For The Uniform

DVD, DS9 S5 (For The Uniform)

The middle part of a trilogy is often the weakest, 'The Empire Strikes Back' notwithstanding (though structurally that was the first part of a two-parter and doesn't count), and that rule holds true for this, the middle of the Eddington saga. I suppose you could call it the Sisko Revenge saga, because it's more about him than it is about the Maquis leader - there had already been a number of stories dealing with the Maquis, an organisation supposedly set up to fight the Cardassians over the border treaty they made with the Federation, but in reality a vehicle to provide 'Voyager' with backstory. That series hadn't used the backstory as much as expected, and while the Maquis would feature occasionally in standalones ('Extreme Risk,' 'Repression'), later in that series, this was really the last arc for the organisation before it was wiped out by the unstoppable Dominion. One piece of news that I don't think had been revealed before was Michael Eddington's status as a leader of the band. Before, he was just a traitor who'd abandoned Starfleet, but it's clear this infiltration of the ranks was always the plan until maximum use could be made of him. That the Maquis were willing to send their equivalent of 'top brass' into the field shouldn't be a surprise for a guerilla unit made up of the disaffected, but it puts the man in perspective.

Eddington is shown quite differently than he had been before - loosed from his confining Starfleet uniform he looks like a swashbuckler in boots, leather jacket and sporting a chunky Klingon disruptor. Is this the real Michael Eddington, so far from the buttoned up regulations man of security? He is the most interesting part of this episode, though in reality he's only there to test Sisko and goad him, and only in a way that would bother the Captain - he can't be caught, he's one step ahead, but as Sisko works out, he does see himself as the hero of the story, presenting a way, a rather unorthodox way, to be sure, of dealing with him: become the villain. This is probably the first time Sisko's done something really inappropriate on a large scale, laying the ground for his complicity in Garak's scheme of 'In The Pale Moonlight' in Season 6. He's not responsible for killing a planet of people, but he does make it uninhabitable, and that's something you wouldn't normally expect from a Starfleet officer.

There are parallels with Picard and his dealings with the Borg. Both Captains have a personal vendetta against their opponent, and both are wisely thrown off the course of revenge by a Starfleet authority that understands how a Captain can go bad when faced with personal enmity. But usually Captains defeat their foe without resorting to underhand tactics, or at least are proved right in their decisions. I think, even though Sisko was apparently going beyond his duty in capturing Eddington, he wouldn't have allowed personal feelings to take precedence over his crew's safety, perhaps unlike Janeway in some of her trials when she's been up against the Borg, or Kirk's battle with Khan. Then again, Kirk usually got away with a bluff and didn't have to follow through with the action, whereas Sisko is more bullish and belligerent as we see when he's taking out his stresses on a holographic punchbag.

I noticed that Sisko is out of uniform a lot more than most episodes. First, when he's trying to meet the Maquis informant who has news of Eddington's whereabouts, he's dressed very much like the pirate captain of his Mirror Universe self: boots, jacket, casual, dark clothes. Then we see him going around in his boxing gear. But when it matters, he is wearing the Starfleet uniform of the title, he stands for what he always has, but he does push the boundary further than is comfortable in his obsession in getting the man who beat him. You'd think that Odo would be feeling the same way about Eddington, since they worked together for so long, but the difference is that Odo never really liked him, he being a manifestation of Starfleet's distrust of the changeling. The most we see from the calm changeling (back to his shapeshifting status now, of course), is to ask Sisko to remind Starfleet they chose Eddington because they didn't trust him!

One of things that makes this episode feel like a lesser one compared to the very high standards of this season, is that there isn't a satisfying ending. They bring Eddington in, Dax makes a joke about sometimes liking it when the bad guy wins, and that's it. I think there was a conversation or at the least, a look in the eyes of Sisko, that was missing, to show that he wasn't happy with how far he'd been pushed, that maybe he regrets what he did to some degree. It was too lighthearted for a serious story. There could even have been a dressing down scene where Starfleet basically says that the only reason they're not taking any action against him is because he was successful (a bit like 'Trials and Tribble-ations') - if you get the results, that will supersede the means you used, and Sisko succeeded. I don't think that's a good message to be giving, even if it was a more realistic one than Kirk always getting away with a bluff, for example.

