Image In The Sand

DVD, DS9 S7 (Image In The Sand) (2)

I felt like I had arrived at the station and was a fly on the wall to all the things happening, and it was a very interesting time to visit. The reality is that I've been to this time period many times before, but it genuinely gave me the impression of stumbling into a bustling world full of fascinating developments for the ears of the weary traveller. So much is going on, it is as the series would become for its final ten episodes, a fully-woven tapestry where the threads are indistinguishable from the whole fabric and the plots and arcs mingle organically from scene to scene, a far cry from the staid, but somehow reassuring style of the early seasons and their generally standalone style of storytelling, the traditional Trek method that has stood the test of time. Here, we're right into what is now contemporary TV series' as we know them, to an audience expecting development as its own source of interest rather than the satisfaction of a complete beginning, middle and end. Season openers have always been this way, however, especially on 'DS9' because the previous season always ends with some kind of cliffhanger, be they low-key (Odo ominously realising that Gowron is a Changeling at the end of Season 4), or fraught and exciting (the station relinquished to the combined might of Dominion and Cardassian forces as our heroes flee for their lives at the end of Season 5), so it's no strange thing to see Season 7 begin with what could have been a continuous story all the way to the end, but is in fact just the familiarity of a two-parter to bring us back into the beloved world of DS9, Bajor and the Dominion War.

One reason to feel like a fly on the wall observing all the fascinating plots is thanks to some strong visual direction from Les Landau, not a name I usually pick out for praise such as an Alan Kroeker or a David Livingston, but right from that shot moving up from the ground level of the Promenade (many years before drone filming made laborious and restricted crane shots unnecessary), across and up to Odo and Kira talking above, following them as they walk and talk, the story is told functionally, but also with a zest for creation, whether that be the sight of Kira looking small as she sits at Sisko's desk having just taken on his mantle against an Admiral Ross bringing bad news, or the great Captain himself, playing piano all day at his Father's full restaurant, and going from wide and busy times at the station, both inside and out (such as the beautiful view of Federation, Romulan and Klingon ships orbiting or docked), to the utmost intimate of a back alley where Sisko is violently, and shockingly, stabbed. The focus is both large and small, taking in a huge picture or giving us small and personal moments, and handling the many plot points they needed to hit, with aplomb. It's good to be back here once again, as Sisko would agree at the end of part two.

Before all this could happen there had to be a reminder of the dark times that had driven things to the point where they are and we see the traditional pre-teaser recap with Majel Barrett's computer voice inviting us back to the party. We see again the tragic, senseless death of Jadzia Dax, the monstrous Dukat and his embracing of evil, with the aftermath cold and sorrowful, especially for Worf in an anguish of rage, and for Sisko, feeling a failure as the Wormhole has collapsed, cutting him off from The Prophets, and Dax' death cutting him off from the wise advice of the 'old man,' his dearest and oldest friend, driving him to seek a stunned solace in the comforting familiarity of home on Earth. And that's where he's remained, nothing resolved, a period of healing, but one that hasn't progressed anywhere, he's waiting, but for what he doesn't know, listless, but pensive until the penny drops, or at least the baseball, and a vision brings mystery into his safe, routine life, far from the Starfleet one which he'd retreated from. I appreciate the quality of the writing, the way important happenings are arrived at in small, organic ways, a story woven gracefully despite its many pieces, avoiding big battles and adventures to allow time for introspection and the arrival at decisions and choices ('life is full of choices,' states Joseph, you make them and hope for the best'), much of the story setting up the journey many of the characters will take in part two.

If this series were 'Smallville,' the pendant featuring Ancient Bajoran writing on the back (belonging to Sarah, a new character whom we learn very quickly was a terribly important person in Sisko's life), would have dropped out of some portal in the heavens, a fight to possess it would have ensued, and the quest it presented would have been over and done by the end of the episode (or alternately the narrative would have been dragged, dying or half-dead, across a third of a season!), Sisko having been commanded to go to Tyree in the vision rather than the revelations allowed to bubble up gently in the realistic, yet mythic manner they crafted here. That story would have been all about bashing a villain, or someone being in jeopardy for a few minutes, but here we see mature storytelling where people's life experiences and feelings are brought into focus, making this mystical path to action believable and complementing the characters rather than forcing them into a course they wouldn't naturally go. I'd say the episode is an object lesson in juggling the needs of drama, the requirements of the unresolved Season 6 plots, and a new dawn for the characters, and while it may not be one of the greatest episodes of the entire series, it is certainly one of the better entries, and that without the need for explosions, shouting and running, all devices to disguise a lack of direction in poorer genre examples. The closest we come to action is in the culmination of Kira's encounters with new Romulan character, Senator Cretak.

