You Are Cordially Invited

DVD, DS9 S6 (You Are Cordially Invited)

After the storm must come the sunshine, breaking out to welcome a new day. In this case it feels like the start of a new season, as if the first six, weighty episodes had been their own mini-season, and this is the real beginning of life after the recapture of DS9. What better way to follow serious moments of death and glory than for the relatively small matter of a wedding. Oh, but this is a Klingon wedding, and like Americans, they don't do things small. Usually comedic episodes come under the Ferengi soap banner (plenty of banners in this one, but no Ferengi ones), but occasionally they throw out a fun story that has nothing to do with the big-eared race. This one is similar in tone to Season 3's 'Fascination' (both episodes that would seem to be ideal for Valentine's Day!), with tears and laughter, shame and pride, fun and torture. But this one is much more momentous, for it joins two of the best characters together in holy matrimony. Well, maybe not holy since the Klingons killed off their gods (I'm not sure if this makes the Klingons, or their gods, rather foolish!), but it was that close to being a more traditional Starfleet ceremony with the Captain leading the couple in their vows - instead it became the Captain leading his men in rituals designed to get even the toughest Klingon to have a 'fun' time.

There is much amusement to be had in Bashir and O'Brien's halfhearted attempt to join in with Worf's equivalent of a bachelor party, but I'd have thought Bashir, being a doctor, would have counselled against O'Brien eating a hearty meal after starving themselves for however long it was until the wedding was cancelled - instead he leads the way with a giant meal! The whole thing of seeing the pair back to their old friendship after having only minor roles in the majority of the first six episodes, is a joy, especially as they're at their most schoolboyish, with even Sisko going along with the trick to help Bashir volunteer when they all step back and he doesn't notice! It's similarly pleasurable to see the other friendships come back to the fore, be they Odo and Kira talking out their problems for so long they miss the start of their shifts, Sisko having a reassuring talk with Dax (after verbally knocking some sense into her), Jake using his journalistic instinct to uncover Quark's secret love for Dax, or the wise Martok sorting out Worf after 'The Walking Frown' (as Quark calls him - Worf won't even say Quark's name, calling him 'The Ferengi Barkeep'), sulks in his quarters on the Defiant.

I recently had a flashback to Private Frazer of 'Dad's Army' when Weyoun suggested he'd never doubted Dukat for a moment, and here I had another reminder of that series in the way Martok, the leader (now bumped up to Supreme Commander of the Ninth Fleet at Sisko's recommendation!), and a formidable warrior, is cowed by his 'magnificent' wife, Sirella - Captain Mainwaring behaved the same way to his wife. Into Sirella (I always want to add De Ville on the end!), Ron Moore, rather like the Dark Lord Sauron, poured all his regrets and problems with the role of Klingon women. She's the A-type Klingon, and as almost all Klingons are A-type personalities (the others probably don't venture off world), this is saying something. So when she clashes with Dax, another one not take an insult lying down, and with a wilful streak in her that makes her especially stubborn against those that offend her pride, the sparks doth fly! It's interesting to see Dax not measure up to the calm, live and let live, good Starfleet officer that we've seen so often in the past. This is a big moment for her, no matter that she carries seven lifetimes within her over a period of three hundred and fifty-six years, and has the memories of getting married several times before - this is Jadzia's first time, so it's no surprise that she's a bit jittery. The old Dax we saw in the early seasons, so in control and serene was probably more to do with the symbiont being so new to her and having overwhelmed her with calmness, that it took a while for her other traits to surface, no doubt encouraged by wild party animal Curzon.

The strong friendship between Curzon, the 'old man' and Sisko, the young recruit, was carried over into his and Jadzia's time together, but over recent seasons we've seen a lot less of the advice-giving of either party, just as Janeway and Tuvok were seen to discuss things less as 'Voyager' went on. Dax had grown up and had Worf to lean on, Sisko too having less need of that part of their friendship. But in their anger the other one has been there for them as a punchbag (literally, in Jadzia's case in 'For The Uniform' when Sisko let out all his frustrations about Eddington), in this case Sisko shouting sense into an angry, stuck-up mindset. There's also something of a similarity between this scene and the one in 'Dax,' that first season episode that began to delve into her character, and in which Sisko went to her quarters, as he does here, to try and talk her into telling the story she's holding back. In that episode too, I think she was fiddling about with the stuff on her shelves (which have now moved to a wall rather than forming a partition), but in that example it was Sisko getting upset. It wasn't necessary to show the actual 'boot kissing' Dax had to do to get back into Sirella's good books, it was sufficient to know she'd bent her stiff neck. Any time in fiction when people overcome their differences is a strong moment, no less here where Sirella fondly welcomes her into her House as a daughter.

