Inquisition

DVD, DS9 Season 6 (Inquisition) (2)

Like most Trek episodes, especially in later seasons, this story had been done before, or aspects of it had, anyway. It was back in 'The Search' that Starfleet seems to go against the DS9 crew so they're forced on an insurrection (both of these happened before 'Star Trek IX'), only for it to conclude as a mental simulation run by the Dominion to test… loyalty, and how far they might go if the Dominion were to try and gain political stronghold in the Alpha Quadrant. Now it was happening again, but in this case it was one man: Bashir, Julian Bashir, up against the true spymasters of the Federation. No discussion of Section 31 can avoid their use in 'Star Trek Into Darkness' nowadays. As the most recent use of the shady division in Trek lore it's likely still fresh in the mind. I love it when something exclusive to one series is taken up and used in a completely different context for another series, the films in this case. It's not quite true that 31 was exclusive to 'DS9' as the writers of 'Enterprise' couldn't resist the juicy ramifications of the organisation, using it in some late Season 4 episodes in a small way.

Before all this I liked to speculate if 31 had actually all been in Luther Sloan's mind the whole time - a rogue agent completely divorced from reality, sucked deep into the morass of a police state that didn't exist, somehow in possession and with the ability to gain all top level information and authority. Look at the evidence: he appears to be in control of technology beyond what Starfleet has, able to beam or smuggle Bashir off the station without anyone knowing; you never really see him talking to anyone else who is 'on his side' - even those two goons in the Holodeck needn't have been anything more than projections. Why, even the story that it was a Holodeck on a ship may have been false. It may not even have been a Holodeck, Sloan could have used a mind probe, or have access to the Vulcans' mind meld ability… That's the brilliance of this episode and Section 31, when it's used well: your speculations spiral into paranoia. If they can do this, maybe they can do that, and if so…? Etc, etc. If Sloan is willing to put a good Starfleet officer through so much just to check he's as loyal as he seems, what else could he be capable of?That's the horror unleashed in this episode, the truth that even Roddenberry's 'perfect' humanity has come at a price. There are those willing and able to take actions beyond what those they protect would consider even remotely acceptable: protecting Starfleet by breaking from its rules: an apostate defending the faith from outside. But not even that, for it is within, at the heart, and yet separate from it, an autonomous organisation of unknown size and power. Where were they during the Borg invasion, during Romulan incursions, the Klingon civil war, and countless other Federation-threatening events? Who's to say they didn't have a hand in such momentous, history-defining times, engineering them to the best possible outcome for the Federation? Maybe not even in the short term for they play the longest game, beginning at least two hundred years before…

'Enterprise' establishes 31 to have been operating before the Federation Charter even came into being. Perhaps this radical faction was even deeply involved in the creation of the Federation to protect Starfleet, even Earth. Could Section 31 be a human-centric body? They'd have had to have been in some degree of power to have been included in the Federation Charter, and to be given the presumed operating autonomy to do whatever, whenever, with no end date and no accountability… It threw a stone into the calm pond of Trek as we knew it, and redefined even what we thought we knew, which is why 'Inquisition' is such a turning point: the moment 'good, honest' Starfleet officers came to know of the existence of this cancer. But no ordinary cancer, one that has had a hand in keeping the body it infests alive to fight another day. Like those who deal with the sewage in secret underground tunnels beneath cities, 31 dealt with the refuse and the discards, what the Federation and its Starfleet wouldn't touch because it wanted to be the white knight, speeding round the galaxy meeting and greeting, advancing knowledge and pushing its views on other races (which is fair enough in most cases as it usually made their lives better, but the 31 influence could even have stretched to that side of business with certain protocols crafted by them, the Prime Directive itself sometimes used in error either to protect or advance). Who knows how deep the burrow goes?

Trek turned a corner when it created Section 31, and not everybody appreciated that. Some wanted the simpler times, even if they were never that simple in reality, but I have to say that 31 were a brilliant and logical continuation, and the fact that no one knew about them until this point (leaving aside 'Enterprise' as that was pre-Federation), said something about this particular brand of secret service: no fearful atmosphere of dread spread by the Tal Shiar or Obsidian Order (I liked that Odo correctly said the Cardassians 'had' the Obsidian Order, rather than have - he should know as he was there to witness its annihilation), not needed with a one hundred percent success rate in silencing enemies. That may not be true, but what is true is that no one was left alive who could testify to their existence, until Bashir, any threat they met was eradicated as if it had never been, no trace left to even hint at this dark shroud that could make disloyalty disappear. I said earlier that 31 could all have been a figment of Sloan's warped imagination (maybe he was actually a Q, or the son of some very high ranking Federation official, who, to keep him out of trouble, indulged him too much, allowing him to play at spies in the real world as Julian plays in the Holosuite), this notion enhanced in the sequels, 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges' and 'Extreme Measures.' If it really were just him, then he was more resourceful than anyone we'd ever met before; practically unstoppable, and it always seemed a little bit of a comedown that Bashir and O'Brien could genuinely capture him against his will in the last of the trilogy.

Except that post-'DS9' Section 31 was confirmed in Trek lore forevermore (though even then you could suggest Sloan had heard about this clandestine special ops unit and made-believe it was still in operation!). All thanks to 'Enterprise,' though far more people would likely have seen 'Into Darkness' and its, shall I say, woeful use of them? It wasn't the only element of Trek lore to be misused (the bigger one starts with a 'K' - just a little clue there), but it was both irritating and wonderful at the same time. It is great when disparate Trek inventions come together in a new way and on a new field - who would have ever thought of such a relatively obscure creation of one of the least known series (despite being by far the best!), being dragged into a massive budget mainstream blockbuster film, and one that was set in the Kirk era! If this film had gone well it would have been just one more thing to weep with joy over, but instead it was another in a catalogue of errors, namely that there was very little mystery about 31, almost common knowledge (hey, it's the alternate universe, man, which means nothing matters any more…), and they were just around. No mystery about their movements or motives. It could have been Starfleet Intelligence or any number of specially invented organisations. How about the Starfleet Corps of Spying in Black?

This isn't a review of 'Into Darkness' (thankfully - that film and a five star review just don't exist in the same sentence), but it's interesting to me what this episode begat, even though it wasn't responsible for the later uses in other series' you can feel how much inspiration there was in 'making known' this lost piece of Federation history. That it goes back to the very beginning is another deep thrill in the same vein as Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight or the date the Federation was founded. It's history, it's gap-filling, but most of all it's really cool! Just the fact that Internal Affairs exists and can charge onto a Starfleet facility, lock up all the senior staff and deny them communications and access to a Replicator would have been enough, but to have the mystery solved by telling us this was all a ruse to get Bashir initiated is astonishing in its simplicity and temerity. What works best, though, is that it all works. The facts about Bashir, how he never told the truth about his genetic heritage until forced to do so; his sympathies toward life and free choice that made even the Jem'Hadar potential patients; even little details we may not even have noticed at the time, such as the Runabout at the Dominion prison camp in that two-part Season 5 story, was allowed to remain in orbit (hmmm, why was that?).

I don't know if Bashir's mate Felix worked on the holoprogram to convince the Doctor that he really was in the same environment that he spends all his time, with people he knows intimately, with no suspicion of the reality of his reality, but Sloan must have got one prodigious talent to create all this - after all, it was the one tiny detail (O'Brien's shoulder injury), they got wrong which made Bashir aware. And this is a genetically engineered super-brain they were dealing with. It shows that his enhancements weren't perfect in that regard. I was even wondering how he could have been fooled into getting only one hour's sleep instead of half the night, when he can monitor his autonomic systems as good as any biobed, rather like Data. He must have been asleep, and even though his subconscious rebelled ('this is going to be a day for drinking Raktajinos!'), he accepted what he thought was the reality when what he took for the evidences of reality were all around him, comforting as always. That, coupled with sleep and food deprivation (getting the gagh fell into the same kind of horror as in 'Conspiracy' where Riker finds himself presented with a lunch of maggots - it's the expectations of something good and wholesome to the appetite that is replaced with something very unappetising, even offensive), made this genetic marvel putty in their hands.

It helped that Sloan was an expert manipulator (played with detailed perfection by William Sadler bringing mannerisms and affectations to the role so you're never entirely sure when he's acting or being genuine, or if he ever really feels any emotion at all), at first presenting an official face that could be respected, brisk and ready to follow protocol, followed by his informal attitude at Bashir's first interview (he even has his uniform jacket off, with the Picard 'First Contact' tank top that Sisko occasionally sports), then going in for the kill with an interrogatory style in which every nicety is gone. Bashir is manipulated, humiliated, made to feel complicit in treachery - when Lieutenant Kagan responds bitterly to him, practically blaming him for the friends he's lost, he was a typical character for these situations. No matter how 'good' humanity's portrayed there are always these reactive people that show the worst side of human nature: I think of Stiles in 'Balance of Terror,' some of the characters in the original film series, and Commander Hobson who can't stand being dictated to by an android Captain. Bashir holds up well enough, he doesn't plan an escape or try to run, knowing himself to be innocent.

Even Weyoun's surprise appearance can't sway him to believe in things that his genetically improved brain knows never happened. Yet that brain gives us the very chink of doubt upon which Sloan's insinuations rest. It's easy enough to believe Bashir would be an unknowing spy, he was entirely replaced by a Changeling! And even agents doing things without remembering their true lives had been established on the series, thanks to Arissa in 'A Simple Investigation.' What better time would there have been for the Dominion to take over the Doctor, but when he was a broken prisoner? The scenario fits, and when the last possible hope for Bashir's help is so ruthlessly trampled, the thread snapped by Sloan's ever-present personality (when Sisko talks of Sloan's son having been killed as a possible angle on which to 'reveal' that this man is actually working to another agenda, which he was, but not that one!), his only advocate, Sisko, begins to admit the possibility of Bashir's unknowing complicity. Then he's beamed away and finally offered food, and good food at that: scones dripping with moba jam (whatever that is, but it looks lovely!). If you're going to accept a reality, why not accept the one in which you get to eat scones and moba jam? It's all too easy to give in, but even here Bashir is conscientious, looking for the cracks in the evidence.

