Prodigal Daughter

DVD, DS9 S7 (Prodigal Daughter) (2)

Ezri goes on the voyage home, and I can't help thinking of what might have been if this messy story had been granted a stay of execution in order to smooth out the ideas a little more. As admitted by the writers in 'The DS9 Companion,' it was a last-minute script after the earlier versions had to be dropped and something had to be filmed. But it's not a bad episode, at least I didn't think so this time. It could be the low expectations I had from previous viewings, preparing me for the worst, or it might be my perspective had subtly shifted in the years since I last watched it, but I found it a reasonably good tale given the circumstances. That is, another episode almost completely eschewing the main cast (aside from Ezri, and not much more than extended cameos from O'Brien), right after we'd just had an episode featuring Vic and Nog alone in the Holosuite. Not to say such stories aren't great, but in this case it had the added burden of forcing the episode to be carried in large part by guest roles, characters we'd never see again, and so are largely irrelevant, except to Ezri, and she was still in the process of finding her feet on the series (though she was certainly getting more than her fair share of exposure). I had forgotten all about the connections with the Orion Syndicate and O'Brien's brush with them last season being a key plot point, remembering only that this was about Ezri returning home to see her family and Norvo being responsible for murder.

If I'd gone in thinking of this as a sequel to 'Honour Among Thieves' I'd have been disappointed, because it's far from the quality of writing and drama of that sixth season Starfleet Intelligence vehicle for the undercover exploits of our own Chief O'Brien. They rarely venture out from the opulent house of the Tigans, Ezri's family, except for a drop into the good old cave set operating as a Pergium mine (no sign of any Horta being in on the action - it would have given the episode a much-needed boost if they'd used this as an excuse to have a member of that race involved in the mining, even if we didn't see it, just heard they had a contract with a Horta, but of course if they could have shown one it would have boggled the mind of all long-term viewers!). That's the thing, the episode looks very nice: it's all set internally, but the matte painting of the impressive home, leaning precariously over an abyss, looked amazing and was zoomed out far enough that the figures that could be made out walking around didn't look fake, as CGI too often does when creating the humanoid form. The sets were lavish and attractive, full of art and quite different from what you'd imagine a mining family would be living in. But they're not a typical example of miners, and for that matter neither are they typical examples of Trill. Yanas Tigan, Ezri's forceful Mother, is very strong-willed and isn't afraid of pushing her views, perhaps overbearing might be the best word to use, though you sense she feels she's doing what's best for her children and family.

They never mention what happened to Ezri's Father (another ripe area to mine between O'Brien and her, but completely ignored), and Yanas embodies both maternal and paternal qualities, perhaps adjusting for the lack of the Father figure in the home. To be fair to her she does try to be understanding of Ezri's new status as a joined Trill, but, and this is why I had the impression they weren't typical of their species, they've chosen to live far away from Trill society and if not suspicious of the symbiont or what it has done to Ezri, they don't seem to see it as a great honour or opportunity for her. Mining appears to be the sole concern, though as Ezri does some mining of her own the cracks begin to show and the image of the family home hanging so precariously comes back to mind as a metaphor for those that live within it: Janel, the capable older brother who carries the responsibility of the day to day running of the mine, is under a lot of pressure, Yanas has no idea of the stress she's put her sons under, and Norvo feels like a complete failure, leading him to 'proving himself capable' by committing a heinous crime that stands at odds with the likeable, laid back young man of talent and promise that we see interacting with his older sister. He's been crushed by his family and has no impetus to get away and start his own life, something Ezri tries to help with, but sadly she's come too late, as she sternly rebukes herself in front of O'Brien at the end.

It's not a happy story, but it is fairly moving when everything comes to a head, and there are spikes of surprise throughout. Not having the main cast around doesn't help, but I don't see any other way this particular angle could have been explored with them. But even on the station things aren't quite right. From the opening you assume Bashir will be the main focus as he tracks down his friend, Miles, missing on the hunt for Bilby's widow, the man he made friends with and was forced to betray last season. The fact that he's kept tabs on Morica Bilby and is concerned enough to go AWOL (sort of - he implied he was going to visit his Father), should have set up a good drama for his character. And if Bashir wasn't going along with Ezri, then Keiko O'Brien certainly should have. I don't recall any scenes of Ezri travelling, but Keiko would have been deeply worried for her husband and putting her and Ezri together in a Runabout could have made for interesting interplay, much like Vic and Nog. Keiko was largely left out of the final two seasons, the war era, which is a shame because I've always loved the little domestic scenes of a regular family living on that Cardassian monstrosity, and when they've given her things to do (such as being taken over by a Pah-Wraith in 'The Assignment,' or dealing with an aged-up daughter in 'Time's Orphan'), she's shown her mettle very well and I could imagine her doing everything she could to track down Miles, perhaps even dragging her children along in the fury of purpose I see her having, dealing with Orion louts with fire and resolve.

