Tuesday, 26 March 2013

In The Cards

DVD, DS9 S5 (In The Cards)


The lull before the storm, the deep breath before the plunge - call it what you will, I've probably used those lines before, but this is a case where they really are apposite, this being the last stab at playfulness before the seriousness of the Dominion War took over from Bajoran politics, Ferengi soap operas, romantic setups and mundane day to day problems on the station. Not that the series was ever mundane, or that those things would be forgotten for long, but things were going to get a whole lot more interesting (in the Chinese-proverb sense of the word), before long, making this the ideal time to give us a nostalgia boost and get the whole cast in there. Well, nearly the whole cast, for Jadzia was absent and it wasn't even commented on! Where is she, on a secret mission, on leave, or back in time? She's usually the lives and souls of the party, which answers the question, really - if Sisko and the others had had her to bolster their morale and cheer the mood, it wouldn't have become Jake's (and by extension, Nog's), personal mission. In my mind this is the only reason she wasn't written in, just as if there's a shapeshifter around you don't have Odo there to be able to point him out, or Bashir when there's a medical emergency - you take out the person most capable in a given field to make it more dramatic, and in this case the field was humour.

It doesn't start very humorously, a depressing dinner for the senior staff hosted (and cooked), by Sisko, continuing his tradition of dinner parties (maybe Eddington's reminder of this role recently, made him think of the idea, or maybe it's something he does more often than we're privy to). It's always a pleasure to get the cast together and have them bounce off each other, but this was no happy gathering, more like a duty to be borne - Mr. Worf's so bored he gets engrossed in Sisko's wall art and doesn't even realise everyone else has left! Equally, Sisko's so despondent he doesn't even pretend to believe Worf wanted to be there, telling him he's been paroled. The reason for the downer is news of yet another starship to go missing, meaning the Dominion are stepping up their cold war to another level, the peace slipping away at a rate of warp speed. This really is the calm before the storm, because everyone's going about their business, having meals, cataloguing storage bays, catching up on work. They're not scurrying around in a panic, because they're Starfleet.

When Jake decides to do something nice for his Father, he could never have foreseen that it would have been an uplifting experience for the whole station, sending a breeze of warmth through the creaky, cold place. It shows that if you do something beneficial to others you never know how far it will go, or how much good will trickle down. Not everyone was as susceptible to this optimism, many having already left. One of the most rarely heard about established alien race to have been invented in 'TOS,' is mentioned in Sisko's conversation with Kai Winn about the current situation: Coridan. This was a world that the episode 'Journey To Babel' revolved around, its admittance into the Federation the motivation for that 1960s story, and it's good to hear of it again, even if fleetingly (we'd later see a Coridanite, but not until the end of 'Enterprise'). And talking about things fleetingly heard about, and eventually seen… Kukalaka fits into that bracket, too! Bashir's teddy bear gets a starring role as one of the various bargaining chips the young pair use to progress towards their goal on the Great River of Commerce. Why didn't Nog mention that side of Ferengi beliefs? Probably because it wasn't invented until Season 7's 'Treachery, Faith and The Great River.' But back to the bear: Bashir takes it quite seriously, it being something he'd told Jadzia about (I think), in Season 4's 'The Quickening,' and though it wasn't a 'character' (if you can stretch to calling it that), on my Most Want To See list, Leeta's fluffed up fury and Nog's embarrassing position above his Stepmother-to-be during her slumber, made it all worthwhile!

This is another grand theatre for Jake Sisko, often the most underused cast member of the series, enabling Cirroc Lofton to show just how well he can raise a quizzical eyebrow in the best Spock tradition. Traditions become something of a problem for him at first when he needs Nog's money to buy the famed baseball card with which to raise his Father's spirits. As we heard in 'First Contact,' humans don't use money. Apparently they're 'better' than that. They don't need money. Except, Jake does, and Nog doesn't let him off easy. It's a great jibing moment for the series which often poked fun at its own legacy as much as it celebrated it, and having a Ferengi be the one who gets to ram home the point about the Trek universe's philosophical dichotomy gives it an added dimension - at the same time as they're pointing out the inconsistency of a system that doesn't use money, kind of needing it, they're also showing us a race that was ridiculous at first, but now we have a Ferengi who's been developed far enough that he's a person in his own right, not a caricature! If Jake doesn't have money, I wonder how he managed to acquire so many clothes - in this episode he goes through about three different changes. Initially I thought it was playing out over several days, but then Giger or someone talks of a twenty-two hour period. It must have been all the minor tasks making him sweat too much.

Nog is much more than just a Ferengi straight man, he's a good friend, but that doesn't stop Jake from digging in where it hurts and wistfully piling on the emotional blackmail about how his Father was the only one that believed in him, how he got him into Starfleet Academy, etc, and Nog can't deny it. A Ferengi that can give up his life's-savings for a friend is a Ferengi worth having as a friend indeed! We've seen this friendship develop over the years of the series, Nog and Jake both changing far more than we'd ever have had the right to expect. It wasn't just that Jake grew to be about twice Nog's size, it was that they both went down paths the other one was 'supposed' to have taken: Jake became a bit of a slob, Nog joined Starfleet. Jake's also blossomed into a writer and a journalist, and in this episode he gets to use both his literary talents: he speechifies to Nog to get him to share his money, (as well as trying to make Kira's speech funnier), and he takes the initiative in spinning a fictional reason as to why they might be after the baseball card when Weyoun disbelieves the true story, the Vorta seemingly having very little idea of the cultural void between them.

Weyoun gets to be the kind of Weyoun that we know from the War - he's less quirky, though he still plies his overwhelming friendliness when the situation is right (look out for Jones behind Sisko's left shoulder during Weyoun's smarm offensive), and he has a steelier side that befits an emissary of the harshest enemy to the Alpha Quadrant in forever, when dealing with suspicious circumstances. We feel we know him better here, he's away from Dukat or any other puppeteer or puppet and he takes on his own strength. He courts Kai Winn and becomes the recipient of her blunt forcefulness, (seeing Weyoun with nothing to say when she tells him they share nothing in common, is priceless!), but it's when he deals with Jake and Nog (and Giger), that he assumes a position of authority. He would do, being as he is, on his own Dominion battleship, so huge that it seems to almost envelop the lower pylon it's docked at (and making you think it would only take two or three of those to take out the station, they look so big and powerful, gleaming purple). I do worry about how easy it was for his ship to abduct Jake and Nog - we're not told for sure, but it seems likely the station didn't even detect the transport of two of its citizens from a turbolift, a frightening thought, as is the fact that Giger's assignment of his quarters wasn't on record, though this could have been the Doc's own paranoid measures to avoid the soulless minions.

Weyoun stalks into the interrogation room with the air of a headmaster coming to find out what happened with a prank from two of his pupils, and they respond in kind. Mind you, they'd had a lot of experience dealing with VIPs, since they'd just had a run in with Kai Winn to accuse her of kidnapping Dr. Giger, (cleverly left to our imagination for the actual detail), then an equally heated meeting with Sisko, furious at their audacity for confronting the Kai! As Weyoun sees it, they've also been meeting with the entire senior staff after the last few hours, in a twist of reality that would serve him (or his persona), well when Bashir's life and background comes into question in 'Inquisition.' The meeting between Weyoun and Jake was fortuitous for the young reporter-to-be - recognising him as wise and giving him respect, Weyoun responding by giving them the card, set the groundwork for Jake's time on the occupied station. From this, Weyoun had some understanding of Jake beyond the fact that he was Sisko's son, helping, more than anything else, ensure the man's safety in that den of enemies (and I also think it gave the Vorta pleasure to know he's helped to give the Captain a much appreciated gift without Sisko knowing it!). Weyoun's so suspicious and yet also shrewd in his role as mouthpiece for the Dominion that he sees plots all around - probably doesn't help that he's a clone who'd died before, something which might well add paranoia, and another reason why he should be so fascinated by Giger's work, going so far as to try out the crackpot's entertainment chamber, designed to keep the cells from betting bored to death, but only if you use it for a third of your day, the rest of your life!

Dr. Giger was a brilliant character with so much more for Brian Markinson to work with than the more basic Starfleet guy he played on 'Voyager' (though he got to be a Vidiian who stole the other's face, too!). Maybe if he'd had other roles he'd be better known as one of the top Trek guest stars, but whether it was because he was a balding, middle-aged human in both roles (never hurt Patrick Stewart!), or he wasn't available, I don't know why he never had more roles as so many did. Certainly his performance here, as the highly intelligent boffin who also has an edge of madness in his personality, was a strong one, keeping the recent penchant for top guest casts. He has a zany boredom to him, a flair for the dull, with extreme reactions to people (such as a refusal to shake hands which made me think of Dejaren in 'Revulsion'). He remains fairly inactive (though he does look like some kind of HG Wells character when he climbs out of his invention wearing a waistcoat), but his zeal is just below the surface. It's a zeal he can regurgitate any time someone shows an interest, though he considers most people to be members of the 'soulless minions of orthodoxy,' who he claims have hounded his work. He even gets some joy out of his association with Jake and Nog - aside from them saving him from being killed or made a prisoner for the rest of his life, he finds someone with a complete and willing interest in his life's work, something an inventor would cherish above anything. Maybe Weyoun sponsored his research from that time on? Someone should write a novel about it!

The auction at Quark's continued a proud tradition of such events, two that spring to mind being the one in 'Q'Less' in which the item being auctioned off was responsible for all the trouble caused on the station; the other being when Nog auctioned his personal belongings (I just remember Worf seeing the light when he finds the Ferengi's tooth sharpener, another social event at which Sisko had press-ganged him into going to!). Auctions were exactly the kind of thing Quark wanted to be doing, even if it was mostly junk (a Romulan washbasin from the 22nd Century, the time of 'Enterprise'; a pre-Surak Vulcan bracelet, etc), but it was the crowd who were most interesting - was that a green variation of a Benzite sitting there, or a similar-looking alien with reused prosthetics? We get another Bolian (the man with good shoes), and it seems my observation in the last review about most Bolians being fat, was incorrect. Now that I think about it, we've often seen thin Bolians in the background, so maybe the fat ones tend to have more personality and get themselves made part of the story? Another telling observation is that Quark's Ferengi waiters are back working for him again. Are they the same ones, and couldn't find better work during his time as a non-Ferengi, or different ones? I sometimes wonder if they were somehow related, if only distantly, to Quark, since we tend to see the same faces over the course of the series (e.g: Broik).

At his lowest ebb, just when Sisko thought the day couldn't get much worse, he's informed that his favourite enemy, the Kai, is coming to visit, but the news she brings soon takes his mind off their turbulent past when she informs him that the Dominion wants Bajor to sign a nonaggression pact. It's odd that the Dominion felt it could get away with sending a massive ship to a Starfleet-run station, even if it is Bajoran-owned. Probably another tactic at driving a wedge between them and the Federation, just as Sisko says of the pact. He counsels the Kai to be wary of Weyoun and his political deviousness, and she reminds him rather matter-of-factly, that she's had her own experience in that department! Something of an understatement when you think back to her schemes with Minister Jaro in Season 2, and the wily war she waged to secure the position of Kai for herself. But, as Sisko found himself doing, this new face of Winn can help us forget who she was. It's amazing that they could do what they did with the villains over the course of the series. Just as Dukat had had his period as a good guy; helpful, Fatherly, friendly, now it's the Kai's turn to be bathed in a positive light. It began with 'Rapture' earlier in the season, when she professed belief that Sisko was the true Emissary after he goes against Starfleet understanding to plead Bajor must stand alone.

