6 Ups & 1 Down For Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.4 — A Farewell To Farms

Oddly enough, there is no /k/ sound in Klingon — a deliberate non-inclusion on the part of the language's creator Marc Okrand. That certainly makes Sha-K-espeare more of a challenge to pronounce. If Hamlet, from which "the undiscovered country," has been translated, or rather, 'restored,' into Klingon, they've not quite got to The Comedy of Errors yet.

No twins (though two sets of brothers), and no mistaken identity (unless you count "Brimbo"), A Farewell to Farms is still one of the more farcical looks at the Klingons we've seen over the years, playing heavily on slapstick humour as Boimler is hurled across the Warrior Pit, pain-stik'd, and targ'd. The episode wasn't without more subtle satire either. Malor's "Our whole family was shamed. It was hilarious," was so subtle, in fact, you might have missed it, but it was a scathing critique of the Klingon code of honour.

There were also a couple of seemingly unforced errors this week which, because it's Lower Decks, were likely nothing of the sort. The lady with the "boob window," K'Elarra, in the warrior's pit was very interested in all things 'captain,' until stating quite clearly, "A Klingon is not defined by rank".

A little later, Councillor Bargh states that, "Ma'ah must also have quv beq [an 'honour crew,' my translation] of at least four companions". Mariner goes to fetch Malor, but doesn't that still make three companions for Ma'ah? Surely, 'companion' ('one who breaks bread with another') can only be a relative, and not an absolute, term as it is used by Bargh here? In any case, the councillor hardly had a clear grasp on the rules.