A Simple Investigation

DVD, DS9 S5 (A Simple Investigation)

Romance and mystery. What more could you ask for? Well, actually, less of the romance and more of the mystery. The writers admitted over the course of the series that they weren't good at love stories, so it's no surprise that this follows suit, in the same bracket as 'Let He Who is Without Sin…' for example, as one of the few lesser successes of the tremendously, consistently strong, creative and fulfilling season that was the series' fifth. It is notable because it doesn't work so well, but in an early season or other Trek series this would have been a pretty good, solid sort of investigative drama. Odo's the perfect centre to such a story, having already proved himself in great instalments like 'Necessary Evil,' and dealt with the shady criminal organisation, the Orion Syndicate (incidentally, why in all their dealings with the gangsters do we never see any actual Orions? Or are they all undercover agents posing as other races, like that spy disguised as an Andorian in 'Journey To Babel' - maybe they're embarrassed by their colour? As Kermit The Frog always said, it's not easy being green). Bringing back the organisation, the only recurring criminality in Trek that I can think of, was a bright idea, but the story didn't live up to the episode which featured their previous involvement: 'The Ascent.'

What may be a problem for the episode is that it occurs after Odo's return to his natural state of shapeshifter, but feels like a story that had its inception during his humanoid phase: then he was trying out physical sensations, learning what other 'solids' experienced living in the unchanging way that they (we), do. So it would stand to reason that he might go down the route of romance, not that I'm advocating that for him at all, as he's always been such a stoic island, comfortable with isolation. But his time as a solid taught him to unbend a little, ironic considering he was at his most physically immutable then. Now, in a parallel with Spock, who learned to accept, maybe even embrace his human side over the course of the original films, Odo has the best of both worlds: the astounding abilities and unique perspective of an alien to those around him, but also a greater sense of life and experiences outside of his comfort zone that have made him more rounded.

Into this new Odo's pool of existence walks the mystery woman. It's very old-school detective novel when he meets her in a bar, and yet at the same it isn't - she's making fun of the situation a bit and Odo's struck and slightly bewildered by being taken with her. It's all rather pat, and if it had been a ploy by the Syndicate to entrap Odo it would have made more sense, but I suppose, with a leap, I can buy that she planned to use the Security Chief before she met him, or even that she took advantage of the situation. But even smoochy-eyes Odo doesn't lose all sense of self and responsibility: the station's protection at this highly sensitive time as never before, takes his duty to the people he works for, and more importantly, justice, very seriously indeed. An illustration of his preference for justice over rules is when he chooses to drop the charges against Arissa after he finds her trying to get into restricted files using her data port (more on the technological side to this episode soon…). If he was following the letter of the law he could have locked her up, especially after catching her walking out of the Assay Office (a place that had almost fallen out of existence its use had dropped by the wayside for so long!). As he says, "I'm good too."

I wasn't sure how much to trust the wily woman, and I think that hurts the story a little - you're not completely with her because you know how much of a liar she's been and you don't want to see Odo bested by someone like that. If she was made more sympathetic as a person it might have improved the drama, I don't know. It's not that you don't care at all, but she doesn't seem to need much help (especially after somehow beating a Bajoran security officer and O'Brien to the floor in the Infirmary - I think it was the Infirmary, unless it was another of those Science Labs Odo and Mora used in 'The Begotten'?). Still, Odo coming to the rescue works as a concept and is a good sequence. It wasn't the action scene of the season, but there was a pointed satisfaction from the Constable as he flattens out the fat assassin with an unnecessary, but just, blow!

The double-act assassin team were an improving addition. They ooze a confident menace, while also being deadpan and droll, as if they enjoy their job, rather like the green guys who come after Morn in 'Who Mourns For Morn?' or the mirror of Kira's resistance friends, Lupaza and Furel. They have a bit of fun, and though cruel, you get an impression of real people, not just a couple of agents sent to kill someone, which would have been an easy trap to fall into doing. If anything, they weren't in it enough, and could have been built up quite significantly with a bit more work. The look worked - like the terrorist Pomet in 'Starship Mine' on 'TNG,' or the Ilari in 'Voyager' story 'Warlord,' having extra orifices of the face makes you look nastier. Coupled with the pale white skin, lank hair and long, leather coats from 'The Matrix' (if it had come out before this instead of after), and a short, fat one with a tall, thin one, they had a memorable style (I would have liked to have caricatured them).