The prophecies he saw at that time have begun to reach fruition: the image of locusts passing over Bajor and heading to Cardassia came to pass, and now his urgent warning in the face of all logic, has become a way to keep the planet's options open as the sides take shape. With hindsight, the hints about the future look like massive, honking dumbbells - the locusts heading to Cardassia was 'of course' going to be the Dominion. And now we hear about theft and insecurity on the station, just like it was moments before the Cardassians were forced to abandon it, exactly what was about to happen to the Starfleet contingent! If Bajor had become a Federation member world it would have been crushed under the Jem'Hadar boot, and as Winn pointedly reminds Sisko, they're alone thanks to his guidance and even if he promised to protect Bajor he couldn't truthfully say that he'd prevent a single enemy from setting foot on the planet, or that he'd put Bajor ahead of Earth's defence.

That Winn asks for his advice, the slight incline of the head, the tiniest twitch of an eyebrow, is practically grovelling before him in comparison to her usual attitude, but it isn't the time for Sisko to feel gratified, when such momentous, galaxy-changing events are happening around him. He advises stalling, keeping the options open a little longer, as much for his own interest as Bajor's. He doesn't know what's going to happen, and neither does the Kai. We get a hint of the future feud she'd have with the Prophets when she tells Sisko she consulted an Orb, but was given no guidance from it. The Prophets probably know she's not to be trusted and it proves true in the course of time. Less important in the grand scheme of things, but thanks to Winn, we get a mention of the Andorian homeworld. She calls it Andor, something I much prefer to the other name of Andoria. The difference is that the latter follows the standard naming style of most alien worlds, while the former sounds more alien, so I always wished they'd stuck with Andor. Not that a planet can't have more than one name, it's just my preference. The other thing is when Winn remembers a shop on the Promenade run by a Bajoran woman, now gone, and I was expecting it to be Chalan Aroya (the dropped love interest for Odo who made one appearance at the end of Season 4, then vanished for ever more, and for good). I thought it might be a little in-joke about how they dropped the ball, but it turned out to be someone else.

Michael Dorn became the next cast member to take the reins of an episode as Director, following in the footsteps of Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, and Andrew Robinson, as well as members of his previous cast on 'TNG.' It's strange he waited so long to do it, as he came up with a really good episode here, though it could be said to be one of those that you'd have to try hard to ruin. Like many Directors I didn't notice his style or many of the shots he chose, being too involved in the story, but the montage sequence at the end where happiness and optimism is shown rippling through the station is such an uplifting tapestry, and has excellent use of the camera circling a person: we start behind Kira at the conclusion of her speech, then move round until we see her smiling face, then the shot changes to Worf listening to his newly calibrated Klingon opera on the bridge of the Defiant, the camera continuing to flow, circling him. I also like the way he has the camera looking down at Jake as he expounds on how good Sisko's been to Nog, as if from a high moral stance, though it must have been almost on the ceiling considering Lofton's height!

What the success of the story really comes down to is giving us one more Jake and Nog buddy story, something that had been a staple of the first two seasons, but had been lost as they got older and went in different directions. This season that style had crept back in once Nog had come back to DS9, starting with 'The Ascent' and being the B-story of 'Blaze of Glory,' though that was more about Nog than the pair of them, and though it wasn't the last time, ('Valiant,' for example), it was probably the last innocent, happy escapade, before War filled everyone's lives. The process they go through to get their hands on the card by trading things from one person to the next, is a Japanese concept for which I can't remember the term. I first learnt about it playing 'The Legend of Zelda' games, but Jake and Nog had been through the same process in Season 1, with their famous self-sealing stembolts fiasco. Fitting in with the view of them as people that have changed around completely in their lives, the role reversal continues with Jake as the one scheming and plotting, getting him and his friend in trouble, while Nog's the voice of reason, the responsible one because he's trying to protect his newfound credibility and reputation as a Starfleet Cadet on the station. It's a beautiful play on the series' history and makes all the gags funnier and the happy ending more rewarding.

*****

Zero Hour


DVD, Enterprise S3 (Zero Hour)

The horror of it is that this could have been the way 'Enterprise' ended! Not that I don't like this episode or its way of bringing the season-long Xindi mission to a close, but what about that cliffhanger ending throwing us for a loop? Even now, when I know for sure that the alien Nazi isn't actually the Reman he resembles (thanks to Larry Nemecek personally answering my question about it in 'Star Trek Magazine' - they're called the Na'kuhl), I can still acknowledge it as one of those totally surprising twists they sometimes include at the end of a Trek season. I don't understand how the NX-01 went back in time and the Xindi-Aquatic vessel that dropped them off, didn't, but perhaps it's explained at the start of Season 4? Wow, Season 4, we've almost come to it at last. But first, a word on Season 3, let's look back at this groundbreaking season in context as 'the season that saved Star Trek'. Because it did, if only for one more season - the dramatic choices and decision to stretch the format into new territory, as much as it can be accused of trying to follow the fashion of the time in season-spanning serialised TV, it succeeded in breathing vitality into a series that had threatened to be cancelled out of disinterest.

If you got interested in the race to save Earth you'd probably have watched to the end, but on the other hand it worked against the viewer if you wanted to dip in. What did happen was the ratings stabilised, and while not spectacular, history records that Archer and his crew continued into arguably their finest season after this one. I liked the Xindi arc, there were more exciting episodes, more thumping action and the series' backstory wasn't completely forgotten, but at the same time there were a number of weak stories, and the characters, particularly the three most minor roles of Phlox, Hoshi and Travis, were almost forgotten week to week. So it's a balance between a happier ship and slightly better-drawn crew, or episodes that entertained, and I will say that it beat Season 2. The middle episodes sometimes were weakest, the beginning of the season revitalised my interest, and the last few episodes achieved a reasonably satisfying wrap-up of what we all knew was going to happen: Earth being saved.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the writers had stuck to their original plan (if they had one), and continued with straight exploration. It's possible lesser-used characters would have had some episodes to themselves, it's possible that more Trek history might have been addressed, or famous guest characters reappeared. But it's also possible that they would have kept moving down the path to cancellation without a clear vision of their goal beyond creating a planet-of-the-week show. So, on the whole, I would have to say the Xindi were good for 'Enterprise.' There was no standout episode for me as there had been with the previous season's 'Regeneration,' (or several from Season 1), but it reached a higher level of drama and action, on average. This concluding part in the serial is difficult to criticise because it's what it was all leading up to and we'd already had any surprise twists or shock deaths out of the way. At the same time it does present itself as pulp sci-fi when you look at it objectively: you have the square-jawed Captain having a fistfight with a Gorn-like alien on a planet-destroying weapon about to attack our Earth. You have a destruction sequence that has to be input to stop it. You have the good guy ship doing their bit to destroy the enemy technology of the Spheres, and other aliens causing chaos there. And you have old faces showing up to help in the battle.

One of the major things is that, after a recent big battle, this one is very small. For an unknown reason, Dolim's is the only Reptilian ship to accompany the weapon. Starfleet and Earth has absolutely no defences whatsoever, even the Vulcans apparently don't have a single ship in orbit, and there are no smaller craft buzzing around Earth's atmosphere. It's almost like humans are sticking their fingers in their ears and humming loudly - even the Yosemite Research Station with its massive dishes, doesn't appear to notice the gigantic (and expected!), Xindi weapon or enemy ship, pulverised without any escape craft being launched! Surely Starfleet must have some kind of protection for the planet and would be on the alert after the Xindi prototype attacked only a few months previous! It's all to make us see that the odds are stacked against Archer, I understand that, but as I said, it makes the action smaller: if Shran can show up aboard his Andorian ship, why can't other allies of Earth?

What happens is fairly simple and doesn't much deviate from what you'd have expected once you'd seen the beginning of the season. It's often been a fundamental problem with the series that it doesn't boldly go in different or unexpected directions very much, but tends to join the dots. The dots in this case were the ensemble cast, possibly for the first time this season, acting as an ensemble - the characters, especially the minor ones, being challenged and having to overcome those challenges to make the mission work: Travis has to fly the Enterprise into the biggest anomaly field ever, Phlox has to keep the crew in one piece as they do that, and Hoshi is essential in deactivating the weapon, stamping on doubts and her own sickness to do it. Archer continues to ruthlessly manipulate his crew in an unsympathetic way: if Picard had been Hoshi's Captain, he would have comforted her and built her up with an inspirational story, and failing that would have shouted sense into her, but Archer doesn't have that kind of personality, he tends to get irritated and strut around, pushing people into their task. It isn't fair to compare Captains, but it's always going to happen, and apart from being a typical hero-mould Captain, fighting bare-handed, sacrificing himself, he doesn't get to be more than an action man.

It's something that runs through the episode (not to mention the series), but often, when you think there's going to be a moment for a character to build them up or learn about them, the scene ends. Jimmy Stewart used to say that his theory was that all acting was about creating moments. Things that stay in the memory, for whatever reason. Those moments are partially there, but not quite: there's the scene where Hoshi's in her quarters trying to live up to the Captain's wishes and tells him about their first meeting, how she wanted to impress him, and that's as far as we get. There are also Phlox and T'Pol where he's making his will and saying how his people enjoy bequeathing their possessions (it struck me how Hobbit-like the Denobulans are, as a race!), and again, it's over too quickly. Nice to have another mention of his old pen pal friend, Dr. Lucas (soon to be seen in Season 4). Aside from the characters not fully getting to express themselves (or too much in T'Pol's case), the whole storyline feels too quickly resolved, perhaps a result of two episodes being stripped away from the season's episode count, though they had plenty of time to plan for that.

Whatever the reason, this isn't the fantastic end we needed, but a pretty good end to a pretty good season. It still did the business and resolved the story and it also has time to give us what we want: Shran and Daniels. If it hadn't been for the credits at the start I wouldn't have remembered they were in this one, so a little of the surprise was spoiled. It meant I was waiting for the inevitable moment Shran was going to rush in and save the day, which he did. It was good to see him, as always, and the old transaction of favours between him and Archer is part of it again when he claims Archer now owes him! It's a thread that's run through the series, so I like it whenever they touch on it. The same for Daniels and his future-jumping appearances, reiterating how essential Archer is to the future of Earth. This time we get to see a vision of that future, just a little way ahead: no, not the forming of the Federation, I'm talking about the real end of the series where Archer makes his speech. It looks like it could be the same place and maybe even the same day that he'll do that at the end of Season 4, so a strong link there. The Federation and the coming together of various races that it signifies, is the best thing to hear about, though a bitter pill when we realise we don't get to see it played out over the course of a full series because of the cruel cancellation to come.