Cretak is quite different from the usual stereotypes of her race: amenable instead of arrogant, accommodating instead of vicious, civil and open to new things rather than rabidly xenophobic, and she immediately puts herself, if not in Kira's good books, then certainly off the books, a big question mark hanging over her. Knowing Romulan character so well I suspect she was chosen for this mission for the very reasons laid out above. If there were any way to establish a dug-in presence for the Star Empire in Bajoran space then it would be to put its highest ranking official off-balance. Cretak isn't openly devious, but what could be more deceiving than a Romulan that seems open? It's an excellent guise and if it weren't for those pesky torpedoes she would'a gotten away with it, too! Despite the promotion Kira hasn't lost her vim and vigour, something of her old volatile self blasting into a meeting between Ross and the Senator, neither of which is particularly happy to be disturbed, especially when allegations of illegal weapons are fired liked missiles into the middle of a cosy talk. Kira has more than one run-in with the good Admiral, and you almost feel sorry for him ('Have you ever worked with Bajoran women before, Sir?' as a Chief once said, back on the Enterprise-D), but in her new position as Colonel (complete with more constructed hair, fancy braids here and there), she has to swallow her distaste because the decision to allow Cretak and some of her soldiers to station a permanent garrison on DS9 had already been made. Cretak sees to it that any objections are smoothed over and seems reasonable… for a Romulan, going as far as Kira wanting to help by endorsing the request for a hospital facility on an uninhabited Bajoran moon, before the real issue rears its head, the final confrontation leaving no one in doubt Kira will remove the weapons herself if no action is taken.

As far as action that's about it, unless you count Worf mashing his fists into poor Vic Fontaine's Holosuite bar and lounge set, although if the burly Klingon needed something to smash (Worf Smash!), he could have chosen worse than a holographic simulation, though his choice might have been better spent on replicating the skull-faced alien and the safeties off for some warrior training rather than taking it out on a sentient holo-character's business who's only trying to help. Sure pally, he knows the whole shebang can be put right with a simple command, but it don't do a guy any good seeing the place he's worked so hard at get wasted, you know? The thought struck me on seeing the post-Worf devastation (sadly we don't get to see much of the rage mode in action), about whether those smashed bottles had contained actual, replicated drinks, or were just for show, because it's got to come out of somebody's bar bill, surely? Oh yeah, I forget they don't do money, except for Quark and he's just concerned that Worf will tire of holo-violence and come and pull the real bar apart. The trouble with Worf is he's trapped in frustration, an example of a time when Starfleet can't indulge his Klingon side leaving him incomplete, distraught as he feels his wife, Jadzia, won't make it to Sto-vo-kor (Klingon Heaven), because she didn't die in battle. His friends, Bashir, O'Brien and, yes, even Quark, learn all this thanks to the Chief's brave night of drinking with his old Enterprise crewmate, kicking back and talking about the good old days in the hope that Worf will loosen his tongue. He does, but not until O'Brien's tongue is feeling hot and heavy for trying to match the Klingon nervous system drink for drink.

It's another scene we're not privy to, left out in the corridor when O'Brien tries to inveigle his way into his old friend's quarters, and though we get a nice little starter with Barclay, Geordi and their Holodeck adventures recounted (so weird to think Barclay was in a Trek series later than either of these characters talking about him!), you have to cut something from such a packed episode when you only have forty-five minutes to tell it, and this way at least it leaves it up to the imagination as to what the whole fascinating conversation must have been like. We learn that Klingons usually have shorter mourning periods than humans because they don't value the body left behind, and it is thanks to Bashir and O'Brien that someone who does understand and can help, is called in, providing a little combat for Worf (we'd previously seen him fight Martok back in Season 5's 'Soldiers of The Empire'), though the younger, driven Klingon, well rested from too much uneventful convoy duty and itching for some outlet, doesn't take long to deck the worn, older warrior, but it's Martok's way of offering a solution to Worf's needs as a Klingon rather than the human way of simply talking to him (why miss out on the opportunity of a duel if you can have one). It's in moments like these that you see what great value having a recurring Klingon character brings to a series, complementing the regular in a way that couldn't have been achieved so naturally had he not had two years in which to build a friendship - as important as Starfleet and his humanity are to Worf (one of the things he and O'Brien talked of was growing up in Russia), he's remains Klingon at heart, with all the specific needs of that race which cannot be fully understood by outsiders.