I think Weyoun was chosen as the one who imparts the confirmation of Bashir's condition because he's a familiar face, and somehow it was easier to believe him than any old Vorta of the week. He and Bashir know each other loosely, but even more, the audience knows him, and if they get Jeff Combs in it must be serious! It's funny how many variations of Weyoun we'd actually seen so far this season, and none of them were clones: obviously the real Weyoun played a big part of the opening six-parter, then we had the version in Dukat's head from 'Waltz,' the one in Benny Russell's vision from 'Far Beyond The Stars,' and now a holographic Section 31 end of level boss! I wonder if Combs related to each variation differently and whether he coloured his performance in an alternative way each time, or just played Weyoun as Weyoun? I like that we see the large porthole in the Vorta's room (Ready Room?), the stars streaking by to show that we're travelling at warp - they had to give some visual representation as it would have been a lie to cut to external views of ships or station since there was no external view, it was all holographic (one reason there's a relatively long establishing shot of DS9 early in the episode as if to make up for the lack thereafter). While on the subject of ships, and assuming that Sloan's Holodeck was on a ship, it must have been a most advanced starship since it had the same style of Holodeck as Voyager, an irony considering Bashir and Sloan's next meeting on an Intrepid-class.

I don't know whether to think Michael Dorn is a great Director who should have had a shot at one of the 'TNG' films, or whether it was simply the draw he got that helped him produce two of the best episodes of the series in his first two attempts in the chair. Previously we'd had 'In The Cards' a charming throwback to the Jake and Nog escapades of yore, and now a psychological thriller with mystery to make the organisation it portrays formidable. On its surface it's 'only' a Holodeck story, or an alternate reality story in the vein of 'Projections' - one man caught in an upside down version of his world where everything's gone mad, though in this scenario it's a scary, subtle slant rather than all-out changes that would hint at the nightmare rather than the waking. Both categories are well trod paths in Trek canon, but as they kept on doing on this series it feels new and different to what's come before, Bashir not even given the option to consider that this isn't really happening, and neither are we (unless we're watching it from the delicious perspective of One Who Knows). We're on the outside with Bashir - if people run past with weapons on some unknown drill it's just one more unsteadying hand to rock us off balance. Recent episodes had dealt with secret operations with Starfleet Intelligence coming into the limelight as much as it was likely to in a standard Trek series. Did this sudden fascination with the black ops, the secret missions of spy fantasy inspire Section 31's existence? Sloan describes it as 'another branch,' but it's so much more deadly than that, the understatement adding spice to the revelation of its ancient and uncontrolled roots.

Whatever the inspiration, the real message of the episode doesn't appear until the very last scene, where Bashir questions whether they're willing to sacrifice their principles to survive. Such questions have become ever more prominent in today's society, meaning, rather like the moral stories of 'TOS,' it's become more relevant as time has gone on, not less. Civil liberties, the threat of terrorism, survival against existence without moral values, the blurring of right and wrong, all these are food for thought, and if the episode doesn't wholly address such things, it does leave such thoughts on the mind. People can be as cold and robotic as the Defiant crew at the end, their false matrices and lack of support for Bashir's plight finally opening his eyes - by your fruit you shall know them (or perhaps their moba jam).

One thing missing from the episode is seeing how Martok would have reacted had he been accused of lying, to his face, but otherwise this is a terrific episode - forget torture O'Brien, this is torture Bashir, and in the most effective ways (not least missing his conference on Casperia Prime, the new Risa it seems, as it's the second time it's been mentioned, after being Dax' ideal place to honeymoon in 'Change of Heart,' though the original, and worst, pleasure planet also gets name-checked again). Kukalaka gets a minor role, much to my delight, and I always wonder what significance Bashir losing his pen under the furniture has, until I'm reminded it's merely another pointer to his pad being moved. And faithful Nurse Bandee is spoken of - it may even have been the elusive medical assistant we see in that first scene. In the end, though, it ends on a cliffhanger. Rather like the first encounter with the Borg, or the aliens of 'Conspiracy' (though that one remains unfulfilled), we're left hanging, waiting for the next, more meaningful encounter in which sides will become clear. Just say 'yes' - he doesn't take 'no' for an answer…

*****

Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night

DVD, DS9 S6 (Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night) (2)

Why didn't Dukat tell her before? Kira and Dukat had had plenty of times together in which he could have told her that he knew her Mother very, very well, but he never did. And now he rings her up in the middle of the night to impart this to Kira. Can we say it's because Dukat's mad? Has his mind turned cartwheels on all the life he led previous to 'Waltz,' and now the inability to keep things to himself, or the lack of care he now entertains, the fact that he doesn't have to hide who he really is after he admitted to Sisko that he wants to kill all Bajorans, does all this mean he has no secrets? But why would he have kept such a thing hidden before? Ah, there we get to some real Dukat strategy - not only could he compartmentalise the different times and places of his life, which would mean that he could share so much with Kira, but never reveal anything about her Mother, he was also wise enough to realise, I think, that this little piece of information would devastate Kira's life and drive a wedge between them forever. And until he completely lost it, earlier in the season, he still had deluded designs upon her. Probably even told himself he was fond of her, and by not telling her this family secret of how deeply involved in her life he was, from almost the beginning, was protecting her in some way - in reality protecting his own interests! Aside from the fact the writers themselves hadn't known until this episode was written, and how great it is that we can still unearth fascinating backstories for the characters so far into the series!

This was the third part in the Terok Nor trilogy - episodes in which members of the current Deep Space Nine go back to the time of the station's life under Cardassian rule when still known by its Cardassian name. But this is actually the first time anyone's literally gone back, as in the first instalment, way back in Season 2's 'Necessary Evil,' we were treated to flashbacks of memories, and in Season 5's 'Things Past' we experienced that time through Odo's subconscious linking with others in a shared dream or memory, as the means. Not till this, another of the wonderfully poetic (and long), episode titles, of 'Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night' does someone, Kira, time travel to that period. It's not the setting's fault, or the actors, that this was the least impressive of the Terok Nor episodes. It falls down because there's very little consequence to what happens. Yes, Kira comes to see the 'saint' of her Mother for whom she really was, and yes she does have a nasty shock over how deeply entangled her worst enemy was in her family's life, and even worse, that it may have been Dukat, loosely, that was responsible for her and her families survival of the Occupation of Bajor. Because if he hadn't taken a shine to her Mum, Kira Meru, she wouldn't have been treated as well, though we don't know how much Taban and her young brothers got out of it, and presumably it was only until Meru died from an unspecified reason a few years later, that the 'aid' would have been given. Why did Meru die? We don't know, maybe Dukat lost interest in her.

My problems with the episode aren't to do with Terok Nor, though it did feel a lot less atmospheric than we'd seen before, perhaps because this was a number of years previous to our other visits there, when Odo and Kira were newly arrived (Quark's a missing element so it may be even before he came to the station), Kira but a toddler, and Odo probably still a gelatinous mass floating in space. The station hasn't become so smoky and grimy, the people aren't suffering quite as badly as they would, and things are newer, fresher and brighter. This loss of the harsh atmosphere of yesteryear brings the impression of the past to life in a less direct way, the location appearing more like it does in the present of the series, so losing a level of interest. But the story is the key, and before it gets going is where problems surface. For one, time travel is too easily discussed as an option. We're not in the 29th Century here, or even the 26th. Travelling through time is still a major event, even though we've seen it done on so many occasions and with various methods. The Orb of Time as a gateway to other time streams had been used before, notably to take the Defiant back to Kirk's time in 'Trials and Tribble-ations,' so it was an established component, but I just felt Kira too easily and flippantly suggested the idea of going back to check Dukat's story was true, and while I liked the scene in which she asks Sisko's permission, since she calls on him in his role as the Emissary, (something they've not really discussed together in quite a while), asking to go back in time felt too simple.

I'm not saying The Prophets couldn't send someone through time without any difficulty, as they exist outside time, but if this Orb is well known to permit such travel it would have to be guarded more than any other Orb, because numerous species, not least the Cardassians, would desire such power. Even if it were to be stolen it's up to The Prophets whether they send someone through time anyway, a bit like the Guardian of Forever, I suppose, and it's most likely the Cardassians either never got to open it, or were denied passage on principle! Time travel, it must be said, had become relatively easy by this time in Trek history - when it had been achieved in so many ways and by so many of our heroes, rather like the Holodeck stories or Transporter malfunctions, you either had to come up with a radical new angle, or you had to basically gloss over the mechanics as not being that important, and get down to telling your story which couldn't have been told any other way than with time travel, or else why were you using it as a narrative device? It's like that thing about other realities, and how characters in the period of latter nineties Trek would run through a list of possible scenarios that they might have landed in - we know all the angles so the writers get down to the story, and that's fine, it just wasn't the most fulfilling attitude to time travel, taken as done on a whim for the personal reason of finding out something that had happened.

The other problem with the episode, if I can call it that, is Dukat. It was about time we had a follow up to the manic frenzy of 'Waltz,' as we'd been wondering what happened to him, where he was and what he was up to. By the look of the background from where he makes his communication, he must still be flying around in his personal Federation shuttlecraft, since you can see Starfleet signage and interface in the background. Unless he just wanted us to think that and it was an elaborate ruse… The thing is, after Dukat's complete disintegration and the powerful performance of Marc Alaimo in the former episode, it's something of a disappointment to get a calm Dukat who's happy to call up Kira in the middle of the night and tell her this thing. I can loosely buy that he'd either want to put her on edge (if he was somehow going to use that to get himself something), or that he genuinely wants to be completely honest with those of his past, and you can even point to his insanity as guiding him to do something odd like that which doesn't gain him anything. If he was in league with the Pah-Wraiths at this time you could imagine it to be part of their plan - maybe sending people back in time used up some power of The Prophets which made them open to attack for a window of opportunity? But Dukat doesn't get anything, and he's not yet connected with the Pah-Wraiths, so his motives are extremely weak, if not nonexistent. And when we usually see such strong motivation put in by the writers it's a little jarring to have a lack in that department.