'Zero Hour' remains to this day the only title to begin with a 'Z,' just as the season opener, 'The Xindi' is the only one to begin with an 'X,' a small, but fitting bookend of trivia. What it's really about is Archer knocking seven bells out of the villain of the piece, Dolim. Actually he gets the bells knocked out of him in a suitably brutal fight in which we see the true physical prowess of the Xindi-Reptilian. The impressive action is the more exciting because it shows such a heavily prosthetic-laden and bulkily garbed actor doing such moves. It must have been triple claustrophobic being inside a full head piece, the enveloping skirts and that cramped set, so it's a testament to the Director and actors that they could carry off the fight so well. I didn't see why that MACO got so much screen time in his fight with another Reptilian, and felt it should have been Reed, but perhaps it was a tribute to the force that had joined this season, and to Major Hayes, who was no longer with us. Plus, Reed got to boot one in the face, so he had his screen time.

I can see why the Spheres and the Delphic Expanse they held together, had to be disbanded, but even though the people complaining about its existence because 'it wasn't mentioned in the future' are missing the point that space is so big that we might not have heard them talk of it even if it had still existed into the 24th Century. It didn't have to be disbanded in my opinion, and as it was, I didn't see why shooting some beam at that one Sphere could affect the whole Expanse! It was more like a loose end that they wanted to tie up, even though one on a massively galactic loose end - a veritable expanse of loose ends! I was much more irritated with T'Pol, and her tactile and emotional ways, which, as I forever bang on about, were bad for the portrayal of Vulcans, and must take the brunt of the blame that Vulcans in modern Trek have to be much more willing to show emotion than they used to. We do get to find out her age is almost sixty-six years old, but that doesn't make up for the weaknesses she shows.

Realistically, if Trek were to return in TV form, Season 3 of 'Enterprise' is likely the model it would follow. There would probably be less episodes, and certainly none that stood alone, and it would follow the high-threat and much action template that this series went for. That's my theory, anyway. Trek needs to be more than super-weapons and explosions, evil villains to be fought and starships to be battered, and they did attempt the greater punch of the best of Trek with episodes like 'Similitude,' but it was too little. Not too late, and the shock ending of this one proves they weren't above turning things on their heads, but there's a reason 'Enterprise' didn't catch the lightning in the bottle that the others, even up to 'Voyager,' did, and that's that they became too much about surface, and not enough about what was underneath. 'Zero Hour' showed what they could do on a TV budget in the action stakes, but little else, and while it's watchable, there's a lot less to say about its themes and story than there should be.

***

Empok Nor


DVD, DS9 S5 (Empok Nor)

Must have: suspense, action and a touch of horror. Could use: a mix of aliens, a clash of personalities. Would be nice: slick directing, highly atmospheric music, and a character-motivated story that underlines the action. (And one for the Chief: Could lose - he should have caught all the voles on DS9 and brought them to Empok Nor to release them!). This visit to the station was as productive for the audience as for O'Brien and Nog, though fortunately much safer! Saying that, thunder and sheet lightning did spark up during the most intense moments, followed by lashing rain, so it was watched in the most suitable atmosphere that could be devised, and as 'DS9' (and Trek)'s best sci-fi horror entry, it lived up to previous viewings. Not cosy or funny like 'Tribble-ations' or 'The Ascent,' nor existing to develop plot threads for the series like 'Blaze of Glory,' or making us think with rock hard sci-fi inventiveness like 'Children of Time,' this treads a different and lonely track. If you thought the familiar DS9 space station could be haunting and foreboding, full of dark corners and deep warrens, then this alternative, but almost identical location, will make you warm to it as if it were a happy hearth and home. Everything that DS9, or to be more correct, Terok Nor, is not, Empok Nor is: cold, dark, frozen and abandoned fortress of potential danger warning away the wary traveller from its house of horrors.

I don't know whether it was my knowledge of the story, or a genuine attempt to make 'unsettled' the watchword right from the opening frame, but even in the usually bustling, jolly locale of Quark's bar, there's a detachment from the usual security of the series and characters. The place is practically empty, and the Starfleet customers who walk in (the main cast's 'remember us!' scene, just like the one in the previous episode), are immediately entering a deceptive situation, Quark highly strung as he tries to keep the truth from them: an ear-splitting drilling fills the air and sends them off to the Klingon restaurant (probably doing a roaring trade now that Martok's garrison are firmly entrenched aboard, but just as likely to be as loud and discordant as the drilling if the accordion-playing host continues to be proprietor). That Quark's hiding something, and that things are not as they should be, plus the horror genre staple of quietness followed by a loud noise, sets this apart from expectations of just another 'DS9' episode. Even the camera moves differently, looming ominously into the mouth of the Jefferies Tube in which Nog and O'Brien are at work. I'd never noticed the tone being set so early, but it stood out to me that the Director and production crew were going out of their way to craft the unsettling mood that would become prevalent later. At the same time, we're still in the familiar environs of DS9, so we're distracted (if we like our trivia), by mention of the Klingon restaurant, and by Morn, who, come rain or shine, silence or noise, props up the bar!

The mood is enhanced by the decision to allow us to hear the thoughts (not literally, but what they share with each other), of the guest, or minor characters, in a 'Lower Decks' style, starting when the team are prepping aboard the Runabout, a multicultural group with human, Cardassian, Ferengi and Bolian cultures to explore. After O'Brien's welcomed Garak aboard (more on him and the way he's perceived on the series, later), they continue to converse, while Boq'ta heads to another compartment and betrays his role to us as the jittery, nervous guy (why do Bolians pop up when things get hairy? There was the Bolian Ambassador in 'The Forsaken,' the crewmember in 'The Adversary,' and now this! There might be an argument to say they were more ubiquitous than the Vulcans, on 'DS9'). The stereotypes begin to take shape, but these are real people that we get to know a little about, rather than background extras there to be killed off without a thought. On the contrary, these people are killed with plenty of thought! I like the newness of having the 'scene' that we're supposed to be watching (Garak and O'Brien), moved out of, and while it continues, the 'background' becomes the focus. It's used effectively through the episode to make the situation more creepy - literally, as we're creeping around scenes in the shadows: Garak stalks one of the Cardassians as Boq'ta and Amaro talk; Nog does his soldier thing, lugging the Phaser Rifle (that's almost as big as him), around and stealthily moving about like someone playing in Mega Zone (anyone remember that?).

Is he playing at being Mr. Starfleet Cadet, and just looks a bit childish because of his size and the way he jerks the weapon about, or is he genuinely scouting out the room? Maybe a bit of both. Don't forget, this is Nog's First Mission. Since returning to DS9 as a Cadet in 'The Ascent' he's been seen to help out various people (Dax, Worf, O'Brien), and now he's been rewarded for his attentiveness and voracious learning by getting a place on the mission to Empok Nor. A two-edged sword, as it turns out, but he won't forget the experience, that's for sure! He's greeted with derision by the smug redshirt security officers who are cocky and self-assured, over-confident thanks to all their training, but Nog has had to deal with such people before (Red Squad), but he's got the leader's permission to come into the fold. It reminds me of how Wesley was treated when he was first put in a command situation, or Data, or Deanna. Not that Nog's in command, but he's stepping out and getting noticed and that's when you start to get friction from those already in that position. Even Boq'ta, the galaxy's thinnest Bolian, doesn't rate him, and when O'Brien offers the Cadet as added protection during the mission, he turns him down, feeling safer knowing Garak's out there hunting the hunters.

There's a good mix of people in the group, and even though none of the recurring or main characters die, and it's the cliche of only the new ones who end up under a white sheet, that's the genre they're playing in, so why not do it properly. It's a credit to the writing that these one-episode, glorified bullseyes are neatly drawn and quickly get their character on the wall (literally, for the unfortunate Pechetti). There's also that impression of the sins of each person being their downfall, another common trait in horror. I should say at this juncture that I don't watch horror and don't like gore, but this is done in the best tradition of old-fashioned horror, in that it's all about suspense and frightful feelings in the pit of the stomach or chill up the neck, not unrelenting violence and stomach-churning revulsion, or mystical evil forces. It is mysterious, and another reason why it succeeds, because it keeps things in the shadows, we don't have all the answers, all we know is that our people are being hunted.

It may have been a military experiment, even worse, it may have been an experiment that went wrong and was left abandoned, but we don't know. What we do know is that the enemy are Cardassian. Also, that they're the best of the best when it comes to soldiers. I sometimes wonder if the reveal came too early, and we shouldn't have seen them in their coffin-like stasis tubes (awakening something terrible - another staple of horror). It might have been more effective not to know what was coming, but this is still in the Trek universe, so there are some constraints to be observed. They're shot in a way that presents their faces as skull-like in the deep shadows, but we also see for the first time, how a Cardassian skeleton looks, quite similar to the cover of the novel, 'DS9#13: Station Rage,' which came out a few years before.

What interests me, is that it isn't the danger they meet that's the greatest problem, it's the danger they brought with them: Garak. He's a useful fellow to have around, but as early as Season 2 we saw how maniacal he could be, given the right circumstances: observe him flying off the handle in 'The Wire,' another drug-induced rage, which shows he's got past form in the subject. But Garak as a person, always complex, had become safer in recent seasons. The last time I can remember him doing anything truly evil was when he tortured Odo for information after joining forces with Enabran Tain. Even then, at his worst, he was being accepted by whom we now (pretty much), know to be his Father, and that he gave Odo an out to tell him anything because it was so hard to watch his (pretty much), friend suffering. There have always been extenuating circumstances whenever Garak's done something during his time on the station. While he's not as affected as Quark by the grasping roots of Federation values that have turned his mind more than he might like to accept, he has become softer - we've seen a different side to him thanks to Tora Ziyal, and his friendship with Bashir. He's accepted by the station's occupants, even if he's not entirely trusted at the top (Worf has strict instructions from Sisko to keep two eyes on him when they go off to search for the survivors in 'In Purgatory's Shadow').

He actually comments how strange it is to feel that people trust him, after O'Brien expresses positive feelings about his coming on the mission. Thing is, you never really can trust him, but he's shown at various times that he can be an ally who is, not necessarily dependable, but will do whatever it takes for his goals. Fine, if your goals coexist, not so good when they deviate. His ultimate loyalty is to Cardassia, and we know he's a hard person that spins elaborate lies like clothing, but used in the right way, he is a very handy man to have on your side. A trip to the booby-trapped Cardassian station is one of those times. Without Garak the team might not even have got aboard in one piece - he's able to deactivate any immediate threat, activate the emergency power and artificial gravity (incredibly, all from the airlock!), and his knowledge of the Cardassian mind, particularly the military branch, gives him keen advantage over the deadly guard dogs left behind.

Seeing the episode now, I do note a few stray plot points that might cause the bubble of suspension of disbelief to wobble, but only slightly: why was this part for a fairly inconspicuous Jefferies Tube in Quark's, so essential that for some reason it couldn't be replicated or replaced except by an exact duplicate, which just happens to be on an abandoned station matching that description which isn't strategically important and has been left to hang in the cold emptiness of space, ready and waiting for a crack Starfleet team to go and get what they need? We haven't even heard of other stations like Terok Nor, as far as I remember! Why has this situation never cropped up before? Why was the Runabout (another unnamed variety which upsets more than usual because it's blown up and we don't know if it's one of the ones we know!), not docked when Garak was in the airlock? Did he beam over (I thought a non-Cardassian beam would set it off?), did they dock, and then undock in case something went wrong, or did he float across, a la Picard on the deflector dish in 'First Contact'? He does at least wear the most current form of EVA suit, one reason it's essential for films to be made during a TV series' run - it gives them access to more expensive props for TV, as seen throughout the nineties.