It was not to be, however, and I don't even recall Keiko getting a mention in the entirety of the episode! It may be that she and the children were back on Earth, or even Bajor, and Sisko didn't want to worry her unnecessarily, but whenever we've seen concern from her over her husband's whereabouts and safety (such as in 'Whispers' or 'Armageddon Game'), she's had a strong role, and I can imagine her going up against Yanas in quite a shouting match! As it was, we were denied the spectacle of Mrs. O'Brien playing Sherlock Holmes and sorting out the Orions from the boys, and we weren't even garnered the Chief himself operating in the seedy underbelly of New Sydney, he doesn't come into the story until some way into it, brought in by a Lieutenant Fuchida of the New Sydney police, a little worse for wear, but unbroken in spirit. But even then O'Brien isn't exactly a window on the Tigan family. I can wish that he'd had more to do and been able to exercise his detective skills on screen, but then that would have been at the expense of seeing Ezri bond (or not), with her family, setting up the shocking reveal at the end (all without the sight of a man in a battered old raincoat and cigar, walking in to explain what happened). And that's the problem, it's all a setup to something, which is a surprise, but has no real relevance to the series or its characters, merely an excuse to visit Ezri's family and peek a little more into her life. They didn't even do that with most of the main cast on the series (though I did like the reference Bashir makes to not getting on well with his own parents)!

'Voyager' seems to be the model upon which this episode is based, and no knock on that series (my favourite Trek after 'DS9'), but this is like one of their early season's episodes where they were just hopping from planet to planet without any longterm consequences - indeed, inconsequential is the word that springs to mind when I think of this episode. The style is very much in the 'Voyager' vein, where you'd have all new sets on some alien planet, a guest cast carrying a lot of the story, and not necessarily anything to take out of the experience (I'm talking about the weaker episodes here, there were plenty that the opposite was true of). By the end you're left wondering what the point of it was when we've just had such an important character story in the preceding episode, Nog learning to live with his new leg, which is actually about Nog learning to live with the fear of mortality. In this, Ezri shows some signs of anguish at not being there to prevent this mess ever happening, and then that's all there is to it, nothing she can do, nothing that will resonate into further stories as it might if the Tigan family were to be brought in as a part of the final season's ongoing saga - that could have worked, with the Syndicate angle, as they'd had some dealings with the Dominion before. 'DS9' could have been the one to bring back the green-skinned race onscreen, instead of waiting a further five years for 'Enterprise' to get there.

I don't know whether this was the case, but it seemed like they were throwing in as many references as possible to cover up for the inadequacies in the episode's meaningfulness. Of course it's great to have another story where the Orion Syndicate is involved, even peripherally, with such interesting additions as Thadial Bokar being a Farian, the same race as Raimus who was the previous Mr. Big we saw acting for the Syndicate in 'Honour Among Thieves,' denoted by their vertical ridge running up the nose to the forehead. It's some nice little continuity, both acting in that same confident, smooth-talking way with an edge of violence to them. There's talk of Nausicaans (O'Brien was beaten up by them in the grand tradition of Captain Picard, although he was a much younger man when he went through that particular wringer, suggesting Miles is a pretty able fighter when he needs to be!), Ezri shares some Saurian brandy with her youngest brother, Norvo, not to mention the mining for Pergium, two links to 'TOS.' Like the Orions, the Andorians get a mention, too, though again we don't get to see them, it's just that Norvo had tried to get into the Andorian Academy of Art. I was just waiting for Gorn, Tholians and Tellarites to be name-checked for a complete round up of 'TOS' second-tier races! Ezri's own history isn't ignored as we hear a little more of the USS Destiny, and we learn from her that there are fifty-one different varieties of Gagh, since Jadzia had ordered a barrel of each one for Martok's birthday. And that's a nice reminder of Jadzia's place within the DS9 community, too.

None of this can distract from the fact that this episode had so much potential, but was a squandered slot in a busy season, a victim of time. I even felt the family logo was rather reminiscent of the Vidiians of 'Voyager,' with that distinctive diamond shape centred in the doors and on the hard hats. It would certainly have made an unforeseen twist if the Vidiians had been the villains! Even Fuchida the policeman looked remarkably like an alien of the week from that series, probably because they tended to deal with officials and police authorities more often than any other Trek series, and with Michael Westmore having to design a different race every week there were a number that looked a bit bland and unmemorable, like our Mr. Fuchida. I was even unsure of the windows all round the Tigan residence, which were white during the day and dark blue at night. It makes sense that they wouldn't want to look out on the barren landscape, after all, it's only a paper moon, not some lush, gorgeous paradise they've set up home in, so frosted glass isn't the issue, but the shade of blue they used looked as if it was blue-screen that had been forgotten, as if they should have been projecting the landscape onto it (as in 'Insurrection' when they left the inside of the Son'a collector's blue-screen surround instead of filling it in with CGI).

