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Episode
129
A Matter of Honor
Did you know Starfleet has an exchange program? Well it does. And Commander Riker is away on a Klingon ship. For a very short time. Because the Klingon ship is about to be destroyed by a subatomic something that’s eating the hull of the Klingon ship. That was spotted by the Benzite exchange officer on the Enterprise. He did not bother to tell anyone about it though. Bottom line: Everyone has a lot to learn when we put A Matter of Honor in the Mission Log.
Hey! We have comments now! Is this new as well? I guess so. Congrats on the new site 🙂
Yep – new feature! We’ll be rolling out more as the site grows. Thanks!
Pur-dee! Congratulations on the new look.
Subtle thing to note: When Riker is trying gagh in 10 forward, he describes it as “ghargh” (serpent worms) and Pulaski responds with “gagh?!?” (or qagh/serpent worms used as food). She acts like she’s never heard of such a thing, but is actually correcting him on his pronunciation, as everyone pronounces it her way from that point on.
Yes, isn’t that odd. You’d really think the continuity person would pick up that the two actors are saying the word in different ways. It can’t be that difficult to fix somthing like that in post production. If you listen to the dialogue of TNG closely, you can hear that dialogue is often re-recorded later on, so it’s a bit odd they didn’t do that here.
I love it … Pulaski correcting Riker on pronounciation. What a wonderful retcon!
I always took it that Riker mispronounces it because his mouth was full. Which means he was learning Klingon table manners while eating Klingon food, at the same time.
Great episode. Doesn’t one of the actresses playing one of the Klingon women return as one of the Duras sisters? I didn’t realize until you mentioned it that we never learn the source of the starship-eating dry rot. But in general, there’s much less here to nit-pick than usual. And next week… we get Measure of a Man. Picard speech!!
So, I feel like a dope, but I can’t figure out how to download the episode in this new configuration…
We’ve just added a download link! Bottom right-hand corner of the player.
Ah, thanks! 🙂
New site looks great, John, Ken and Rod! So excited for ya!
Thank you! We should also mention that none of this would be possible without the talent and many hours of work done by our graphics and web maestro, Tyler!
I Love This Show! Been Listening from the Beginning. Great New Site!
Qapla’
I will enjoy watching what kind of crop you have from the seed you planted today. Excellent site guys.
Great podcast. I remember loving doing the scenes in Picard’s room where he would reprimand me for being a Benzite doosh on the bridge. I also have a Mendon action figure signed by Michael Westmore which I covet. I lost 10 pounds playing a Benzite cause the 5 hour makeup would not last if I ate or talked other than on camera.
A Matter of Honor was one of my favorite episodes up to this point. I loved getting to see Klingons laughing … and being astounded that humans have a sense of humor. And of course, the whole female Klingons thing. “One or both?” indeed … Riker took a big gamble on that one. But it payed off. I think in later episodes we find out Riker’s not interested in any women who don’t have lumps on their foreheads. Maybe the Klingons ruined him for smooth-headed women. Though we never got to see any of that. Thank God.
Regarding the whole Benzite conversation … it occurs to me that the Benzites may not be like us. They may have specialists, maybe even different species (or at least from different “geostructures” whatever that means). In their society, they may team up people who look for answers and come to conclusions with others that report ongoing investigations to superiors. Mendon screwed up because he didn’t have his usual Benzite support system around to make things work. In this way, they could build a spacefaring society as more of a “hive mind” or at least a more heavily differentiated society. Yeah, I know it’s a big retcon. About a race we’ll never see again. But Ken’s question made me wonder.
I really enjoy this one. One thing I’m learning from this rewatch is that I’ve really under appreciated the Riker character. Frakes plays him so well, right from the beginning of the series, and he’s so unabashedly likable. He’s one of the few characters that, at this point, can be paired with almost anyone else and have it be a strong and characterized scene.
Nice podcast, guys!
Thank you! It’s a strong episode, and for as much armchair quarterbacking since TNG that has made Riker kind of the butt of jokes (or derision), he works incredibly well in so many of these stories. He’s terrific here.
The stuff about the make-up: I never realised how good it was; took it for granted. I think the Benzite effect is particularly good, looking more like another species then a human in make-up.
I thought the Benzites’ tendency of not giving information without a full answer was culturally based rather than driven by evolution. I agree a species as a whole would not be able to survive like that.
Love the show!
I know you guys aren’t big into animation so it’s understandable that you didn’t mention this, but the Klingon Captain… that’s Starscream and Cobra Commander.
backtracking…! again, disappointed at the one or twice and done use of the Benzites! As I go back I realize how little was done w sooooo many species. Bolians, Bynars, Benzites..wait a minute!! I see a Battern..hahaha, but seriously we should have seen Andorians, Tholians and hmmm the pig like ones too….Great Klingon insight episode…really helped to broaden the horizons of the show…I think TNG teased at fights w Klingons and Romulans whereas DS9 really delivered…argggh, can’t wait till we get to DS9! hahaha,
Tellarites!
I LOVED this episode. I want to go into the foreign service so navigating other cultures is the calling of my spirit. I would volunteer for that exchange. I probably would have had a few extra struggles as a female human but it would have been interesting. Maybe I could do an exchange with their comms officer- does that post require physical violence?