Another case of getting in: how did he manage to enter the damaged stasis tube in the Infirmary without making a sound to alert the Cardassian soldier tracking him? As for his game of Kotra, it seems an odd game when you can throw dice onto the board, knocking pieces off their positions! Does Garak really know how to play? Thing is, this is all setup, not necessary to worry about, and of course they were going to reuse the DS9 sets if they could get away with it. I happen to love Empok Nor, and was thrilled whenever they chose to go back there (twice more - 'The Magnificent Ferengi' and 'Covenant'). The ability of the lighting and directing to turn an alien space station that had become so familiar into a desperately dismal death trap, full of deep, dark corners, indistinct shapes, familiar, yet different surroundings, all unsettling us, is astounding in its simplicity: turn off the lights.

If people complained 'Voyager' was too visually dark compared with 'TNG,' show them 'DS9.' If they complain about 'DS9,' show them 'Empok Nor' - it doesn't get much darker than this! And yet it isn't pitch black, due to the extreme contrast of the lighting. It really feels like a group of intrepid explorers are heading into an ancient tomb or a Russian base (more familiar horror concepts), taking only their own equipment to provide the light and heat they need to survive. The biggest change from the norm is the reliance on torchlight to amp up the mood. People levering doors open and flashing their Phaser Rifle's built-in lamp around is atmospheric to say the least. The light also stands for something: authority. Look how Amaro threatens Garak when he makes to go off alone, before the Chief's given permission. It's an arrow pointing to the deviance from orders. Garak chooses to slink around in the dark to accomplish his deeds, as do the enemy Cardassians. When Amaro puts down his weapon and its torch he becomes vulnerable. All the bravado and fight goes out of him as he finds himself confronted by the enemy, defenceless and weak. The 'mystery shot' comes and he's nervy and penitent about letting Boq'ta down and failing in his duty of protection, a far cry from the cool, relaxed security man who makes jokes about the danger ahead of them.

Similarly, Boq'ta is fine until he loses his fear. Once he knows Garak's out there, he relaxes and chatters away to his protector, getting them both killed because he couldn't be bothered to get out of the workspace and fetch his own tool. Stolzoff isn't quite as headstrong and overconfident as her partner, but she still dies for it. If she'd called for backup as soon at the first sign of the enemy, perhaps she and Pechetti might have lived. His death is the most telling in the 'sin' stakes: he has a collecting obsession for military insignia, and though the Chief makes it clear they won't be indulging his habit, his professionalism is lost when the collector takes over at spying a particularly fine example. Is this a statement on the 'Trekker' penchant for collecting memorabilia, or just another horror tip of the hat? I think it's interesting that a Starfleet person could be shown to be a collector, because as we know, in the future of 'Star Trek,' while people still value material things, especially of great value (books), they don't tend to have a lot of anything, at least the ones in Starfleet don't. Robert Picardo wanted to make collecting a trait of the Doctor he played, and Weyoun was going to become known as a hoarder after his time on DS9, collecting up ephemera of all kinds, but neither of these story lines came to be, showing how rare a collector is in Trek lore (usually bad - see 'The Most Toys' in 'TNG,' and the evil collector Kivas Fajo).

Nog doesn't display any faults, he's a pawn in what becomes a life and death game between Garak and O'Brien. The Cardassian loves to pit his wits against opponents of equal or greater ability than himself, most commonly, as many of his race do, in conversational debate. I wonder what kind of fencing match of a conversation would have ensued between Eddington and Garak, had there ever been a chance! His tendencies are amplified by the psychotropic drug he comes into contact with (looks like chewing gum - yuk, those filthy Cardassians!), which is fortunate in that he doesn't just assassinate Nog and the Chief, but wants to savour every move. O'Brien may well have been a soldier, but that was a number of years ago, and as we've seen in the occasional episode ('Rivals' springballs to mind), he's not the fittest member of the station. Garak, on the other fist, keeps himself sharp, be that in technical skills or physical prowess (he lifts the girder off the stasis tube with ease), though he already had an advantage in that regard, since most aliens (especially the scaly or bony varieties), tend to be superior compared with puny humans, ugly bags of mostly water. He'd taken on Worf at the end of Season 4, and though the Klingon was only momentarily taken by surprise, it's an example of the ambition to test himself against others, that Garak has. O'Brien didn't stand much of a chance in the boxing ring, though it's still somehow thrilling to see him raise hands in a martial stance, just as Garak does, because one's an engineer, and one's a clothier, so we don't see them fight much!

The theme that runs through this one is O'Brien's assertion that he's an engineer, not a soldier (a bit like the classic doctors' lines about being a doctor, not a… whatever), he uses his brain more than his brawn, so 'X' marks the spot with the use of the Phaser and Tricorder bomb which knocks out Garak, but could have killed him. There are some good extrapolation of technology that's been around since Trek began: Phasers as bombs aren't a new thing, but activating something using the combadge, as O'Brien does to detonate the bomb, or making a non-verbal signal to Nog, is great use of such long-established tech. I wish they'd used such ideas more. The combadge is also given dramatic purpose to increase the tension, when Garak chooses to put one not on his chest, its traditional place of residence, but on his wrist, so he can whisper ferociously into it (unless he was trying to recreate the wrist-communicators of 'The Motion Picture,' missing those heady days of vast sentient clouds and dull uniforms).

This being the first time I'd seen the episode in the crisp format of DVD, I wondered if the strings holding up the floating debris to simulate the lack of gravity, would be visible, but it was too dark for that! I imagine when the inevitable Blu-Ray makes an appearance it won't make much difference to the picture because of the intense lights and darks. At the same time it's not too dark to be grainy as you sometimes get on older TV series (I think of 'The Siege of AR-558,' but I'm not sure if it was that way on DVD, or just video). Sound is the most effective generator of atmosphere, and both effects and music were played to perfection. That urgent thump-thump-thump, followed by violin or quietness, is still one of the most memorable pieces of music from the series. You even get the hints of the character's past when O'Brien finally accepts his role as soldier and the beat of military drums is heard. The backbone on which the suspense of the story rests is the history of O'Brien, his time as a soldier on Setlik III, something Garak initially gets under his skin with, but becomes the motivation for the concluding battle. I don't think Garak's angry at Cardassians being killed, he's offed plenty in his time, and been proud of it too, it's much more about testing himself, more than at any other time of his life, because he's stuck living among aliens, no matter how nice (and he doesn't like 'nice' anyway), so to have the chance to let out those pent-up feelings that he's grown around from a young boy, like a twisting trunk around a bent prop, is a release.

He might have used the racism against his people as an excuse if he'd wanted to, and it could be a reason why he kills Amaro, but in the end it was the drug talking, and he purely enjoyed the thrill of killing. The moment he shoves the flux coupler into the security officer is probably the most shocking moment - it's not strange to see a redshirt killed, but not one we've actually got to know, and in cold blood, by an ally! The actual racist slur (spoonhead), occurs in background dialogue as he's telling Boq'ta about Stolzoff, and wasn't meant to be heard, though it already had been used by a member of the Bajoran Resistance of the past (in 'Things Past'). Technically, it was an accurate description since Makeup Designer Michael Westmore was inspired to create the Cardassian look by the fashion poster of a woman with a spoon in the centre of her forehead! Actually, Garak uses some slang when talking about his own people, describing them as 'Cardies' in probably the only time a member of his race called themselves that (though he was making a point about soldiers wanting to kill the 'Cardies' so he wasn't directly calling them that from his own point of view).

It's a shame the episode is so short. No shorter than the usual running time, but it could easily have been film-length, and for once comes to an end quicker than expected thanks to the tension being so effectively bunched up. The ending follows in a line of Trek endings, especially on 'DS9' where two people who've been through a terrible experience have a halting conversation (I suppose the equivalent in 'Voyager' would be whenever Janeway dresses down one of her people), like Odo and Kira after either 'Necessary Evil,' 'Things Past,' or 'Children of Time.' Or Odo and Quark reiterating that they still hate each other after 'The Ascent.' It's a sort of patching up moment, or a time to show where they stand, and it happens between O'Brien and Garak in this one. I think they've both gained a new level of respect and understanding of the other, but it was such an awful thing to go through that it's hard to talk about. It was important that such scenes were allowed screen time, and the series was good at clearing the air instead of jumping right into the next episode or pressing the reset button. The whole experience was a useful reminder not to take Garak for granted, and for him it was a warning that his own nature could cause chaos if he lost control. I don't believe we ever see that level of dangerous spy again in him (though he does his share of necessary evil in 'In The Pale Moonlight'). It had a sobering effect, remaining a standalone episode, but also delving into who these people are or could be, a frightening mirror of respectability, shattered. Oh, that sounds like another familiar horror concept.

*****

Blaze of Glory


DVD, DS9 S5 (Blaze of Glory)


With so much happening and so much still to happen, they made a wise decision to complete a storyline at this time in the series and season. This is the third act in the trilogy of Michael Eddington's betrayal (the third act in season terms, too, as he first appeared in Season 3, was in 4 and dies in 5, a nice middle series arc), concluding both his personal story and the greater issue of the Maquis, both handled in a dramatic, but satisfying way, that gives the character the bold ending he'd always looked for, if not the same for the organisation he led. The Maquis weren't well served on any of the three series' they appeared on, if you count those late Season 7 episodes of 'TNG' which laid the groundwork for the rebel group. On 'Voyager,' the series they were created for, they quickly faded into the background, only occasionally allowed out for a story when it was felt necessary. 'DS9' undoubtedly served the Maquis better, from its inception in Season 2 ('The Maquis'), the background threat of their terrorist activities running through the third, fourth and fifth seasons, adding to the paranoia level generated by the Dominion, the Klingons going crazy, and the political machinations around Cardassia. Compared to these big boys they were a minor spoke in the wheel, but they weren't forgotten, even if they remained small fry.

The Maquis became Eddington, the two story elements intertwined as one, once he shocked the characters and audience by turning against Starfleet. How long was he a member of the Maquis, and when did he become their main leader? Clearly, being a Lieutenant Commander when he came to the station with the Defiant at the beginning of Season 3, he must have been in Starfleet for a number of years, and the Maquis only formed during Season 2. Whether his sympathies with the Maquis came about during his tenure at DS9, or if that posting was something he'd volunteered for once becoming a sympathiser, is not possible to know, but I like to think that his longterm plan, right from the moment he stepped aboard the station, was to be the inside man for the Maquis. They never made it clear why he chose to work for this organisation, except that he believed in the cause to his death, but we never learn about his family or him having friends in the Maquis that influenced his decision. By all evidence it seems he just made a choice based on what he felt was right, and on that basis I think he'd have made an excellent Starfleet Captain, had this situation never occurred.

He had the leadership qualities, he was ambitious, and he was diligent in his duty. Looking back on this recent re-watch of the series, I'm surprised how few episodes he was actually in, and in how few of those he played a significant role. In 'For The Uniform' Dax and Sisko work out his psychology, the reasons he's motivated, and they realise that he has something of a hero complex - he wants to lead people in daring acts of courage and heroism for a righteous cause, and maybe that took over his being too much. He seemed much more level-headed and professional as a Starfleet officer, and once he's stripped his cover away, he becomes much more of a buccaneer. That is, until Sisko plays dirty and forces him to be true to his convictions and give himself up. But that wasn't the end we needed for the character, he deserved more, Kenneth Marshall deserved more, and so we got this third part of the story to round things off, to deal with the issues that remained unspoken between him and Sisko, the verbal sparring partners got their time to talk.

