurn. We come to support Gowron.” I 34:17 Back on the planet, Picard, as the Arbiter of Succession, reaffirms Gowron as High Chancellor. He restores Worf’s family honor, and all is good in the world. “I return your family honor.” I 36:08

At least, for Starfleet. It’s still a dumpster fire for the Klingons. Worf wants an extended leave of absence but Picard needs him on board, at least he says he does. Worf decides to resign his commission, leaves the Enterprise and signs on with Gowron. The crew of the Enterprise line the corridor as he walks to the transporter. “Attention on deck.” I 42:16 It’s a beautiful scene as he’s off to fight in the civil war.

Picard heads to Starbase 234 and tries to convince Starfleet to get involved in this conflict. He knows it’s not just the Klingons and that the Romulans are involved. He sees the intergalactic implications here, “If the Duras are aided by the Romulans it becomes our concern.” II 3:56 and, eventually, they agree to let him run a blockade to expose the supply lines between the Klingons and Romulans.

Seeing the mobilization of a Federation fleet, the Romulans decide to appeal directly to Picard. “In the meantime we shall have to convince Picard to leave.” II 19:29 And this is not the Romulan you’re expecting. We don’t get Ambassador G’Kar, or, um, Tomalak. No, we get Sela. Who is Sela you ask? Well, so does Picard. It’s not everyday you meet a blonde Romulan played by Denise Crosby! She says that back in the episode Yesterday’s Enterprise, which no one on the Enterprise remembers because it was from a different timeline that intersects with this timeline because, you know, temporal time travel stuff, but, back in that episode, Tasha Yar, went back in time with the Enterprise C to fight, and lose, a battle with Romulans at Narendra 3. When the other timeline became this timeline, don’t worry, we’ll get to that episode eventually and it won’t make much more sense, but when they get back to that battle, the Enterprise is defeated and Yar, along with a few others are captured. Some Romulan dude took a liking to her, they hooked up, Sela was born. “My name is Commander Sela. Tasha Yar was my mother.” II 20:03  Yar had enough of it and tried to peace out but they killed her. Now Sela is a master manipulator with an axe to grind against the Federation.

Whew. That was a lot! Ok, so she isn’t able to convince Picard to back out, so the plan continues. He gets 23 ships and they are going to form a big ‘ol tachyon net. “Deploy the ship, Will. It’s time to cast our net.” II 17:23 When a cloaked ship moves through that net, it’s cloak will be disabled, and the Romulans will be implicated in helping the Duras, and everything will work out just fine.

It's kind of a rag tag, little fleet. Some of the ships don’t have full crews or captains, and a few are still in drydock for repairs, upgrades or outright construction. So, he uses the tools he has available. He sends Riker and LaForge to command one of the ships and some crew to augment the other ships. Data is pretty upset he wasn’t selected to command a ship, “I am confused. Why have I not been selected to command a ship?” II 8:46 so Picard has him command the Sutherland, a drydocked ship that is not at all space worthy yet.

In the meantime, the war is not going well for Gowron. “We cannot win, we must withdraw!” II 1:57 The Romulan support is really tipping the scales. There’s a cool scene where a bunch of Klingons are drinking, playing games, roughhousing and just being Klingons. It comes out that there are both Gowron and Duras loyalists here, but they say they are Klingons and warriors first. When they meet in battle, they will tear each other’s hearts out, but until then, they are Klingon. “Good to drink with you, Kurn. Die well!” II 10:41 A very non-Romulan way of handling this, right?

Well, with the tachyon net in place and the Romulans deciding how to get past, the Duras forces are on their own. Gowron is gaining an upper hand. “The Duras are nearing defeat.” II 32:17 Sela sees a gap in the net, an opportunity, and decides to go for it. She knows if they don’t get through, the Duras will be defeated. In an involved storyline about how Data chooses to command the Sutherland, that we’ll breakdown in the command codes section, he does some cool stuff, catches the Romulans as they come across and they’re exposed. “They have discovered us.” II 37:40 They retreat back into Romulan space and the Duras, on their own, escape or are arrested and the war is over.

