Tales of Death and Honour
Book I: "Motherhood"
Review by W. Joseph Thomas
“This is the only gift I can give you.”
--Karl Puder as Father
Bottom Line: Remarkably well produced for a new show, “Motherhood” is very entertaining but flubs the ending.
3 out of 4 stars
If you’ve been involved in the Trek fan film community long enough, odds are you know Kirok of L’Stok. Even if you don’t know him, he definitely knows you. Kirok is one of those unsung heroes who’s dedicated years of online time to promoting, reviewing, and disseminating fan productions of every stripe. Kirok is largely responsible for one of the very few useful things TrekUnited has done since the collapse of its Pay For Enterprise campaign in 2005: TU’s has evolved into a major promoter and hub for various fan producers, particularly those not privileged to be in the promotional orbit of the dominant areakt productions (Hidden Frontier, Odyssey) or Phase II. But, despite all this involvement in the community, Kirok, much like Richard Miles, who is (apparently) the name behind Trekkie Central Magazine, has never expressed interest himself in making a fan film. At least, not that I’ve heard.
So it was with great surprise that I read the announcement last week not only of the formation of “Silvertongue Productions,” Kirok’s new production company, but the apparently simultaneous release of its first episode, “Motherhood.”
And what an episode. Mr. L’Stok, I have no idea what your real name is, but why have you waited until now to get into this business?
“Motherhood” is apparently the first in a series, but this story stands alone. (I suspect that subsequent episodes will stick to the theme of the series, or “book,” as Kirok is calling it—that theme being the titular Tales of Death and Honour (using the British spelling of “honour” scored two points with me)—but each tale will feature different characters and settings. But I’m really just guessing at that.) The format Kirok chooses is surprising to old hands at Trek audio drama, but perhaps it’s more surprising that we haven’t heard something like this sooner. You see, Kirok does this in the format of an audio book: the vast majority of the episode is narration. This is a stark departure from the form set by The Section 31 Files and Defiant (the granddaddies of audio Trek) and which has been emulated by every other production, from Eras to Starfleet Renegades, all of which are essentially standard episodes without the video component. Every detail of those other stories are conveyed simply by dialouge and sound effects. Indeed, until now, the only audio drama that’s dared to include a narrator—and often incompetently—has been the rather obscure Star Trek: Excelsior.
“Motherhood,” on the other hand, uses narration to great effect, convincingly drawing for us the vision of a Klingon temple on a cold, clear night under the unholy light of Praxis, as well as the Klingon husband and wife who make the pilgrimage there to carry out a terrible duty. Kirok proves not only to be a more-than-competent writer, but a pretty good narrator. His voice is clean and clear throughout, backed up effectively by well-done sound effects and unobtrusive but moody music by some chap calling himself Distemia. Cleanness and clarity are, one would think, the bare minimum expected of an audio show, but a surprising number fail to achieve them on their first outings. Kirok has jumped into the fray with a first episode that sounds like his third or fourth in terms of quality.
Of course, it helps that, as opposed to a show like Defiant, which introduced something like a dozen characters in its first episode, ToDaH only has to deal with three, so comparing its audio quality to that of the other dramas is like trying to compare the government of Bahrain to that of the United Kingdom; the two just aren’t on the same scale. But, regardless, the discussion of recording brings us to acting.
It was flawless. Really. I mean, my secret desire is to one day be known as the Yahtzee Croshaw of Star Trek fan productions, and I’ll be getting in some critiques to that effect in a short time, but there’s nothing I can criticize on the casting front. Kirok’s voice could easily have been confused for that of the narrator from my audiobook of Speaker for the Dead, as his inflections and enunciation are spot-on. Yet his voice is outshined by both members of his two-person cast. The Klingon father is played by ubiquitous fan actor Karl Puder, who has quite simply the greatest Klingon voice since J.G. Hertzler (Marktok). Mr. Puder, best known as Korg on Hidden Frontier, emanates Klingon from every pore. One can hear just from the way he speaks the difficult and alien balance of honour, love, loyalty, and bloodlust that is at war within every true Klingon soul. (Far too many amateur and professional actors have completely failed to grasp this balance in their perfomances of Star Trek Klingons.) I’m still not sold on Mr. Puder’s portrayal of a Vulcan in Diplomatic Relations, but that’s the subject of another review. Here, he is perfect as the unnamed father.