It's a different dynamic here than it ever was before. While undercover as a Starfleet officer, he and Sisko didn't always see eye to eye, mainly because Eddington was a stickler for the rules and regulations that govern Starfleet, whereas Sisko saw the need to bend or break them in the field. Then when Eddington broke away, Sisko took the betrayal hard and personally. That was cleared up by beating the man at his own game and finally capturing him as he'd vowed to do, so there isn't any anger or fuel of animosity left from Sisko's perspective, and Eddington never hated his commander, he just wanted another rational man to see things his way, to understand that what the Federation did to the Maquis was wrong. I don't think Sisko would wholeheartedly dispute that - bad things had happened in the Demilitarised Zone. The difference between them was that Sisko, this time, was all about keeping the rules, and Eddington wanted to break them, as being null and void from an organisation that had abandoned its people. The great tragedy is, that if only the Maquis had read the situation with Cardassia and the Dominion, they might have seen sense to seek some kind of protection from Starfleet because the treaty of the DMZ was under threat, since Cardassia was building itself up. But Starfleet was never going to sympathise with terrorists.

Eddington cries out that the Maquis were about to declare themselves as an independent state which would have put a new spin on their relations with their neighbours, but it was all pie in the sky, a dream for him and his followers, that they'd be able to go about their business as legitimate citizens of a new state, even if the Jem'Hadar hadn't ruthlessly hunted down the last of the Maquis and wiped them out. It's the first we've heard of it - Cardassia had issued a proclamation previously that all Klingons and Maquis in their space would be wiped out, and with the Dominion's muscle to back them up, they carried out their threat. The Maquis were swept away like nothing, a sad end to a valiant, if misguided people. I can never really decide whether the Maquis were right or wrong to fight authority. If they'd allowed the Federation to find them new worlds and built up their lives from scratch (as much a challenge to rise to as the fight against domination), they could have survived and reached that goal of independence. Maybe they could have one day built up to the level where they went back and reclaimed those worlds from the Cardassians again. There's always the thought that even if they had cooperated with the Federation, they might have been casualties in the coming Dominion War, but they would at least have had the protection of Starfleet and its allies instead of being the first step, the cleaning house period for the Dominion's attempt to take over the Alpha Quadrant.

Right or wrong, the Maquis were an interesting diversion and a different path to go down for Trek, and though they weren't used enough, and never really got beyond a minor annoyance to the area, and the cause of difficulties between the Federation and the Cardassians, I liked the added complexity they brought to the Trek universe. The way they were mercilessly cut down added to their qualities and made them tragic figures, embodied most strongly in Michael Eddington. I don't see him as their main leader, at first, he probably rose to prominence in Season 4 through carrying off such an audacious plan as stealing industrial Replicators and making Sisko his personal enemy. And as we hear, Cal Hudson, one of the most important leaders, and great friend and betrayer of Sisko, had died. This was the beginning of Sisko's personal feud with the Maquis, I believe, and the reason he took it so hard when Eddington proved traitor. But we mustn't forget Kasidy Yates' small part, another deeply personal attack for Sisko, all adding to the anger he felt towards the rebels. Even then, he wouldn't have wanted the Maquis to have been annihilated, just to be able to meet justice.

Once the genocide of the Maquis had begun, Eddington, although in prison, would have taken on even greater importance. In his own way, he was safer than any of them, tucked up in a Federation prison cell, where, as we know, and as he laments here, it's a constant round of psychological evaluation, counselling and rehabilitation (as seen with Deanna Troi and Tom Paris, to name but two examples from different sides of the equation). It's interesting to hear about attitudes to criminality from the 24th Century human's perspective, because we'd already been told that there's no crime on Earth, and humans tend not to be involved in shady business in this 'enlightened' future. But we also see that it's not the case, and while Eddington and his merry men aren't mass murderers, so that the threat to Quadrant security isn't marred by the fictional warheads heading for Cardassia, they certainly have turned their backs on the laws of their people in defence of what they consider a good and righteous cause. In 'TOS' we saw occasional examples of the deviants of society, and they generally turned out to be mad or damaged in some way, considered patients to be cured. Eddington could never fall into such a simplistic view, which is why 'DS9' is more real than most of the other series'.

Eddington had become the only strong leader left, once the remnants of the Maquis have fled to their secret base - I think they were denoted as being the last remaining leaders, which was why the Jem'Hadar had separated them and held them prisoner while killing everyone else on the base. Eddington plays a devious game, manipulating Sisko even now. You know what they say, 'once bitten, twice shy,' and 'fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me' - Sisko should have known better, but he was preoccupied with an imagined threat of a powder keg to war being exploded, to realise. His last episode shows Eddington in the best light, and at his best. He's got the same battering vocal attacks on the Federation, the same personality of a leader, and the strong convictions of his beliefs, but he's a captive. He plays Sisko like an instrument, just as Sisko, to a lesser extent, plays him: when the Jem'Hadar are on their tail in the Badlands, he gets a Raktajino and puts his feet up, waiting for Eddington to take the helm and get them to safety and the secret base. While we later find out that Eddington wanted to get to the base, his surprise at Sisko's actions in the face of extreme danger is genuine. The only other time in the whole episode that he wasn't playing a role was when he finds the Jem'Hadar got to the base already, and even more so when he's horrified to find his people have been slaughtered.

This moment is the most real we ever see of the man, when he's brought to reality with a bang, fervently wishing he'd been there to lead them, even though they probably would have died anyway. It's then that he lets out the major revelation that the Maquis had planned to become a state of their own, and felt they'd almost beaten Cardassia, its government in disarray, and it's then that he flashes his eyes angrily at Sisko, threatening to kill the man, just as he had in cold blood on the Runabout (Sisko surviving, just as he did the Jem'Hadar, Omet'iklan's, threat in 'To The Death'). I don't think he'd ever have done it. It's just a hunch, but he's too good a man in his own eyes - that's why he was willing to give himself up to prevent Sisko the 'madman' from ruining more Maquis planets in 'For The Uniform,' but we see his anguish in that sudden desire to get some revenge from the nearest source available. Even at that point he knows Rebecca and the others are depending on him, or he's hoping they're still alive, so he can rescue them, and he needs Sisko's help.

The underlying tension runs through the episode of whether he might take any advantage to do Sisko in. He certainly has his opportunities, such as when Sisko has to fiddle about in a Jeffries Tube with a delicate operation, while Eddington remains at the controls keeping the ship steady. When he does't hear from Sisko you can see he thinks he's dead, but he doesn't grin with pleasure or get excited, he begins to sit back as if pondering the implications. Until Sisko jerks him out of the chair with force! There's also the fight with the Jem'Hadar - Sisko's not in his bear-like, Hulk-out rage mode, so he doesn't do so well against the large opponent (even using the Kirk tactic of pipe beating!). He needs to get his blood pumping and the anger coursing through his veins to take on the Jem'Hadar (see 'The Search'!), but again, Eddington blows the Jem'Hadar away, not Sisko. The Captain stays remarkably calm throughout the episode, keeping a lid on his irritations, for the most part, even though Eddington tries to get under his skin, because he thinks the stakes are so incredibly high. Once he realises he's been manipulated again, that's when he boils over: never stand too close to Sisko, especially when he changes moods so suddenly, or you end up like Eddington, punched over a table! The same happened to Mirror Bashir, but that time Sisko was playing a role, and this time it's for real!

We find out more about Eddington than in any other episode: the main thing being that he'd only married a couple of weeks before Sisko captured him, that he's Canadian, or his ancestors were - I so expected the episode to end with Sisko holding the 'lucky looney' coin up to the light, having collected it from the Assay Office, but that would have been too cliched, I suppose, Sisko also already having his own personal symbol in the baseball, and they didn't like to do what was expected a lot of the time, so instead, Sisko just gazes out of the window. We also find that he and Sisko have more in common than we thought, when Eddington talks about how he enjoys growing real food. It could be a comment on the future of Trek in general, that they drink synthetic drinks, they eat synthetic foods, they take part in synthetic entertainment in the Holosuite… It would be, if we didn't know they also seek out new life and worlds, explore the galaxy and take part in very real adventures - they need the 'soft' essentials to stay healthy and as a counterpoint to the exciting lives they lead, plus they're so much more conscious about environmental issues and making sure everyone's fed, so why would they be against technology?

The Maquis aren't against technology either, but they still have these ideas of food only being real if it's grown, something Sisko tends to agree with, since he loves to be a chef, in this very episode making his son eat tube grub sauce - his Father would wholeheartedly agree with Eddington on the subject of food, not that he'd admit common traits with, or too, the man. Their respect for Cal is something else they share in common, we see how deeply the news of his death hits Sisko, another diversion to distract him from seeing through Eddington's ruse. It was so good to tidy up that loose end, although I would have liked the fate of Thomas Riker, Maquis member, and last seen heading for a Cardassian prison, to have been similarly sorted out. I see Eddington as being similar to Dukat, though a more noble man than the harsh Cardassian - if they'd grown up in the same race you could have said they were brothers. Both appear to have grand delusions in the way they see people and themselves, especially Sisko, and though I don't think Eddington ever thought of Sisko as his friend, he did want to gain his adversary's respect and understanding, I think. Dukat was far more deluded and egotistical, where Eddington was selfless and all about the cause.

Between both men and Sisko there's a bit of a macho thing going on, and both seek to meet him on a mental level as much as a physical one. Sisko gets fed up with all the talk and his presence is pushed to maximum confrontation, but it's only in front of others that Eddington cares to defend his pride, probably feeling that Sisko's stepped over a line and damaged his position as respected leader when he strikes him in front of the others, and no leader wants to seem weak with their followers watching. In the end, Eddington is shown not to be weak at all, but to be very strong, giving his life in defence of his wife and the remnants of his band. I'd forgotten how powerful his short death is, the way he shouts out orders to nobody in one last desperate gambit of deception to make the Jem'Hadar think they're dealing with a group of enemies instead of just a lone gunman. Eddington was a pirate, a cowboy, a daring leader, but most of all, he practiced what he preached and died for it, his last thought for his wife. There's no reason why Rebecca Sullivan should trust Sisko since he went out of his way to hunt down her husband and damage the Maquis' planets - she might think Sisko had killed Eddington himself, except that she knew her husband, and staying behind in a valiant rearguard action to secure the escape of his people, was exactly what he'd do.

I wonder what happened to those people - did Rebecca and the others go to prison? If they did, I'm sure it wasn't for long, as Kasidy was let out after only a few months, and leniency must have been shown to a beaten people. It could have made a good story for the remnant one day to return and try to take their worlds back, perhaps Rebecca was pregnant and her child could have led a revolution with the martyr spirit of its Father, years later? We can but dream. I also wonder if any of them knew Chakotay, B'Elanna, or the other Voyager Maquis members, and I like that Sisko wonders if there could still be some of them out there, like a direct pointer to 'Voyager.' The missiles made me think of an episode from that series: 'Dreadnought,' another Maquis plot. It also makes the situation of the Delta Quadrant ship more tragic since it holds the last of the organisation, though they wouldn't learn it for about a season. It makes their plight even more isolated that even what they fought for is no longer there for them to return to.

