The Sword of Kahless #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 9) Kor invites Worf and Dax on a quest for an artifact that tests their fellowship

Rewatching ST:DS9

Kor (the charismatic and brilliantly campy John Colicos) recounts the battle from s2e19 “Blood Oath.”

He’s stretching the truth quite a bit. 

“Yeah, but who cares?” asks O’Brien. “He tells it well.”

A starstruck Worf is sensitive about his outsider status, but Kor not only accepts him, but recruits him on a quest to recover the bat’leth of the legendary warrior king Kahless.

Dax confirms a shroud Kor got from Vulcan archaeologists bears traces of a sword from the right historical era. Reasoning it might be help ease diplomatic relations with the Klingons, Sisko lets Dax and Worf take Kor on a runabout to retrieve the sword.

As the trip gets underway, Kor is comically dramatic and slightly evasive; Worf is still starstruck, and Dax is amused but practical as usual. 

At first it seems looters have beat them to their prize, but Dax manages to flabbergast her way past a plot contrivance field that conceals the sword. The fellowship doesn’t have much time to celebrate, because the brash Toral, from the Duras clan that has opposed Worf in many episodes, is on the same quest.

If you like Klingon posturing, orating, and hand-to-hand combat, this episode has plenty. Before Worf joined the cast, Dax habitually leaned into the Klingon customs, but this time around she gets fed up with the squabbling.

It’s a bit of a stretch to believe that the noble Worf would need a phaser blast from Dax to fully prevent him from going to the dark side, and we are left to imagine that perhaps the sword of Kahless really is something special — but that works against the common trope in Star Trek that the right scanning frequency will always reveal an in-world treknobabble explanation for any process that seems mystical.

We spend a lot of time in budget-friendly caves (again with the caves), but the orations and stories drive some enjoyable world-building.