The biggest issue is with what the episode could have been, rather than what it was. If this had been Season 4 or earlier it wouldn't have been out of place, but in the midst of the war, and between experimental episodes, and especially when Ezri has stolen so much of the limelight through being a new and interesting character to write for, I sometimes feel the regular community suffered slightly, wasn't allowed to breathe quite as much and went a little, only a little, stale. Where's Garak and Bashir interacting over a meal? Or Garak and Odo sharing breakfast? Or Garak and anyone! Not entirely fair, we do have more of Odo and Kira together, and Ezri and Bashir keep hanging out at Quark's. But there isn't the family dynamics as much as there had been. The O'Briens; Bashir and O'Brien having adventures (and I don't mean the Holosuite ones which are more talked about than seen); Sisko and Kasidy, or Jake; Worf and… well, I'm not sure. That's the way it had panned out, Jadzia was a crucial linchpin for many of them, bringing them together socially in a way we haven't seen as much after her death. Ezri can't replace her, and strangely, in the opposite of Kes, whom I've come to like more and more over the years, I'm seeing Ezri for a less desirable presence than I used to when I instantly accepted her and found her great fun. Whenever Sisko calls her 'Old Man' it's a warm reminder of his previous friends, Jadzia and Curzon, and is a validation of Ezri in our eyes, so I'm not saying they were wrong to bring her in, just that, like the Tigan family, things weren't quite as successful as they used to appear.

I still wish this could have been a Bashir/O'Brien story, which I'm sure it would have been if not for Ezri - there seems to be no reason the Doctor couldn't have accompanied her, except he was in the doghouse with Sisko for not squealing on O'Brien sooner. And O'Brien should have had more to do with her, though he was in a difficult situation being a non-commissioned officer, as she was the superior and he had to take her orders, even though she's so young and relatively inexperienced (her personal nature fighting with being old and overly experienced in the Dax symbiont!). They definitely have a professional interaction, but that doesn't hold him back when he finds evidence that the family knew Morica at the time of her death, and he doesn't know Ezri well enough to give her the benefit of the doubt from the off, almost accusing her of being in on the murder, and on the other side she orders him not to say anything until she gets to the bottom of what's going on, so characters are much more like their Season One versions where they didn't wholeheartedly trust or understand each other, an interesting dynamic, but a little uncomfortable when we've become so used to the camaraderie of the crew this late in the series, and something else that produces an impression of being removed, rather than part, of the ongoing story. Yet given all that, I still find myself coming out of the episode having enjoyed it more than I expected.

***

It's Only A Paper Moon

DVD, DS9 S7 (It's Only A Paper Moon) (2)

"Compared to you, I'm as hollow as a snare drum." That's the main thing I take away from this story of Nog's rehabilitation in Vic Fontaine's holoprogram: the difference between reality and fantasy, just like the Nexus in 'Generations' where Kirk realises nothing matters in that world. He had his Picard to help persuade him that there's a real life out there that needs him to make a difference, and Nog has Vic, only things get a little cloudier this time as the longer Nog stays in the Holosuite, the longer Vic can experience full-time living. Because, unlike the EMH on Voyager, Vic is a fellow sentient hologram that doesn't get to live a normal life. Like the Doctor he contributes to the wellbeing of the crew, doing what he was programmed to do, performing for them, but for the first time he gets to sleep in a bed, has time to read the paper, keep his books or watch some TV, and it could be suggested he has every right to try and manipulate Nog into staying permanently, if the young Ferengi wasn't already intent on the idea. But it shows Vic's honest reality that he sees himself for what he is. We could argue around the holographic houses as to whether any or all holograms can be called living and a life form (I think it has to be a case by case basis otherwise it becomes very difficult to support Holodecks being used at all, like some form of entertainment industry slavery!), but Vic knows Nog's real life is of exponentially more value than his own computerised puppetry, no matter how real it is to him, so he urges for the selfless way and orders Nog to leave when the time has come.

When you realise just how close to the Doctor Vic is, you can see what a big deal it is for him to put Nog's good before his own: he knows he's a hologram, so that's a form of sentience. He has the power to turn his program on and off when he wills it (again, a tricky concept to grasp if we understand him to be conscious somehow when his program's off, otherwise how could he reappear…?), and he experiences his existence as if the fantasy is reality. This is what draws Nog to his humble abode. At first it was the song that got him through the injury, but then when he sees what kind of place Vic's is, a lightbulb comes on and he thinks of staying there. Vic is accommodating, as he's designed to be, but there's more to him than that because he can be devious: he agrees with Ezri to try and wean Nog off the cane, something he succeeds at immediately by gifting his new friend a brand new, and better, cane, more befitting of the era (a remake of Errol Flynn's, he says), inadvertently winning his young charge over even more because it reminds Nog of the Grand Nagus' own cane! So sometimes Vic has some kind of intuition, and others it's just blind chance that he stumbles on the right thing, but he's not just Mr. Nicey-Nicey, he has hard words for Nog when he belts Jake in a rage for bringing his girlfriend with him to visit. And later, when he sees that Nog is no longer dependent on the cane he closes the program down himself. Everything works to show how 'human' Vic is, which is why he seems to real: he puts others before his own self, he's humble because he sees himself as he really is.

