Heart of Glory
"Heart of Glory" is the twentieth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, first broadcast March 21, 1988.
The story was created by Herbert Wright and D. C. Fontana and was made into a script in two days by executive producer Maurice Hurley.
He appeared in a further eleven roles in the franchise, including the part of Admiral Maxwell Forrest in Star Trek: Enterprise.
An away team beams over and finds three Klingons: Korris (Vaughn Armstrong), Konmel (Charles Hyman), and Kunivas (Robert Bauer), the latter found wounded.
As Korris and Konmel are shown to quarters, they are surprised to hear about a fellow Klingon, Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn), who is serving within Starfleet.
Knowing that Korris and Konmel will be tried and executed if they are returned, Worf argues instead for their exile to a hostile planet but K'Nera refuses.
Writer and executive producer Maurice Hurley thought that "Heart of Glory" was the closest experience he had on the show to directly place his philosophy into a script.
He later credited fellow executive producer Rick Berman with helping to write the script for "Heart of Glory", saying "When I had a problem, I could go in and we could sit there, close the door, yell and scream.
[1] Michael Dorn was pleased with the outcome of this episode as he felt it showed the producers that the fans were just as interested in his character as the others in the main cast.
Instead, Bowman had them fight on the upper deck and using camera angles never before seen on the show, filmed vertical sequences in that part of the set.
[2] He praised David Froman as K'Nera, describing him as having "tremendous presence" and thought that although Vaughn Armstrong was excellent as Admiral Forrest in Enterprise, in this early episode he was "overly histrionic".
Club in May 2010, thought that the first act of "Heart of Glory" was slow, but it improved after that and said that "while it's not exactly a tear-jerker, it allows Worf the dignity the character needs to work".
she felt that the drama seemed artificial and that the writers forced a situation where Worf had to kill one of the Klingons as if "justifying the brutality as necessary for the good of Starfleet".
[7] Jamahl Epsicokhan at his website "Jammer's Reviews" also thought that the drama with Worf deciding whether or not to join the Klingons was questionable.
[8] The first home media release of "Heart of Glory" was on VHS cassette, appearing on November 11, 1992 in the United States and Canada.
[9] The episode was later included on the Star Trek: The Next Generation season one DVD box set, released in March 2002.
