We’ve got more lost footage from TNG Season Six’s new Blu-ray release, with more than twelve minutes of dialogue from “Birthright, Part II” recovered from the archives!
On the Blu-ray, each cut sequence is featured in context with the final episode, and we’ve got a full breakdown and analysis of all eight restored scenes below.
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Scene 21: The mystery of Worf’s disappearance continues to worry his friends, but even more puzzling is the fate of Mogh, his father.
Picard and Troi discuss Worf’s leave of absence, taken to find his rumored still-living father; Picard makes the point that even if the captured Klingons really were still alive, they might not want to be found.
It’s a nice little conversation that shows Picard understands the Klingon psyche, but really serves no further purpose and was likely cut for time.
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Scene 23: Worf’s escape attempt has failed, and Tokath is beginning to realize that he may no longer be able to preserve the sanctuary.
Tokath tell L’Kor that the “Romulan border patrols” have been alerted to watch for the Yridian trading vessel that brought Worf to the colony, to keep their secret from getting out.
It’s a small trim, but it acknowledges that Tokath is smart enough not to just ignore how Worf must have found them.
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Scene 32: Worf shares the proud tradition of Klingon mythology with the captives.
This scene features some cuts to Worf’s tale of Kahless’ tears filling the oceans on Qo’nos, including a segment where Kahless searched the ocean floor for his father’s sword for five days without coming up for air.
Nothing big here, just a few lines from the story, adding to the legend of Kahless.
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Scene 40: Gi’ral tells Worf the story of how she gave up grieving for her past life and gave in to her need for companionship, taking Tokath as her husband.
When Worf shames Gi’ral to her face about “lying down with a Romulan,” she launches into a long tale about the loss of her first husband and son at Khitomer, and how it took her three years to find peace with her Romulan “captor,” Tokath.
Worf comes across as the usual anti-Romulan person he’s always been, and rightfully has his prejudice thrown back in his face from a woman who has made the best of her situation. This would have certainly been nice to include in the final cut, but it’s just too long to fit into the allotted running time.
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Scene 45: Worf tells Toq more of the legend of Kahless.
When Toq raises a disruptor at Worf — thinking he’s trying to escape into the jungle — Worf tells the story of Kahless’ last night of freedom before his execution. Kahless asked for a night to say goodbye to “the moon and the stars” before he died; he returned to face his death the following morning — Toq understands the meaning of the tale, that Worf is not going to run away.
This is a nice conversation, serving to explain to the young Klingon why L’Kor — who was raised in the Empire — took Worf at his word that he wouldn’t try to escape.
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Scene 49: Tokath is a deeply compassionate man who sacrificed his military career to avoid unnecessary bloodshed; Worf seems determined to make the man put him to death.
Worf pleads to Tokath — “These people have lost the sense of who they are! They have lost their heritage!” — but the Romulan calls it a small price to pay to keep living in peace.
These deleted lines are a bit repetitive of other arguments Worf makes in the episode; there’s nothing wrong with them, but it just hits the point a bit too hard.
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Scene 51: As Tokath prepares to have Worf executed, he does his best to keep the colony’s Klingon from seeing Worf as a martyr.
Tokath addresses several of the people in the audience by name, drawing on their shared memories and experiences of peace and sacrifice on the colony — Romulans protecting Klingon children, and so forth, Klingons coming to the aid of sick Romulans, and so forth.
This is more footage that absolutely should have remained in place, had it not been for the demands of the required episode length; Alan Scarfe does a great job at selling Tokath’s point of view.
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Scene 55: The Enterprise finally receives word from Worf, arriving aboard a Romulan ship.
Data reports a text-only transmission from Worf, asking to set up a rendezvous between the supply ship and the Enterprise. Picard and Riker share a look of relief, and the order is given to change course.
In the final cut of the episode, this scene is replaced with a Captain’s Log voiceover, which makes perfect sense for an episode already running several minutes over time. |
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