Picard reports out on everything happened to the Klingon High Council. The Duras sisters got away, but they left Toral behind to take the heat. Gowron offers his life to Worf, because of all the dishonor the Duras have done to Worf and his house. But Worf decides to spare his life, saying that killing him might be the Klingon way, “but it is not my way.” II 43:41 At Worf’s request, Picard reinstates him into Starfleet, and we’re back to business as usual.

<<Red Alert>>

This was an epic two-parter. Two very different episodes that stand on their own but tell a great story. In my opinion, they were pretty off balance, with the first episode kind of slow-playing the Klingon stuff, and the second pat cramming that, plus the Sela stuff, plus the Data as Captain stuff in. Some of those could have carried an entire episode on their own. But, at the time, this was such an important episode in the world building of the Klingons. We get a lot of Worf’s development and so many of the things we take for granted as the way the Klingons are, came to be in this episode.

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Interestingly, Gene Roddenberry hated the idea for these episodes. He didn’t want stories about war and didn’t see Worf as a central character. Luckily for us, at this point in the franchise he didn’t really have a say in stuff like this.

This gave us a lot of Klingon culture that, today, we just kind of take for granted. Headbutting, drinking with your enemies and then trying to kill each other later. But it even had some great callbacks to previous Klingon stuff! We get “35,000 kellicams.” I 33:16 in this one and, in Star Trek 3. I thought that was cool.

And, because of the way this podcast works, we get a callback to a past Starfleet Leadership Academy episode that is a future TNG episode. In Unification part 1, the episode ends with the reveal of Mr. Spock. Pretty amazing moment you can track back in the 18^th episode of the podcast. In Redemption, the first episode ends with the reveal of Sela. “Humans have a way of showing up when you least expect them.” I 44:27 The lighting and reveal were almost, beat-for-beat the same. Also interestingly, Unification part 2 was Sela’s swan song. So, a cool, stylistic through line.

There are a few other cool bits of trivia on this one. Former president Ronald Regan visited the set during filming and compared the Klingons in makeup to members of Congress. And a lot of the Klingon battle footage was reused from prior episodes and movies.

We’ll talk about Picard’s leadership highs, and his low, in the command codes, but for this, I loved him as Arbiter! He truly understands Klingon culture “With due respect, he has fought no battles. Shed no blood.” I 27:05 and takes some real risks to remain respectful and impartial.

But so much of the meat in these episodes is Worf and his growth, that will continue all the way into the 3^rd season of Picard! But let’s hit some of the highlights. About a season ago, he accepted discommendation from the High Council. “I accepted discommendation to protect the Empire. CUT. Duras betrayed us.” I 7:20 With Picard’s urging, he used this situation to not only get his family’s honor back, but also to reveal the truth. It was the Duras the betrayed the Klingons, not his father. This was huge for him! It is important to Worf to be what he believes a Klingon is and shedding that discommendation was so critical for him.

But, and I love whenever someone does this to him, he got it rubbed in his face quite a few times that his idea of what it is to be Klingon is far from the truth. Guinan hits him with this while she is actively owning him in a shooting simulation. “I’ve seen you laugh. Klingons don’t laugh. Yes they do, you don’t.” I 10:21 And the Duras sisters note it while he’s hanging out in the Klingon bar clearly not understanding how stuff actually works. “Worf is not like his brother.” II 12:06

If you remember from the season 4 premiere, Family, and the rest of what we’ve learned about Worf, he was orphaned when the Duras betrayed the Klingons at Khitomer and was raised by humans on Earth. So he has a deep, cultural conflict waging inside of him all the time. He has some powerful moments on that journey, though. When he leaves the Enterprise, he says, and means, “I do hear the cry of the warrior. I belong with my people.” I 41:07 But his real moment. Maybe the peak of his personal development to this point was at the end of these episodes. The Duras are defeated, the sisters running away, leaving Toral to the Council. Gowron does what any Klingon in his position would do and gives Toral’s life to Worf. It’s expected that he kill him, but Worf refused. But that wasn’t even the peak for him. Remember, he is in front of High Council. The center of Klingon politics. Everything that happens here is broadcast across the Empire. Knowing this, when Gowron tells Worf’s brother Kurn to kill Toral, Worf stops him. “You gave me his life, and I have spared it” II 43:57 He acts, not as a Klingon, but as himself. This was huge for him.

