Blogging DS9, S1E12: "Battle Lines"

S1E12: "Battle Lines"
Or Tu-Opaka Shakur

"In the eyes of the Prophets, we are all children."
-Kai Opaka

One of the richest parts of DS9 is its willingness to address religion, a subject only sparsely touched by its predecessors. "Battle Lines," while lacking in most other ways, at least advances the moral conflicts of the Bajorans as they keep their faith in a politically tumultuous time.

The episode itself is pretty weak in terms of plot (there is no B-arc), and even the big reveal that the moon's living dead were doomed to remain isn't all that surprising or gut-wrenching. But the redeeming moments come in the interactions between Kira and Opaka. Kira is as deep a character as the show offers, and nowhere is her baggage more obvious than in the presence of her religious idol.

Kira, the devout freedom fighter, comes to realize the peace that came with the end of the Cardassian Occupation is completely foreign to her. Opaka tells Kira to face her violent nature head-on and learn how to channel it. The writing is fairly grounded and worthy of praise, and the acting is adequate to not distract from the topics the writers isolated. Nana Visitor's dramatic change from a proud fighter to a sobbing child at the Kai's feet is a little over-the-top.

It's hard for me to effectively determine whether the Kai's gravity is effectively expressed given my extended knowledge of the series. In reviewing these posts, it seems to me that 12 episodes into the series, the Kai should have been developed a little more before she is essentially killed off. Odo and others make a point of telling us how important Opaka is to the Bajorans, but being shown rather than told would have been far more effective. Without giving away too much, the Kaiship is an extremely important position to the development of DS9 in its first few seasons, and focus on Opaka's succession almost retrospectively begs for a little more on the series' first Kai.

As for the Starfleeters? Ouch. O'Brien and Dax's turn as scientific one-uppers was a snoozer. As always, they threw around pseudo-science and came up with some frontier innovation to save the day. But you already knew that would happen. Sisko and Bashir clumsily plodded around in a war zone, though maybe there is some buried humor in both of their efforts ultimately failing. On this particular moon, they were hardly Picard and Dr. Crusher.

As for some other thoughts:

• The exit from the runabout made me chuckle. So somehow Opaka was knocked out cold, but the other three were almost unharmed. And even though Kira was wounded, she was still in good enough shape to lift the Kai out of the ship. 
• Many fictional problem-solvers use the innocuous-comment-as-inspiration crutch, including Gregory House and Sherlock Holmes. But Colm Meaney may have set a record, as he was barely halfway through "needle in a haystack" before he was into the physics of his solution to find the downed runabout. Look, I'm not asking for my shows to mirror everyday life. But could we only use this trick when it's clever or interesting and can the actor at least sell the moments of inspiration between thinking of the offhand comment and final genius?

2 bars of gold-pressed latinum out of 5

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

Blogging DS9, S1E9: "Move Along Home"

S1E9: "Move Along Home"
Or The Ferengi's Pawns

"Is it against Starfleet policy to press a few buttons?"
-Constable Odo

I have to start by stating that "Move Along Home" is the DS9 episode I remember more than any other. Perhaps it was the striking visuals or maybe the conceit of a role playing board game, but regardless, I remembered nearly every turn of the episode. And somehow, my memory did not do its quality justice.

"Move Along Home" manages to leverage the great freedoms of the Star Trek series while breaking away from its older sister's shadow. After all, this is the franchise that had Captain Kirk nailing bright green women and Picard commanding staff from multiple bright blue species. Both the Wadi themselves and the game the four Starfleeters are thrown into are colorful and eye-catching. The decision to build a set where the halls and rooms seem to have the same architecture yet accommodate wildly different twists was very clever, and the overhead shot of Sisko in the triangular room was really well conceived.

Furthermore, the opening scene where the Wadi are far more interested in getting to Quark's than first contact is a refreshing acknowledgment that yes, these overly grown-up Federation types are a bit stiff, and no, the universe is not a study in etiquette. To this point, we have already seen different new races come through the Wormhole, and the writers' choice to demonstrate that not all of them share the same value platform greatly widens their range of future offerings.

And yet, this episode could easily have slid into a TNG rescue-mission pattern. When Odo boarded the Wadi vessel looking for the game's source, it felt like a typical Star Trek resolution where a perfect technological solution saves the day. So you can imagine how surprising it was to see Odo enter that shining doorway, only to reappear in Quark's.

