Synopsis: As Captain Picard fulfills his obligations as Arbitrator of Succession on the Klingon Homeworld, Lt. Worf is torn between duties to his family, the Klingon Empire, and Starfleet.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what if means to be in the in-between place. And while consciously this may seem like a place one avoids and is stuck in; it is also the place where soul is made. James Hillman calls the place between the conscious and the unconscious, this third place, the metaxy.
In “Redemption, Part I” both Lt. Worf and Captain Jean-Luc Picard feel obliged to fulfill their duties to Starfleet and the Klingon Empire, but with different results.
Picard, representing Starfleet, and therefore the Federation, is also obliged to the Klingon Empire in his role as Arbitrator of Succession, and as such is in an in-between place. He is human, and carefully treads the tight wire of going only so far in his responsibilities in the Arbitrator position as he can without throwing the support of the Federation behind one Klingon faction, as he feels above all he must keep Starfleet out of the Klingon civil war.
Worf is in the in-between place between the human-led Federation and Starfleet, and the Klingon Empire. He was raised on Earth in the Federation, but he was born a Klingon. The two societies, while currently in an alliance by treaty, have different ways of being in the world. Toward the end of the episode, Picard tells Worf that he believes that Worf has been able to combine the best traits of humanity into himself. But Worf knows that he must find his destiny through Klingon means.
Both of these characters find themselves in an in-between place. It can be uncomfortable, but it is also the place where soul – and in Star Trek: The Next Generation good storytelling is made.
Original post created 22 September 2021
mydailysoultrek 