So much of Worf’s growth in this episode, and the impacts of the end of the civil war will echo on in Deep Space 9. In fact, we’ll see Toral again when the, oh, spoiler alert, but when the Changelings disrupt the Klingons once again. But, that’s a story for another episode.

<<Command Codes>>

We’re going to do things a little differently in this episode. I’ll talk though some of Picard’s incredible moments, specifically around his support for both Worf the officer, and Worf the person. But beyond that, we have a unique opportunity. Data is given command of a starship and it does not go well. I’ll break down his motivations and share where he went wrong. Then I’ll flip the script a little bit and show the few small things he could have done differently that would have really elevated him as a leader.

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One of the things that makes Picard a great leader is that he coaches, develops and grows the people he works with. A situation comes up, in this case, a change of power in the Klingon Empire. Because Picard has taken the time to connect with the people he works with, Worf specifically, he sees this as more than just a moment. More than a situation. He sees the opportunity in it for Worf. “Isn’t it time to confront the Council?” I 1:04 He knows that his discommendation has been weighing on him and limiting his growth as an officer. So he goes out of his way to support him.

Worf picks up on what he’s doing and Picard is all-in on supporting him. “I request a leave of absence. Granted. Qap’La.” I 12:04 What I find fascinating here, and the first real takeaway for us, is that this hurt Picard. It would have been so much easier to keep him on board, lean on his tactical expertise and his cultural knowledge. Picard knows they are heading in for a rough go and Worf could be a real asset for him. But he lets him go anyway. Picard understands a fundamental bit of arithmetic that you also need to understand. Having Worf in the short-term will cost him in the long-term. He can withstand a temporary loss of expertise, ultimately letting others on the team step up and fill the gap, to help Worf be even better in the future. It’s literally having him at like 70% now so you can have him at 40% in the future, as opposed to having him at 10% now – 10% because he’s still out there doing stuff and helping the cause – so you can have him as close to 100% as possible in the future.

I mean, this really is the message. Too often I work with managers that deny a development opportunity for someone because of an immediate need and that is so shortsighted. Not only are you costing them opportunities, but when you shut those requests down, you’re opening the door to building resentment. And that is no good.

Picard’s support ends up going to an extreme. “I order you to return to your station. Then I resign my commission.” I 39:07 In my headcanon, this was part of Picard’s master plan. He knew Worf needed to go fight, but he also had to maintain his command. So he set up the situation, commanding him back to duty, to force him to resign. I like to think that he figured either what happened would happen, or it would all go to hell and it wouldn’t matter anyway. Either way, Picard knew that if Worf didn’t go all the way with this, it would weigh on him forever.

He skills here are understanding sacrifice. What skills and abilities you can give up now to get a gain in the future. And knowing your team well enough to know when an opportunity is this important. A core skill of effective leaders is creating and casting vision, we talked about that in the 80^th episode of the podcast when we watched Discovery’s Into the Forest I go. But you can use that exact same skill to look into the future to see the potential benefits, and importance, of potential opportunities. You do this, and believe me, your team will all benefit from it.

One more thought on Picard showing up like this for Worf. Giving someone an opportunity for growth and development is not giving them card blanche. It’s not a free pass to do whatever they want. Picard is faced with Worf pushing the boundaries, arguably pushing right past them, so he reinforces them. “You’re using our files? That’s a conflict of interest.” I 21:09

This is me, telling you, empowering you, to do the same. Have clear boundaries around what is and is not acceptable. Hold people accountable. Notice I said accountable. Picard didn’t punish Worf, and he ultimately problem solved a way for him to have access to the information, but he reminded him of the rules and values they are working under.