In fact, if I had to criticize this episode in anyway, I would accuse the writers of trying to get too much into their 46 minutes. Quark seemed to realize that the four pieces represented the four missing officers too quickly, and I would have loved to have seen Kira, Dax, and Sisko struggle over losing Bashir a little longer. By the time they sang the rhyme of the hopscotch girl and realized they were playing a game, the episode was half over.

My other quick thoughts:

• I remember my dad used to be disgusted by the Starfleet dress uniform of this era. I used to think the idea of having a dress uniform with some gold scrawl on the lower collar was very cool, but now I agree with my dad: It just looks like a man wearing a dress.
• There are a few tricks the Star Trek writers rely on with comical frequency across the series, such as the tendency of the unknown ensign to be killed on away missions (Family Guy nailed this with the Ensign Ricci aside). Another is how it seems every important conversation a senior officer has is interrupted by the bridge, and Sisko's birds-and-bees talk with Jake is no exception. I know the writers needed a mechanism for Jake to bring his dad's absence to Odo's attention, but I think the station commander's son and chief of security would probably figure out he was missing soon enough.
• Give a lot of credit to the four actors in the game for their work on the rhyme/hopscotch scene. First, Kira and Bashir have to do the always awkward force field shock reaction. But then each of them has to sing the rhyme and complete the sequence, and I think each did an admirable job. The best was Avery Brooks' take on it. The obvious way for an overtly intense Starfleet commander to sing in front of three of his officers would be wrought with embarrassment and discomfort, but Brooks owned it with an enthusiastic New Orleans spin that felt completely believable.

4.5 bars of gold-pressed latinum out of 5

Blogging DS9, S1E8: "The Passenger"

S1E8: "The Passenger"
Or The Tragedy of Dirty Fingernails

"It's hard to keep secrets in a place like this."
-Commander Sisko

Sisko's warning to newly arrived Lieutenant Primmin is a coy wink from "The Passenger"'s writers and a clever nod to how important events that happen on the station and in front of our own viewing eyes can be. In this episode, which uses the single-episode-mystery-arc formula often successful across the series, the DS9 writers show a level of nuance missing from many of the first season's heavy-handed introductions.

Although "The Passenger" yet again eschews any secondary plot arcs in developing the primary story, it smoothly transitions from a whodunit first half into a relatively climactic second half, punctuated by a classic Star Trek in-the-nick-of-time solution. The beginning stage is incredibly effective, as the writers show in the enough information before the credits to know all along what the episode's big reveal turns out to be.  It is a classic example of how a twist can be hidden in plain sight by deft writing.

If there is one flaw with the alien consciousness hiding within Bashir, it is that a) The Star Trek franchise uses mental invasion very frequently b) the rules of this mechanism have never been clear to me. I understand Rao Vantika hiding within the unused part of Bashir's brain like dormant malware, waiting to spring to action. But if this kind of cerebral attack is as common as DS9 and TNG make it seem, I imagine the Federation would have taken more preventative action against it. You can't have senior staff members who possess vital passcodes and secrets being neurologically hijacked this often. With that said, "The Passenger" is one of the franchise's more successful uses of this mechanism, and Siddig El Fadil deserves a solid B for depicting the shift in consciousness through menacingly plodding diction.

While this episode does not have a true secondary story, the introduction of Lieutenant Primmin as chief Starfleet Security officer is noteworthy at this point in the series. I admit, I barely remember Primmin from my first run viewing, and part of me was expecting the squeaky clean stranger to be caught up in the sinister plot. I can say with honesty that I do not remember exactly how long Primmin's role lasts on the show, though I can promise he does not stay long enough to leave a lasting impression on the show's development. In retrospect, I'm not quite sure what motivated the writers to introduce him. Yes, I guess on some practical level, Starfleet would want its own security presence on this new frontier, and the stodgy Primmin reads well as some kind of G-man trying to bring iron-fisted order to the Wild West. But like Dr. Pulaski before him, Primmin's insertion is both awkward to the lives of the characters, as well as the exposition itself. Only nine hours into the series, we still have not seen a Kira-centric episode, and only glimpses into the pasts of the Siskos, Quark, and Bashir. In this episode, Primmin comes across incredibly stiff (probably by choice, not poor acting) and not as a character I would want to see studied in depth. I say this with little memory of what lies ahead for the Lieutenant: He seems poised to be a piece of furniture that doesn't fit comfortably in any room.

