If anyone can stomach another viewing of "Code of Honor" ...

[RapidNadion]

... and you're a fan of soundtracks, allow me to suggest it. The score for that episode is so completely unlike anything we hear again after Season 1. It's uncanny how much it resembles the score for some TOS episodes, like "Amok Time." The music is much more present, almost like another character in the show.

Anyone else recently re-watch this (otherwise laughable) episode and notice the same thing?


NO VACCINE! (Just had to)

 

[Christopher]

The music in "Code of Honor" is special because it's the only TNG episode scored by Fred Steiner, the most prolific composer for TOS. He did "The Corbomite Maneuver," "Mudd's Women," "Charlie X," "Balance of Terror," "What Are Little Girls Made Of?," "City on the Edge of Forever," "Who Mourns for Adonais," "Mirror, Mirror," "By Any Other Name," "Elaan of Troyius," "Spock's Brain," and the music to the "Way to Eden" songs. He also did some orchestration work on ST:TMP, making him the only composer to have worked on TOS, the movies, and TNG. (Steiner also composed the Perry Mason theme and the score to the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, among many other diverse contributions to television music.)

At the beginning, TNG took a more classic approach to the music. Dennis McCarthy's score to "Encounter at Farpoint" and particularly Ron Jones' score to "The Naked Now" have a very TOS-like quality to them, and then they brought back Steiner to do "Code of Honor." But as the series progressed, the decision was made (probably by Rick Berman) to take a more modern approach to the scoring, and Steiner didn't return, nor were any other TOS composers used on TNG.

"Code of Honor"'s score is certainly the best thing about the episode and one of the finest scores in TNG. It's not Steiner's best work for Trek, but it's definitely a Fred Steiner score, a worthwhile addition to his impressive canon of Trek work.

 

[RapidNadion]

Thanks for that background info, Christopher. I had a notion it must have been a TOS composer, but didn't think any of them made the leap to TNG. It's pretty amazing how musical compositions can serve as a recognizable signature.

 

[Alrik]

A local station has started carring TNG weeknights at 11 and started off with Season One, so I just watched this one not too long ago. First, the music . Now as far as watchablity? Not as painful as I had remembered. I have actually found that if the concepts behind some of the individual episodes hadn't been made for season one, but had been re-worked slightly and done later in the series, some of them could have been pretty outstanding.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

This is one of my favorite episodes. I didn't realize Fred Steiner did the music....(tks to Christopher for that info).

I may have to give it a listen when I watch the episode again.

 

[JoeD80]

At the beginning, TNG took a more classic approach to the music. Dennis McCarthy's score to "Encounter at Farpoint" and particularly Ron Jones' score to "The Naked Now" have a very TOS-like quality to them, and then they brought back Steiner to do "Code of Honor." But as the series progressed, the decision was made (probably by Rick Berman) to take a more modern approach to the scoring

I think it was Ron Jones who said Rick Berman's idea about music in television was that it was a "necessary evil" and that it shouldn't be noticeable (paraphrasing from memory).

Thanks for that background info, Christopher. I had a notion it must have been a TOS composer, but didn't think any of them made the leap to TNG. It's pretty amazing how musical compositions can serve as a recognizable signature.

He was the only composer to do so, but a few other people involved with TOS were on board in the early days of TNG (Ed Milkis, D. C. Fontana, David Gerrold, Robert H. Justman, William Ware Theiss). Fred was probably asked to be on board with the others by Gene as well. None of them stayed past the first season (and some dropped out before the first season wrapped up.)

 

[Christopher]

^Indeed. Gerrold, Fontana, and Justman essentially co-created TNG along with Roddenberry, despite not getting credit. It's a shame they were driven away.

 

[DWF]

I always rather liked Code Of Honor, it showed a slightly different side to the Klingons and they tried to make a high energy storyline despite the fact that it was something of a bottle show. Plus the "A" and "B" plotlines came togeether rather well.

 

[RapidNadion]

I always rather liked Code Of Honor, it showed a slightly different side to the Klingons and they tried to make a high energy storyline despite the fact that it was something of a bottle show. Plus the "A" and "B" plotlines came togeether rather well.

I think you may be thinking of "Heart of Glory." The episode being discussed here, "Code of Honor," is the one where Tasha is abducted to become a planetary ruler's wife:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Code_of_Honor_(episode)

 

[DWF]

I always rather liked Code Of Honor, it showed a slightly different side to the Klingons and they tried to make a high energy storyline despite the fact that it was something of a bottle show. Plus the "A" and "B" plotlines came togeether rather well.

I think you may be thinking of "Heart of Glory." The episode being discussed here, "Code of Honor," is the one where Tasha is abducted to become a planetary ruler's wife:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Code_of_Honor_(episode)

No, I was thinking of A Matter Of Honor.

 

[Green Shirt]

I always rather liked Code Of Honor, it showed a slightly different side to the Klingons and they tried to make a high energy storyline despite the fact that it was something of a bottle show. Plus the "A" and "B" plotlines came togeether rather well.

I think you may be thinking of "Heart of Glory." The episode being discussed here, "Code of Honor," is the one where Tasha is abducted to become a planetary ruler's wife:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Code_of_Honor_(episode)

No, I was thinking of A Matter Of Honor.

Not to be confused with "Matterpiece Society".

 

[DWF]

I think you may be thinking of "Heart of Glory." The episode being discussed here, "Code of Honor," is the one where Tasha is abducted to become a planetary ruler's wife:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Code_of_Honor_(episode)

No, I was thinking of A Matter Of Honor.