But Mr. Puder is equalled by his opposite number, the Klingon mother, portrayed by newcomer Merodi, whose only appearance prior to this was in the 2007 Dispatches from the Romulan War miniseries that I never got around to listening to. If there’s ever been a role trickier than the male Klingon warrior, it’s the female Klingon. Throughout Trek, Klingon women were portrayed inconsistently. Most commonly, writers chose to treat them exactly as they did Klingon men, because, frankly, it’s difficult to envision women—at least, as we Terrans understand them—fitting into Klingon culture. There have been exceptions, of course: “Hide and Q” gave us the disgusting vision of “Klingon animal women.” Star Trek VI showed Azetbur, the Ideal Political Moderate™. And B’Elanna Torres was essentially no more than a short-tempered human woman. None of these, however, have been True Klingon Women. Trek has never dealt well with Klingon women in their element.
This is what “Motherhood” explores. Merodi’s Klingon mother is fighting the same battle in her soul between honour and love and all the rest as her husband, and I think this is exactly right for any Klingon. But she approaches the problem from the perspective of a mother, and this changes everything. For the first time that I remember, “Motherhood” gives us a Klingon parental conflict whose contours echo those often faced by humans… but the show approaches it in a uniquely Klingon way. This is “Motherhood”’s great strength: from the thrilling and distinctly Klingon conflict between mother and father, we are able to relate to real-life conflicts in a new way. At the risk of giving away the nature of the conflict, I’ll quietly suggest that this episode is ultimately about that most unspeakable of hot-button issues, abortion. It’s so shrouded in Klingon paegentry, though, that it’s impossible for me to be sure this is what Kirok was going for… and this is a very good thing. I can think of a number of other equally-valid human interpretations a listener could take away from this tale, and the ability to interpret a work in many different ways is a good sign that you’ve crafted a very good tale.
Seeing our reflection fractured in a Klingon mirror is this episode’s great strength, but it is also “Motherhood”’s great weakness, because the conclusion fails to follow through on the central conflict. Given what we know about the Klingon and human races, the course of the conflict is rather predictable from the moment we know what’s going on. This is not a bad thing; the scene is, as I’ve said, well-written, well-acted, and well-done. But the episode concludes at exactly the point where it should not have. As the end credits roll, we know only what decision was made regarding the immediate conflict. We do not know what the results were, what other conflicts were created as a result, the subsequent relationship between father and child, or, most importantly, what effect this conflict had on the marriage between the two characters. Thus, we are left with only a token resolution to the scenario. I get the sense that Kirok was attempting to imply many of these resolutions through dialogue. Unfortunately, none of it was conveyed successfully, and the ending comes off as entirely ambiguous. (It is also possible that Kirok was aiming for an ambiguous ending, in which case, bad decision.) As a result, the entire plot is easily predicted from the get-go by anyone who’s ever known anyone with parents. This rendered the ending most unsatisfying.
Still, though the denouement falls short of the mark, “Motherhood” does a marvelous job presenting us with a distinctly Klingon landscape in a form that is pleasant to the ear. And, hey, it’s short. Twelve minute runtime, and only eleven if you, like me, skip the beginning and end credits. I recommend it, and I look forward to sequels.
Incidentally, during the course of this review, I discovered that Kirok’s real name is “Alan Anderton.” Identity theft may now commence.
Links to productions discussed in this article:
Tales of Death and Honour - http://lstok-silvertongue.blogspot.com/
The Section 31 Files – http://www.darkerprojects.com/
Defiant - http://www.pendantaudio.com/
Eras - http://www.twerponline.net/
Starfleet Renegades – site appears to be down
Excelsior – http://www.starshipexcelsior.com/
Diplomatic Relations - http://www.startrekdiplomaticrelations.com/
Dispatches from the Romulan War - http://12daysxmas.thunderdownunder.org/day8.htm
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