The coats weren't the only thing that brought 'The Matrix' to mind - the concept of connecting one's brain to a computer to hack or view data is quite futuristic (maybe not quite as much as we believed at the time?), so Arissa's data port attachment, besides having a scary link to the Borg, also adds to the mystery of her - the very idea of this piece of gadgetry on the back of her neck, hidden under the luxurious hair, is a metaphor for the character. A lesson of the story may be to not be fooled by appearances, something Odo should be well versed in, yet he does allow her into his confidence simply because she isn't put off by his appearance and nature, accepting him quickly, maybe instantly. This is one of the fuzzy areas that stops the episode working entirely: how much of her interactions is an act to procure his trust and assistance, and how much is genuine. Certainly by the tragic final scene when she's revealed to be someone else entirely, with another life she'd forgotten, it is poignant and we are upset for the way things have turned out for Odo. Not that it makes his actions correct in the way he throws himself at her, but it does give the rest of the episode credibility, something that was needed much earlier on. But she was a liar even when she wasn't lying, because her memories had been removed and stored (are the Idanians like Vulcans and can store a person's soul, or are memories different?), and she didn't even know the lie she lived.

The Idanians had been one of those races that wouldn't even fit on a tier (you know, like the Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans would be first tier of importance and development, then maybe the Ferengi and Bolians would be second tier, etc), and had been known only for a food called Idanian Spiced pudding (incidentally, we actually get to see someone eating the much-talked of Bajoran Hasperat - it may not be the first time, but it's not what we see all that regularly), and probably weren't even considered an actual race in terms of something that was going to be developed and one day seen, so I suppose we should be grateful that they were made into something instead of remaining a name. Unlike the Breen they hadn't been built up with rumours and references all over the place, so they had nothing to live up to (and it's always better to fill out a corner of the Trek universe rather than make something new with no ties to anything before). Like the Breen we find out that they are a secretive and mysterious race. Unlike the Breen they don't wear face-covering helmets. They're mysterious, right? So they wear… [drum roll] thin hoods.  (The Syndicate's 'hoods' were more interesting!). More thought could have gone into their look, but they were limited in the facial mess they could make because they wanted it to be feasible that Arissa's human-like face could be turned Idanian at the end (with surgery), so (rather like Seska on 'Voyager'), they gave them little forehead bumps instead of anything more elaborate.

The Idanians may not have wowed in their first (and probably only - I don't remember them ever featuring again), appearance, but as we often do, there were plenty of alien faces to tease our interest in the background: aside from the smooth-skinned alien loading cargo in the cargo bay, with his dinosaur-like spiky head ridges in a mohican, representing aliens more familiar were one of the famous 'fish-men' (those gawping pike-alikes I've noticed coming back into fashion this season after mostly vanishing from Seasons 3 and 4), also part of the cargo bay team. What was more surprising was seeing Dax, Bashir, Odo and O'Brien being served by a Yridian in Quarks! Information-gathering business not what it was? A spy in the middle of DS9, hoping to hear things of use from the hub of the station? Whatever his reason for being there (it makes me want to hear his story), it shows Quark in a much more multicultural light - he only used to employ Ferengi waiters and Dabo girls, but he's got a Bolian bartender that often pops up (in this one, too), and now other aliens serving. Could this be… a direct result of the Ferengi Commerce Authority revoking his licence at the end of Season 4? Black-marking him so that no good Ferengi would do business with or work for him? If so, this is an incredible level of attention to detail, so subtle it doesn't even bother to announce itself, the whole production showing the kind of care to keep the world real, and the consequences real, and it is with great admiration that I notice it!

