Star Trek Headcanon Reimagined, 6: Redemption

This first half of the season gives us a focus on Starfleet's relation with The Klingons. Kirk's Enterprise deals with Kirk's prejudice against them while The Next Generation spends much of this season dealing with Worf's family.

Then, meet the cast of Deep Space Nine! Bajorans! Cardassians! Whatever Odo is! Their human captain who seems like a nice guy but boyyyyyyy does he hate Picard (with good reasons). We also spend more time with time problems, and there's a sort of crossover between Enterprise and The Next Generation.

Season 6:
​Redemption

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TOS - Star Trek (The Original Series), 1966-69         TOSM - (The Original Series Movies), 1979-91
​ TNG - The Next Generation, 1987-94          DS9  - Deep Space Nine, 1993-99       
 ENT - Enterprise, 2001-05        SNW - Strange New Worlds, 2022-ongoing

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Episode 601: The Undiscovered Country (TOSM)
(Kirk, McCoy, Spock, Sulu, Uhura, Scott, Chekov, Rand, Sarek, Worf)

This is it, the end of The Original Series cast. That offhanded joke I made about The Wrath Of Kirk? Wellllll, he may have gone a little bit speciesist, and his behavior makes him the prime suspect when a Klingon Peace Advocate is assassinated. It's up to the crew of The Enterprise, along with Captain Sulu from The Excelsior (a ship The Enterprise sabotaged back in Search For Spock) to clear Kirk's name. Again, we get a Rand cameo, and we also see Michael Dorn, who played Worf in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, play an unnamed Klingon lawyer, who I like to believe was Worf, and that the kangarooness of the court proceedings led him to quit the bar and join Starfleet. Wave goodbye to the crew. You might see one or two of them pop up in future seasons, but this is the last time the bulk of the cast gets to interact, as it's finally time for The Enterprise to be decommissioned.


Episode 602: Sins Of The Father (TNG)
(Worf, Picard, Riker, Data, Wesley, Laforge, Crusher, Troi)

Last season, we saw Riker transferred to a Klingon ship as part of an exchange program. This season, a Klingon officer comes to work on The Enterprise. But, OH SHIT, it's Worf's younger brother, and he has some distressing family news.


Episode 603: Reunion (TNG)
(Worf, Picard, Riker, Data, Wesley, Laforge, Crusher, Troi)

The fallout of "Sins Of The Father" come into play, and one of Worf's exes shows up to help mitigate it. She's brought a surprise, and so have they.


Episode 604: Allegiance (TNG)
(Picard, Riker, Crusher, Troi, Worf, Laforge, Data, Wesley)

It wasn't so long ago that Picard was captured by The Borg and assimilated, so you'd think they'd up security on The Enterprise, but, no, I am unsure if there is a single season where whomever is captaining The Enterprise at any given moment, isn't abducted by someone he can't identify (or Q, it is often Q). This episode serves as a morality play for Picard while the rest of the crew contends with a mostly ineffectual Picard doppelganger.


Episode 605: Future Imperfect (TNG)
(Riker, Picard, Crusher, Laforge, Data, Worf, Troi)

After a noxious gas incident with Worf and Laforge, Riker wakes up to discover he's forgotten sixteen years of his life, and he's now Captain of The Enterprise. This is what Kirk would have called a Tuesday. Will this episode mean the entire chronology jumps forward sixteen years?                                                   No.


Episode 606: Clues (TNG)
(Data, Picard, Crusher, Worf, Laforge, Riker, O'Brien, Guinan)

Data regains consciousness after some sort of event knocks out everyone on board The Enterprise. He believes that thirty seconds have been stolen from the entire crew, but all signs point to something larger and more disconcerting.

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Episode 607: A Matter Of Time (TNG)
(Picard, Crusher, Riker, Data, Laforge, Worf, Troi)

An annoying time traveler (Max Headroom...aka Dr. Leekie from Orphan Black) shows up to observe what he claims is a pivotal mission for The Enterprise. It's a fun twist on a Prime Directive episode as the crew are the ones being kept in the dark to preserve the time continuum Or Whatever. It's mainly fun to watch an actor portray an annoying character and not have it be agonizing to watch.


Episode 608: The Defector (TNG)
(Picard, Riker, Data, Worf, Crusher, Laforge, Troi)

For most of the series, the Romulans have been an offscreen threat. We don't even know precisely why they're at war with Starfleet, other than they both want to explore the world and claim it as their own. In this episode, a top officer from The Romulans defects to Starfleet, claiming he knows about a weapon that will change the tide of war.  