Ok, let’s get to the fun stuff in this one. Wow! What an awesome storyline, specifically for us! Here’s the deal. Picard and crew are putting together this small fleet to cast a tachyon net to detect cloaked Romulan ships. A good chunk of the ships aren’t fully crewed or even put all the way together. With a literal boatload of experienced crew, the Enterprise fills out the crew complements to get the mission done. Riker and LaForge fill in for the command team of one of the ships and Data gets upset. His understanding is that he is being trained and given experience that will, ultimately, give him the opportunity for command, so when a development opportunity comes up, he flexes his self-advocacy muscles and ends up getting a ship. “I believe my 26 years qualifies me. CUT The Sutherland needs a captain.” II 9:01

Here are some important things to keep in mind before we dive in. First, Data has been trained in some leadership and he has observed leaders and commanders in action. Second, this is a short-term mission with well-defined goals that are very high stakes. I point these out, because things do not go well. “By order of starfleet I take command of this vessel.” II 12:54 He comes in, swinging some heavy hammer energy from go. By the book, no niceties, just right to it. And, if ‘m being fair, that’s not bad. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Like I said, clearly defined, short-term goals with very high stakes. But his first interaction should have been a clue.

He meets his first officer, Lt. Commander Hobson. Hobson quickly reveals himself to be quite the bigot “No one would suggest that a Klingon would be a good ship’s counselor.” II 13:34 and wants nothing to do with an android as his captain. “I’d like to request a transfer. Why…Denied.” II 13:05 Now, there is a lot to unpack here. There is absolutely, 100% an argument to be made that Data owes Hobson nothing. He’s outed as a dude with massive biases and, as Kirk showed us back in Balance of Terror. But, on the other hand, he’s short on people, Hobson knows the ship and the crew, and Data is here learning to be a leader.

Generally speaking, I’m not one to shut someone out because they have errors in their thinking. At least not right away. Instead of just punishing someone for being a racist or a bigot, as a leader, try and help them see things differently. Data had an opportunity to show him androids could be effective leaders and he failed. The show will tell you otherwise, like, they give you the moment with Hobson respecting him and Picard says things we’ll touch on in a bit, but what Data actually did was validate Hobson’s bigotry. He believed androids were incapable of effective leadership and that’s exactly that Data demonstrated.

So, acknowledging that, Data literally takes every opportunity to drop the ball. “You have taken the torpedoes offline…it is inappropriate to determine a course of action…belay those orders…what should we do? Take the torpedoes offline.” II 17:56 Do you see what happened here? He literally told Hobson that he was incapable of doing his job independently. I mean, he not only did the ‘taking credit for someone else’s work’ thing a lot of bad managers do, but he it blatantly did it in front of everyone! That was ridiculous! He doubles down on this as he just spouts commands from the chair. “Do it!” II 37:03 Bottom line, if this dude was working for me, there’s a good chance he won’t be in this job come Monday.

So the deal, the mission here, is that they are to assume a position and be a part of the tachyon net. Like I talked about in the recap, the plan goes south so Picard orders the fleet to regroup and reconsider. Data not only ignores the order, but refuses to communicate with anyone about it. He doesn’t respond to Picard’s hails and when his crew tries figure out what’s going on, he hits them with “I am aware of the risks, please bring the phasers back online.” II 35:42 Totally blowing them off and ignoring them.

Now this has all been really bad. But here’s where it all falls apart for me, especially because this next thing is used to forgive his abuse of his crew. At one point, the Romulans blast a thing that disrupts the net. Without saying a word, Data gets up, goes to a console and DOES HIS JOB FROM THE ENTERPRISE! He’s analyzing the blast and cross-referencing other technologies. The stuff he does in every single episode in his regular job. Hobson even sits by him to try and figure out what he’s doing. He says “In disrupting the detection net, the Romulans caused a residual signature.” II 35:10 and then just starts barking orders.

