Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 4x09 — The Sword of Kahless

Aired 1995-11-20

SpaceOpera.com rating:3

Average reader rating:5.07

Synopsis

Kor, a revered Klingon warrior, sets out with Worf and Dax in search of a mythical, ancient artifact they believe has the power to unite the Klingon Empire.

Filler rating: partial filler

This episode serves as a followup to TNG: Redemption regarding Worf sparing the Duras boy and TNG: Rightful Heir with regards to Emperor Kahless. It's also the episode in which Worf meets Kor.

Remarkable scenes

Quark to Worf: "You know what I like about Klingon stories, Commander? Nothing. Lots of people die and nobody makes any profit."
Worf, Dax, and Kor discovering the sword of Kahless.
The Duras family trying to steal the sword of Kahless.
Worf and Kor arguing over who's to blame for the Duras family's interference.

Review

The return of Kor in this episode is certainly welcome. It's always nice to see a ridiculously old Klingon throwing his weight around. The continuity in this episode is spectacular. It seems the Kahless clone is nothing more than a figurehead; Gowron has all the real power. Unfortunately, this episode falls flat on its face with the bickering between Worf and Kor. I found it all rather childish. The final blow to me is the ending. The episode started off so good in the beginning, then Kor and Worf started fighting, then they agreed to beam the sword into space and not deliver it to the Klingons. What happened to the sword restoring Worf's name and improving Federation-Klingon relations?

4 reader comments

I have to agree that this episode starts out really well, but descends into childish bickering by the 25-minute mark. By 30 minutes you're just tired of seeing it. I find this rather distasteful, given that Worf has, until now, been the hallmark of honor in the Star Trek franchise. I don't like seeing him scheming or plotting "like a Ferengi", as he would say.
I give it a 5, only because the beginning was so good.
by John DC | 01/12/2011 at 4:28 am

The DS9 producers apparently chose this episode as their first to focus on Worf in order to demonstrate that they completely fail to understand him as a character. They brought on this character to try to win over fans of Worf from TNG and then immediately pissed all over his honourable image treasured most by exactly the fans they were trying to court. I found it extremely insulting at the time, but now it's just one of the many signals that the producers of DS9 did not really understand much about Star Trek or its fans.
by Laroquod | 06/12/2012 at 12:35 pm

For a while there, it seemed like the sword had been forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in Mt. Doom. It was having the same effect on people as the one ring :)
Anyway, I do buy the bickering between Worf and Kor although they dragged it on way too long and screwed up by making it the story. Worf, as honorable as he is, has never been confronted with the opportunity for this kind of power, and it can make good people go a bit nutty. It did for Kor as well. But it would've been a lot more interesting to explore the impact of Federation officers helping to retrieve the most prized artifact in Klingon history.
by Axel | 05/31/2015 at 4:46 pm

What an amazingly bad episode. It starts off well then takes a left right into crazy town. A virus that changes people into loonies would have been preferable than both of them just suddenly losing their mind. TBH I have not really watched much of TNG but it seems to me that the DS9 people/makers really did the famous Worf a disservice here.
by lumzi23 | 12/27/2016 at 7:44 am