My other quick thoughts:

• Dax finds a chip in the ship transporting Rao Vantika that contains a map, she declares with some suspense, of the humanoid brain! This is another "out there" piece of science that only 18 years later I have a hard time believing would still be a mystery in the 2300s.
• You noticed Bashir taking off the comm badge, right?
• This is hardly limited to Star Trek, but won't villains eventually figure out that giving the good guys time to make a decision is a recipe for disaster. Vantika gives Sisko and company "one minute to decide" whether to let him go or risk killing Bashir with him. The trend continues in "The Prisoner;" that one minute is enough time for Dax to recalibrate the tractor beam to attack Vantika's consciousness.
• On the other hand, I thought the trick at the end to use the transporter to remove the cells with Vantika's consciousness through a transporter was a slick idea. 

3 bars of gold-pressed latinum out of 5

Blogging DS9, S1E7: "Dax"

S1E8: "Dax"
Or "My Inner Slug"

"When one of my kind stumbles... It is a mistake that is there forever."
-Lieutenant Dax

For all of the early-series missteps the DS9 writers made in "Q-Less" (and there were many), they rebounded nicely in the title-character-centric "Dax." The episode delves further into the nature of Trill existence while asking some intriguing questions about honor, statutes of limitations, and just how well we can really know another person. There is a smoothness to how this episode builds depth to Dax's character while further rejecting the notion that an immobile space station isn't interesting, as opposed to the awkward wink-wink forced participation of TNG retreads just the episode before.

The Dax character, along with Odo, is certainly one of the more mysterious constructs introduced at DS9's inception. As I remember someone saying to me during that first season, "The prettiest girl on the show a guy living inside her as a slug." And to this point in the series, the most substantial discussion of Dax's Trill identity was an awkward exchange where Sisko told Bashir he would not be an obstacle to the doctor's romantic pursuit.

The plot arc allows Terry Farrell and Avery Brooks to play the roles they seem most comfortable in with these characters. Farrell, who always seemed to have just heard a mildly humorous one-liner, effectively keeps Dax coolly detached from the defense of her own life while stonewalling the efforts to extract her great secret. When I think back on Farrell's Dax, I think of her engrossed yet under control while performing her duties or humoring her fellow crew members from emotional distance. This plot fit snugly into that wheelhouse.

And then there's Sisko. I made be a little hard on Brooks in these reviews. After all, he is more-or-less asked to be a black Patrick Stewart, wrestling between his Federation-issued moral zeal and the pragmatism it often defies. In "Dax," Sisko makes an impassioned case to spare the life of his science officer. In he moments when he seemed to be channeling the best of Jack McCoy from a New York courtroom, Brooks' intensity hit the mark. Of course, he attempted to jam that same intense square peg into his private plea to Dax to help him by divulging more information (lowlight: "Dammit, if you were still a man"), but let's at least stay positive for a post.

Furthermore, the opening scene demonstrated the level of "get me past the credits" intrigue TNG pulled off so often. If these first eight hours of DS9 stake any claim, it is that frontier life will often bring the unexpected, especially when that frontier flanks a wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. The series' best moments come when the writers lean heavily on this premise.

Additional thoughts:

• Speaking of that opening scene, the writers deserve credit for not fixating on discord between the Bajoran and Federation crews. Perhaps this is a holdover of Roddenbury's "Let's get along" credo, but it would be easy to see envision a multi-episode theme where the two sides bristle with working together until they learn they must to survive. In "Dax"'s first minutes, we see Sisko, Kira, and Odo work together effectively to prevent Dax's captors from escaping. If the crew friction angle were strongly in play at this point, this would strike discordance.
• If Fionnula Flanagan looks familiar as Enina Tandro in this episode, you are probably a nerd. If you recognize her as Eloise Hawking from Lost, give yourself one nerd point. If you recognize her as Dr. Juliana Tainer (i.e., Data's Mom) from TNG, that's nerd checkmate.
• It appears there is no sexual harassment code in the Federation. Lucky you, Dr. Bashir.
• I have little expertise in the technical side of stage performance, but I found the fight scene between Bashir and Dax's captors confusing. First, Bashir probably would not give away the element of surprise by yelling Dax's name as he charged through the corridor, right? But most of all, he appears to knock himself down as he strikes the first captor. I also struggled to find the head trauma that would knock the doctor out. Are these failings of planning or execution?

