Whispers

DVD, DS9 S2 (Whispers)

I love the creepy ones. You know the ones I mean? You've got weird things happening and it's only noticed by one person. 'Whispers' has the added advantage of being a really well told tale, with O'Brien acting as teller, starting us off with more questions than answers. The strangeness begins slowly, but as people treat him differently, lie to him, and even his wife acts out of character, the plot thickens into creepy gloopy goodness, and if you don't know the ending it's one of the best of the series. This episode has everything, from O'Brien's desperate escape from his 'friends', to the short appearance of some great-looking aliens, but the dramatic tension is the strongest part, with a growing level of an unsettling mood, like TNG's 'Conspiracy'.

The flawless plotting is immensely clever, and demands to be seen a second time (for a unique and different perspective), and is best illustrated by the way we're rooting for the Chief even though we know he's going to escape in a Runabout, since that's what happens in the teaser. His skill in telling us just enough, as it unfolds to him, keeps us with him and eager to see what happens. The other characters also excel, furthering the creepiness - Bashir says he has two more tests to run, but when O'Brien gets annoyed, he gives him a clean bill of health. The change in Jake and Odo, the only other characters who seem normal, is even more pronounced. I suspect Quark wasn't in with the senior staff, but doubtless he had, shall we say, acquired information on the situation, since he tries to get something out of O'Brien regarding the Paradas.

Amid all the paranoia and chasing, it's easy to overlook the debut of the fifth Runabout, the USS Mekong, replacing the Ganges, destroyed in the previous episode. It's easy to overlook because we don't actually see it onscreen! It's mentioned (as is the Rio Grande, the ship O'Brien escapes in), and seen as a sensor blip, but that's all. Interestingly this is another Gamma Quadrant episode that has nothing to do with the Dominion, something that would change by the end of the season. And there's a bit of continuity with reference to a rematch of the Racquetball game Bashir and O'Brien abandoned in 'Rivals'.

The background characters give consistency to the station, as a living environment, whether they be Bajorans working away with Starfleet crew in Ops, including a particular gold uniformed, black beehive-haired woman, or the exact same woman exiting a docking bay. And that's what happens, which might not be so strange, except she's the first to come off the ship Odo's travelled on from Bajor! Either it was her twin sister, sitting at the main Ops console, or she was behind the whole episode!

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