Second Skin

DVD, DS9 S3 (Second Skin)

Another in a long line of stories featuring uncertain settings or characters with altered memories or faces. Even the participants start to question things (cloning? Holodeck?), but this was cleverer than what had come before, as there was enough truth in there to make it almost plausible, or at least keep the viewers on their mental toes as each fact serves to build a case for what our eyes are seeing: Kira is an undercover agent with false Bajoran memories. There are parallels with the 'TNG' episode 'Face of The Enemy', and as I said, there have been and would continue to be false reality episodes made, it just so happens that Star Trek is ideal for such stories and does them very well.

Mr. Garak gets his first appearance this season, after a version of him was seen in the 'dream' reality at the start of the season. Here he's still wearing his old Season 2 threads, so perhaps the Dominion is a few steps further ahead than we even realised as he hasn't been seen in the outfit they depicted him wearing! We learn of his claustrophobia, dropped in an offhand manner by the way he didn't like the Defiant's quarters; that he has access to current codes still in use when he bluffs the Cardassian ships into allowing the Defiant on its way; and that the Obsidian Order has been happy to let him stay on DS9. Before he's killed, Entek threatens the tailor that they'll no longer let him live, but it's unclear whether this threat would be carried out, as the man's killed and unable to report back, but if the Order knew Garak was in on the rescue, and there's little they don't know (at least, that's what they'd like us to think), then he could be in danger. There's a warning not to trust Garak, again, this time from a more trustworthy source than Tain, since Tekeny Ghemor is of the dissident movement, first discovered last season, which gives the story a broader scope than just Kira's upset.

This is the fourth story (counting the two-parter as one), and the fourth homeworld visited, and though we've been to Cardassia before (most notably for O'Brien's trial), we experience a domestic setting this time. Other commonalities shared with the previous episode are blocked memories (last time for real, this time in pretence) and Sisko's blackmailing - last time the Symbiosis Commission, this time Garak, who shows his true feelings for a change, making it clear it isn't safe for him to go to Cardassia. As soon as he realises the situation is hopeless he goes anyway and is gracious in his usual diverting way. And he gets the best lines - "Treason, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder."

Odo is seen to be back at his job in security, and the issue between him and Eddington has yet to be addressed, but he's up to his old tricks, this time being brought into a room as a bag to swing things in Sisko's favour. You can see he's quite amused by Garak's discomfort at Sisko's insistence the Cardassian must come along on the rescue. Garak is the person to remind us of the Dominion presence this episode, since we haven't yet had any follow-up to the opening two-parter - like Quark before him, he mentions that it has affected business in a negative way.

Nana Visitor really gets to act in this one, showing anger at her captivity, unbelief at the farfetched claims, and then breaking down under the continued pressure and uncertainty. Her body language, usually so rigid and assured, slackens, she scrunches herself up and for once seems small and powerless. Her best scene must be the exchange between her and Ghemor at the end, who has become like a surrogate father, and she to him a surrogate daughter, one thread that would be followed up, though the real Iliana Ghemor never became a story herself. Kira has changed so much, beginning with early episodes like 'Duet', that her blind hatred of all Cardassians has been stripped away, and she can care deeply about some of them. Watching the episode again is quite rewarding and provides a different perspective, because you know Ghemor really does believe Kira is his daughter and so her responses, which seem quite legitimate, now become harsh and painful for him.

Ghemor's story is sad, but it brings to light once again the friction between the Obsidian Order and the Central Command, as well as reminding us of the dissident presence on Cardassia. Though much of it happens in the rooms of Ghemor's house the scope of events is broadened through the dialogue. The Kohbeerians had been seen before, and this is the cover Sisko uses to get the Defiant into Cardassian space. I'm not sure why they didn't use the cloak, which suggests the Romulans revoked the device after the Dominion mission. We hear more of Kira's backstory, though her belief her Mother died in a camp would be proved unfounded, and again the series proves that adding the ongoing threat and a starship to the mix has far from hindered the ideas from flowing.

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