Watching a rerun of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Emissary, from season 2. Worf/K’Ehleyr, my OTP.
An ex from a character’s past returns, sparks (of all sorts) fly, she gets pregnant with his son.
Imagine that.
Plus, K’Ehleyr? HOT.
The more things change…
Published by Nancy E. Shaffer
NANCY E. SHAFFER has been an experimental psychologist (M.A., Cognitive Psychology, Rice University), a philosopher (Ph.D., History and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Davis), and software developer. She taught history and philosophy of science at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and the University of Nebraska Omaha. Her philosophical work has appeared in the journal Philosophy of Science and her pop-culture philosophy website, All Things Philosophical on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. Dis/inhbition is her first novel. She currently resides in Tempe, Arizona. View all posts by Nancy E. Shaffer
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
I love K’lehyr and I liked Worf and his son with one major exception, he aged like a dog or something. I guess maybe Klingons don’t age like humans (though this was never mentioned before) because wasn’t Alexander a teen by the end of the series? (and for that matter didn’t O’Brien’s daughter get sucked into another dimension and come back feral?)
He was a teen by the end of Deep Space Nine. He was still a boy in Next Gen, although when K’Ehleyr returned with him a couple years after he was conceived, the actor playing him was like 5 or 6.
But I loved the Worf/K’Ehleyr chemistry and how the politics played into that and the awkward Worf/Alexander relationship that was no more successful than Angel/Connor and ended up with the father passing the son off to someone else.
I’m sensing this pattern in my fandom. ; )
(and for that matter didn’t O’Brien’s daughter get sucked into another dimension and come back feral?)
She got sucked through time, 300 years in the past or something.
And they sent the teen back and got their little kid in return! *sob*
yeah that wasn’t my choice either. And while I could rationalize Alexander’s unusual growth, Obrien’s kid was aging ridiculously fast (i.e. babies are boring? That’s what I got from it)
I did love their chemistry. I just loved K’ehleyr. I was so disappointed when they killed her off. And yeah, that’s right, Worf gave Alex way for his own good too. Sigh.
Actually, I thought they did a great job with Molly. We just didn’t see her in the early years because O’Brien wasn’t a major character while still on Next Gen. Molly NEVER seemed to age at all on Deep Space because they always used the same little actress.
The diff was, Worf gave Alexander to his parents (his adoptive parents), so that at least Alexander knew who his father was and was raised by “family”.
I had this thought or fancy I’ve tossed around since “Origin” that either Lawrence or Colleen Reilly is a descendent of Liam of Galway. That Liam fathered a child during one of his drunken pub visits and never knew about it because the girl was sent away to have the baby and so survived the massacring of the village and that baby had a baby and so on until one of the people playing Connor’s “parents” (or both who knows) are descendents of Angel and so are related to Connor as well.
*sigh* I should really go to bed.
I guess it was one Next Gen that it bothered me. She was a newborn and in less than a season she was a toddler and then she stablized.
And apropos of nothing, back to that music discussion, U2 and Duran Duran have new albums coming out right now
I may just have to get back into the music thing.
For U2, anyway.
Duran Duran just aren’t any fun without the big hair and makeup. ; )
You know, I’ve toyed with that idea too but not for the Reillys but for Faith (Boston being high in Irish descedents and all).
I need to be in bed too especially if my boss is going to call me in early tomorrow but a storm is whipping up. That always gets my fevered brain working over time on my original fiction. Dont’ know why
Stormy weather often brings out the moods in me that beg for writing as well.
I agree 100% about Worf/K’Ehleyr. It’s one of the highlights of the whole series.
I was disappointed when they killed her off, but it sure did make for some great personal and political drama.
I was more angry they killed her off, but it was a good story. Too bad, Alexander never had that kind of charisma.
The actors they used for Alexander were a bit lackluster, especially considering how strong both his parents’ personalities were. I suppose the Trek people might have been trying to make a nurture over nature argument, but growing up with humans sort of had the opposite effect on Worf.
Suzie Plakson (K’Ehleyr)
Even through all that makeup: hot, hot–incredibly hot.