Like the Biblical instruction, Vic lays down his own life to find it, because he gives up the juicy proposition of continued existence, a life he can really get into (and he's not even constrained by the building as he says he and Nog were going to visit the architect of a new casino they plan to build), for the sake of Nog's, which leads to him getting that life back at the end when Nog arranges for his program to run indefinitely! So it's a great parable and only makes you respect Vic even more. It's a funny situation as a viewer, because Vic's time is so long ago that we're caught between the Sixties and the future century of the series, both equally alien to us (unless you were around in that time, and even then, you'd have had to be in that part of the world and of that particular age to be completely at home in Vic's world), yet we feel welcome in both. The larger parallel, or one of them, can be that we, as many people do, find solace in Trek, some of us would love to live in that world - not the one where you get your leg blown off in the front lines of a war, or any of the other equally horrible ways to get injured or die, but the adventure, couched in a secure optimism based on positive experiences, is an enticing prospect. This story is almost a warning not to get too wrapped up in this universe and its characters because your real life is far more important than this place where nothing really means anything. One of the best lines about real life is Vic's: "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but at least you're in the game." If a hologram can be somewhat envious of even the most mundane life that is real, we shouldn't take it for granted. Paying visits is fine, but don't live there, just as Sisko had to be taught by The Prophets not to live in the moment of his wife's death.

When Trek is teaching us these things is when it's at its best, beyond the average sci-fi drama. Yes, the characters are important (the idea of running a whole episode round two recurring guests shows their ability to create enduring, fascinating ones to people this make-believe world), the drama and stories that open the mind up to ideas and speculation make it exciting, but it's the warm, joyful learning experiences that make the difference. Vic has a covenant with his patrons that they will come to his establishment, enjoy his entertainments, then go back to the real world, switching him on and off like the lightbulb he calls himself, and he's happy with that. Until he has a taste of what life could be for him, then there's a slight wisp of discontentment in his program, but this only drives him harder to force Nog to accept that his life is important, a precious commodity not to be hidden away from reality and wasted on holographic profit. The idea of free will is broached between Nog and O'Brien ("I'm an Engineer, not a philosopher"), since he has the ability to open up or close his program down by choice. It's not something 'DS9' really explored, leaving it to 'Voyager' to deal with holographic rights and the ramifications of what it could all mean (one reason why a series set in the latter part of the 24th Century or beyond is so appealing - to see how these things develop), but one thing they did do was to expand Vic's character beyond his original small role, giving him a full-time life!

The only problem I see with this is that there must be different shifts, so some might wish to turn up at Vic's mid-morning for a concert, but he'd still be in bed after a long night! Not that it matters, I'm sure they could have the program run in another Holosuite at the same time, duplicating Vic, but would there be ethical concerns with that? Could the two programs interact? Maybe that would have made a good story where multiple Vics are supposed to be playing, but in fact the computer can only cope with one of him, so he's running himself ragged leaping between performances. There's so much they could have done with his character if they'd had more time, like say another twenty seasons, so it would still be running today, just like Vic's program! This season has shown what the writers could do if they were allowed even more free rein over their product. We'd seen all kinds of wacky or satisfying conglomerations, but you could never have guessed that Nog and a holographic buddy in Vic Fontaine would be an obvious pairing for a story. It's strange that Nog grew as a character and into a role, more than Jake Sisko, his good friend, who doesn't get much to do in the series' final season. So it's nice to see him show up a bit in this episode, even though they're almost cameos and this is far from the hew-mon/Ferengi fun and japes they used to have, being a more serious story. We see that they share Quarters on the station (Jake looks a lot younger in his pyjamas!), that Jake tries to get on with the depressed Ferengi, and goes as far as bringing Kesha, his Bajoran girlfriend, along to Vic's to try and cheer Nog up, but Jake isn't the one who can help Nog.

I would have liked to have seen a scene where Nog makes up with the pair he so upset, but it would have been unnecessary for the story as it's enough to witness him walking without the cane again. On that subject I still don't know if he was truly experiencing phantom pain from his biosynthetic leg, or whether he was actively lying to try and escape from the frightening reality he had woken up to. He says he realised he could die and so was terrified of what might happen out in the real world, so it could be that he made it up as an excuse to avoid dealing with his issues, or he genuinely did feel the pain, and it was brought on by mental anguish. At least he had such understanding friends and colleagues that allowed him the time to come to terms with his new leg and to heal. It's so rare to have all the main characters together in one scene - I'm not even sure if this could be about the only time in the entire series when we see everyone, from Worf to Quark, Jake to Kira, all in the Cargo Bay to welcome Nog's return from his operation. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't remember a group scene with the whole cast, since Jake would usually be left out of Starfleet matters, and Worf hadn't always been there. I suppose at the end, in the final episode they all gather at Vic's. Armin Shimerman, or whoever it was, was right when he said about the non-Starfleet characters that they wouldn't have much to do in the war, because that's the way it panned out: Quark's in the group scene, and joins in the family hug at the end, but, like Jake, he was severely underused this season, less space for simple tales of Ferengi mischief and profiteering as seen in the early seasons.

