| "The Icarus Factor" | |||
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| Star Trek: The Next Generation episode | |||
Worf during the Age of Ascension ceremony |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 14 |
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| Directed by | Robert Iscove | ||
| Teleplay by | David Assael Robert L. McCullough |
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| Story by | David Assael | ||
| Featured music | Ron Jones | ||
| Production code | 140 | ||
| Original air date | February 20, 1989 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes | |||
"The Icarus Factor" is a second-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Riker is unhappy about being briefed by his estranged father on the mission of a ship whose command he's been offered. Worf is upset over not being able to partake in a Klingon rite.
The primary plot of the episode deals with William Riker's decision about taking a command of his own, complicated by the briefing he must receive on the assignment from his estranged father, Kyle Riker (played by Mitchell Ryan). While initially very reluctant to listen to his father's attempt to reconcile, an anbo-jitsu match finally forces him to listen, and reconcile with his father.
The secondary plot point revolves around Worf who is acting more agitated than usual. It is eventually learned that Worf has missed an important Klingon ceremony marking the anniversary of his Age of Ascension. The crew recreates the ritual on the holodeck, permitting him to return to normal.
John Tesh was covering the filming of this episode for the entertainment news series Entertainment Tonight. He enthusiastically volunteered to act as a Klingon in the ritual sequence (from the viewer's perspective, he is the first on the left).
Anbo-Jitsu is a fictitious Japanese sport shown in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In it, two armored opponents facing each wear a solid visor, rendering them blind, and fight with a large staff. A proximity sensor is worn by each combatant, alerting them to their opponent's location with an audio signal. A protective cushion is worn on one arm and can be used to shield or deflect attacks. It is called "the ultimate evolution in the martial arts" in the context of the show though all the required paraphernalia seems counter-intuitive to the very nature of most martial arts (which train the body and mind), and most of the moves seem to involve clumsily swinging the staves like baseball bats.
In Japanese, "An" means dark, as the opponents are blind folded. "Bo" means staff. "Jitsu" means technique or skill.
In another Japanese reference, the banners around the arena are written in Japanese hiragana and spell out Ataru, Lum, urusai yatsura (a misspelled reference to Urusei Yatsura), Kei, Yuri, Akira and Tonari no Totoro.
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