The other thing that hurts the episode is the directing. I don't usually focus on the technical side of things unless to praise, and it's not like this was a terrible episode, it was just very functional and didn't ramp up the tension that should have been there. There are some brilliant and unique moments in the story, such as the manual operation of the Defiant with the crew all speaking their actions as they do them, the bridge and engineering kept in contact by Nog's turn on the comm, and everyone working like a well-oiled machine. That was the only way the Defiant could go up against the Maquis and there be any suggestion that it wouldn't be faster, stronger and more manoeuvrable (after the initial cascade program disables the ship - a scary thought not carried through thoroughly enough was Eddington's programs left inside the ship and DS9 from his time in a position of power). But, even when the odds are evened out, so that going up against the Maquis becomes a challenge, there still isn't the wholly satisfying impression of two minds battling it out. A lot of it is in the writing, but if it had been directed either more fluidly or more jarringly, it could have left the audience on edge.

The situation would have been assisted if this had been the result of plot threads in other episodes of the season. We hear for the first time that Sisko's been on the hunt for his nemesis for eight months, and presumably Odo's had ongoing investigations, but it was never mentioned before. I'm glad that they addressed the Maquis, they hadn't been forgotten, but if there had been a buildup to this moment (maybe an undercover episode like O'Brien's 'Honour Among Thieves'), the stakes could have been impressed upon us more. We needed to see more of the Maquis, and budgets don't always allow - if we'd seen a village of people rushing to their transports as a cloud fills the sky… But then Sisko would have looked a lot worse, so maybe it was better to leave it vague. He was definitely angry, though, and he needed Dax' wisdom more than ever. Fortunately she was there to provide it, and their conversations are among the highlights, along with Eddington's speeches, of course. The man thinks he knows him, never suspecting that when pushed, Sisko can go to extremes to get a job done. He plays Eddington's game, and that isn't what he was expecting. There's a bit of a Joker or Green Goblin feel to the choices they give: Eddington disables a Cardassian transport and sends it spiralling into a planet, so Sisko has to decide whether to save them or get his quarry. Then when Sisko threatens to blow up every Maquis settlement in the DMZ - so they're both being villainous, though both on the side of right as they see it.

For those that are drawn more to the technology than anything else, this episode is a joy, a proper starship showcase. We get good shots of the Defiant, Maquis raiders, and even the USS Malinche, which I didn't expect to see. If it had been a 'TNG' episode we might not have been shown an extraneous starship like that as they were more fond of telling than showing on that series, and actually this does feel more like a standard 'TNG' episode on the whole, maybe because it was ship-based, and we don't see a lot of that on 'DS9.' Captain Sanders of the Malinche was well played by Eric Pierpoint, one of those regular names to crop up in Trek guest roles (having previously played an ambassador in the final season of 'TNG,' in the episode 'Liaisons'), and the character was perfectly likeable despite never having been seen before - he had an easy attitude that also betrayed the strong will a commander of a starship should possess, and though I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a shame they didn't bring him back as a recurring character, I could have seen him popping up to give Sisko support now and again.

Another thing that appears in this episode and pretty much died out, was the holo-communicator. It was a good extrapolation of technology, but it worked too well, making the user appear to actually be there. There needed to be a ripple of static now and again as the signal encountered subspace interference, or whatever, and when Eddington throws out his arms, it would have been nice to see the hands disappear as if beyond the borders of the holo-emitter, though that would have been a distraction from what he was saying, so I can see why they decided to stick with the simpler viewscreen technology after this. It shows that now and again they were trying to be different and introduce fresh-blooded ideas to a familiar universe, even this far into the golden years of the 90s! Something that wouldn't have been possible in that decade, but is now very real, is the way Eddington transmits a book to Sisko's padd. It's what people can do easily now, downloading books from the internet, sharing them with friends and reading them on the equivalent of a padd - the Kindle even looks a bit like that handheld variant of the Starfleet technology!

I have to mention the first ever audio of a Breen speaking, or I should say, singing. When the Breen first appeared in Season 4's 'Indiscretion,' they remained silent, so it was great fun to hear a Breen nursery rhyme, and it actually sounds more pleasant than the harsh speaking voices they use later in the series, showing even the Breen have a loveable side, it seems! Speaking of music, there was some good work done, particularly the 'all pulling together' type of theme as the Defiant leaves the station, as well as some moodier, slightly scary stuff during Sisko's ultimatum. I'm relieved Eddington did get a proper sendoff later in the season, as this would have been a bit of a limp way to end his arc, and who knows, maybe they left the story feeling unresolved on purpose because they planned to revisit Sisko's feelings towards his former security chief?

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