Quark shows how warmhearted he is in the most potent way possible: through the loss of cold, hard profits in his reluctant agreement to Sisko to allow Nog to stay in the Holosuite, after piping up asking who was going to pay for all this time. I loved the little joke when Vic's worried about 'Uncle Sam' coming down hard on him if his books aren't kept properly, and Nog says he's got an Uncle a bit like that, neither really on the same wavelength, but also making some kind of sense, at least to the audience in the know! Although I would have liked to see a more comedic scene with the full main cast, along the lines of the brilliant one in Kira's Quarters in 'The Circle' where everyone goes to say goodbye, it wouldn't have been appropriate to the mood, and humour in the episode comes from Nog and Vic's strange partnership, or even non-humorous fun moments (for those of us that like old Westerns, for example), like when Nog watches 'Shane' or says that he prefers 'The Searchers.' It's not 'Hollow Pursuits,' because Nog's problem, though similar, isn't the same as Reg Barclay's, it's not that he has holodiction, it's that he just doesn't want to face reality so he puts his significant Ferengi business sense into big plans for Vic's place, and Vic is very taken with it, caught up in the rush of living and planning, feeling tired and sleeping. Early on he quotes Starfleet regs at Ezri, that Nog can choose his place of rehabilitation, and later he actually loses sight of his purpose so much that he needs Ezri to remind him that Nog can't stay there forever! It's for both Vic and Nog to find their feet in reality, though a little reality goes a long way for Vic - you get the sense that he's actually privileged to be allowed to spend time with real people whose lives matter, as opposed to dead holo-matter, so it's a delight to see him revel in it.

One thing I was impressed with was the flashback: the first one where we see Lieutenant Larkin's shock death from a Jem'Hadar bolt, then Nog's vicious wounding, was useful, but only made me wish they could have done a scene from that episode that we didn't see, or an existing scene from a different perspective, but then I thought that it's not a film and they didn't have the budget to go recreating scenes from other episodes and it was too much to ask. Then there's another flashback where Bashir tells Nog about the song he's hearing and explains who Vic is, after the attack where Nog lies in the field hospital with Quark lounging nearby. I wasn't sure, but I thought it hadn't been in 'The Siege of AR-558,' and checking Memory Alpha confirmed it. What a great idea and so pleasing for them to do that when it's such a rarity on Trek. We occasionally have been given the gift of seeing the Bridge of 'TOS' Enterprise, or other parts of Constitution-class vessels, and even a recreation of the Enterprise-D, but this was a much smaller scene that you could easily mistake for being taken from that previous episode, done without fanfare, and it was wonderful. The only thing I didn't understand is how Nog wouldn't know who Vic is or not have been to that program since it's been so popular with everyone. His Dad, Rom, even auditioned for Vic there, but it's highly possible that Rom and Nog don't see each other often, both on different jobs (Rom's promotion to Engineer First Class was thrown in as an aside, but shows that he continues to progress thanks to his diligence and hard work, another little sign of where he'd end up, perhaps).

As usual, it's a testament to the writers and actors, and everyone involved that such a thoughtful episode could be created out of such a small premise as a Ferengi losing a leg in battle. I like that it doesn't follow on immediately from that episode (just as 'Coming of Age' and 'Conspiracy' on 'TNG' weren't consecutive - it makes the fictional world seem bigger and more consistent), and that it's a very different episode to 'AR-558.' It's not as much an emotional episode as I thought, not until the end when Nog can't keep it in any more and he has to be honest with Vic, but it's a nice place to visit and Vic gets to sing a few songs along the way, only adding to the cosy atmosphere. It's as much his episode as Nog's, but the pair of them carry it so well that it makes me wish we'd had even more episodes like this where a couple of relatively minor characters got to interact on a mission or in a situation that formed the majority of the episode. It could almost have gone another way and been yet more chance for Ezri to practice her counselling skills - like Garak, for instance, she keeps getting patients that don't want to talk to her, it's a wonder she keeps going. Maybe she counsels herself? But she doesn't overpower this one, she's here just to leaven the story a little, add something that makes sense for her character to be doing, without taking the limelight away from the real stars of the show: a lightbulb and a one-legged Ferengi. And it only takes one little Ferengi to change a lightbulb, badoom-tish!

