I think most of us have a holodeck.
I don’t mean an actual room where you can tell a computer to recreate 1940s San Francisco, walk through the doors, and suddenly find yourself standing there. I mean the places we go when we need to leave our own lives for a little while without actually going anywhere.
Sometimes it’s a book. Sometimes it’s a television show where the characters feel like old friends. Sometimes it’s a game. Sometimes it’s a story we tell ourselves.
Christopher Plummer’s portrayal of General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is magnificent. He is intelligent, theatrical, endlessly quotable, and commands every scene in which he appears. It is no surprise that many fans consider him one of Star Trek’s greatest villains.
Ironically, I would argue that Chang is also one of the least honorable Klingons the franchise has ever produced. That might sound absurd. After all, Chang constantly speaks of honor. He quotes Shakespeare with almost religious devotion. He despises peace with the Federation and presents himself as the defender of Klingon tradition.
Yet if we judge him not by his words, but by his actions, almost everything he does violates the values Klingons claim to hold sacred.