I think it's also the expectation after Dukat was frothing at the mouth last time we saw him, that next time he appeared would spell disaster for someone, that something big would happen. In this case subverting expectations didn't work for me. Had Dukat appeared in Kira's quarters to relay his message, or kidnapped her, or been involved in the story in some way, I think it would have been better - about the only truly chilling moment is when Sisko says about the man that he probably knows a lot about Kira's family, adding that he probably knows a lot about all their families! This, for me, was when the creepy factor entered in, however briefly, with the thought that Joseph Sisko, Bashir's parents, and any number of other related members of the DS9 crew might be stalked, or watched, or who knows what, with a mad Dukat zipping about the quadrant. I'd like to know what the man had actually been up to in these weeks and months after his escape from Starfleet captivity. Does he just sit and stare into space for days on end or is he planning dastardly plots? Maybe his mind performs for his pleasure, bringing various different people to converse with him as spectres - it's not hard to see it being a short step from such madness to being in contact with the Pah-Wraiths, as would happen later.

Not to say there aren't unmissable moments in the episode: the breaking up of a family, with Kira's Father Taban crying despairingly as he holds his sons, Meru ripped away by Cardassians; Kira meeting her child self (a bit like Spock in 'The Animated Series' or Old Spock in 'Star Trek XI'); the opportunity to see the younger, less mad version of Dukat one final time… I used to think the episode was very average, but these points make it engaging and a reasonably good episode, so as a whole I like it. It's just the flaws or disappointments make the experience a little emptier than might be expected. It goes quickly, it's not a bore, but take Dukat, for example - his younger self seems tepid, whether because of the writing or because Alaimo didn't really have faith in creating that younger self when in the midst of re-imagining the character on a new path, I don't know. This was a sidestep for him as an actor, and I'd love to know what he felt about playing a regressed version of Dukat. There seems less ruthlessness in the man, whereas even when being tender and magnanimous before, you felt a steeliness underneath that could grip with a grip of iron if it chose. Maybe I'm being uncharitable, and it's down to what he was given to do, but he wasn't the usual compelling character we're used to, even in the other Terok Nor stories. He does display theatricality and a devious nature, as revealed by the Legate (played by Wayne Grace who'd been in 'TNG'), whom Kira entertains, pointing out he'd 'played' the gentleman role plenty of times before. We're seeing it exclusively from Meru's perspective, there aren't 'behind the scenes' moments in which Dukat discusses things with his subordinates and that kind of thing.

That makes it a unique perspective, but when we know how deep the rabbit hole of Dukat's mind goes, it would have been good to get a closer look at what he was really like at this stage of his career, instead of the outsider's view. His treatment of Meru's facial scar with a dermal regenerator made me question why she'd never been treated before. I came to the conclusion that either such technology was hard to come by at that time on Bajor, perhaps outlawed by harsh Cardassian rule, or that, because she was well known to disguise it behind her hair, it was never discovered by anyone that could have healed it. Probably a bit of both. Though Meru came across as a bit of an airhead, so easily influenced by good food and expensive clothes, it was a joy to get to meet her, if only to fill out Kira's background a little more. We'd seen Taban before, back in 'Ties of Blood and Water' in which we learn that Kira hadn't been there for his death, so it's a similarly tragic story that she'd been torn from her Mother at such a young age, and for such a purpose as providing 'comfort' to Gul Dukat. It gives greater significance to Dukat's interest in her life, beyond his attraction to her, and it must have given him great satisfaction knowing that this was the daughter of the Bajoran woman he, I assume, loved, maybe even reminding him of Meru. It's surprising that something so big between two characters we've seen so much had only now come out, and yet still made sense that it could have been kept hidden. If Dukat hadn't spilled the beans Kira would never have found out.

Perhaps, to some extent, though no one could know how much, Dukat genuinely, in some part of himself, wanted Kira to know and accept the truth. Unburdening himself from his past because he knew the future was limited? Is that feasible? I don't know, and probably neither did Dukat, but some tiny flame of decency may have been inside, wanting to make things right. It makes sense Dukat would be thinking about his past since that had been strongly on his mind after the row with Sisko - he even mentioned in 'Waltz' that for all the 'care' he gave the Bajorans they made an attempt on his life, so this could have been that, which would have made Kira's actions in trying to blow him and Meru up a pre-destination paradox. I think. I felt Kira's invitation to join the Resistance happened a little too quickly, but we don't know exactly how long she was in the ghetto side of the station before Halb Daier (Tim de Zarn who'd been in 'TNG' and 'Voyager'), made contact, and her recruitment made sense since she had rare inside information on the station's layout, and Dukat's quarters in particular (one thing that did make the episode feel like the past was the layout of the rooms, with Dukat's study round a corner, and the weapon detection forcefield outside his door). One thing struck me about Halb: his slight resemblance to Razka Karn from 'Indiscretion.' He could've been a younger version which would have neatly tied Kira and Dukat's stories together even more since that former episode had been all about Dukat's past with a Bajoran woman, as well as Kira's search for an old friend of hers. One thing I didn't commend Kira on was her choice of alias: Luma Rahl just didn't suit her, and it would have been a nice touch if they'd used the name of a friend that we knew about, like Lupaza (they sound similar anyway!).

Thomas Kopache as Taban gave perhaps his best (if short), performance in any Trek appearance he made, the horror of the moment as his wife is dragged away from their young family so strongly emoted. This was his last appearance in 'DS9,' though he'd be back for 'Enterprise' not too long after - he's one of those faces that appears in a variety of roles, and one actor I wish had been used as a main cast member as he was clearly a strong actor. It's also Taban's graciousness of spirit in the message he sends Meru that the episode hinges upon, with Kira's decision to blow up her Mother and Dukat changed by hearing how he's responded to the situation with gratitude and understanding rather than recrimination and bitterness. Where the episode again falls down for me is with an unfulfilling ending, because Kira ends up hating her Mother for what she did (and perhaps the attitude in which she embraced what happened), and it was simply that she was her Mother that she didn't blow her up and ignore the express wishes of Sisko that she not interfere with the timeline. The Prophets, I guess, wouldn't have allowed her to blow up Dukat because he was reserved for the Emissary to have a go at, but no one new that at this time. It's interesting that all these years Kira had wanted Dukat to die, and when the opportunity arose she couldn't go through with it. If there is a message, I can only suppose it would be along the lines of not expecting too much from your parents as they're only human (or Bajoran!), and even those people you think of as heroes, have their faults, some major.

It's just that none of what happened really made a huge impact and was more of a personal voyage of discovery for Kira, something I'd praise, except it's definitely not one to fire on all cylinders. Beyond Kira's story there are some little things to pick apart - it's mentioned that the Saratoga is coming to DS9. This must be the replacement for Sisko's old ship which we saw destroyed by the Borg in 'Emissary,' but I wanted more information. How does Sisko feel about a name from the past coming to his station? Does he know the Captain? In the last episode he mentioned his wife Jennifer again, and now we hear of the ship she died on, or one carrying the same name, and such a thing should mean something. And what happened to the 'new' Worf of 'Change of Heart'? He was all upbeat about making adjustments and allowing Jadzia some latitude - maybe he was thinking of her rowdy pre-wedding party. Worf looked a bit like he'd had a heavy night himself, so maybe he was off parties! When he went to exercise in the Holosuite I half expected Morn to get up and join him! That's the kind of little detail we've come to expect and was missing from this episode.

I also wanted to know if the arrangement with Quark where he got Bajoran lilacs in for Kira on her Mother's birthday was a regular thing. He's not the thoughtful type who'd do something like that as a gesture, but if it was a business arrangement he'd never miss the occasion! And spare a thought for poor O'Brien who gets the full force of Kira's tension in Ops - he looks at her expecting some small retraction or explanation, but he's not getting a thing! If the events of this episode interest I'd recommend the 'Terok Nor' trilogy of books as this is another event and characters woven into that history of the station and it's occupants. Now all we needed was an episode in which Nog makes a cultural visit to Bajor, on the way reading up on the planet's history, then he could have said: "This picture of a Bajoran who tried to kill Dukat looks just like Major Kira…"

***

Change of Heart

DVD, DS9 S6 (Change of Heart) (2)

The story about the Klingon heart, as told in 'You Are Cordially Invited' is shown here in action. It's been two months, we're told, since the marriage of Worf and Dax, and this is really the first time they've had an episode together, aside from appearing side by side a lot in minor scenes, such as having Kira and Fake Bareil over for dinner - thinking about that incident, in which Bareil steals Worf's Mek'leth and uses it to cut up dessert, made me realise how much I hoped Worf gave it a good clean since in this one he's slicing into Jem'Hadar hide, so who knows where it's been!). Actress Terry Farrell has said she wanted to be killed off in this one if they were going to let her go that way, but although it would have been the perfect solution to cause Worf maximum grief, I'm not sure it would have been a worthy enough death for her. Regardless of how you feel about her eventual death at the end of the season which comes across as arbitrary wrong place, wrong time stuff, she was at least defending a Bajoran Orb at the time. I'd rather she hadn't been killed off at all, but at least it happened right at the end of the season, so we got maximum usage out of the character (not that I can remember many Dax episodes after this one, perhaps a case of lame duck actor, though I'd hope the writers wouldn't have been so upset with Farrell's decision to spite her by not giving her a fair shake of screen time). Did they even know she was definitely going to be killed off, at the time of this episode? I don't know, but they did give her and Worf a chance to shine in their newly married couple status - even the writers couldn't come between two Klingon hearts.

Or one Klingon heart and one honorary Klingon heart, in case the spots didn't give away that Dax is a Trill! Just to drive home the point we see the cross-species differences shown up starkly in a wonderful remembrance of established facts: Worf shivers in the jungle night because Klingons don't like the cold, and Dax is fine because Trills don't like the heat. Chalk and cheese, Mars and Venus, it's all that kind of thing except in Trek-specific language. It is good to see the pair interacting, another example of marriage being shown as a good thing in Trek, supporting the Godly attitude towards coupling. Which god, though, I'm not sure, as, in a rare glimpse of Worf's religious convictions we see him praying or meditating before a statue enshrined in his quarters! I don't remember ever seeing this before, not that we go to Worf's quarters much (he's happily sequestered on the station after spending previous seasons bedding in on the Defiant where he could play his Klingon opera as loud as he liked and no one would complain, except perhaps the Chief, who may have had to fix the comm system!). But that's the thing with Worf, he's decided to make adjustments to his life to make his marriage work. That doesn't mean he surrenders (oops, bad word - very bad), on every topic, but he's more amenable to change and the wants of wifey.