****

Covenant

DVD, DS9 S7 (Covenant) (2)

Gul Dukat needs a fish-slap to the face. What he actually got was what he'd always wanted: Kira jumping on him, the wrong and unreverend 'Master' of ceremonies, right in front of his whole congregation. What exactly was her plan in this instance? To shock the Bajoran cultists into dropping their suicide pills, or perhaps she hadn't entirely thought it through and was acting on instinct about the best way to drive this madman from his wicked scheme. To me, this episode shows like no other that Kira had gone a little soft from her Resistance days. She wasn't at the siege of AR-558 in the previous episode, so we didn't get to see her in soldier mode, and though we'd seen her face off against Romulan Warbirds at the start of the season, that was from the comfort of a padded Captain's chair - the chance to exercise those rusty terrorist skills was an opportunity she really needed to take. So maybe leaping from the balcony to take down the Cardassian fraud was her way of proving to herself she hadn't lost the old action persona of her youth - it's terribly ironic that the last time she leapt at Dukat was to save his life in the past, in 'Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night,' in the incident where she learns her Mother was a 'comfort woman' to Occupation overseer Dukat, and they appeared to have affection for each other. Kira often seems to be put in the position of being the one to (try to), save her fellow Bajorans from Dukat - this time it's the fifty cult members, including her old Sunday school teacher, Vedek Fala, and in the past it's been Dukat's own daughter whom she promised to avenge by killing him if he touched a hair on her head. Maybe it wasn't Sisko who should have been Emissary to The Prophets, but Kira!

She does a fine job of recalling her terrorist days to escape her cell - who'd have thought of powering up a heater to overload the door mechanism? But she really needed to show she hadn't completely lost her abilities because of the ignominious way she's so easily taken in and taken down. Granted, Fala was an old friend she trusted (the conversation she has with him where he says her problem is she's too stubborn and she replies his is that he's too trusting, sounded a bit like Emperor Palpatine and Luke Skywalker's exchange: 'your overconfidence is your weakness,' 'and your faith in your friends is yours,' but it turned out she had been too trusting, too), but you'd think she'd have had her hackles rise on instinct at dealing with someone that follows the Pah-Wraiths. Yet he was able to trick her into taking a transponder that whisked her up to three light-years away to Empok Nor. Then, when she seizes her chance to escape, as you'd expect, grabbing a Phaser during 'service,' she quickly realises she's underestimated the situation and Dukat's pull with these people. Even so, you wouldn't have thought she'd be bested so easily by a Bajoran double-fist punch to the back when she was the one holding the gun. I can only assume it was the shock of seeing actual Bajorans standing in the line of fire to protect such an evil man as Dukat that had put her off her stride.

Not only is he evil, but he was personally responsible for everything that happened during the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, public enemy number one. We've even seen him in a rage before Sisko ('Waltz'), pouring his hatred out and admitting he should have massacred every last one of those Bajorans, yet here he is, set up as the self-styled Emissary of The Pah-Wraiths, preaching their 'love' and 'goodness' against all sense, facts and logic, and they swallowed it, hook, line and sinker. They aren't even the down-and-outs of Bajoran society, but apparently intelligent, rational members of a community: teachers, artists, the skilled (we see a guy welding part of the Promenade with a Bajoran Phaser). They have no excuses but that they feel The Prophets turned their back on Bajor. In what way? The Occupation? Didn't those same Prophets raise up an Emissary to set them free from it through the tool of Starfleet and the Federation? They ignore the facts and choose to concentrate only on the biased and devious twisting of reality that Dukat pronounces in favour of the disfavoured evil entities. His biggest argument is one that is probably the most common reason people choose not to believe in God in our society, aside from apathy: suffering. He says The Prophets allowed the Bajoran people to suffer - it's timely that I've been reading CS Lewis' book, 'The Problem of Pain,' an entire book about just this subject, and one those Bajorans should have read rather than swallowing Dukat's lies.

Mind you, the Bajoran faith itself can be a bit confusing. Kira, herself the most faithful of Prophet followers, says some things in this episode that make you wonder if any of the writers had experience of personal faith or were just writing what they imagined about it. For example, early on when Fala visits her in her Quarters on DS9 she says that to him, faith is a journey, and that's what she's always loved about him. That suggests that to other Bajorans, perhaps other Vedeks, it isn't! Does that mean they live in a stagnated faith that never changes? There's also her anti-evangelistic stance: "I've always found that when people try to convince others of their beliefs it's because they're really just trying to convince themselves." So does this mean she keeps her faith only to herself and doesn't share it? That's the suggestion, though it was said with a bit of bite, more as a backlash to being kidnapped and forced to witness this cult and Dukat's work in it as if she'll eventually come around to their side. In her defence she's always been quite a private person, especially when it comes to faith. She has a very strong faith, I don't recall her ever doubting The Prophets, and though she's no theologian, her rightness forces her to go up against those that use religion as a political weapon, such as Kai Winn. She's a fierce person and has fierce loyalty, and you can see it runs through and through, not some casual pastime she partakes in because most Bajorans appear to be that way inclined.

