Yesterday's Enterprise - S3-E15
Question: The ever-popular gag in this episode is that Worf consumes prune juice for the first time and declares that it is a "warrior's drink," to Guinan's amusement. However, Worf was adopted as a child by human parents, he grew up on Earth, he was highly educated and graduated Star Fleet Academy on Earth. Given the reputation of prune juice as a natural laxative throughout human history, how could Worf not know what prune juice is, having lived most of his life on Earth?
Yesterday's Enterprise - S3-E15
Question: The motivation for this episode seems to be returning the Enterprise 1701-C to its own timeline 22 years in the past, where it will certainly be destroyed by Romulan warbirds; yet, the heroism of sacrifice will avert a protracted 22-year war with the Klingon Empire as well as avert tens of billions of Federation deaths. QUESTION: Why didn't they just SWITCH CREWS and send the far more advanced Enterprise 1701-D through the time rift and 22 years into the past? Using its advanced weaponry, defenses, and sheer speed, the Enterprise D could have easily defeated the old Romulan warbirds, saved Tasha Yar, averted the 22-year Klingon war, and saved 40 billion Federation lives. Additionally, sending the truly futuristic 1701-D into the past could have then exponentially advanced Starfleet technology into the future, making the Federation virtually invincible to its traditional enemies. It would seem that this would be the more noble, heroic and logical action of a Starfleet crew - to save lives and advance Federation survival. It would have certainly been a more thought-provoking episode, anyway.
Chosen answer: A similar question was actually asked during the episode. Captain Garrett of the Enterprise 1701-C questioned Captain Picard about the possibility of outfitting the older model Enterprise with modern technology to give them a better chance of defeating the Romulans. However, changing the course of history is pretty much forbidden in the Star Trek universe. It would be impossible to predict the impact on the future. It would be playing with fate. It just wasn't to be done. For example, suppose the updated Enterprise "C", or the replacement Enterprise "D" were to still be defeated and captured, and all of that advanced technology were to fall into Romulan hands? The impact on the timeline would be far different than the one you lay out. Guinan, with her extrasensory perception, pretty much gives Picard the solution to restoring the timeline to what she knows, and Picard eventually trusts, to be the correct one. Send the Enterprise "C" back into the time rift. For me, the only VERY perplexing question would be why Picard would EVER allow Tasha Yar to return to the past in the Enterprise 1701-C. This, we later come to know, led to Tasha's offspring becoming a Romulan military leader, thus altering the timeline, anyway. It seemed a very foolish move, based solely on emotional reasons (and a dramatic plot line).
Doing so would violate the Temporal Prime Directive which Picard already did by sending Tasha back, but considering she wasn't supposed to be part of that timeline anyway, Picard probably saw no harm even though Tasha was captured and had Sela.
Answer: There's nothing to indicate that Worf had never heard of prune juice before, just that he had never tried it before. He doesn't recognize the smell or taste of the drink as prune juice because he's never had it before. But that doesn't mean he has no idea what prune juice is, or that it is used as a natural laxative. In a later episode Guinan directly asks Worf's parents why he never had prune juice prior to her serving him the drink. They answer that as a child Worf refused to eat human food of any kind, everything he consumed had to be Klingon. Other episodes show that Klingons tend to despise human food in general for being bland. It stands to reason that someone who shows no outward interest in human food might not know what prune juice is usually used for. But then again, maybe he does know and he doesn't care because prune juice is delicious to him.
BaconIsMyBFF
Thanks for reminding me about that later episode, although I think the later prune juice explanation from Worf's adoptive parents was scripted to address many fan questions along the same lines as my own.
Charles Austin Miller