3.5 bars of gold-pressed latinum out of 5

Blogging DS9, S1E6: "Q-Less"

S1E6: "Q-Less"
Or Julian Bashir, Intergalactic Pussy Hound

"The galaxy can be a dangerous place when you're on your own."
-Q

Friends, I know have been a little hard on DS9's first handful of episodes, outside of the pilot. And yes, I understand that starting a new series can be a little herky-jerky, as the writers try to introduce central elements of a full cast that will be using, they hope, for seasons to come. Perhaps I have been a little demanding of these first few episodes, but that should be colored by the fact that I know the series becomes very compelling as it grows. I do not have a comprehensive memory of the series (thus, these reviews), but I have a rough idea of where the high and low points lie.

And that is why I can write, with confidence, that "Q-Less" is the worst DS9 episode of the series.

This is a strong statement, but I will not qualify it. My strongest gripe with this episode is the way it assaults the viewer with TNG background plots. Nobody likes the guy who insists on making inside jokes foreign to new members of a group; but that guy is especially loathsome when those inside jokes aren't even that funny.

While Vash and Q are certainly not the low points of TNG, I cannot think of a single episode either appears in that is particularly memorable. Vash was a mildly amusing character, a sort of hooker-with-an-eye-for-gold witty enough to intrigue Picard. Her seduction of him adds some personality to Picard's standard rigidity, but I always felt like the writers saw a lot more in her character than I ever did.

And then there's Q. TNG is based, of course, on Q's evaluation of mankind, which is the direct premise for both that series' premiere and finale. And the juxatposition of Q's omnipotence with the mortal struggles of man has some value. On one hand, knowing that the show's universe houses a species that can be anywhere and do anything at will reduces to triviality many encounters in the series. Yet, the persistence that the crew of the Enterprise, and in this episode the crew of Deep Space 9, shows speaks to the nature of humanity. Our births and eventual deaths are inevitable, yet we strive to overcome obstacles in between those bookends in spite of that knowledge. This theme is mirrored in Odo and Quark's debate over the acquisition of material wealth, a pursuit Odo downplays due to the inevitability of death.

(On a side note, the scene also includes another Auberjonois-Shimerman dialogue gem:


Quark: I'm selling quallity merchandise to select clientele.
Odo: What makes them so... select?
Quark: They're all ridiculously wealthy... and not too bright.


This is yet another scene in which Odo humors Quark just long enough that we understand he has more interest in his would-be nemesis than procedure would merely dictate. Auberjonois does this subtly and expertly.)

And yet, why the writers pathetically leaned on old TNG crutches in this episode is hard to explain. From a plot standpoint, I guess Vash's collection of Gamma Quadrant goods is a reasonable way to get the shiny egg onto the station, putting it in climactic peril . But if you carefully consider the key points at which the episode turns, it becomes clear that it didn't even need to include Q. Q conveyed some vague references to Sisko about the danger Vash posed, but the crew eventually found the egg based on their creative solution without Q's influence. The first twenty minutes of the episode were wasted on Q and Vash's dreary bickering over what they had been up to for two years and Bashir's loverboy pursuits, which became a red herring anyway.

I know I have been demanding on the series. Dear reader and viewer, please take my word that DS9 is never as bad as "Q-Less."

A few items of novelty:

• In one of the most unbelievable and unnecessary stage directions in the series, the first segment ends with Q somehow hiding crouched over next to the runabout, roughly two feet from where Sisko is standing. Q, of course, would never actually have to hide to avoid discovery, but regardless, am I supposed to believe Sisko would not have seen Q in spite of the fact that he could have tripped over him?
• The bareknuckle boxing scene was humorous both in how out of place it seemed and in the actors' portrayals. The Gangs of New York-esque (yes, I know the episode predates that movie by the better part of a decade) mustache on Q was sadly a high point, and Avery Brooks was, per usual, overly emphatic.
• Almost as if the writers heard critical contemporaries make the same complaint about overusing Odo's shapeshifting, Quark starts rattling off objects Odo could have posed as while eavesdropping on his conversation with Vash. A small dose of self-awareness is always a funny touch.

1 bar of gold-pressed latinum out of 5