There's also the discussion at the beginning where she's just come from Ranjen Telna's sermon about forgiveness and Odo expresses a wish that he was a believer so he could attend service with her. Ezri and Julian are a bit flippant about it, suggesting there are any number of faiths he could take up, as if in a sweetshop deciding what takes his fancy. Odo even wonders if he might develop faith from having an Orb experience, which Kira quickly knocks down, saying faith comes first. To be fair, faith is supposed to be the hope of things not seen, but in a world where The Prophets have sent a physical manifestation of their presence, something that can be seen and experienced, maybe seeking an Orb vision is a reasonable expectation for the unbeliever? Either way, Odo is really just wishing he could share in every part of Kira's life, because she's obviously not going to be giving up the lifelong beliefs that got her through The Occupation. That's a clear difference between her and the Pah-Wraith cultists - they seem to have lost their faith as good Bajorans because of The Occupation, while Kira went through exactly the same experience and it strengthened hers, so it's an entirely personal approach that changes how each person feels about these things. It's striking that the cult has been around so long (we know it was there during The Occupation because Fala joined at the end), especially when you consider the first time one was ever encountered (at least off of Bajor, perhaps some did explore the Fire Caves and that's how the cult began?), was only two years ago when Keiko O'Brien was possessed by one.

I must say I found the episode slightly better than my expectations had allowed. It's an unsettling episode, disturbing for the fact that the Bajoran equivalent of demons are openly worshipped, Dukat prays to them in one scene, and it's rather unpalatable, except that you know good wins out in the end and the wrongs and total prostration of his form to evil that he'd travel further into as the season progressed, was paid in full by the end. But you have to wonder how these ordinary-seeming Bajorans came under the spell so that even when it's clear that Benyan's (sounds a bit like Bunyan, perhaps a 'The Pilgrim's Progress' reference embedded in there?), baby is half Cardassian, they believe Dukat's story that it's a miraculous sign. Everything we'd ever seen or heard of The Pah-Wraiths shows their evil very clearly. Yes, they're devious and deceptive, but even that shows through. Dukat murdered Jadzia when allowing himself to be used as a vessel by one, but he just says that he regrets his former actions and that it was for the good of the Bajoran people that The Pah-Wraiths come into their own. I still don't know what his ultimate aim was for this group. Was he experimenting, was it, as Kira accused, a remake of his Occupation days with him as head of the station with his Bajoran 'family' around him, loving him as the wise and benevolent leader he sees himself as? What was the end goal, were The Pah-Wraiths genuinely in communion with him, or just watching from afar with interest in this idiot mortal's insistence on getting involved in their struggle against their immortal enemies?

They stay entirely silent throughout the episode, the only time we've had any contact with them is when they've taken over a host, such as Keiko, or Jake in 'The Reckoning.' In those cases they were both fighting the evil within, but powerless to resist, while Dukat deliberately went to the trouble of throwing himself open to be used, so perhaps it leaves an evil desire to keep encountering these creatures. It doesn't help that he was already insane, and though he remains calm and serene most of the time (until his followers turn on him and he snarls back at them, showing once again, if airlocking the girl wasn't enough, that he most certainly had not changed from the man we've always known!), he is twisted, lying to everyone. His prayer of remorse for falling to the temptations of the flesh must have been genuine as he makes it alone with no one to see a performance, but he's just as quick to see that he must wipe out this group when his 'purity' is sure to be questioned. One of the best moments is when he tries to kill Mika and I felt for sure she'd be sucked out into space, but as befits a smaller area, the air is whisked out much quicker and Mika's left to suffocate, Kira coming to her rescue in the nick of time. I don't know if I'm remembering this wrong, but I had the impression previously, that to open the outer airlock you pressed the big red round button on the panel, the one with a schematic of the station on it. Maybe I'm misremembering, or it could be that Dukat had to wire the system up differently for this abandoned station.

One thing I always feel was a little wasted was that setting on Empok Nor. The series has a great tradition of showing us darker and creepier versions of DS9, whether it be this, the sister station, listing and abandoned, the Mirror Universe version (soon to be seen again), the days of hot, smoky Terok Nor at the height of its ore production, or dreams and visions, and comas where characters wander the empty corridors and Promenade of their subconscious. This was the third in the Empok Nor trilogy, following the superb entries of 'Empok Nor' and 'The Magnificent Ferengi,' the first a straight-up action horror, the second a comedic proving ground for the Ferengi's ability to stage a rescue. Setting a cult within its bulkheads was therefore a grand idea. But the group is so concerned with showing themselves as perfectly normal (which also makes them look much stupider from the obvious duper of dupes, Dukat, duping them), going about their simple lives, there's no creepiness beyond their desire to find love from such an unlovely source. There are the heat lamps dotted around the place so that it feels pretty homely, like 'DS9' with a power outage, far from the cold, desolate remains of a station long since deserted. I'm sure when the Dominion was using it briefly they removed all the Cardassian soldier remains that had caused so much trouble for O'Brien and his Engineering team in 'Empok Nor,' but I required something of that to give the episode its cruel, empty atmosphere. Otherwise, it's just Pah-Wraith holiday camp for disillusioned Bajorans!