The Klingons supposedly killed their gods, so I imagine it was a figure of Kahless, but does that mean he prays to idols? And what about Kahless the clone, doesn't having him in the physical realm as figurehead Emperor make a difference? The idol may not have been Kahless, but I don't know of any other famous Klingon it could be (unless it was really a voodoo doll of Gowron that Worf sticks pins into nightly…). Seriously, I wish they'd explain the Klingon religion a bit more, as they did so effectively with the Bajoran. I suppose it comes under one of many subjects left open in case future stories needed to create details. Having Worf and Dax on a mission together may not have been the best idea, just because their loyalties are going to be to one another first and foremost, even though they knew their duty. You'd think there'd be some kind of protocol about not sending marrieds off alone, especially on such an important task, though I suppose at the time it wasn't known it would become a rescue mission, and was only supposed to be a relay of information. I think the main reason Sisko was angry was as much for his own lack of input into the mission - had he been there he might have reminded them of their duty, but he was (presumably, since Kira handed out the assignment), out aboard the Defiant, with no knowledge of events. He'd doubtlessly have expected them to carry out such a mission regardless of personal feelings, knowing how honourable and dutiful these particular officers were. So frustration must have played a part, as well as the mixed emotions of gladness that Dax was safe (and understanding from losing Jennifer, whom we haven't heard of for some time), and perhaps even some guilt at feeling that way when the stakes had been so high.

Those stakes were nothing less than information on the numbers and locations of all the Changelings in the Alpha Quadrant, most invaluable intel! I question the validity of the defector's claims, and the veracity of his statements. We have no way of knowing if Lasaran was telling the truth or making up a cock and bull story because he knew his cover was soon to be blown and his identity as a spy unmasked. In his eyes he wouldn't necessarily trust Starfleet to act with immediacy, unless he could provide them with a really juicy secret. I'm just speculating, it may have been he really did have the information, but you have to look at the likelihood of one man, one Cardassian man, having that knowledge about the Founders, and it's flimsy. He could have been a bit more polite (even though he turned out to be right in this particular case at not being happy to trust the word of a Klingon), when speaking to his potential saviours, but he was a stressed out guy, and a Cardassian, so his natural arrogance and sense of superiority was no doubt wounded, and to crown it all, Starfleet sends a Klingon, one of the species that had recently been annexing and battling his people at their weakest, so it was a bit of an insult. But beggars and defectors can't be choosers, and diplomacy might have saved his life - though probably not. Add his attitude to Sisko's possible reminder of the importance of duty, and Worf might have had just enough reinforcement of honour to keep his heart from ruling his head, but, again, probably not: Dax was more important even than his honour.

Sisko says Worf probably won't be offered a command because of his actions, and it was only because it was a secret, Starfleet Intelligence-led (two episodes in a row featuring our heroes working for the organisation - no wonder Section 31 came a-calling not long after!), operation that he wasn't going to be court-martialled (Ben Finney did it! It was Ben Finney, in the engine room, with a spanner). Even so, it sounds harsh to cap a man's career like that, especially that of a powerful, ideal officer like Worf, whom you could easily imagine going on to have his own ship (I'm still waiting for 'Star Trek: Worf'!), and taking into account all the great things he had done (not to mention many more in future), he could surely earn back the trust of Starfleet. But that was the point - he'd put his personal feelings above completion of the mission, so it was a question of trust. All that, and it would ultimately be pointless with Dax dying only weeks, or short months, later, though I'm sure even if Worf had known her eventual fate he would still have saved her now. How would the season have panned out if she had died on Soukara? As I said, I don't recall any big Dax moments in the remaining episodes, but it would have definitely affected Worf in the negative.

The third crewmember on the mission, and just as vital it was too, was Runabout Shenandoah. I've mentioned in other reviews how this season the little workhorses got back some of their status, becoming a more regular part of things again. Not that they were ever forgotten, but they were in danger of slipping into the background as tiny ships not much better for combat than a shuttlecraft. But they were so much more than that, and this is another example of how useful they were. Admittedly, it was because the Defiant was busy that a Runabout was chosen for the mission, but it would have been required anyway, as although the bigger starship could have got closer to Soukara without being detected, thanks to its cloaking device, it would have had to blast its way through the asteroid field in order to reach the planet, and sent a shuttlepod down to land. The Runabout was more inconspicuous, and manoeuvrable, as Dax demonstrated with her expert piloting skills in a thrilling ride through the wonderfully realistic asteroid field - it wasn't just Dax showing some skill there, but the people responsible for the field, as we've never seen such a dynamic and exciting depiction of that kind of space phenomena prior to this in Trek. I assume it was CGI, as photographing that many separate elements would have been prohibitive on a TV budget. I always love travel through asteroid fields (seen again in 'Treachery, Faith and The Great River'), the threat so massive, deft movement needed to get through. As Dax said, she had three hundred years of piloting knowledge, and now she gets to show it off to hubby!

The Shenandoah was a new Runabout, or at least, one we'd never heard of before. I always prefer it when they tell us the name of whatever Runabout is being used as it gives them more character. I guess there were more of the ships stationed at DS9 since the outbreak of the Dominion War (this one was docked at Landing Pad A - they'd gone back to designating by letter again, after they were called by number in last season's 'Things Past'!), but the others that we know about (Rio Grande, Rubicon and Volga), were off doing manoeuvres with Martok's Ninth Fleet, leaving this one (named after the river in Virginia, America) to take on the mission. So there must be room for four Runabouts at least (I'm not sure it's ever been stated exactly how many can be docked in the landing pads). They have so much character, so it's a joy that they've been allowed to come into their own this season. They may not be useful for battle, but for a small crewed mission they provide a greater range of options than if everything was down to the Defiant, freeing up the starship for work more suited to it. Plus the interior of a Runabout is more intimate and provides a good space for people to talk, in this case about where they were going to go for their honeymoon (not Risa!). Note that Worf says Andor, not Andoria - I prefer the former as it sounds more alien; there's also the very rare mention of Vulcan's Forge, a location that may have originated as far back as 'The Animated Series' and somewhere we'd see in live action on 'Enterprise' (with an episode even named for it)!

Instead, all they got was the trusty Badlands and a jungle planet. I was interested in Soukara, and not just because of the incredible effort the greens people put into creating a location of such dense vegetation on a soundstage. I noticed during Worf and Dax's jungle trek that one lizard she looks at was crawling across some kind of flat, constructed surface. Assuming that this was meant to be seen on camera, rather than part of the structure of the artificial roots of the jungle, does this mean there was a lost culture of ruins on the planet? It's such a small thing, but it begins to make me wonder about the culture and life of this planet before the Dominion used it as a base. I can't help but look out for these little snippets of another world that tweak the imagination and start it off on theories. What wasn't needed to speculate on was the amazing creation of the jungle set. The lighting doesn't look quite as realistic as a true exterior, but everything else is excellent: logs across the path, uneven, mossy undergrowth, drooping fronds and a great height to it all - Worf even shins up a small tree at one point! But the greatest achievement was in the sound department, which totally sells a jungle environment alive with the screech of alien birds or the howl of alien wolves. Even better is the evocation of a waterfall, which I didn't remember at all, but is so well done with the rushing noise, steam and drops of water giving the impression of vapour spreading out from the real thing, there in the background, even though we can't see it fully.

Another thing we see are the layers of a modern Starfleet uniform, from the discarded outer jacket, to the figure-hugging inner shirt in department colours (though Dax' is more flattering than O'Brien's), right down to the purple-grey vest as under-garment that seem to be standard issue. It's clear Worf doesn't take his uniform off because Klingons like the heat, but it could also be to do with the complications of showing his race's exoskeleton, as glimpsed in such episodes as 'Ethics' in 'TNG' where we got to see a Klingon spine, and 'Sons of Mogh' from this series, for a bony Klingon chest. It's good that Dax' spots are seen to go further down (as well as down the legs when Worf whips her furry bedclothes away back at DS9), although we'd seen that before, it's good that they stuck to such continuity, making the races consistent and more realistic in consequence. Something we don't see much is Dax taken to her limits: vulnerable, disheveled, drawn and hollow-eyed, weak and paler than usual, staggering along - you knew she was for it because of all that, and if it hadn't been for Worf's disobedience against his duty, she'd surely have died where she slumped. It was all thanks to those nasty anticoagulant Jem'Hadar weapons, something else long established. I suppose we should be grateful the blast didn't somehow contain poison as well (maybe that would have been the next step in weapons manufacture, recreating the old native poison-tip spear effect). We almost never see the irrepressible Dax in such low spirits, (though with Worf she keeps up a bright front), such as when she faced death in 'Invasive Procedures,' another time a lingering demise was imminent.

One of Farrell's best performances comes at the end of the episode in which she lies on the biobed in the Infirmary, Worf admitting he has no regrets for his actions. It shows the strongest bond between them, and one that could only have been broken by death (and even then it caused complications because the symbiont turned up so soon after). It would have been a lot more satisfying if we'd seen them continue to the end of the series, and perhaps thereafter - maybe Dax would have been in 'Star Trek Nemesis' if she'd still been married (we really needed more 'DS9' in the 'TNG' films!), as well as the possibilities of the child she would have had. The interest of family life would have been a great draw. Another family unit of the station, the O'Briens, had been somewhat lost due to the War, a part of the series that I did miss after the early seasons. In truth, I'm not sure exactly what they could have done with the Chief's family, and it was always difficult to find a role on the station for Keiko, but it was nice to see the Chief come home to them rather than be alone (even if he does supposedly have Bilby's cat Chester since the previous episode!). We learn it's been six months since they left, explaining the Chief's obsessive behaviour: he wants to beat Quark at his own game simply for the challenge, because that's why he became an Engineer, joined Starfleet, etc. He could have gone off and had an adventure in Bashir's spy holoprogram (maybe the only reference in all Trek to the Queen of England, when he's telling Miles about the latest story!), which would have been fun for us, if not for the budget or legal department, but instead he takes on Tongo!