It was useful to have that coda at the end, where Dax and Ben talk about Eddington and the Maquis and try to make sense of it all, just as she was his confidant in 'For The Uniform' when they were trying to pin down the man. The 'old man' friendship they have, hadn't been forgotten through the series, and was always something for Sisko to rely on at his most difficult times. They talk about him and Eddington perhaps being more like each other than Sisko thought, something he couldn't have contemplated back when the man was his personal nemesis. Death can do that, smooth over the cracks of personality and see the good in people. Not only for Michael Eddington is this a sad time, but for Kenneth Marshall, an actor I'd place alongside some of the best names (Jeff Combs, Tony Todd, Marc Alaimo, etc), of Trek guest actors who should have been main cast members. He didn't come back as any other character, having made such an indelible mark in a non-prosthetic role, and actually hadn't been given as much to play with as we think - the antagonism with Odo never went far, (unlike the two appearances of George Primmin in Season 1!), very quickly settling into mutual respect for their attention to duty and diligent work ethic, because Eddington was so by the book. Marshall should have come back as an alien on 'Voyager' or 'Enterprise,' and even now he'd be on my list as a cast member for a potential spinoff, though he'd have to play the old man role these days.

In a fairly talky episode there's a lot to pick up on, whether that is all the new details we learn about the Maquis, such as their destruction, their preparation for independence, or that the Klingons had a brief alliance with them when they were fighting against the Cardassians (a revealing and justifiable way to set up the possibility of cloaked warheads on their way to attack Cardassia, just like real world events such as the search for WMDs or the threat of minor nations having nuclear strike capabilities), but as well as all the talk, there are observations to make as well: watch the way Eddington and Sisko plonk their trays of food onto the touch sensitive consoles of the, (yet again, unnamed) Runabout, for example. It doesn't activate the controls because they must be context-sensitive, just like modern touchpads, and probably touchscreen tablets, although I wouldn't know, as I don't own one! It's a simple extrapolation, but it makes sense for the technology, and shows they thought of such things.

I would question why they didn't vaporise the Jem'Hadar bodies at the base, instead of flinging them down a well, but it may be they wanted to conserve phaser power or not make more noise to alert others. The other thing with the Jem'Hadar is the way they use their camouflage shields this time. In all previous encounters I believe they were moving when they burst into visibility, but here they stand stock still, only revealed by Sisko's sweep of energy blasts. We've never been told what powers that cool ability, whether it's a natural (or engineered) skill, or technology in their uniforms. I thought it might have something to do with the ketracel white, otherwise they'd do it all the time if there was limitless power. It was also good to return once more to the area so much associated with the Maquis: the Badlands, looking better than ever in fiery orange and yellow colours, setting off those purple Jem'Hadar ships beautifully (and literally when they do the old trick of setting fire to vented  exhaust, something usually reserved for nebulas). I liked that they actually used the geography of the area, by swinging round one of those distinctive columns of fire to throw off pursuit. I don't remember ever seeing someone caught in a Jefferies Tube during an attack before, either, so Sisko being rolled around in such a tight, enclosed space was another spin on the old 'shaking for the camera' famous Trek move.

As for the B-story of Nog's bold decision to gain the respect of the Klingons on the station, it's a typically well done second leg to the story, and wonderfully, a rare Jake and Nog adventure, though Jake's there for moral support more than anything else. It's something that was set up in 'Soldiers of The Empire' so I'm glad they took it further. They also took it further in the episode, which could have ended when Nog's succeeded and Jake congratulates him, but they give us that extra boost of Martok actually acknowledging Nog as he steps off the Turbolift, as the icing on the cake! The Morn scene, on the other hand, has nothing to do with either storyline, except as an excuse to squeeze in the other regulars in what is a Captain-heavy episode. That Morn's panic-stricken, nude rampage happens offscreen, only enhances it in our imagination. Why was he naked, did he rip off his clothes in panic? Maybe it's a Lurian survival tactic they use when threatened, to move more quickly when not encumbered by those thick, bulky clothes. Or it could have been an act of supplication to the Prophets, since he did end up at the Bajoran Temple! We'll never know…

*****

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Nightwalkers


DVD, Stargate SG-1 S6 (Nightwalkers)

It's weird, and I'm not talking about zombie-like townspeople, but the way Colonel O'Neill isn't in this episode one bit. Not as flashback, voice on radio, cheap jibe at the end: nothing. Was he too ill, taking a break or just written out so the others could have more exposure? Because the last episode left him in critical condition with a symbiont inside him, and they say the Tok'ra are still looking for a new host for that symbiont to go to. I don't know, and I don't remember it ever happening before, but it certainly didn't harm the episode. This was one of the occasional Earth-based stories where they deal with NID or other government bodies, the stories that are a breath of fresh air, but can be a bit drab - I doubt anyone watches the series to see these 'real life' politics or grounded adventures, but they can add a little spice to the regular mix of alien planets or base-bound trouble, so I can't say I'm against them. Often they're just an excuse for the actors to wear civilian clothing, have a laugh at an alien trying to fit in with human culture and do more typical action fare, but this is one of the better examples of the sub-genre.

This time there are more aliens than humans, with Carter taking Jonas and Teal'c with her on the mission to find out what happened to a famous scientist who contacts her in the small hours, then dies mid-call. There isn't a lot of laughing at the aliens and their misunderstanding of ordinary human life, in fact there's a nice little conversation between Jonas and Teal'c in which the latter claims to be better acquainted with human behaviour than his SG-1 comrade, and they even discuss what they might do when their time as part of the SGC eventually comes to an end - Teal'c happy to return to Chulak, though poor Jonas admits he can't go back to his home planet. I wonder if this was inserted as the beginning of thinking about the series coming to its natural conclusion? Since most sci-fi TV series' don't last more than 5-7 seasons, they probably felt there wasn't much more to go, but in truth they were only just over the halfway line, which is a good thought.

One thing that works well here is how Jonas is used and comes across. Okay, maybe he's not used particularly for a specific plot device (as he was when first introduced), but he's fun and funny with that easygoing attitude and his habit of constantly eating various kinds of food. So he's much more likeable than in some previous episodes, mainly because he's not bursting to try too hard to impress and being written in a more traditional, understated 'Stargate' way. The opening where we're given a recap of who Adrian Conrad was, and the stuff about his symbiont is given to us in a clever way - Jonas claims not to know the details so has it explained to him, then admits he knew it all, just didn't want to seem strange, previously having knowledge of almost every detail to do with the Stargate that he could get his hands on (kind of like an obsessive and intelligent fan that's suddenly found himself working in the object of his fandom). That oddness, while not wanting to appear odd is very much what you might expect a visitor from another planet to exhibit. He's quirky, without being irritating, and now I begin to remember why I liked him. He's also shown to have Jason Bourne awareness levels when it comes to people and what they're doing, which is impressive and helps the team no end.

What are the people doing, though? It's not a bad little mystery, and I like the way it begins with the three of them kind of going into the Matrix in the way they're heading into unfamiliar territory where the people don't know about the 'real world' of their true reality that aliens are all around in the galaxy and Earth is very much part of intergalactic affairs, in a small way. The Matrix analogy first came to mind, unsurprisingly, from the clothing SG-1 opt to go out in: smart, black clothes aren't going to look out of place in small town America at all… Teal'c looks just like Morpheus in that long, black leather coat, making Carter Trinity (no shiny leather for her, though), and Jonas… Neo? The analogy breaks down there, but it was fun to see them like that. As we discover, the people aren't as unaware of aliens as we initially thought, the fact being that they are all aliens, or at least, all have immature Goa'uld symbionts in them! A good twist, and much better than the initial suggestion that this was going to be some kind of hick cult with that Messiah-like bearded figure addressing the crowd in the barn.

It's all to do with cloning, the company set up by Conrad able to clone his symbiont, whom were building a ship to escape the planet. It gets more complex when members of NID reveal themselves, and want SG-1 out of town because their plan is to let the townspeople complete the ship, then move in and take it for use in the planet's defence. Is this the origins of the 'Star Trek'-style starship that eventually gets built? Talking of cloning, Peter DeLuise, the Director (and Co-Producer) , gets his face onscreen as another character, after already showing up in 'Descent' a couple of episodes ago, this time as an extra walking out of a cafe. The camera follows him a little bit which is why he stuck out to me! The reason I quite enjoyed this story is simply that it's well-lit, simply done, has the occasional surprise, and good little moments for each of the cast. Yes, the scene where Carter's hotel room is advanced upon by a herd of Goa'uld townspeople could have been scarier if filmed differently (and did she need to be so obvious at the lighted window when watching them?), and the lockdown of the town looks cool, but a bit ludicrous, the way all these black-suited riot soldiers run down the street in a long line, flashing their torches, meaning there was no point in the earlier creeping around. But none of that matters in a pleasing and creepy jaunt for some good characters. And I agree with Carter: sending yourself something in the post is an excellent way to hide something for a couple of days!

***

Countdown


DVD, Enterprise S3 (Countdown)

I expect it was always the plan: introduce a strong recurring character who could inject some conflict among the main cast, make him a likeable person, ernest in doing his duty and part of a code that he keeps to diligently. And then kill him off. I'm talking about Major Hayes, who bites the phaser blast in this episode, right before the end of the season, just like Lieutenant Carey in 'Voyager'! I was surprised the first time round, quite a shock that they'd let him be killed off, and though I knew about it this time around, I was surprised in a different way. He does go out semi-heroically, making himself last to be beamed back to Enterprise, but it also makes him look a little bit stupid in the way he gets caught: he walks round a corner, right into a Xindi-Reptilian, and before he's even got time to tackle the creature or shoot off his own weapon, he's been shot through the heart. The production of that particular bit lessened the moment because of the cramped little corridors aboard this massive weapon, a tiny little firefight with the usual pew-pewing sound of energy bolts all making it seem a bit weak. What was interesting about the way Hayes is killed is that he's seen to be shot while in transport, something which pretty much never happens - usually as soon as the beam starts to dematerialise, weapons fire goes right through (as happened to Worf in 'By Inferno's Light' on 'DS9'). Not saying it's a mistake, as this is 22nd Century technology, but it was an interesting effect, and sad that Hayes couldn't have gone out in a 'bigger' way, rather than as a glorified redshirt.

At least he was allowed the dignity of patching things up with Reed, initially disappointed that his man Hawkins didn't make it back from the mission to the Sphere. The important legacy he leaves is his conversation with Malcolm where he says that the MACOs now feel that they're all part of the same crew. I can't help but feel that we could have seen that transition from rivalry to cooperative respect better illustrated over the course of the season. It was bound up in the brinkmanship between Reed and Hayes, the underlying distrust and tension between them (Reed, admittedly being the main problem, feeling his toes were being stepped on), and that had been resolved in recent episodes after they'd let off steam in the fight and come to an understanding, finally crystallised in this episode. That's what Archer's decisions were all about at the start of the season: he brought the MACOs aboard knowing they might cause friction; he walked the very line of his moral compass; he even stepped over; here, he moves Hoshi against Phlox' wishes, but all, all in defence of his singular goal, his one purpose, to prevent the annihilation of Earth.

