This episode had a lot going on: a main storyline (the cliché plot of Riker's and his father's reconciliation), and 4 subplots: Riker's option to transfer to the USS Ares, Deanna and Dr Pulaski coping with unrequited love, Geordi's insult by the Starbase engineers, and Worf's Rite of Ascension. The strongest plot in the episode was Worf's. That story deserved to be the focus of its own episode. It was touching how Wesley went through the trouble to find out what the stick up Worf's butt was all about, and Worf was touched when he found out that his secret was known by his friends on the Enterprise. And then recreating the Rite on the Holodeck, seeing Miles restrain Dr Pulaski because she doesn't understand Klingons as well as the others and, although it was tough for everyone to watch, everyone else understood that enduring pain the whole point.
Review of The Icarus Factor