Bashir's genetic enhancements once again come to the fore, this time bringing him down the path to wiping the smile off Quark's smug face. But intelligence and deviousness are too separate things, and Bashir allows himself to be drawn into Quark's wily prattling about Dax having been his last chance for happiness since she married 'Commander Boring,' distracting the unsuspecting Doctor, who probably could have taken the whole thing a little more seriously anyway, if he'd really wanted to break the Ferengi's winning streak (I don't know where O'Brien got the six bars of Latinum - maybe Morn was feeling generous?). It was a fine display of tactics from Quark, it has to be said, and the whole setup of this high stakes game of Tongo for which the players have come far and wide (some, at least, as one or two of the participants wore rich clothing like Quark, as opposed to the waiters, so must either have been visiting businessmen or had come specially), reminded me of 'Casino Royale' with everyone else knocked out and only the hero and villain left to face each other, so Bashir got to live out his spy fantasy after all. Just without the inevitable victory at the end. In the style of the series, both plots end unexpectedly - there's no winning against the 'enemy,' Quark, to teach him a lesson he won't forget, it's a lesson for O'Brien and Bashir in not underestimating an opponent. And just when we think we know WWWD (What Would Worf Do?), he surprises us by rejecting his values in pursuit of a newfound greater value.

Occasionally I get a scene or a line of dialogue stuck in my head, but can't remember exactly where it came from. I experienced this phenomenon watching 'Sacrifice of Angels' where Dukat talks about the meaning of a 'true victory,' and it happened in this episode, too: Worf says he was considered amusing on the Enterprise, Dax responds that it must have been one dull ship, and Worf notes that he gets the joke, even though it isn't funny. It's nice to know where these things originate! Dax playing Tongo, of course, had never been far from our minds, so I enjoyed the scene in which she's playing Quark at the beginning, Worf and O'Brien looking down from above like a couple of Greek gods watching the affairs of humanity for their own amusement, idly making a wager on the outcome. It sets up the tone of the episode, not in a comedic way, but to reinforce how tight the bond is between Worf and Dax, and to plant the seed for O'Brien's B-story, which handily comes to an end about halfway through so that the real story, Dax and Worf trekking in the jungle, can get serious, the music becoming more intense and focused to suit the mood.

Even this had its pleasant moments, such as Worf relating camping trips with his human Father, (I'll bet he had "all the maps of the area"!), as well as his brother, Nikolai. His urge to run into the woods and be wild sounds very Klingon, especially one that was brought up in the more restrained company of humans. I got that sense of adventure from the doors opening on the Runabout to reveal thick jungle, and the pair plunging out into it. But he gets his wild pursuits in this one, though the Jem'Hadar weren't very bright, not even shrouding as they travelled, and killed off easily. Why did Worf fling his mek'leth into the tree trunk on his decision to abandon the mission? I like to think it was part anger at not being able to complete a task, and a sign of his resolution to complete another. Plus it helped orient us to his location as the camera had been moving freely so it needed to be clear that forward was the destination he was denying, backward his choice. Hopefully he had a spare back home…

****

Bride

DVD, Smallville S8 (Bride)

I got the impression from the opening moments (and the title), this might be a super-soap episode full of romantic dullness, but I should have expected Chloe's wedding to have a hitch, a hiccup, or some kind of rampaging alien ultra-weapon from the planet Krypton. We've had weddings before, and celebrations, so it's not like it's something new, and episodes do tend to go in the familiar teen romance direction, especially around this kind of time. I can't say I was interested in the buildup to Chloe and Jimmy's wedding (I never realised how incredibly superstitious the guy is!) - they'd already been living together, so this was more of a formality (and the chance to have a party, for the characters and audience), and I imagine that much of the viewership the series had geared towards more and more, would love all that stuff, but I was frankly relieved when things went crazy in the found-footage-style teaser. How crazy, I didn't suspect, for not only do we have our first sighting (if shadowed), of the monster, Doomsday, we also have the chilling news that Lex may be out there, Lana returns, the Green Arrow is abroad again, and Chloe's kidnapped, all in the space of one episode. Not to mention some romantic dullness as Lois goes 'sappy' in her own words, and starts pining much more overtly for Clark.

Let's address this, the least interesting part of the story, first: we all know that Lois and Clark are supposed to end up together, that's comic book lore, just as Lana and Clark never were 'meant,' so there's always been this tension, though more a source of amusement, poking fun at us for expecting the Superman legend to pan out the same way it's 'supposed to.' Usually it's with little things like Clark saying he doesn't like to fly, or whatever, but the series has, probably due to the longevity it experienced, slowly come around to do the expected things with characters (e.g.: making Lex and Clark enemies), forgetting that the most compelling aspect of the series when it started was that things were not as we expected, perhaps not even able to stay on that path since it had gone through so much metamorphosis over its lifespan, as all series' do - things start out as a 'new take' on an established mythology, whether that's 'Star Trek,' 'Star Wars,' 'Dr. Who' or this. The brand's the thing, and whatever force guides the writers towards the inevitable, be it audience pressure or the desire of the creative minds to get things back to a place of recognition, I don't know. But things rarely change drastically forever.

I didn't mind too much Lois going all gooey, it could have been the stress of organising a full bells and whistles wedding for her 'cuz,' though without the reassuringly traditional locale of a church, opting instead for Clark's barn and his house for all the preparation - long gone are the days he worried about people finding out his secret from house and grounds, and why he felt the need to keep a piece of Kryptonite in there, I don't know. Clark being knocked down by the tinkly green rocks at the moment of greatest import was really taking it back to old-school! As was the flower Clark gives Chloe, as she gave it to him at the dance way back in… Season 1, Season 2? I'm not sure, but it was a nice callback. I liked that Lois thinks her obsession with Clark is quite safe and secret, except the people she talks to know quite well, which added a bit of depth to conversations, usually missing in the series. I also appreciated the style of the wedding video as a means of telling the story, though it was vaguely irritating that we had another one where the Big Thing happens during the teaser, and then we have to go back several hours beforehand to build up to it, knowing full well that something bad is going to happen. I suppose the viewers might not have forgiven them for completely skipping all the pre-wedding stuff, though I certainly would have!

It would have been nice if Martha Kent had been able to return for the wedding taking place in, ostensibly, her barn, but she must be too busy with Senatorial duties for that. At least Kristin Kreuk is back as Lana Lang, something I didn't expect this season at all! As usual I'd forgotten the precise details of how she left, remembering only that she went into a coma with white eyes, so I couldn't quite work out how she got out of that and left. It was a bit of an anticlimax the way she was written out, but it was good to see her again, the key thing being that she's on the hunt for Lex, protecting Clark if she can without him ever knowing, though she believes Lex dead. The Green Arrow gets an outing as well, though I didn't for a moment think Lex was going to appear in the episode since Michael Rosenbaum's name didn't appear (even though I did wonder if the attacker at the barn was a crazy Lana when I saw her name come up!), so when he shoots the dummy I wasn't surprised it wasn't the bald arch-villain himself. What elevated the episode above the humdrum was that Oliver just shows up at Clark's with the chilling words "Lex is alive…" I didn't think they'd really have killed off the series and character's main enemy - even if Rosenbaum had left, he could always come back for a cameo, as evidenced by Lana showing up. It had been long enough that I was instantly intrigued by the possibilities these long lost story threads might have.

Without waiting for these things to stew we get to the main meat of the story, literally. Davis has torn some unfortunate person or persons apart and when cornered turns into Doomsday in our first look at what they came up with for the look of this terrifying and unstoppable creature. I didn't get a strong sense of the creature's menace, as you do with the Borg, for example (it looked more like an over-sized Jem'Hadar!), but I liked the design and wanted to see more of the makeup work. I would guess it was prosthetics rather than CGI, as it looked physical. Talking of physical I never expected a hoedown between Clark and the monster at this stage, I was sure that would be coming much later, maybe an end of season battle. It still may, but now Chloe's been kidnapped by it, up to the Fortress of Solitude (which is anything but these days!). Does this mean Brainiac is commanding the Kryptonian being, since that was the last we saw of the black goo, infusing itself into the Fortress' crystals? It's all quite attractive as a story to follow, not in the edge-of-the-seat style of early seasons, but in a mentally stimulating way that grabs your attention even if the twists and turns aren't anything you haven't seen before. What works are the use of the characters (I like that Lana and Clark get to talk out the past in a civil manner and see where it's brought them to) and the sheer flurry of developments, the most fascinating being what I can only assume is Lex Luthor himself reviewing the wedding video from some kind of medical chamber where he's hooked up to various tubes…

***

Honour Among Thieves

DVD, DS9 S6 (Honour Among Thieves)

They did it again, surprising us with another episode in the anthology style where a character is taken out of the regular setting and barely interacts with their usual co-stars, instead being whisked off into a world of their own that could have been done even if the words 'Star Trek' weren't on the front end. Some may see that as a criticism, the writers not being 'true' to Trek, telling a generic TV story rather than utilising it as its own unique thing, but I think it shows a maturity to the franchise that they can go so far from the standard setup we expect on a weekly basis (starship or space station), and present us with a meaningful and affecting story. And it's not like it has no connection to the Trek world, with an array of links and connections, even if it does owe more to 'Star Wars' in its version of a seedy bar set in a backwater planet and populated by weird aliens that are that little bit more unsettling than we're used to. But let's not go too far, these aren't the 'Star Wars' aliens, remaining true to the general rule of representing humanoids in a humanoid galaxy, but they do retain an unbalanced sense of danger and exoticism about them. Take Flith for example, Bilby's shifty-eyed, Ming-moustached henchman. He has a distasteful tautness about him, a wily, deceptive and totally untrustworthy air - you can imagine he enjoys torturing small mammals for sport. He proves as untrustworthy as he seemed, executed for conducting business on the side and not paying his 'fare' on the profit.