Not to be confused with "Matterpiece Society".

In some ways The Masterpiece Society was worse than Code Of Honor.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I always rather liked Code Of Honor, it showed a slightly different side to the Klingons and they tried to make a high energy storyline despite the fact that it was something of a bottle show. Plus the "A" and "B" plotlines came togeether rather well.

I think you may be thinking of "Heart of Glory." The episode being discussed here, "Code of Honor," is the one where Tasha is abducted to become a planetary ruler's wife:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Code_of_Honor_(episode)

I like Heart of Glory, as well as Code of Honor....

....but not exactly because of the Klingons...or Tasha Yar....

 

[Balrog]

Funny, I just dusted off my Season 1 DVDs. I watched 'Code of Honor' over the weekend and agree the music harkens back to TOS.

But oh boy! The first season of TNG is pretty brutal to watch. The writing, the ACTING (perhaps it's just the stilted dialogue), the directing - it is painful to watch. Luckily, there were enough shining moments to keep it on the air so it could get better.

 

[Cheapjack]

I can't see what's so bad about it. I love the first season, and wish the rest of TNG had followed its curve.

 

[Seven of Five]

There's somewhat up an upswing in quailty in like the last third or so of the season, but overall it is really, really bad. I can just about make a top 5, whereas a bottom 10, or even 15 would be much easier to make.

Season two is a vast improvement.

 

[Kegg]

I can't see what's so bad about it.

It's chiefly the racism (savage black men want white woh-mon), though even besides that it's a pretty goofy hour of TV.

 

[Christopher]

^In the episode's defense, the Legaran culture was described as being similar to Ming China, not to any tribal African stereotype. And at least they were trying to be inclusive by having aliens that weren't white. TOS gave us aliens inspired by Rome and Greece, America and China; I guess the thinking was that it would be inclusive and progressive to include African elements in that diversity, or a mix of that with other influences like Ming China. And they certainly weren't portrayed as "savage;" they had a high technology. I recall finding it refreshingly progressive when it first aired back in '87, since most prior SF in TV and film had portrayed humanoid aliens as almost invariably white (and occasionally green or blue, but the actors underneath were still Caucasian). But since the culture came off negatively in the script, the attempt at inclusion backfired.

Although on the other hand, "Code of Honor" was co-written by Katharyn Powers, the same writer responsible for Stargate SG-1's "Emancipation" episode with its ridiculously inaccurate and condescending portrayal of Mongol culture. (It painted them as a sexist culture that kept its women sequestered and veiled, which is nonsense; a nomadic culture can't afford to have non-contributing members, and Mongol women participated in government, society, economy, and combat as relative equals, or at least much more so than women in sedentary societies traditionally were.) So that's probably part of the problem with its execution.

 

[Kegg]

^In the episode's defense, the Legaran culture was described as being similar to Ming China, not to any tribal African stereotype.

According to Memory Alpha, though, there was still a mite bit of inherent racism:

In this episode, the entire humanoid population of the planet is portrayed by African-American performers. In the teleplay, however, only Lutan's guards were specifically written as being black.

That's every Orientalist drama ever, isn't it? The large, silent Nubian guards.

And they certainly weren't portrayed as "savage;" they had a high technology.

They are primitive barbarians who by pure chance are sitting on a find the white man wants. They also have a plot conveinent transporter device, but that's curiosially at odds with the largely tribalistic portrayal of their society.

(It painted them as a sexist culture that kept its women sequestered and veiled, which is nonsense; a nomadic culture can't afford to have non-contributing members, and Mongol women participated in government, society, economy, and combat as relative equals, or at least much more so than women in sedentary societies traditionally were.)

More that they were the people in charge when the men went off to fight, as all able bodied men did, but that there was a posessiveness about a large harem was also true. (I haven't seen this episode.)

 

[Christopher]

And they certainly weren't portrayed as "savage;" they had a high technology.

They are primitive barbarians who by pure chance are sitting on a find the white man wants. They also have a plot conveinent transporter device, but that's curiosially at odds with the largely tribalistic portrayal of their society.

See, here's where I think the stereotypes are not on the part of the episode. Why does a highly technological society have to look and dress and talk like present-day America or Europe? Why assume that their clothes and their accents are automatically "primitive" and "tribal" just because they're more African than Western?

Yes, they're portrayed as less advanced than the 24th-century Federation, but they have transporters and energy beams and clearly represent a technology in advance of what we have in the present. Hardly primitive. And where do you get "tribal" from? What connection could that possibly have to the social organization actually depicted in the episode? "Highly structured," analogous to Sung-Dynasty China (I misspoke when I said Ming), a society where women own land and men protect and rule it, a world with a planetary government... nothing in that is "tribal," a word referring to a non-state or pre-state level of social organization based on kinship ties. You're just using that as a derogatory label rather than an anthropologically accurate designation.

See, the problem isn't just with the episode, it's with society. The script depicted a culture that was an amalgam of numerous non-Western Earth civilizations, with elements of China, Native American societies, and so forth. I think if the actors had been white like in an old-school Trek episode, viewers would've had no problem accepting the culture as written as one that was merely exotic. But they cast black actors and had them use African accents, and suddenly the viewers projected all sorts of racist assumptions and expectations onto the episode. There's nothing in the script that suggests tribalism, but your preconceptions equate that word with images of Africans in traditional garb or something similar. Now, maybe it was a mistake on the part of the people who produced the episode not to recognize what a quagmire they were stepping in with their casting, but the ultimate fault here is spread much more widely.