Now, at this point you could say this was a crisis situation and he just had to get stuff done. But there were huge swaths of time where he was just sitting there, silent, while people did what he told them to. Just two lines explaining, high level, what the plan is and we’re good. But no. I mean, Picard hails him and asks him what’s up and Data just tells him to standby. Bro! Communication!! Just, ‘I don’t have time to go into details, but they’ve left themselves open to detection. We’re going to fire low-yield torpedoes to expose them,’ I mean, it’s that simple. But we get none of that until the exact moment when it all has to happen and Hobson is arguing with Data because he doesn’t understand what they’re doing.

They end up firing the torpedoes, exposing the Romulans and winning the day, with Hobson calling Data captain as a term of respect. But, oh, I hated this so much! Yes, Data saved the day but he didn’t do so as a leader. Nothing he did was leadership! If he had been on the Enterprise he would have done the exact same thing in his normal position. Data, my friends, is an abject failure as a leader in this episode, and I will fight Jean-Luc Picard on that point! We’ll get to why, here in a few.

Before that, I want to break down what Data did here. Data played through leadership scenarios he had seen countless times. High stakes, limited time and resources. He’s seen people like Picard bark orders without explanation and stick to a very by the book style. He is emulating other great leaders. The problem is that the situations are entirely different. Yes, this is high stakes, yes, this is a crisis, but they have time to spare. Also, and this is the big one, when he saw Picard, or others, lead in this way, those leaders had the trust of their crew. Data set this entire thing up as a conflict from go, and then acted as if he had a trusting and solid relationship with everyone.

To avoid this in your work, communicate. Tell people your plan, what your vision is. You don’t need to compose a speech or do a powerpoint. You don’t even need to open the floor to ideas or debate. But you do have to explain what you are doing and why it will be effective. 5, maybe 10 seconds. That’s it. Had Data done that, he still wouldn’t have been a great leader, but he wouldn’t be deserving of discipline.

Which brings me to Picard.   Data is very aware of what he did and that it wasn’t right. “Although the results were positive, the ends cannot justify the means.” II 40:25 He submitted himself for disciplinary action. This was the right thing to do. This was leadership. Taking the hit when you’re wrong. But Picard…Picard says to him, “The claim I was only following orders has hurt many.” II 40:37 Don’t get me wrong here, I get it. He is consoling Data, even teaching him. These are good things. But Data was wrong. The means he used were inappropriate and abusive. Period, full stop. I’m not calling for him to be strung up or discharged, but there needs to be clear feedback. More than a simple yes, and then moving into consoling, Data needed to hear, ‘you’re right, the ends do not justify the means. What you did, the way you led your team was inappropriate and unacceptable. But, the claim…’ then you build him up and teach him from the positive things that happened. But this was missed opportunity for Picard and Data.

Luckily, it’s not a missed opportunity for you. Don’t let your own whatever get in the way of leading your team. Just like Picard knew when to get out of the way for Worf, Data should begin understanding when to get out of the way of the experts. You should as well. Do not be the subject matter expert, like Data was here. Be the leader, and enable your teams to do amazing things.

<<Hailing Frequencies>>

Back in the middle of June 2023, I was a guest on the Hit or Miss Star Trek podcast to talk about this very episode! Mike is a great host and a huge Star Trek fan. He had me and Sandra Eavenson on to talk about this two-parter. It’s a great listen you can catch wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube.

Check it out and let me know on Twitter or Mastodon: @ SFLA podcast and Instagram too, @jefftakin Jeff, t as in Toral, a k i n.

Computer, what are we going to watch next time….

The 4^th episode of the 1^st season of Lower Decks, Moist Vessel! I’ve heard it said that the word moist is one of the most distressing words to hear in the English language. And, yeah. Can’t argue with that. Luckily, I don’t think I’ll need to say it too much. The thing I really remember about this one is a crewmember achieving spiritual ascension, allowing us to learn about what the universe and a koala have in common. That, and much more, in the next episode!

Until then, Ex Astris Scientia!