Angry Kira and Angry Worf initiate the injection of heat into a calm episode, but the most dramatic and disturbing moment is awarded to Sisko, whom I'm sure would rather have declined such an honour, since it comes with a knife to the gut from a crazy Pah-Wraith cult worshipper who's tracked The Emissary to his Earthly hideaway where the sudden and surprising attack is all the more horrifying for taking place in the heart of his security, as far from war, enemies and malice as can be, aside perhaps some Vulcan monastery somewhere, as I can't imagine them allowing a psycho to get so close to such an important figure. Jake's quick thinking saves his Father (those sacks of clams came in handy after all - I wonder what happened to the attacker, was he marched off to gaol by Starfleet Security?), but if the Pah-Wraith's are so opposed to Sisko finding the Orb of The Emissary then that's a good enough reason for getting up and getting on, leaving the clam-scrubbing behind for actions more appropriate to an inquisitive and bold Starfleet Captain. The fact that his aged Father decides to go, as well as his son, makes it a Sisko Adventure through and through (though you want to watch that Joseph, I wouldn't bet against him smuggling some sacks of clams up to the Runabout to give young Jake something to do with his time!). It would have been exclusive to the family Sisko had not one late arrival appeared at the door of the restaurant asking for Benjamin: a petite little lady calling herself Dax…

The episode doesn't have a typical cliffhanger, a moment where the characters are trapped or in fatal jeopardy, we're merely left to wonder how Sisko will react to this young pretender to the Dax throne. But it was like his Faerie Prophet-Mother had answered his wish that if he could only have Dax here to help him: and lo! she did appear. I still remember the wonder at how the series would be with a new character added so late in its run (the first main cast change since Worf joined at the start of Season 4, and we saw how incredibly well that worked out), and it's a very small cameo for her first appearance, but still so exciting to speculate on what this new person will be like, continuing the lineage Jadzia was a part of - how she'll react to each of the characters we know so well, and how they in turn will react to her. But that's all for next time, and a very effective way to close out the episode it is, in typical serialised style leaving you eager for the next part to devour, though there's much to be said in the waiting of a week so that the nutrients of this episode have time to filter down into the mind and the anticipation is built up instead of being instantly satisfied, because a lot can be forgotten or overwritten by jumping straight into another instalment when each one is as rich as this series was.

The hardest thing to accept about 'DS9' coming back was the loss of Dax, so it made sense to introduce a new character that had some connection with her rather than forget, or ignore, the impact she'd made over the course of six years, often the soul of fun and joy in a series that was visually and tonally grey, with lots of characters that were slanted towards keeping their distance and dealing with serious things of great gravity. I'm glad they didn't make the next host a male, not just because Kira would have been the only female main cast member, and the series would have looked unbalanced, but because having another female Trill is like having a piece of Jadzia with us, not too far removed from the way things were, though as we'd soon find out, she was quite different to the confident, assured, playful Dax we knew. One way the season could have improved was if they'd had Terry Farrell back in some recurring capacity - I know Jadzia was dead, but there could easily have been times her memory spoke to Worf in dreams or in visions. Ezri Dax could have seen her past hosts portrayed as characters for her to interact with (a little like the zhian'tara ceremony from 'Facets' where each of her friends took on the memories of the hosts for a short time), perhaps even The Prophets communicating with Sisko through her image. All we actually got was occasional sight of a wedding photograph on Worf's bedside table as we did here, but at least her memory wasn't forgotten since much of the preoccupation of Worf and the others, especially Sisko, was her loss.

Worf's dilemma, squashed by his Starfleet duty, but needing and wanting a way to prove his loyalty to her and win her a place in Sto-Vo-Kor, was as much for our benefit as his, a route to move on from such an integral character as Jadzia. It was handled well and used the Bashir/O'Brien friendship to excellent effect, where humour was allowed even though it had been such a devastating loss, and their escapades continued. I can't remember if the rest of the O'Brien clan had returned to the (relative, as we'd find out later in the season), safety of Earth, because it certainly seemed as if the Chief had the freedom to spend his time with his best mate, and Keiko, Molly and Kirayoshi would remain almost entirely unseen this season, sadly, since I always loved the little domestic scenes that spiced up the series and added a dose of reality. Reality is important to the series, because if it had degenerated into fantasy (as Trek can sometimes do, such as Voyager and its future armour in 'Endgame'), it can begin to unravel - one reason I think a new series still hasn't explored post-'Voyager,' the general impression being that technology would be too advanced to be taken seriously and would lose the grounded nature of Trek science and lore. What works well here is we're still in the middle of great events, larger in scope than we'd ever seen before, yet with daily life and the minutiae of continuing to live even in wartime an important component of the drama - everything seems comparatively settled in appearance, with the battles and their victories and losses happening far away, offscreen. DS9 appears to be something of a haven thanks to the combined forces surrounding it, so the danger comes internally, whether that be from Kira letting her guard down when presented with a seemingly reasonable Romulan, or Worf, almost unable to keep his frustrations bottled up. Just below the surface things are fraught and uncertain for everyone.