You could be forgiven for calling this a bit of a soapy episode, what with Odo and Kira avoiding each other, the harsh words between Worf and Dax, Sirella and Dax, and, well, Dax and anyone, especially with the immoral attitude displayed by certain characters (Dax and Leeta clearly thinking unfaithful thoughts), and the increase in raised voices - I lost track of the number of times people shouted for someone to enter a room! For one episode only you get to see all the innermost thoughts coming out, ugly or beautiful as they may be, seasoned with dramatic mood swings. But it's done so well, amid hilarity and seriousness, that it all just works. Everyone's involved and everyone's enjoying it, and that rubs off on the viewer. It helps that it's excellently written and shot, and that we get to see many of the characters enjoying themselves in one room, which is a rarity (and only emphasises the contrast between Dax and Worf as he and the others travel the path to Kal'Hyah). And where else would you get to see Morn dancing - he moves more in the party scene than we've ever seen the shambling grey lump move before! He must have drunk half the drinks brought in for the party to be slumped behind Dax' sofa at 10:30 in the morning, which is no surprise as he'd probably stay every night at Quark's Bar if it didn't shut.

There are other deft touches to enjoy beyond the spectacle of a full Klingon wedding, such as Sisko's sensitivity about his baseball - when Martok, intrigued by this odd trinket on Sisko's desk, goes to pick it up, the Captain snatches it away before he can, something to do with Dukat keeping it for so long, I expect. Martok as a wise man is also something unexpected as we've seen him make his own mistakes before, but here you can see both he and Sisko helping the younger generation to get past their problems (even though he refuses to get involved with his wife's decision-making - another sign of his good sense). There are even little details dropped in, such as Jake's 'sale' of his first book, a series of writings about his time under the Dominion's occupation of the station, another step forward for the young man. There's some novelty simply seeing the characters back in their rightful place on DS9, well demonstrated by Sisko loving getting up in the morning and going to his office. We hear the Captain of the Sutherland (where the fire dancers came from), is Shelby, though this is up in the air whether it is 'the' Shelby of 'The Best of Both Worlds.' I like to think it is, but it would have been nice to have seen her again. The same goes for the non-appearance of the 'TNG' crew, which I'd never really thought about before - they wanted all or nothing, so it didn't happen, but I'd have been happy with anyone they could get!

The big thing was the actual wedding, as it should be, a mine of new Klingon traditions and customs, very strong costume design that fitted both the magnificence of such an important event, and yet was wholly Klingon, and still gave us something different that we hadn't seen before. Alexander was the excuse for the wedding to occur before the end of the war, before he shipped off on his new berth, so it's fitting that this was his final appearance in the entirety of Trek. Who knows, maybe if Michael Dorn's Worf series ever comes into being, Alexander may be seen again, but for now, it was a good use of his character - he retains the clumsiness and lack of knowledge, but is filled with an endearing wish to try hard at being a warrior. It must be difficult serving on a Klingon ship if he can't even say his own name in the original Klingon (Al'kXund'hR?), mustn't it? I assumed races always spoke in their native tongue, and only the Universal Translator made it sound English (or 'Federation Standard' to be precise), but it makes sense for Alexander not to speak the lingo since he was brought up on Earth (probably the last reference to Worf's Mother, Helena, here as Alexander asks 'Grandmother?' when Bashir wakens him from his faint).

I wondered where the meeting about Worf's 'party' took place as it certainly wasn't the Ward Room, with a more 'TOS' style table, and a big screen. And Shannon Cochran deserves mention as she went from a nondescript Maquis member (most of them were!), Kalita, in both 'TNG' ('Preemptive Strike'), and 'DS9' ('Defiant'), to the proud matriarch of a Klingon House. Much more than a laugh-out-loud comedy of manners, this is as much about the clashing of cultures (a bit like the Ferengi/Bajoran clash that occurred when Rom and Leeta wanted to get married - they cancelled their wedding, too, is this a running theme?), the perfect example of how to use the varied pieces of the Trek universe for the crafting of a fun, but affecting tale. It was the happiness before the great sorrow the end of the season would bring, a chance for everyone to have some light relief from the war that nevertheless continues, and fun experienced during a hard time is all the sweeter.

*****