He managed to pull back some of that resolve that would later become standard operating procedure for the Starfleet and the Federation to come, in making allies where he could and using diplomatic means if possible, but at pretty much any cost he was going to stop the Xindi… and he almost has. I say almost because there's still one episode left to go, yet he, Trip and T'Pol were acting like it's a done deal. Admittedly, I like hearing them discuss the potential future and what it may hold, Archer looking forward to returning to their exploratory mission (the danger being that it could seem a little meaningless compared with the urgent mission they've been on for eight months), T'Pol considering officially joining Starfleet. She really should have, and worn the standard Starfleet uniform instead of her 'no reason, but for ratings' catsuits! It was too early for them to be dreaming of a future when the weapon is still out there, Hoshi might even have still been captive then, too. It wasn't a fault in the episode, I liked the scene, but it was a strangely calm moment in another action-oriented episode.

What did seem a mistake was the way in which Trip and T'Pol somehow come up with a plan to interfere with a Sphere, just by sitting in a room and arguing. T'Pol's emotional attitude continues to deeply irritate and I didn't think Jolene Blalock did a good job in this story, many of her lines coming out so woodenly (such as when she sees off Archer with Trip standing next to her). I don't know whether she was playing someone who was struggling to be in control, or someone who was, or was just tired, but I didn't relish most of her scenes. Hoshi, on the other hand, gets an integral role for once, as a prisoner of Dolim and the other Reptilians. Again, I felt her performance was slightly over the top when she's shouting at the Xindi, but apart from that, she was fine, even getting a heroic moment where she attempts to throw herself over a barrier into a chute in the middle of the weapon. If only this had been done in a way that showed her intent clearly, maybe if we could have seen in her eyes what she's going to do and thrill to the self-sacrificial action she was about to take. Then when one of the Xindi stops her it would have had the double impact of the last-ditch act itself, and the foiling of it to the Reptilians' advantage. They note how surprisingly strong-willed she is, and it's true - it is a surprise. Like the MACOs suddenly getting along fine, Hoshi's transition from scaredy-cat to confident translator could have been better narrated through the series, but that wasn't a fault of this episode, it had happened back in Season One or Two.

Why is it that all evil super-bases, especially the ones in space, have to have a deep shaft in their control room, ripe for falling into (and why did they have to use the gravity orientation gym equipment previously seen on the series as the holder for the mini-ball inside the control room?!)? The Xindi weapon is just like the Death Star in that regard, and not that only! The whole CGI sequence where the NX-01 shows up in the belly of an Aquatic ship and valiantly goes in all phasers phasering, was very much a tribute to the attack on the Death Star in the 'Star Wars' films - the look of the thing was different, it was like a cross between that huge, planet-destroying flying weapon, and a Borg Sphere. It was all very well done with some excellent battle sequences, and the CG Aquatics looked as good as ever. It was too convenient that they'd managed to come up with a translation system for humans in the very next episode after Archer needed Hoshi to do that job for him, since Hoshi wasn't available any more. In the grand scheme it's only a minor point, and the robotic voices were well realised. Another thing that was well realised was Degra's friend, Jannar, taking the dead man's place as Archer's Xindi confidant, talking of the future after the weapon has been destroyed. He was always one to be questioning the humans in a loud, aggressive way, but Degra's death has helped him come to terms with reason, so it shows that there is hope for a friendship between the Xindi and Earth, despite Degra's death.

The Reptilians, on the other claw, show their dastardly nature, including executing an Insectoid ship that shows doubts about their course of action - like Archer, Dolim is dedicated to his cause at any cost. At first, Dolim actually expresses suspicion of the Guardian that comes to him, for not getting the access code to the weapon (the reason they've got Hoshi on mental parasites - anything like Ceti Alpha Eels, by any chance? No ear related horror this time, though!). She claims the Guardians can't get such individual details, and this almost gives pause for thought - will Dolim turn to the good side and fight the Guardians? No, it turns out it was just his usual bad-tempered way, and despite that early sign of resistance to his paymasters, his faith is restored when anomalies sent from a nearby Sphere mean the weapon can escape the battle. What Enterprise had found out, though, is that there are four Spheres that likely control all the others, and, whaddayaknow, one of those just happens to be nearby…

So the scripting of the story could get some stick, but maybe they had to cram in a bit more or condense things a little as they found out around half or two-thirds of the way through the season that the usual twenty-six episodes had been reduced to twenty-four. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and Robert Duncan McNeill does a pretty good job with the directing, though it wasn't really a Director's kind of story - it was more a case of go here, do this, do that. The sets were generally good-looking, the Guardians interference was a new twist, and the CGI worked. The battle may not live up to the better starship rumbles of 'DS9' (even though it was made a few years after that groundbreaking series), but in 'Enterprise' terms it's about the biggest they'd ever done. Overacting doesn't spoil the twists and turns, and though it does point up things that make me ponder how much stronger the season could have been if better written, it's a solid penultimate episode (even if the title is another dud which makes me think of the famous Channel 4 afternoon quiz programme!).

***

Children of Time


DVD, DS9 S5 (Children of Time)

High concept is the name of the game with this one, and it's undeniably a good'un: the crew crash on a Gamma Quadrant world to find their own 200 year old descendants. It also scores highly in the moral issues department: should they leave, restoring the timeline and wiping out 8,000 people, or stay, and allow one person to die. The only possible way it could be considered to have failed is the lack of action, but that in no way impairs the essentials: story, character, and concepts, proving action is only a motivator for these aspects, not the conclusion. They're all there and they're all sparkling with Trek magic. 'DS9' was known as the alternative series to the 'traditional' format which the other series' tended to keep to, to boldly go and explore strange other planets. Well, 'DS9' could do that style as well as any of them, and this is one to prove it could even beat the others at their own game. Essentially this is a one-off episode with no bearing on what came before or after, one you could sit down and watch with no knowledge of the extensive backstory the series had built up, or need to understand who the Dominion are, what the galactic political situation currently is: it's almost pure sci-fi-short-story-ness (look, it's even inspired me to make up a word today!).

I like that 'DS9' had its serious, deep, ongoing arcs, but I also like that they were able to strip all that away when they wanted to and lay bare the characters in a way that allows us to know them better, or differently, or for them to learn something. I can't think of a better way to put the majority of the main cast under the microscope in such a short space of time than for them to meet their own descendants. There's something special about the past and future, beyond the little patch of time we inhabit (not that that's the same for everyone - Dax has experiences from all through her symbiont's past), that's why some people are so interested in digging into the detail of their ancestors, and others are so interested in a creative vision of the future. Why not combine the two in a science fiction context? What would it be like to meet people descended from you, especially if you shared understanding with them, since the people of Gaia, as they named the planet of their doom, had no more futuristic technology than the Defiant crew, and had had to make do, subsisting on what they could salvage from the ship.

They must have been able to salvage a fair amount of technology, as we see computer screens being used (by the school children as they learn from Quark, doing a much better job of teacher than the humuhumnuknukuapua'a fish used on the Enterprise-D!), or the soil-burrowing equipment. How the Replicators were able to keep functioning for two hundred years would be a mystery in any other situation, but with a family of O'Briens stretching down through the ages it is absolutely no wonder that everything ran clockwork. It's a shame the Chief couldn't have lived all that time, like Odo, as he'd have been kept busy up to his elbows, just like he always used to be on the station! I admire his loyalty for holding out and not marrying until ten years had passed, but was Ensign Tannenbaum the only one left because she was an awful person and he was forced to make do with her, or was it by choice on her side? Two married O'Briens should have been able to get the Defiant working again, but as soon as they landed on the planet they had to cannibalise the ship for shelter, I think - still a little hazy on exactly what happened when they first arrived, even after watching this episode so many times.

I like it a little more every time I see it, because it's such a rich seam to explore and so much is played with. I said that this episode stands alone, but that's not quite true, as the characters and where they're at in their lives is a continuation, and would also have ramifications for future stories. Dax hearing how she ended up married to Worf is one, though the most obvious would be Kira and the surprises in store for her: you're going to die! But Odo loves you! And he always has! And you survived because he couldn't bear your death! Actually Odo bore up rather well considering how much he cared for the Major. He didn't become a moping, even more antisocial outsider, when he could easily have never spoken to a soul again and lived elsewhere on the planet till the end of his days. Maybe he did, I don't remember there being much dialogue about exactly what he did in his 200 year off-time, (did he carve Kira's stylish Bajoran headstone himself? Maybe in the first hundred years he became a master craftsman, but then realised there wasn't any demand for it as there were no other Bajorans there!), but he became a lot more weathered, his burnished corn-coloured hair and tanned approximation of skin speak to that. Maybe living on a space station away from the natural world isn't good for Changelings, and they're more healthy in a planetary atmosphere. Mind you, that probably goes for just about anyone - just because it's the future, doesn't mean fresh air isn't essential!

How will Kira react to future Odo's… how to say? Betrayal? She can hardly call it that since it saved her life. Lack of justice? Then again, what is just in this case? Odo was amazingly different compared to the smooth-skinned, sharp-faced respecter of justice we know, so open and comfortable, yet willing to sacrifice 8,000 people for Kira. It's the question at the centre of the story, whether anyone has the right to sacrifice themselves to save a number of people, or whether those people could be sacrificed for one. It's not a question of numbers, and in this case it's an executive decision for Sisko, though O'Brien is the staunchest supporter of getting back to DS9, even if it means people that shouldn't exist, do indeed stop existing. It could have been a lot less of an interesting series if it had become about life on this one planet, but I'd have signed up! Kira had a good point that the potential people that would be born if they were to escape don't exist now, anyway, and the people on the planet do. There's a time where the senior staff gather to discuss the situation, but Sisko makes it plain that he's only hearing what everyone has to say and has already made up his mind. It's later, when even O'Brien sees that they can't abandon the people to save themselves even if it does mean they won't see their families again, and for Miles this is a big thing indeed. But if he can willingly give up his family then the others can too.

It's not as hard for some as it is for others: Worf, for instance, has his Par'mach'kai, Jadzia, with him, he lives on the Defiant, so any personal effects could well be there with him, and he's a Klingon, and they adapt to tough living conditions better than anybody. Just look at the line he spawned, with its Klingon adherents that have created their own community which is neither at war with the other group, nor needing their friendship. Young children admire these warriors of nature and aspire to join their group. They seem honourable, most ably portrayed by Brota, the first flat-foreheaded Klingon we've seen since 'TOS,' or he would have been, if not for 'Trials and Tribble-ations' - you wait thirty years for the old-style Klingons, then they show up twice in one season! Brota is quiet-spoken, yet talks of great deeds, slaying a bear three metres tall. They're like watered-down Klingons, not in a derogatory sense, but their genes have clearly mixed with other races, and although Worf taught them the ways of the warrior you get an impression they don't know all the customs precisely: when they draw their d'k tahgs and ask Worf to kill them, they don't mention the Mauk-to'Vor ceremony by name, for example.

