Blogging DS9, S1E11: "Vortex"

S1E11: "Vortex"
Or Shapeshift Happens

"Drop your suspicious nature for a minute, changeling."
-Croden

Odo's origin is a story that comes and goes throughout the course of DS9, and "Vortex" gives the first, albeit frustratingly hollow, look at this thread. In fact, knowing how fundamental Odo's background is to the later structure of the DS9 story, "Vortex" is comically teasing.

Early in the episode, we are introduced to Croden through the dead-beyond-recognition Star Trek introductory horse I call "Unknown in Distress." His vessel comes through the wormhole damaged, it looks like he has been through some kind of battle...stop me when this sounds familiar. If prospective command officers are not majoring at Starfleet Academy in how to handle these situations, the school should be disbanded. (For example, see http://tangentiallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2011/11/blogging-ds9-s1e5-captive-pursuit.html)

The rest of the episode plays out rather formulaically, as Croden is held captive, his guilt is discovered to be dubious, and Odo violates the spirit, if not the letter, of direct orders. The shapeshifting locket with which Croden lures Odo turns out to be a key to the stasis chamber that holds his daughter. Odo and Croden use runabout maneuvers nobody else has thought of and, voila!, Croden and his daughter find freedom and Odo stays alive.

Aside from the disappointingly predictable storytelling mechanisms, the reveal that Croden was bluffing Odo about how much he knew of the origin of shapeshifters was teasingly disappointing, even for a series churning out procedural episodes as DS9 did in its early days. While giving away a potentially major (and eventually major) background secret as early as the eleventh episode would have been slutty writing, the reveal here was cruelly prude.

Maybe "Vortex" just stoked our appetite for Odo's origin story more, but at the end of the hour, we are left with galaxy-class blue balls.

A few other thoughts:

• As a Terran blessed and cursed with a heavy beard, it was refreshing to see Croden rocking three Earth-day stubble. I know the makeup department in the Star Trek series has a lot on its hands, but is the rest of the galaxy really Scandinavian smooth?
• I was and am often hesitant in this series to accept Odo being affected by humanoid injuries like a blow to the head. I'll buy that he can react differently to a strike he sees coming versus one he does not, but it's not like he has a brain in a fixed location. If his human impression is flawed, as he admits about his ears and nose, I doubt his brain and nervous system are carbon copies.
• Odo's soliloquy to Croden's key at the episode was not as effective as the writers probably hoped. The constable is quick to avoid sentimentality, and while he does hold connection to his past incredibly dear (as we will continue to see), talking to a rock with an on-and-off position? That seemed outside of the character.

2 bars of gold-pressed latinum out of 5

Blogging DS9, S1E10: "The Nagus"

S1E10: "The Nagus"
Or The Guy's Got Brass Lobes

"I'm just not as greedy as I used to be."
-Nagus Zek

From a functional standpoint, "The Nagus" serves as an important introduction into previously under-explored Ferengi culture. And yet, in measures of soul, the episode is the rare Star Trek episode where the B-story dominates the overall impression.

"The Nagus" explores Ferengi traditions by introducing the swindler race's royalty along with several powerful hangers on. It is a hybrid snapshot of Game of Thrones crossed with Pawn Stars. Remember, the Ferengi were first introduced early in TNG as a laser-whipping primary adversary for the Picard-era Federation, displaying a level of military aggressiveness that always seemed at odds with their motivations. In events predating TNG, Picard's outgunned USS Stargazer outmaneuvered a Ferengi vessel with his oft-referenced Picard Maneuver which, if I knew the guy, I would be awfully sick of hearing about.

The arrival of the Grand Nagus and his court bridge this overly malevolent first impression and the more mischeavious behavior of Quark. Yes, the Ferengi are ruthless in business fora, but they surely prefer underhanded and less direct means of conflict than open combat. This nature is made clear by Zek's ruse to test his son's throne-worthiness.

Behind this fairly clever front-ring A-mystery, one of the series' best story lines further evolves, and as someone with knowledge of where the characters' development takes them, it is a relatively rewarding one. The episode's initial scenes show a growing distance between Commander Sisko and Jake, highlighting the loneliness each feels stationed on this distant outpost. But just as the elder Sisko's frustrations with his son's uncharacteristic insolence crescendos, we see the true nature of Jake Sisko. As it turns out, Jake has been staying out late and missing dates with his dad to tutor his Ferengi buddy Nog, whose father does not value education in his son's life.

The turn is a welcome one for a child role on a Star Trek series, and the look of pride Avery Brooks shows is probably the series' first lump-in-your-throat moment. See, TNG tried endlessly to explain questions of the crew's personal life that were never really addressed in TOS. Kirk, Spock, et al, were more archetype and less soul, and that nature served the time period the show aired in well, as America was figuring out how to deal with "others" (Soviets abroad, minorities at home). But those characters left viewers wanting something more substantial from the characters they grew to love.

One of the many questions about the Star Trek premise is how these crew members trek across the galaxy either without a family or never seeing it. Many TNG episodes tried to address this concern through a variety of avenues, some more successful than others. One that I always found among the least successful was Wesley Crusher.

Because this is not a TNG blog, I'll only touch on the writers' struggles with Wesley as a contrast for their success with Jake Sisko. Wesley was a brainy, weak stereotype used to bluntly address coming of age stories. Jake, on the other hand, demonstrates the ability to adapt you might expect of a Starfleet brat, separated from friends with every transfer his father made. The episodes up to "The Nagus" have several examples of the Federation and incumbent Deep Space Nine crew and residents being forced to work together for survival, but Jake's loyalty to Nog--and his devotion to keeping Nog's secret to his own detriment--is the first time we see true friendship between the groups.

And now for some more trivial thoughts:

• The threat of being "tossed out an airlock" comes up often on the station. But unlike the image of being "thrown overboard," the physical mechanics of actually doing it are hardly dramatic. We see an example of this as Rom tricks Quark into walking into the airlock before trapping him in there. Disappointingly, there is very little "tossing" or any other action going on.
• I will certainly have much more to say about the Ferengi in general as these reviews go on (including whether they are an anti-Semitic construct), but the writers clearly enjoy the "ears-as-testicles" biology of the race. At times, I find this very humorous, and at others, I find it way over the top and distractingly sophomoric.
• Yet another example of how far real world technology has come: The classroom, which we see with O'Brien substituting for his wife, is basically composed of a Smartboard and iPads, right? We made up the ground our 1993 imaginations thought would take about four centuries in less than two decades.
• Consider this a gift: After seeing more of the bright green and blue liquors in Quarks, I'm shocked there is not a line of Star Trek novelty liquors available in your local beverage store. Romulan ale, anyone?

4 bars of gold-pressed latinum out of 5