Episodes 609 & 610: Emissary (DS9)
(Sisko, Picard, O'Brien, Kira, Odo, Jake, Quark, Dax, Bashir, Keiko, Nog, Gul Dukat)

What war, you might ask? Well, way back in Season Five of this continuity, Capt. Picard became a borg named Locutus who blew up a bunch of Federation ships on his course to destroy Earth (which he failed to do). One of the ships he blew up contained Benjamin Sisko who is now traveling with Picard to an abandoned Cardassian space station called Deep Space Nine. Picard totally killed this guy's wife, so he is Not Pleased with him or the assignment, but he and his son decide to join the crew of Deep Space Nine, anyway, and are joined by Enterprise transporter engineer O'Brien, and his wife, Enterprise botanist Keiko. Plus a ragtag crew of Bajorans, Ferenghi, Trill, and whatever the hell Odo is. The Cardassian space station is the center for the war we learned about in the previous episode.


Episode 611: Amok Time (TOS)
(Spock, Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, Uhuru, Chekov, Chapel, T'Pring, T'Pau)

Vulcan love rituals are sooooooooo archaic. Witness Spock's pon farr from the era of The Original Series.


Episode 612:. Spock Amok (SNW)
(Spock, T'Pring, Chapel, Pike, Singh, Uhura, M'Bega, 1, Ortegas, April, Kyle)

It's classic body swap shenanigans when Spock's fiancee visits during a very important diplomatic meeting with a race of moody aliens who are trying to decide whether to align with Starfleet or The Klingons. Oh, and the two "fun-killers" on staff play Enterprise Bingo to get a better emotional connection with the crew. Oh, hey, isn't this pretty much just an alternate version of the previous episode? It even has Chapel in it!


Episode 613 & 614: Redemption (TNG)
(Worf, Picard, Guinan, Data, Riker, Yar)

Let's cool off from that steamy Vulcan lust with a tie into a major storyline, as we revisit the chaos of The Klingon empire. It's a direct sequel to "Reunion", though much time has elapsed. It's a satisfying conclusion(?) to the story arc begun in "Sins Of The Father".


Episode 615: Past Prologue (DS9)
(Kira, Sisko, Bashir, Garak, Odo, O'Brien, Dax, Keiko)

Much of this season focuses on Cardassian and Bajoran war criminals, and how to keep the peace after all the terrible things they did to one another during the war. Deep Space Nine's first officer, Kira, was once a member of a Bajoran underground movement that the Cardassians consider terrorists. When one of her old cohorts shows up, the newly assembled crew needs to figure out how much they can trust each other, and how much they can trust The Cardassians. And what the hell are the sisters of Duras from Redemption doing on Deep Space Nine?


Episode 616: Man Alone (DS9)
(Odo, Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, Keiko, Bashir, Nog, Jake, Quark)

Deep Space Nine's security officer, Odo, has held the post since the station was run by Cardassians, and while some of the Bajorans trust him, everyone is put on edge when a criminal he sent to prison shows up on board and is swiftly murdered.


Episode 617: Pegasus (TNG)
(Riker, Picard, Worf, Data, Troi, Laforge)

After Riker graduated from Starfleet Academy, he served on a ship called Pegasus where Bad Shit Went Down. He and the Captain, another tropey incompetent Starfleet Asshole (a younger John Locke from Lost!) were the only two who escaped. But what did they escape from, and why are the Romulans interested? DUN DUN-DUNNNNN.


Episode 618: The Are The Voyages (ENT/TNG)
(Riker, Archer, T'Pol, Trip, Shran, Soto, Troi, Mayweather, Reed, Phlox, Data)

This is one of the most hated episodes of Star Trek. But more for its context than its content. It was aired as the final episode of Enterprise, which was a slap in the face to the cast of Enterprise, because it's actually a TNG episode. During the events of "Pegasus", Riker goes to the holodeck to examine his problem from multiple angles. To do so, he recreates The Enterprise from Enterprise (I know, I know), and acts as cook, talking with each crew member about different decisions they've made during their Starfleet Career. It would have probably been liked or loved if it had been in the middle of the season instead of the end. I like it as a non-canon chance for Enterprise and TNG to crossover. Because we're going to come back to Enterprise at least once more, and nothing that happens in this episode will have ever happened to them, but it has helped Riker make a difficult decision during "Pegasus".


Episode 619: Babel (DS9)
(Bashir, O'Brien, Sisko, Quark, Odo, Kira, Jake, Dax)

More a companion to Darmok than Journey To Babel or Babel One, the episode focuses on the effects of a Cardassian engineered virus that causes aphasia in its victims. And then they die, of course, unable to express what they're going through.


Episode 620: The Inner Light (TNG)
(Picard, Crusher, Riker, Data, Laforge, Troi)

A probe seeks information from Picard, and to get it, makes him live an entire lifetime where his new family and friends convince him that his life on The Enterprise was a dream.