In all respects they are Klingon and they live up to the proud name Worf left behind. Ironic that the very next episode after Martok accepted Worf into his House, the House of Mogh is talked up and lives for two centuries! But what about those d'k taghs? Where did they come from? They carry makeshift spears, yet these knives look professionally made - again, Replicators could have played their part, but I can't see them settling for a replicated weapon when they were happy to make their own, so my only conclusion has to be that they're Worf's, kept by the leaders of the tribe, handed down reverently from generation to generation. And if they're Worf's I can only imagine he has a stack of weapons in his quarters on the Defiant! He always used to have them up on the wall on the Enterprise - like Sulu he appreciated a good blade. Remarkably durable, those Klingon weapons are. Maybe they make them with redundant inner blades, on the model of their own biology having redundant backup organs - Worf's Mek'leth, at least, survives to this day. They could have kept it for special occasions, like slaying three metre tall bears that wandered into camp - I'm sure the Gaians were very happy to have a warrior force not too far away if there were such massive predators walking around! Did the Klingons keep them safe like Rangers to Hobbits in 'The Lord of The Rings'?

The beliefs of the characters are not brushed aside in their greatest moment of need: both Kira and Worf discuss such issues at different times, and Worf stands up for her again when she talks of destiny of the Prophets, and O'Brien forcefully says he doesn't believe in them. He couldn't have been thinking too straight there, because science has confirmed the Prophets exist. Maybe he doesn't believe in their divine intervention in Bajor? Again, they sent the Orbs, and they've interfered with the people even during his tenure on the station. I think it was just a hotheaded retort, a jab in anger when he's worried about potentially never seeing Keiko or his children again. He also jabs at Worf that he hardly ever sees his son, in response to Worf's equanimity over the issue (something that would change next season). Kira talks to Odo about her death, and how this grave on the hillside, the sad tree bent over her, the long green grass waving in the wind of an alien world, may be the path the Prophets laid out for her. That's real faith, to be prepared to die, not screaming at the Prophets for abandoning her, but accepting it as their will.

She also mentions the idea of Yedrin Dax' plan to send the Defiant out safely, creating a shadow or alternate version that crashed - she's not happy with the idea of technology circumventing 'destiny,' whatever that is. It's an issue right now with the increase in bionic replacements for the body, or genetic alterations to improve or change ourselves. Likewise, the Klingons see a different side to the predicament, noting how their deaths, ceasing to exist, would be unworthy of Sto-vo-kor. That means they must believe the soul to be indestructible, regardless of time, existing outside of galactic dimensions, or they'd think the soul would also cease with the body. It's a very interesting hypothetical concept and it's well thought upon. These issues aren't the main point of the episode, but they're part of the detail that went into structuring such a well told story, and the kinds of things you would expect these people to be talking about. The story lives up to the idea.

Allan Kroeker, still a new Trek Director at that time and someone who'd go on to be integral to the success of Trek in future (including directing the finale of the series), brought a scale that was necessary for this planet to work. We see the old village set that had been used several times on various Trek series', and if it wasn't the same set, it was the same parts of set, I'm sure, but it wasn't shown on a grand scale in one shot, it was much more intimate: Kira and Worf standing behind an opening in a wall, watching the children at play; Miranda handing out plants for the planting day; Sisko throwing some baseballs with the kiddies. The set didn't feel like a set, something that requires care and planning and a larger vision, rather than doing what sometimes happens on these kinds of episodes, which is to show the set in all its glory. This usually serves to point out the boundaries, so instead of a large space, it feels constrained. Kroeker didn't fall into that trap, but he also had help from some ravishing location work that completely sells the alien planet with its rolling green hills, farmland, and solitary grave site. I like to think Kira was something of a celebrity to the people, and they would take their children to the place and tell the story of how they ended up on this planet.

It's clearly not a time loop, since the events have only happened once to all parties - the descendants know what's going to happen because it's been passed down, plus Odo was an original member of the crew. A clever idea to have our contemporary Odo unable to counteract the energy field around the planet, meaning he couldn't hold his shape, but at the same time stands to reason that he'd eventually learn to fight against the force. One thing I noticed when Bashir was putting him away in that oversized beaker (I miss the bucket!), was that Odo was translucent. I thought he would be opaque and viscous when in liquid form as we can't usually see through him when he shape-shifts. Maybe it was another side effect of the planet? I had thought perhaps Odo wouldn't know that Kira knew what she knew and she wouldn't tell him so it would become a private thing for her as well as Odo, but that's straying into 'Smallville' territory there, so it was probably best that they're both open by the end. It calls to mind the endings of 'Necessary Evil' and 'Things Past' when they both reacted badly to secrets held from each other, except this time Kira can't blame Odo for his future self's actions. I can't remember how it will play out, so it probably remained unaddressed and they got on with the business at hand, saved by the end of season bell which threw things on its head.

Another episode this parallels, in some respects, is Season 3's 'Meridian,' in which the crew find a planet that phases out of existence for decades at a time, and also features a friendly group of people living in a constructed community, but also having access to beautiful green spaces. It was also a romantic story, and since that tended to be a pitfall for the 'DS9' writers, is far from a classic, while this, which keeps its lovey-dovey side more in check, is an absolute corker. It matters much more that it's about Odo and Kira, rather than Dax and some alien guy of the week. This episode also gives Terry Farrell some really strong stuff to play - how often do we see Dax get angry, yet here she's unspeakably furious, incredibly disappointed in Yedrin, the current/descendant host for the Dax symbiont, for trying to pretend the escape plan would work, instead planning for the crash event to happen again. For the first time. Again. I can't remember exactly when she was last angry, but I do recall Season 2's 'Blood Oath' and how driven she was there. Farrell's growth as an actor had improved even more by the time of this episode: there's one little moment after Sisko leaves the room, where she walks over to Yedrin with a mixture of being drawn to him in sadness and shame over the guilt of what they'd got the ship into by wanting to explore the planet, almost wanting to comfort him and herself, yet also not having the words to express how disappointed she is in him trying to deceive them. It's all done in body language and eyes and was really very powerful.

Out of the extrapolations for who our characters might have begotten, who was the best? It's hard to pick a winner, because the standard of guest casting is so high. That much attention to detail in faces or portrayals isn't always carried through on a weekly TV series, but they came up trumps with every single person. Yedrin was the most likeable, he looked a bit like Tom Paris, all thin-faced and bright, happy eyes, and his character was full of questions for me: how many hosts have there been since Jadzia, and how was the most suitable person chosen? The history of the line interested me greatly and I wish a novel had been written about the lives on Gaia, from the crash up until the Defiant arrives - I'm surprised no one's done that, in the style of the Terok Nor books or 'The Never-Ending Sacrifice.' Then there was Miranda O'Brien: it's scary how much she looks like a female Miles, with the high forehead, rosy features and wrinkly smile. She would win the prize for closest resemblance and most believable relation. But it was Brota, the softly spoken Klingon that I thought was the best character, evoking the honour, dignity and reserve of Worf, and looking like a proper old-style example of the race. Even the children were well formed people, their innocence coming out in moments such as their not knowing of the impending nonexistence, or when one of them pipes up and asks if the visitors want to see Kira's grave, not understanding that Kira's very much alive for them, and that it's a sudden and sad discovery to hear of the death of their friend.

This means that when we come to the planting sequence, where the Defiant crew, after sealing the fate of the people in Sisko's decision to leave (I never sensed he had a desire to recreate history - he's responsible for his crew, but also has DS9, Starfleet, his role as Emissary to the Bajorans…), joyfully forget about the gravity of the moment and assist the people in their special day of planting. They missed a trick with that, I think - they should have made it the day of remembrance for the Defiant's crash, but that isn't mentioned, it just happens on the same day. Maybe in the past it was just that, but as the day grew nearer when the Defiant would return, the people probably didn't want to think about the possibility of things not turning out the way they originally did. Did they even know how far back in time they'd travelled? They could probably have worked it out from the position of the stars when they arrived, and the stars of the time they went back to, but if they didn't know, that would have meant they lived on, always expecting their ancestors to arrive, but unsure of the exact time.

The planting sequence was a lovely moment, all joining together to do this one last communal task, even the Klingons, who looked down on farming as a form of livelihood, are simply, but effectively made to see why they should help, by the wise words of Worf: ever looking for an enemy to fight, he tells them the enemy today is time. Let them help the people defeat it. This was another scene where the scope and scale are shown to be bigger than we see onscreen, allowing the imagination to put more in our head than any budget ever could - the warrior woman initially tells Worf about some of their group being from his line and others joining by choice, so when just those three accompany Worf to the planting grounds it makes it seem like she was speaking rather grandly of only three people! Until Brota instructs his friend to bring the others, and you realise there must be many more of them. The montage of people working together in the fields is one of those happy, but poignant moments because we know this is all futile. The children don't know the end is coming and it's the little girl, Molly's, openness about the future, how tall this plant will grow that makes O'Brien see that she isn't any less precious than his own Molly and he no longer believes he has the right to his old life at the expense of hers and the others.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. It's a remarkably uplifting story considering the ramifications, and there are even a few laughs to be had, mainly from Bashir - his enjoyment at how things turned out is an exact opposite of how O'Brien feels. Also, early in the episode, when Sisko pages him to the bridge to see to Kira, then she says she's fine, I imagined in my head the man stomping onto the bridge saying "First he wants me on the bridge, then he doesn't want me on the bridge…" - it would have made a good comedy illustration, although in reality he'd have been only too pleased to make sure Kira was okay. Later, when he does examine her and they're still expecting to leave soon, he cackles that he'll soon have her on his operating table, and it's like a real in-episode acknowledgement that Bashir's Infirmary can be a bit of a House of Horrors sometimes, with the kind of Frankenstein medicine he carries on in there sometimes.

For example, both Shakaar and Bareil are mentioned by Kira (in that context she's talking about how it must have hurt Odo when she confided in him about them), and while Shakaar escaped the table, Bareil was turned into a walking vegetable in there, so for Bashir to be pretending to evilly look forward to doing his worst to Kira could be in bad taste for her if they'd really thought about it! That's a joke really, as he did all he could for the Vedek, but it did become one of the running jokes behind the scenes if you read the Companion book. It was quite an unexpected, but simple way they used to separate Kira and Shakaar. Though it seems arbitrary, it's another example of her strong faith, that she would take this message that they weren't right for each other in the eyes of the Prophets, and obey that decision. Maybe the busy life of the First Minister meant their long-distance courtship had floundered, or the experience of having a child (albeit for the O'Briens), had changed Kira?

I was thinking during the episode, why didn't they just stay on the planet and all live happily ever after - it would have changed the series beyond all recognition, but I can see most of those characters (especially Worf and Sisko, building things), taking on the challenge to live a life less reliant on technology (links to 'Paradise' there), but I realised Kira was the balance, as she'd die weeks after their arrival due to her 'Matrix' bullet-dodge temporal effect (predating both that film and the 'Enterprise' pilot, 'Broken Bow' and its time-jiggling visual effects). So it made sense. Much more sense than Kira wearing those high-heeled boots in bed! I was also unsure about the idea of sending a probe through the barrier carrying messages to their families so they'd know what happened, once they decided to recreate the accident - if they couldn't get through without crashing two hundred years into the past, how would the probe? But of course, the issue wasn't whether they could get through the barrier, it was should they, as shown by the fact that a course change engineered by future Odo forced them to safely leave. At the end, Dax and Sisko talk about the loss of the colony and all their descendants having ceased to exist, almost exactly repeating Dr. McCoy's line from 'Star Trek II' when he speaks of the death of Spock, to Kirk. The sentiment is the same: as long as these people are remembered they will continue to exist, and that was the perfect way to close out this inspirational story.

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