The real star of this one is the technology, and the way familiar concepts are used slightly differently, not an easy task when you've been using them for over thirty years at this point! I first noticed it with the phaser, or whatever the exact weapon the fat assassin used to vaporise the fantastically named (very 'Deep Space Nine'), Tauvid Rem - he does the deed, then shows casual disappointment at killing him because he thought it was only on stun, as if he'd picked up the wrong groceries at the supermarket! That was more to do with the reaction to the tech than the actual item, but it was a theme that returned when Odo takes Arissa into protective custody and her own quarters, stationing two guards outside, then proceeds to beam her and himself directly to his own quarters as a bluff, and stationing a fake repair crew outside. What a great idea, why has it not been done more often? The third moment that made me happy was when Odo interrupts Bashir's secret agent holoprogram by knocking on the window of a moving limousine. The car's still moving as he and Bashir exchange words and it's a brilliant illustration of how the Holosuite works - they appear to be moving, but they aren't.

It helps that that whole scene is so much fun, taking us back to the joy of last season's 'Our Man Bashir,' (so sad that this was its last usage on the series) and earlier, showing us the group in Quark's waiting for the newest holoprogram to come out, just as we wait for a new episode. In these days you can be in the episode yourself, of course. Dax is at her most playfully irritating, desperately trying to get Odo to join in and rearrange their plans to include him; or later, gossiping to Kira about what's going on with him and Arissa. Worf, who's learned to appreciate Odo as a fellow outsider, one who prefers his own company much of the time, sticks up for him, loudly pointing out that Odo wouldn't want to be the subject of her and Kira's conversation. It's interesting how Kira is played in this one: she wants Odo to pursue this mystery woman, as his friend she finds it amusing, but in a good way. Later, by the time Dax is going on about it, and Sisko suggests it's a good thing, she seems less sure, as if she's had time to think it over. It isn't an overt character arc or anything, but you do get subtext that can be read in different ways. It shows that the running threads of Odo secretly loving and admiring Kira hadn't been forgotten - again, the reality of the series is always just under the surface whether it's part of the story or not.

The story works quite well on the mystery side, but even so, this isn't one I would use to introduce people to the series with. It's far too confined to the station, confined to Odo, and lives up to the common misconception that 'DS9' was a melancholy, gritty version of Trek, with a lot of shadows and uncertainty; a slow burn candle in a darkened room. I say it because this was, unfortunately, the story I watched with my cousins when we were all staying somewhere, as it was on TV, and whom I don't think had previously seen the series. Of all the wonderful Season 5 stories it had to be this one! If only it had been 'Empok Nor,' 'The Ascent,' 'Nor The Battle To The Strong,' or so many others! That's not to say I don't like it, because I do - I particularly enjoy seeing the station and its life at different times of day: Quark closing up the bar (how he failed to notice Morn still in there, I don't know!), Odo walking the Promenade, it all adds, again, to the reality of this being a living, breathing place. It feels very much an early season episode, before the Dominion were part of the series, before the Klingons or Romulans had really made their mark, and this was all the series was. And it would have been enough for me, but much better was to come, and as much as I like the confined, lonely nature of such episodes, the broader, busting open the galaxy style of story is probably more exciting.

In a way, this story was the opposite of 'Second Skin.' In that one Kira was being persuaded that her real life was as a Cardassian spy and that her memories had been replaced - in this Arissa signed up for it (Jason Bourne?), and wakes up to her true life of a spy. One thing I didn't catch was how Draim, the big shot Syndicate member, was going to go to prison. I assume it was from some kind of evidence that Arissa had from working for him, but it wasn't clear enough for me. And look out for a very obscure reference to 'TOS' episode 'The Gamesters of Triskelion': on the barrels in the cargo bay you can see the logo they used, the one that was on the floor as the boundary to be fought within. So obscure I didn't notice until I looked at a photo from the episode. I also noticed another female Bajoran security operative (though she wasn't much use, getting knocked out by the puny Arissa). As Arissa, this wasn't Dey Young's first Trek role, or her last. She was also in the weak 'The Masterpiece Society' of 'TNG,' and the not bad 'Two Days and Two Nights' of 'Enterprise.' While John Durbin who played Traidy, the thin assassin, had previously been an equally as unpleasant Cardassian, the adversary of Captain Jellico in 'Chain of Command.'

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