Birthright, Part I

The Enterprise is at DS9 to assist in reconstructing the Bajoran aqueduct system. Bashir takes the opportunity to use the Enterprise's more power computers to analyze a piece of equipment (which he believes may be a medical scanner) that was discovered in the Gamma Quadrant.

Meanwhile, a Yridian, Jaglom Shrek, tells Worf that his father, Mogh, is alive, and offers to sell him information as to his whereabouts. Worf will have none of this, insisting that his father is dead. Later, he explains to Troi that if his father were alive, it would bring dishonor to his whole family for three generations.

Back in Engineering, Data and Bashir hook up the something-or-other to some power, and it zaps Data. While 'unconscious', Data experiences a vision, like a dream, of his father, Dr. Soong, working at an anvil. Worf encourages him to seek the meaning of the vision–for, as he comes to realize himself, the father is a part of the son. Not finding any solution in existing philosophy or religion, at Picard's suggestion, he tries to understand it from his own perspective, painting whtever it brings to mind–which leads eventually to paintings of birds and smoke.

Data decides to recreate the accident that led to his vision. He does so, and sees various images without any obvious meaning. In the vision, Dr. Soong tells him that he added some circuits to allow him to dream, once he became advanced enough. On 'waking', Data resolves to spend some time each day exploring these dreams.

Worf convinces Jaglom Shrek to take him to the Romulan prison camp where Shrek claims Mogh is being held. There, he finds a group of Klingons living together with Romulans–the prisoners and guards living together in harmony, more or less. One of them, L'Kor, tells Worf that his father did die at Khitomer, just as he had believed–but now that Worf has found them, he cannot be allowed to leave.

The whole bit with Data was invented to add a B-plot to Worf's tale, so it would be enough for a two-part episode (Gross & Altman, 1995, p. 273), but it really overshadows Worf's story, in the first part. Worf gets the whole of the next episode to himself, though, so that's fair enough.

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