She was also the “female” Q on Voyager (assigning gender to the Q is always problematic in my mind) and Robert’s ex-wife, JoAnne, on Everybody Loves Raymond. (JoAnne was a stripper. Let’s all go to that happy place together, shall we?)
All of Plakson’s characters are beautiful, whip-smart, and have just that little extra edge to them that I find attractive. (The fact that my relationships with these types of women work out as well as Robert and JoAnne’s marraige is a topic for another post….)
Re: Suzie Plakson (K’Ehleyr)
I think she had at least three different roles/species in Trek. She played a Vulcan doctor, a Klingon diplomat, and a jealous Q.
In fact, she had a tip-o-the-hat line as the female Q to B’Elana Torres, “I’ve always liked Klingon females. You have such… spunk.”
Definitely my kind of woman as well.
Oh good, I’m not the only one.
The U2’s new single is Vertigo…not sure the name of the cd but I DO know it’s some weird special cd with a 40 page booklet and other specials that warrent a 40$ price tag.
Duran Duran…I don’t know what they look like now but yeah, probably sans big hair and make up. The sound of the new one Sun rise (I think, it’s sun something) does have something of and 80s feel
Re: Suzie Plakson (K’Ehleyr)
Just jumping in to comment on the actress as well…when I first read this entry I remembered how when I first saw the TNG ep with her, I was pleased because I was a fan of her from something else; I couldn’t remember what it was, just that she was named Meg. Finally managing to find her imdb entry, it turns out it was a short-lived series in 1992, “Love and War”. I remember she used to make super sarcastic comments toward Michael Nouri’s character and I loved her delivery. (I most likely saw her TNG episode a few years after it aired, as I was in college and not a big tv watcher at the time.)
Short version: she left quite an impression on me from very few appearances and I was sure she would go places, but her resume is much smaller than I expected.
Re: Suzie Plakson (K’Ehleyr)
I think she also had a recurring role in “Mad About You” as the ob/gyn/baby doctor.
Her first appearance on Trek K’Ehleyr would have been ’89 or ’90.
I bet she makes a good comic actress. Her sense of humor just comes out even in a role like K’Ehleyr.
Re: Love and War
I remember Love and War! It was a Diane English (Murphy Brown) creation, and starred Susan Dey and Jay Thomas as the reluctant owner of a bar/restaurant and an irritable sportswriter, respectively. There was supposed to be some form of romantic chemistry/tension between Dey and Thomas, but it never materialized on screen. Suzie P.’s Meg Tynan was sort of the female sidekick/Eve Arden character, and she often had the snappiest lines in the episode.
Plakson’s Vulcan doctor was Lt. Selar, featured prominently in “The Schizoid Man,” a Next Generation season 2 ep. (Selar might have made a good Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise if Gates McFadden didn’t swallow her pride and came back in S3.) Selar has proven to be a surprisingly popular character in Trek novels and fanfic. Goes to show you: there are no small parts, only small actors.
Re: Love and War
What was McFadden’s beef??
Calling Dr. Crusher
I don’t think she had one. From what I hear, Roddenberry (still alive and in charge) and Rick Berman (junior commander at that point) thought the sexual tension between Bev and Picard wasn’t going to go anywhere and the lingering UST would just annoy people, and they should find a CMO who didn’t bring that baggage to the relationship. So they dumped McFadden and brought on Gene’s old friend, Diana Muldaur, as Katherine Pulaski.
I love DM, loved her on the original series (“Is There No Truth in Beauty?”), but everybody agreed that the character didn’t work out too well. Her mildly antagonistic attitude towards Data? Not believable. Her torrid love affair with Riker’s Dad (revealed in “Icarus Agenda”)? Less than compelling. So they went back to McFadden and asked her if she’d come back as Beverly. She could have said no. She didn’t. As a result, she was the proud beneficiary of four whole Crusher-centric episodes during the series and wildly out-of-character moments during her brief appearances in the motion pictures.
Still, a paycheck is a paycheck.
Re: Calling Dr. Crusher
Oooh, that’s really harsh (the exec’s behavior, not your post).
Can’t say I cared very much for Dr. Pulaski. Wasn’t a huge Dr. Crusher fan, either, but at least with her it was “Meh, whatever”.