Star Trek TNG: Season 1, Episode Four “Code of Honor”

Stardate: 41235.25
Original Air Date: October 12, 1987
Writers: Katharyn Powers & Michael Baron 
Director: Russ Mayberry        

“Yours is a different world.”

The Enterprise has arrived at Ligon II, a planet which is the source of a rare vaccine needed elsewhere on a Federation planet called Styris IV, which is currently suffering from an outbreak of the plague. Starfleet has instructed Picard to make a friendly visit to Ligon II in the hopes of entering into treaty negotiations in order to acquire the needed “medicinal substance.”

When the Enterprise enters standard orbit, a Ligonian party beams aboard the ship using its own technology. They offer Picard a small sample of the material needed for the vaccine. Here, the episode begins to go off the rails –while the Ligonians reside in a highly structured society similar to an ancient society on earth, they are also extremely proud, almost to the point of arrogance or ignorance, and most egregiously of all, they are made to closely resemble an African community. All of the Ligonians are black and they dress in tribal garb. Their leader is Lutan (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson). He is joined by his second-in-command Hagon. Both men are immediately intrigued by Lt. Yar but they are suspicious as to why the Enterprise would allow her –as a woman– to be the ship’s head of security (privately, Lutan speculates that “the female” may be exactly he needs).

After giving the visitors a tour of the holodeck, the Ligonians suddenly abduct and transport Lt. Yar down to their planet, while refusing to return communications to the Enterprise. Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher is unable to replicate the vaccine sample provided b the Ligonians, and a message from Starbase XIV shows rising infection rates on Styris IV. Early estimates suggest millions of deaths. Therefore, Picard and Counselor Troi decide to beam down to Ligon II. There, they find a highly structured society which lives by a strict code of honor –Data notes that Lutan behaves in similar fashion to American Indians in a practice called “counting coup.” According to custom, Picard must politely ask the Ligonians for Lt. Yar to be returned to the Enterprise at a public banquet, but once he does so, Lutan rejects Picard’s request –he claims to have fallen in love with Lt. Yar and that she must replace his “first one” (his primary wife). Strangely enough, Lt. Yar is also somewhat ambiguously attracted to Lutan, as well. In response, Lutan’s first wife Yareena (Karole Selmon) is outraged and challenges Lt. Yar to a fight to the death (the first such challenge in two hundred years). “How simple this would all be without the Prime Directive,” remarks Counselor Troi.  

We learn that Lutan is not a particularly wealthy man, and that his opinion of woman could not be lower. His portrayal is among the worst of caricatures found in Star Trek. Lutan claims that he understands “the proper value of women… we understand that they are highly pleasant things [women], but after all unimportant,” only valuing women for whatever land or riches they may possess. Cue the universal forehead slaps of viewers the world over.

At any rate, Lt. Yar and Yareena battle inside a small arena, and Lt. Yar uses a strange pin-headed glove weapon which is apparently poison-tipped. During the battle, Hagon shows concern for Yareena, however she is “killed” by Lt. Yar and promptly beamed aboard the Enterprise where Dr. Crusher revives her. In the end, Yareena chooses Hagon to marry as her “first one,” granting him all her lands and wealth, while Lutan is demoted to her “number two.” In the end, the Enterprise receives its full supply of vaccines and departs for Styris IV.

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My Thoughts on “Code of Honor”

One of the more notorious low points for Star Trek, “Code of Honor” is an awkward, clumsy, cringe-worthy episode filled with truly outrageous racial caricatures and sexist stereotypes. Who in their right mind thought it a good idea to portray a tribal African culture as morally backwards, greedy, primitive, uncivilized, and licentious –while abducting a white woman out of lust? Who greenlit this idea? As if that is not enough, in “Code of Honor” women are discussed as little more than “pleasant things” and ultimately “unimportant” except if they are wealthy. And to top it all off, the central premise of the episode is hardly given any daylight –the details of the disease and the vaccine are barely explicated.

At the very least, “Code of Honor” is an early example of TNG exploring the question of cultural relativism –to what extent does the Federation have room for isolated timocratic culture like the Ligonians? Does the Prime Directive even matter if millions lives are on the line without the vaccine? This episode has all the hallmarks of a quirky TOS episode, but it simply falls short in just about every respect. At its best it is silly, at its worst it is tasteless. Thankfully TNG made it past this bumpy first season.

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Writer/Director

Writer Katharyn Powers was friends with DC Fontana. Together with her writing partner, Michael Baron, Powers and Baron crafted a script about an honor-obsessed reptilian race. However, the script was later revised during production.              

Director Russ Mayberry was controversially fired midway through this production –the episode was then handed to an assistant director (Les Landau) to complete. Apparently, according to some rumors, Mayberry was deeply prejudiced and possibly racist, it was he who made the decision to make the alien race all of African descent. He was later fired by Gene Roddenberry.  

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Star Trek Trivia:

• Picard presents the gift of a horse from China during the Sung dynasty in the 13^th century (he mistakenly refers to it as the 14^th century, but Data corrects the record).
• Data notes that the Ligonian transporter technology is similar to early Starfleet efforts but it uses the “Heglenian shift” to convert energy and matter in different… (he never finishes his thought.   
• There is an amusing scene in this episode, where Data claims he has told 662 jokes in total, and he tells a joke to Georgi about “kidney” and “kiddillies.”
• Data claims to Geordi that he created a revised razor for perfect efficiency when shaving.
• There is a strange scene in this episode wherein Lt. Yar appears to have gouged out a guard’s eye offscreen but it is never explicitly discussed or acknowledged.  
• Riker claims being addressed as “commander” is too formal for Deanna Troi.
• The Ligonian welcome sign is apparently displayed with both hands facing upward and outward.
• Picard makes the odd choice of allowing Dr. Crusher’s son Wesley back onto the bridge.