That's the other thing that impresses with this episode: they manage to pull off another group of characters that we're interested enough to follow, even caring about Bilby's fate at the end. It must have been difficult enough to create original stories with the main cast after five and a half years, but to be able to put totally new personalities in there and have them be as compelling as those we knew we were tuning in for, is quite an achievement. You could look at it from the other angle and say that it's easier to introduce new creations of your own because you're not bound by continuity or expectations and can do whatever you want with them as you see fit, but arranging all this within the confines of a Trek episode is the constraint, and pulling it off is admirable. This season saw a surge in writing for groups of guest characters, the genetic savants of 'Statistical Probabilities' starting the trend (and being the most successful), while 'Who Mourns For Morn?' and now this one, continued it. I would also direct people to this run of episodes if they complain, erroneously, that 'DS9' never went anywhere, since we've had three top episodes in a row that barely took place on the station at all, and the next one would be off-station for the majority, too!

The reason this episode came out so well, aside from the obvious of starring the great Colm Meaney in his first solo episode of the year (and arguably the next in the 'torture O'Brien' sub-category of the series), was the setting and the casting. Farius Prime is this steaming underbelly of crime and destitution, we only see a few people, but they're all criminals or prostitutes, all part of a shady underworld run by the Orion Syndicate. The planet itself is a character, and that's a far cry from some of the identikit destinations starship crews have visited (even using the same matte painting to depict their surface, on occasions!). The lighting is stark, the shadows deep, and steam curls through the back alleys of this rundown neighbourhood. Maybe there's another side of Farius that we never got to see, with rich people enjoying a happy, safe life, but that's the key: we didn't see it. All we see is grimy and beaten up (hence the 'Star Wars' feel), only members of the Syndicate have fine clothes. I couldn't say whether it actually ran the planet, and I'd suggest it's unlikely since they might have had an easier time carrying out their plan of assassinating the Klingon Ambassador if so, but they certainly have a hold on it, and members are treated with respect (such as the Dopterian getting out of the way as soon as he's told Bilby's group is going to use the combooth).

We've seen these kind of places before, and to my mind the closest comparison would be Nimbus III from 'Star Trek V,' the so-called 'Planet of Galactic Peace,' and all its crime and poverty. It was also the fact that this planet has a Klingon Ambassador, much to O'Brien's surprise, as it's regarded as a low-down, no-good kind of place. It makes me wonder how Bilby came to be there, as he looks human. It could have originated as a human colony, I suppose, but it may just have been that that was where the Syndicate sent him to work. The most interesting thing for me is the Starfleet Intelligence and Orion Syndicate cold war that's apparently going on, which makes you wish for more spy-type episodes. The Syndicate have killed a number of Starfleet's agents, which is why O'Brien's sent in in the first place. Why would the Chief be picked for such a mission? It's never stated definitively, but as Sisko says to Bashir, he knows how to look after himself, and perhaps with his long and distinguished career (and his nonspecific connection to Starfleet, being part of it, but not in the same way as a standard officer), might have played a part in the decision. It may also be his honest, open face ('uncomplicated,' as the savants thought him), and his working man's ability to fit into the social system - Bashir might have made a better choice for an agent (as Section 31 would tell him in only three episodes time!), his genetic abilities allowing him to react quicker or formulate a better plan, but his accent, demeanour (and the fact of O'Brien's 'fix-it' man skills, as Bilby calls him), would have been against him. So the Chief was the ideal man for the job.

The Orion Syndicate first entered the Trek world back in Season 5's 'The Ascent' (if it weren't for the weak link of 'A Simple Investigation' I could have said that every episode connected to the Syndicate was a winner…), which was only last season, but they feel like an organisation that's been around much longer, probably due to the name. The Orions were created for 'TOS,' though not used with great regularity, and in fact we never even saw one (except Marta in 'Whom Gods Destroy'), until 'Enterprise,' decades later. So the Orions were part of the bedrock background, something waiting to be taken up and explored. This wasn't really the episode to do that, as all they share is the name. I like to imagine Orions are behind the organisation, as the name suggests, but we didn't get to see one of the green-skinned brood here. Unless Raimus had secretly coloured his skin to alter his identity… Actually, he and Flith had similar Roman noses, so they may have been of the same race. Ironic then, that Flith gets shot by Graife, the resident barman and assassin, a thin, pasty-looking Bolian (I wonder what he made of his patrons robbing the Bank of Bolias?). That's not the only racial link - arms dealer Yint, who sold Bilby defective Klingon rifles (though they still call them Disruptors), had the same bone across the mouth from nose to chin, as Quark's former business partner, Fallit Kot, from 'Melora' (although he had hair and no prominent skull ridge). The variety of aliens is another thing I love about the episode, perhaps my favourite being Raimus' unspeaking, unmoving bodyguard with his large skull-like head, eye sockets shadowed thanks to the lighting.

The other side of the secret organisation coin is Starfleet Intelligence, something that's been mentioned here and there, but had little in the way of substance. In Chadwick we have a duplicitous example of their operatives, lying to O'Brien to keep him from worrying about side issues. He should have foreseen the Chief would form a true bond with a man like Bilby, that compromised his position, but he wasn't a bad sort, feeling guilty enough (presumably), at the way O'Brien was used that he didn't include the part about the man decking him, in his report! He had that furtive attitude and slightly gravelly, low voice that you might expect of a secret agent, but he wasn't quite Section 31 level of compromised - for one thing he wasn't wearing black, it was more of a dark grey or brown, so that's something! I find it intriguing Starfleet Intelligence should be used for a story, somewhat brought out of the shadows (if you can call illicit meetings in dark alleyways such), so close to the introduction of Section 31. Did this episode help to inspire the latter organisation, seeing as the whole concept worked well here? It did work - putting someone undercover was a great idea. Not a new one, but one worth exploring again, especially as it was more than just a secret agent action-fest. The story's quite a deliberate, slow-burner in the same way as 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' (not to be confused with 'Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy' from 'Voyager'!). They could have shown Bilby's raid on the Klingon Embassy, had him die in slow motion set to sad music, but it wasn't necessary. It was enough that he leaves O'Brien with his faith shattered, and the Chief's subsequent guilt.

Was O'Brien an accessory to murder? He could easily be cleared of sending Bilby to his death for the fact that he came clean and warned him, but he fixed the weapon used to kill Yint. It was with horror that he watched his work used to execute, even if it was a nasty arms dealer (live by Disruptor, die by Disruptor, as the saying goes), and though he does show his displeasure, trying to shake Bilby out of it, he has little sway in the matter. I guess it would be argued the Chief wouldn't have known they'd be used in that way, but what other function would a Klingon rifle have, but to kill? It's a tricky question to answer and the story was too short for every questionable thing to be dealt with (it would have made a good expanded novel), but the moral greyness is often at the centre of undercover stories, drawing us in so much. Seeing our heroes forced into tough decisions and how they deal with situations like that is the fascination. O'Brien knows he could have done more, and it haunts him (not so much Yint, as setting up Bilby to take the fall). He's a character that often has to be taken through harsh mental passages in which his good nature is pushed to the limit, taken furthest in 'Hard Time' when he was almost pushed to suicide for guilt, something that may have prepared him for this later assignment. Chadwick made it sound like he hadn't had much choice in being recruited for this weeks-long mission, yet he wasn't under duress - this wasn't Section 31 threatening his life or his family, as the shadow of the Syndicate threatened Bilby's.

One thing I was thinking during the obligatory scene at the beginning in which most of the cast appear together just so they can remind us that they exist (which is fine by me), was why O'Brien's Engineering team (including Rom!), couldn't put Humpty Space Nine together again without the Chief's help. But they answered that logic problem promptly, explaining that only he knows the secret to keeping the Cardassian and Federation systems functioning in relative harmony. The station breaking down used to be a running theme, especially in early seasons, always keeping O'Brien up to his neck in repairs, but as time went on things seemed to settle down so it's become quite rare for equipment failure to be part of a story, even if this was only a small part of the episode - the crew certainly learn to appreciate Miles when he's not there. On a side note, it's great to witness the timing from Rene Auberjonois and Armin Shimerman as they both besiege Kira at the exact same moment, just as they'd both stepped down in unison at the end of the previous episode! Kira handles the complaints well - she'd make an excellent Captain and has really come into her own this season, if not before, the Captain quite happy to leave her to sort out the mess, only Bashir taking it to Sisko's level, and only then because he was covering his concern for the Chief's wellbeing, another touching moment, not just that Bashir would do that, but Sisko would recognise that he was.

Technology plays its part in O'Brien's side of the story, too, as you'd expect. About the only strong link (and we have a pun!), between this and a previous Orion Syndicate episode is the use of the dataports, as seen in 'A Simple Investigation,' and used both times for illegal uses, hacking into computers with the mind, in this case by one of Bilby's associates, Krole (played by Carlos Carrasco who'd made his mark on 'Voyager' as owner of the space station at the edge of the Nekrit Expanse in 'Fair Trade' - he'd also been on 'DS9' before as a Mirror Klingon in 'Shattered Mirror'). It's a dangerous pastime, with the possibility of getting spiked (something I think may have been mentioned in the former episode), and the way in which O'Brien is able to get into Bilby's cell. I was impressed that they managed to make the stationary bank robbery from a computer terminal so exciting, just with simple graphics that gave an impression of what was happening, the running commentary, with urgency and warning tone in the dialogue, and of course, the excellent music, all adding up to a more tense experience that some guys standing around a computer should be capable of! It was also interesting that the way of identifying the Starfleet informant was that he was in charge of the weather control system on Risa a year ago. This technology was detailed in 'He Who is Without Sin…' and Worf, Dax and the others' visit could have been around the time this informant was there.

The thing that keeps this episode from being completely isolated in its own little world is the revelation that the Dominion is playing dirty (no revelation there!), by dealing with the Syndicate. It's an underhand thing to do, but the Changelings are quite happy to use any method in their desire for the destruction of the Alpha Quadrant powers, and it makes you think there could be a number of these small plots to undermine the security of the Federation going on all over the place. The Dominion representative, well introduced by stepping out from behind Raimus, is the Vorta Gelnon, whom we'd seen in just the previous episode (good job, then, that O'Brien had been one of those shrunk and hidden in the Runabout or he might have been recognised!). In fact 'Far Beyond The Stars' was made between 'One Little Ship' and this, so I imagine the actor had to work one week, then leave, only to come back another week, not that his scenes would have taken more than a couple of days, I would have thought. Gelnon gets around, doesn't he? He'd been off to Coridan the last time we saw him, and now (a few weeks later since that's how long the Chief's been undercover), here he is popping up on Farius. But what do I know, Farius Prime might be close to Coridan, we don't tend to get much definitive astronomical positioning, or, on the other hand, a cloned hand, there may be more than one Gelnon. I've never been certain about the status of Vorta clones since I think we've only ever seen Weyouns, and you get the idea that there's only one of him at a time. But the Founders could have multiple copies running around if they chose. Gelnon is another in the majority of Vorta that remain unmemorable, not through any fault of their own, but because they don't measure up to the exquisiteness of Jeffrey Combs' portrayal. He's too businesslike, lacking charm, though he is seen to wield power since he keeps Raimus, whom Bilby looks up to as a powerful man, on a leash.