The perspective of the opposition is granted little screen time, but what we do see plants the seeds for the future, with Damar comfortable in his role as head of Cardassia, though Weyoun is disapproving of him and his penchant for drinking. We also see him as more thoughtful than he's seemed before, speculating on the celestial battle that must be raging inside the Wormhole (a bit like the Q civil war in the Continuum, as seen in 'The Q and The Grey'), this thoughtfulness and the drinking two characteristics that would become key to his development through the season and the man he became before it ended. It's always the little details that show how well these writers knew their stuff, whether that be the ongoing continuity or the references to the past, from stembolts and Jumja sticks, to talk of the Enterprise and Worf's growing up in Russia. But hang on, I thought he grew up on the farming world of Gault? Well, details and chronology are a bit sparse, though according to the 'Star Trek Encyclopedia' he did grow up on Gault, and then Earth, so it's not a mistake for him to speak of Russia (I'm surprised he doesn't claim everything Klingon was originally Russian-invented, or vice-versa: you've never read Dostoyevsky unless you've read him in the original Klingon, and you've never read Kahless unless you've read him in the original Russian!). One piece of apparent continuity is actually nothing of the sort: I was sure Tyree, the planet Sisko's drawn to, was named for Kirk's friend from 'A Private Little War,' but according to Ira Steven Behr in the immortal 'DS9 Companion' it was named for a character in the film 'Major Dundee'! Perhaps 'TOS' got the character name from that 1965 film?

If Worf's history isn't a nitpick, I can spot a few that are. One is subjective, with Quark claiming Jadzia always was squeamish when it's said she never ate the heart of an enemy, but I would have thought of her as anything but squeamish, always ready to try new things, such as her baffling enjoyment of Ferengi culture, at least in terms of the food and Tongo! I also found it strange when Kira and Odo are discussing the Pah-Wraith cult and how numbers are up, inferring that those chanting in the doorway to the apparently packed Temple on the Promenade are members, but why would the monks allow a cult to take over a Temple to their Prophets? That didn't make sense and we could do with a lot more than throwaway lines to explain the Bajoran religion is in chaos because of the Wormhole's collapse. We need to see Kai Winn and find out what's going on, though unfortunately that side of the series got less and less shrift after the first couple of seasons, except for its part in the mythos and the Emissary's journey. The Emissary himself must have great powers of vision because somehow he's able to create the full head of the woman he saw, when, as far as we could see, only her face was visible to him. Unless he had more than one vision, or was extrapolating from instinct, maybe a buried memory, since she turns out to have been his Mother, and in his life for a full year. The fast-paced, instant adjustment of his digital photo-fit on a padd was some cool tech! Lastly, a minor continuity glitch I noticed was the shoulder strap of Joseph's bag flipping from flat on his shoulder, to tangled, and back again as they stand ready to leave for the mission at the end. Unimportant, but it stuck in my mind.

A lot has happened in the Trek world since I last saw this season almost nine years ago, both big and small, films (and maybe even film series'?), have come and gone, Trek has returned to the small screen, in a manner of speaking, with 'Discovery' debuting mere months ago, and we've lost many more of the actors and creators behind the greatest sci-fi saga ever made, but when watching this particular episode it was a reminder that this is the first time I've seen an episode of the series with Barry Jenner dead, the great Admiral Ross himself. His Admiral was probably the most well-adjusted, believable authority figure in Trekdom, able to be both friend to his subordinates, especially Sisko, and the stern giver of orders when he needed to be, Jenner's portrayal a great asset to what could have been an unsympathetic role as almost all other Admirals were. It's come to something when people start dying off from the TV shows you watched on their original transmission, a reminder of mortality and the ever-increasing speed of life. But it's watching 'DS9' and other greats that helps in that place of struggle with life and death, and even though so much time has passed since I last watched the series I can't help but feel a warm glow of comfort and happiness when surrounded by these characters I have so much affection for. Though Season 7 is far from the days of the series when so much was left to discover, when a simple visit from an alien was enough to satisfy the demands of the running time, it mirrors the uncertain times we live in, while providing solace, just like Sisko craved, sitting engrossed at the piano in the middle of his Father's busy restaurant.

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