[Nate the Great]

April 25th, 1994, "Firstborn"

I've said it before and I'll say it again, they never wrote Alexander properly. This episode is about two seasons too late if it was supposed to finally make Worf stop forcing Alexander into what he wants them to be (and yeah, it suddenly occurs to me that "Birthright" could've been a key turning point for Worf forcing his worldview on others).

The Episode

ALEXANDER: I'm sorry. We made fullerenes in chemistry class today and filled them with water.

Fullerenes are the broader family that Buckyballs belong to: soccer-ball spheres of carbon molecules. I get that they probably made foam balls using two kinds of foam (to represent the pentagonal and hexagonal rings) to act as a model of a fullerene, but he didn't say "models of fullerenes", he said "fullerenes", which isn't accurate.

WORF: I asked you to meet me here after school. I have been waiting for you.
ALEXANDER: I forgot.
WORF: You forgot because you allowed yourself to be distracted by foolishness.
ALEXANDER: I'm sorry.

And here we go. Worf is forgetting the forest to complain about trees. He should've moved straight into his speech rather than shame Alexander.

WORF: No. I meant warrior. The path of A warrior begins with the First Rite of Ascension.
ALEXANDER: Is that when they hit you with pain sticks?

One of the better scenes from Season Two.

WORF: No. No, that is the Second Rite.
ALEXANDER: Oh.
WORF: You are approaching the Age of Ascension. It is time for you to prepare for the ceremony.

This is confusing. I thought the time to "prepare" was as soon as a child can hold a blade. Furthermore, he should've had this conversation with Alexander a long time ago.

ALEXANDER: What do I have to do?
WORF: Well, your fighting skills will be tested and your knowledge of the teachings of Kahless. It will be challenging, but I will help you prepare. These are the kor'tova candles. They represent the fire that burns within the heart of a warrior. When you light yours, you will be declaring your intention to become a warrior. Go ahead.
ALEXANDER: What if I don't want to?

This conversation should've happened before Worf even brought out the candles.

WORF: If you do not participate in the rite before the age of thirteen years, you will never be able to become a true Klingon warrior.

This is where the timeline completely implodes. Alexander is four years old. When he appears as an adult on DS9 he'll be eight. The biggest problem is that even if they tried to retcon the TNG era as two years per season it just raises more questions and we'd still be years away from Alexander being thirteen.

ALEXANDER: Well I don't care about that.
WORF: You may not care about it now, but someday you might.
ALEXANDER: Mother always said that I didn't have to do any of this Klingon stuff if I didn't want.

I always considered this to be a major misstep on K'Ehleyr's part. She told Worf specifically that Alexander should be allowed to find his own ways, yet she taught her son that he should be suspicious of his Klingon heritage. In other words, as Alexander grows up and goes in search of his own ways she didn't actually intend for him to do this Klingon stuff.

I seriously wish that she had lived. Probably not forever, but at least let her be a guest star until Redemption where the Duras sisters kill her. Let Gowron win the throne by having a simple one on one duel with Duras.

WORF: I have tried to tell him that it is an important part of a young Klingon's life, but he does not understand.
PICARD: But he's had so little opportunity to spend time with Klingons. You know, the festival of Kot'baval is tomorrow.

The festival celebrates the victory of Kahless over Molor. In the Mirror Universe it's the other way around, of course.

I'm extremely dubious that Picard has an encyclopedic knowledge of Klingon holidays OR can instantly convert between stardates and the Klingon calendar OR bothered to keep track of Klingon outposts in the area. This kind of stuff really makes the notion that Federation science can imprint knowledge into people's minds a bit more plausible (stupid Nomad brainwiping Uhura...).

WORF: Yes. But the outpost is on the other side of the Vodrey Nebula. It would take three days by shuttle to get there.
PICARD: The Enterprise could be there in a fraction of the time, and still be back in time for the rendezvous.

Three days? Is this particular nebula too dangerous for small craft and he'd have to go around the long way? They could've spared a line for that, I would've bought it.

SINGER: Nok'tar be'got, hosh'ar te'not?
CRUSHER: What's he saying?

SF Debris brought up the fact that she was wearing a communicator. Given evidence elsewhere the only possible explanation I can come up with is that Klingons choose to learn English (again "Federation Standard" doesn't exist after all) and forbid usage of translators. And again, they could've explained that.

An alternative is that the actors are speaking the Ancient Klingon used in the days of Kahless and this is too complicated to be translated.

ALEXANDER: The man over there says he's got Molor's head in a box. The real Molor.
WORF: That is impossible. The real Molor died centuries ago.
ALEXANDER: I know. It's mummified.

Fifteen hundred centuries ago, to be exact. As for mummification, I have serious doubts that Klingons would bother with that. Ancient Kronos had large deserts (Kahless was sort of like Genghis Khan) and I'd rather think that the head would be desiccated than mummified. Even so, it'd be locked in a crypt on Kronos rather than in the hands of this con artist.

WORF: He is gin'tak to the house of Mogh.
RIKER: Gin'tak?
WORF: An advisor so trusted that he is become part of a family.

Which makes you wonder where he was during the civil war. Presumably Alexander has usurped the identity of the real K'mtar.