The plot to rile up the Klingons by framing Gowron sounds a bit like the civil war of the 'Redemption' two-parter on 'TNG' - shame the Duras sisters were no longer with us, or they might have become the figurehead for the Dominion plots. You have to wonder how intelligent these collaborators are, though. Does the Orion Syndicate not realise that the Dominion aims to enslave the quadrant? That once they've served their purpose they'll be just as lame a duck as the Maquis, who were hunted down and eradicated by the Jem'Hadar. Maybe the Syndicate has its hands in larger pies than the Maquis, its goals greed and power rather than freedom of independence for themselves, or destruction for the enemies, as was the Maquis' case. The Cardassians are in a similar position, having signed up to be part of the behemoth, and it would cost them dearly, too. All these threats have probably given Starfleet greater sanction to carry out nefarious secret activities as they do here, morally dubious actions that don't appear to be in line with the 'enlightened' vision Roddenberry supposedly proposed. But his future was never purrrfect - just look at poor Chester the cat. Such a good actor, and yet I'm not sure it was ever heard of again. Maybe it knocked over one of Keiko's prize Bonsai? Molly was growing out of stuffed toys by this time, too…

Would the episode have had more punch if O'Brien had come back to his family? I'm not sure, because returning to his empty quarters must have driven home the point Bilby made: family the most important thing, and their absence would have resonated with O'Brien's guilt at being responsible for a permanent gulf between the man and what he held most dear. If Keiko had been there to support him, and Molly had climbed on his knee as happened so often in the past, it would have softened the blow. With Bashir there as his friend to tell him the truth, and help him stop beating himself up, it gives some solace, but, though far from empty words he does remain alone once Bashir's gone, with only the cat, a constant reminder of the man he betrayed, for company. I can't deny that I miss the Chief's family life playing out on the station, one of the few gaps in an almost universally satisfying series, but to underscore the meaning of this episode, that it was all about O'Brien and what he went through, it probably makes it a stronger resolution. That O'Brien has a family at all was Bilby's last victory, a small consolation for the other hard truths he had to learn. There's something about a character lingering in a doorway before leaving for the last time, that stays in the memory with a bittersweet taste. It makes me think of Trip's last appearance on 'Enterprise.' And Bilby was a great character to lose (much more memorable than the other character Nick Tate played in 'TNG' - the scruffy shuttle pilot of Wesley's 'Final Mission'). Honourable to his family and friends even though he had a violent streak, the true gangster culture reflected in his ways. He and the other character, Farius, in which we are fully immersed, not dipping back to DS9 or a ship, making it a real place, is what makes this a real episode. A really great one, that is.

*****

One Little Ship

DVD, DS9 S6 (One Little Ship)

The trusty Runabouts had a raw deal once big brother Defiant came to stay at the beginning of Season 3. It wasn't their fault that they were small, relatively low of power and short of range. They weren't starships and they weren't shuttlecraft, they were something in between, and we loved them for it. Their most famous contribution to the series was that at least one would be blown up every season, so the crew got through a number of them, only the Rio Grande surviving all that was thrown at it. But this story wasn't about that august example of the Runabout fleet, it was about the Rubicon, a newer entry, though still a couple of seasons old, having joined the station's complement back near the beginning of Season 4, in 'Hippocratic Oath' where it was replacing the Mekong, which had replaced the Ganges, which was one of the original three - I love the Runabout family tree! Coincidentally, Rubicon's debut had been in another Jem'Hadar heavy episode, and not only that, but a Jem'Hadar-heavy episode in which different factions of the genetically created race were first introduced. That had been the first time opposing views had been revealed as possible in what had often seemed a slave race to the Dominion, when champion of free will, Goran'Agar, had attempted to subvert the Dominion's control over his men after discovering himself to be free of the controlling drug Ketracel White. Of course since then we'd learned many Jem'Hadar are far more honourable than we gave them credit for and most would likely continue to serve their masters even if it weren't for the White.

In fact, Jem'Hadar have shown great frustration at being thought of as mindless slaves who only serve because they're forced to. These are not the Borg, as demonstrated in 'To The Death' when, in another case of inter-Jem'Hadar politics, a breakaway faction tried to take control of the Iconian gateway technology, surprisingly Starfleet agreeing to team up with Dominion forces in order to stop them. Not only that, but one of the Jem'Hadar executed his Vorta leader (the first we ever saw of Weyoun), for doubting their loyalty to the Founders. There's also Ikat'ika (on an irrelevant side note I've noticed in some episodes Jem'Hadar are credited with a capital letter after their middle apostrophe, others lower case - lack of attention from the writers, or something more?), who refused to kill Worf in the prison camp battle because of his irrepressible spirit to continue the fight, promptly executed for disobeying the Vorta's order. So they're more complex than often given credit for, being the ultimate soldiers, not mindless drones. At least, they had been the ultimate, but now there's a new breed in town, created out of necessity for more men: the Alphas. I wonder why the Dominion called them that (or, even if it's just a name they gave themselves, I wonder why), because surely to whatever denizens of whatever quadrant, that area is their 'Alpha Quadrant' (or equivalent title as first or main area of focus). The Alpha Quadrant should only be the Alpha Quadrant to those that live in it, just as the Gamma Quadrant wouldn't be called that to the Dominion, or is this simply a case of semantics? Perhaps the Universal Translator knows when to change the Dominion's word that describes their quadrant and this, into the Federation's view of the space?

Regardless of the wording, there's a definite rivalry between the old guard of experienced Gammas and the new Alphas. It seems they are 'A for Arrogant' more than anything else, another display of the Founders' lack of God-like foreknowledge, unless they wanted competitiveness between the branches to encourage them to fight harder, or be tougher (something you'd assume the Jem'Hadar do and are anyway), though a house divided against itself will fall, so whether planned or not, it was a bad mistake. Not that it became much of an issue in the longer term - I don't recall these differences being explored in any depth, strange for a series that usually delved into such subjects, unless perhaps the Dominion forbade 'racism' amongst the troops? Mind you, the Jem'Hadar, like the Runabouts, got a raw deal in some ways - their entire fleet in the Wormhole was banished far away, never heard from again, and we're often reminded that they never have any fun, simply existing to fight. It's interesting to see the disparity between them, so well encapsulated in the characters of First Kudak'Etan and Second Ixtana'Rax (Fritz Sperberg, later in 'Voyager' episode 'Body and Soul'). An Alpha that's superceded the Gamma as leader because he was bred for Alpha Quadrant combat. I wonder what modifications were made for the Alpha Quadrant battlefield? Or was it merely an overriding self-confidence and belief in their own superiority that carried them along like a placebo? They dispense with the ritual speechifying usually required before dispensing the white since their actions dictate their loyalty for them, they say, but I bet if the Vorta had been handing out the drugs they'd have kept to the old traditions.

Captain Sisko was rather fortunate to be captured by a force in conflict, led by overconfidence, because, as Ixtana'Rax says, if it had been up to him, they'd have been killed as soon as their ship was captured. Not that it would have taken long to kill the crew as it seems there're only four of them (not counting the three on the Rubicon). How can we be sure there aren't other members of the crew locked up somewhere? They're never mentioned, and Sisko doesn't even say anything about his crew being affected when he pumps anaesthezine gas throughout the Defiant to take out the remaining enemy force! It was beginning to feel a bit like 'Remember Me' in which everyone disappears until it's just Beverly and Picard, and he notes they've never needed a crew before! Mind you, it is a little ship (even if it is a tough one!), so perhaps they only required a skeleton crew for this scientific mission, allowing the usual crew some R and R. Not that it wasn't intensely important research they were doing. Beyond shrinking a Runabout (which could have made an effective spy vessel - take a squadron along, miniaturise them, cloak the Defiant and head for the heart of Cardassian space to drop them off - voila! Instant fleet of spies that can infiltrate the Dominion's most intimate meetings!), an expected side effect, they were aiming to discover how to make transwarp corridors! Imagine the Federation with the ability to open a corridor and zip across to the other side of the galaxy ('Voyager' would have been over much sooner, that's for sure!), or even visit other galaxies with ease.

The implications of the mission are barely even mentioned, and even then it's seen through the veil of war as a tactical advantage. But it would be of incredible explorative advantage, too. Perhaps that's where they should go in a future TV series, setting it further into the future where visiting galaxies are like popping to the next planet in the other series'? There would have to be ways of doing completely alien aliens though, as humanoids wouldn't cut it except as a choice made by aliens in order to interact with these humanoid visitors. But technology isn't really the focus of the episode, as technical as it is, it's about exploring the idea of what you could do if you were tiny. To an extent I felt they missed a trick or two by not featuring more of the crew leaving the Runabout, restricted to the oversized set of a circuit housing (long before 'The Lord of The Rings' films made scale sets an art form!). The isolinear chips were very real, if not as transparent as they usually are (to prevent reflections which would make filming more difficult?), though I don't recall ever seeing white tubing used before. Maybe it was unique to that circuit… It was a clever idea to create a set that was possible to build because of its small dimensions, but it would have been something else to see a minuscule O'Brien or Bashir dashing over the carpet in an EVA suit, wielding a phaser rifle like a militarised version of 'The Borrowers'! Actually there was one moment that reminded me very much of 'The Borrowers': when they're trying to escape the flow of plasma (yellow this time, rather than green, for some reason…), it brought to mind that moment when Pod and the others are running through the pipe to escape the onrushing water of an emptying bath!

While we didn't get much people power, we did get to see the Runabout in all its miniaturised glory, exhibiting a personality as it sneaked about or peered out from cover. And it looked more beautiful than ever, seen in a toy-like context, absolutely wonderful in all that intricate detail and glowing engines. We even get to see the tiny people waving out of the front viewports at a bemused Worf. The delicate, yet deadly manoeuvres of the little ship when it takes on a room full of Jem'Hadar is like a 'Toy Story' battle, but for the stakes of real human (and Klingon, Bajoran and Ferengi), lives. The Jem'Hadar literally don't know what's hit them, and seeing the Runabout zipping about, firing its tiny torpedoes to take out the enemy one at a time is a sight to behold! Earlier in the episode I was wondering why Dax didn't simply fly round the ship phasering all the soldiers, but thinking about it (apart from their not knowing the extent of what was happening - acting too soon could have dire consequences), the phasers would have probably been so low-powered as to be nothing more than an irritant, while torpedoes were just explosive enough to cause damage (a bit like Superman flicking peanuts at glass bottles in 'Superman III'). The agility of the craft was impressive, but as a visual spectacle this episode could only have been done justice by the time they made it. It could have been done (even as far back as 'TOS,' especially as the shrinking story is very much in that series' style), but it would have had to be models all the way, and the intricate camera shots wouldn't have been easy to make realistic.

Those on the Runabout, Dax, Bashir and O'Brien, should be commended for their actions, ignoring, even taking advantage of their failed mission, instead concentrating on freeing their comrades. When they first get the blast shutters open (I don't remember if they've been called that before, Dax doing her best impression of an Imperial Stormtrooper - 'Open the blast doors, open the blast doors!'), Dax wonders if they've discovered a wall in space, looking at the Defiant's hull in front of them, bringing to mind Q's net in 'Encounter at Farpoint'. But the real heroics, you could say, were seen from Sisko and his people. It helped that the Jem'Hadar had probably the series' three toughest warriors together (and Nog!), which they eventually get to demonstrate in pitched battle (Worf doing his patented neck snap, something he'd later perform on Weyoun!), but they didn't know at first that any help would be forthcoming, assuming the Runabout had escaped and was heading home (how I'd have loved to see the tiny Runabout flying around DS9!), so they were on their own. I'd have liked to see the Worf/Nog support for each other, part of the humour early in the episode, taken further, like if Nog had somehow saved his life in the fight or vice versa. The main thing is they all accept the possibility they'll have to sacrifice their lives rather than allow the Defiant to remain in enemy hands - it certainly gave Nog renewed motivation to decode the bridge lockouts when he learns what Sisko's backup plan is! Worf obeys Sisko's order to input a virus that will make the warp drive explode on reaching warp one, without question, and Kira expresses grim satisfaction that they'll take the Jem'Hadar with them when it looks like all else has failed.

Unlike 'The Search' in which a similar takeover by Jem'Hadar occurs, and in which Sisko turns into the wild bear fighter, his rage unleashed, this Sisko only allows the thought of resistance for a moment before sensibly deciding to bide his time. It was a different situation to the former attack, in which he was in charge of a newly-minted warship, the best hope against this new Dominion threat, captured by the enemy on its maiden voyage. This time it was a scientific mission, the odds were very bad, and he had weapons pointed at him rather than fists. It could also be that he's learned to control himself a little more over the years, able to channel his Hulk-out anger in more productive ways (most of the time - though there's a holographic punchbag from 'For The Uniform' that says different!). I couldn't help noting similarities with other episodes, too, such as 'Starship Down' (in which the Defiant is cast adrift in a nebula from a Jem'Hadar attack, and has to get systems back online), where the reverse of Kira and Sisko happens - then, Sisko was the one who gets a face full of console (or bumps his head, at least), Kira kneeling beside him. I don't think a story would have helped her recover, but fortunately she wasn't as badly injured as Sisko had been, and had Nog to dab her forehead. 'To The Death' was another link, and not just for the obvious 'Jem'Hadar factions' angle. The Defiant's turbolift is so rarely used (it's more like a turbo-cupboard - fitting two characters and a camera inside is only just possible, it's even smaller than the NX-01's, if you can believe it!), so to have another instance where Sisko's life is threatened by a Jem'Hadar in that enclosed space brought back the similar scene of that episode.

One thing I found doubly interesting was the idea of an Honoured Elder in the Jem'Hadar ranks. Ixtana'Rax survived for twenty years, which is a lot when his race are so eager to give up their lives in the line of duty, whether in kamikaze attacks on the USS Odyssey, or killing themselves in shame for allowing a Changeling to die (as in 'The Ship'), they go into battle to reclaim their lives, so it's no wonder that life is something of a commodity or privilege rather than a right, to them. Ixtana'Rax was a shrewd soldier, full of experience, and really it was the Alphas that got him killed for not listening to his advice, but even then he displays loyalty to the Founders in his dying words, the familiar refrain of "Obedience brings victory, and victory is…" ironically dying before he can finish the saying with "life." If he had survived, this would have been his last mission before retiring, and what happens to a Jem'Hadar who retires? Are they put out to pasture smoking cigars on a rocking chair in the front porch of a log cabin with a nice view of the hills? Somehow that's not the Dominion's style. More likely he'd have been recalled home to train newly cultivated soldiers (do they come in a jar marked 'Just add water'?), passing on his considerable knowledge and experience. Or he could just as easily have ended up as a worthy opponent for untrained Jem'Hadar to battle against in a kill or be killed series of training exercises until he was knocked off - probably the way he'd like to go, in battle. I can't imagine any Jem'Hadar wanting to stop serving the Founders as it's all they have. Also makes me wonder how the captured Jem'Hadar reacted to being prisoners of war and how long Starfleet could have kept them from killing themselves. Jem'Hadar in captivity is a difficult concept to comprehend.

Though there are some serious subjects touched upon (transwarp corridors, Jem'Hadar politics, Worf standing up for small people, perhaps thinking of Alexander!), it's a much more humorous episode than you'd expect a Jem'Hadar takeover being. I'm glad they didn't go with Pakleds as the villain as originally proposed, as they were never an interesting race and we learnt more about the Jem'Hadar as a result of this episode, but it doesn't stop there being a pantomime element that fits with the idea of shrinking some of the cast to pin-size. There's an urge to shout out 'It's behind you!' when the Rubicon is gliding just behind the First's head - I don't know how the Second didn't notice it when the ship first flies into view in Engineering and appears from behind a console almost right up his nose! O'Brien being so antsy about his size was so much fun, as was his comedy partner, Bashir's, many putdowns and quips. For once, the genetically modified Doctor is the one having to ask the questions as he doesn't have the specialist knowledge Dax and O'Brien have, which must have been a nice turnaround for them. I'm surprised they didn't really play with that angle of superiority, but I suppose they were too busy for pettiness. The funniest moments are reserved for the last scene, however, in which Worf shows his sense of humour, as does Odo - the two considered most serious having the greatest amusement! The timing of Odo and Quark's step down after the Constable's suggested O'Brien and Bashir have come back slightly smaller than they used to be is exquisite - he's been the butt of enough practical jokes in his time, so no wonder he grasped the opportunity.

There are many points of interest apart from the main story that bear commenting upon, one being another rare mention of Coridan, a planet I often wrongly associate with being a founder member of the Federation, though in fact it was a planet admitted during 'TOS'. Gelnon the Vorta (another rather forgettable member of the race, further cementing my point about few Vorta being great characters, though it's a little unfair to judge the actor as he hardly featured, though he'd reappear as Gelnon in the very next episode, and as a different character on 'Enterprise,' though in the much-derided 'Precious Cargo'), was on his way to attack the Dilithium mines there, from which the Federation gets much of its crystals from, I imagine. Shame we didn't get to pursue that story further, literally! The Benzite on the station, which I suggest may have become a resident, having popped up in the background several times this season, reappears again behind Worf in the bar. He still looks a bit green about the gills however, but I would too, if I'd chosen this of all times to move to DS9! The flowery pattern on the First's arms has never been more pronounced that I can recall, so I wonder if this was the inspiration for the effeminate Jem'Hadar action figure? And just when you thought the captured Jem'Hadar ship had sunk into obscurity by sinking into an alien sea in 'Rocks and Shoals,' it's mentioned by Sisko as having taken a week for them to learn to operate it. I don't know whether the makers of the series kept track of what the insides of the various Runabouts looked like, as I've never gone back and checked, but the Rubicon is shown to have a central column console to the rear of the cockpit in this episode. It would be interesting to see if this was always so or a modular extra, added and removed depending on mission requirements.

The most important thing about this episode is that the Runabouts were getting some love again - even from that first shot where we see one accompanying the Defiant in front of the anomaly, there was a warm glow of happiness to see one being used. So often they've been forgotten in the larger canvas of great battle fleets and galactic war, and actually, just the fact that Starfleet continues to do scientific research even in the midst of war is a reassuring comfort: the old ways haven't been forgotten. The Defiant is useful as the tether to keep the Rubicon safe as it carries out its mission, but for once, it is the littler ship that saves the bigger. What's more, we get to see parts of a ship we'd never normally see. I'm sure we'd all much rather see Cetacean Ops or other outlandish starship facilities, but it's still fascinating to get a glimpse of the inner workings of a fine Federation vessel. The jeopardy of O'Brien and Bashir beaming into the circuit was rather forced (why bring the Doc along anyway, as the air would be used up twice as quick?) as it would surely be a simple matter of beaming out, sending in another compressed air bubble, then beaming back in again. I half expected someone's sensors (either Sisko and co.'s Tricorders, or the Jem'Hadar with internal sensors), to detect them or the Runabout - I'd hate to think how many mice there must be on a starship if they can't detect small biological entities! There were also little things like Bashir going flying from an explosion when the Runabout's damaged, but Dax is the one who's injured, or the Jem'Hadar helping Kira having a ridiculously protruding chin that looked odd, but the point of the episode is that small is cool, whether the Runabout's doing some 'Mission: Impossible' spying as they flip to each view and explain what the crew are doing to enact an escape plan, or simply seeing it fly around inside another ship, without relying too much on technical talk, which makes it an accessible as well as enjoyable, but believable, fun entry in Season 6.

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