It was good to get back to some Bajoran religion, something that was part of the series' DNA since the beginning, setting things up for it to figure prominently again by the end. I prefer the war stuff, but a final season should allow time for every part of the series that had come before to have one last hurrah and come full circle, providing satisfaction. I'm not sure it ever did that with Bajoran religion, and certainly not the politics, which was entirely overwritten by the war. I also have to say that I didn't see the point of this episode until I read the entry in 'The DS9 Companion,' that vital tome of all knowledge about the series. The point was to move Dukat towards being Sisko's nemesis by the end of the series, something that was right and proper to do, but not well set up (I never really appreciated Dukat and Winn's stuff together). My feeling is that they lost Dukat somewhat - after they'd played games with his sanity, and done that so well, where could they go with him? He'd become an agent of chaos rather than having his own agency, and in an episode where he had such a large following it's disappointing that he's at his least charming and charismatic. It's because he isn't playing to the people, he really believes he's doing what The Pah-Wraiths want. This makes him a much more basic character and far less interesting than he had been. What was needed was 'Waltz,' but with Kira, where Dukat goes up-the-walls-crazy in front of her. Trouble is, that isn't a revelation to her because she knows him too well. It wasn't exactly a revelation to Sisko either, but he didn't know quite how insane his enemy had become and his life depended on indulging the fantasies, whereas here Kira is never playing along, everything is rational and as it appears, so there's no great dramatic moment to build to.

I fully understand and support the writers' desire to have Dukat in an episode, but they had painted themselves into that corner and made it difficult to use him in an organic and satisfying way. Ultimately, the message of the episode is that Dukat is more dangerous than ever, and did we really need an entire episode to come to a conclusion that we already knew very well? It's one of the times when they dropped the ball, or at least fumbled it a bit, and surprising that it was with one of the most important characters when they'd done so well with so many characters, both main cast and recurring. Vedek Fala is almost the more intriguing character because we know from Kira's past experience with him as her religious educator, that he was a good and rational man of faith. The question is really how he fell so low as to follow the enemies of that faith. His end is also the most interesting as he alone of the cult members takes his pill after Dukat's escape, but it's not clear whether he's saying that he still has faith in The Pah-Wraiths and wants to follow their will and 'go to them' by dying, or whether he's consumed with guilt that he went along with these people and followed a liar like Dukat, and doesn't want to face the music. It looked like an impulse and I had the impression he thought he was still doing what was right and wanted to take the out before anyone had a chance to talk him out of it. He was the most misguided of the lot, so it would be in character for him to take that final leap of doom, and it does leave the episode with some kind of resolution that couldn't have been had otherwise.

It would seem a more 'DS9' option to have seen all the people kill themselves, maybe Kira is able to stop Benyan from feeding the pill to the baby, but everyone else dies except for the midwife and Mika in the Infirmary, then Kira would have to explain what had happened to the distraught girl and it would have made for a more challenging and shocking conclusion, with even more reason to think worse of Dukat. I wrongly thought the group didn't know they were committing suicide and it was all arranged to get rid of them rather than their willing participation, so the matter of fact way they went along with it was the most chilling part of the story. Even then, maybe because of the warm hues of the lighting, the locale never seems unfriendly and nasty, and even though it could be seen as a hellish glow, I'd have preferred the cold blue lighting and deep, dark shadows Empok Nor should be exhibiting in line with its nature. It's good that we get some reminders of recent and past events, such as Kira's Mother's past with Dukat, his murder of Jadzia, and the stabbing of Sisko by a Pah-Wraith follower at the start of the season - Dukat claims the boy was acting on his own, not representing the cult, but almost everything he says is a lie, he is 'DS9's devil, so there's far from any guarantee that was so. The only reason for believing this would be that he wants to hurt Sisko and has the ambition to kill him with his own hands, I suspect. Then again, we don't know that there's only this one branch of the cult: as Fala says, it's been running since long before Dukat came, so he might have been part of another group.

The gentle ribbing of Odo (except he doesn't have ribs), and socialising between Kira and her friends serves to make her kidnapping more shocking following that. 'Star Trek Into Darkness' was famed for its complete and utter disregard for the rules of the Trek Universe, including sharp turns within a warp field, but standing out most was the ability to beam from Earth to Qo'noS and the resultant logic that means starships are essentially no longer necessary if you can do that (sure, there's the need to explore and not just pop to planets, but you get the idea it undercuts sense as well as drama), even if the beaming technology came from future Spock and had apparently been created by an ancient Scotty (introduced in the first Kelvin film), but this episode did long-distance beaming many years before, so why do we accept this and rail at the other? Simply because this is, 1) alien technology - the Dominion invented it, some great power from the Gamma Quadrant, and since we've already heard this season that they can detect cloaked ships, or could for a brief period of time, never to be mentioned again, who knows what they're capable of, 2) it's not quite the same to have a range of three light-years as it is to go from Earth to Qo'noS, and 3) they needed to place a transponder on the transportee as the only way to beam so far. What interested me more was its possibilities as a weapon: if you could fire transponders at people in positions of power, say Sisko, then you'd be able to instantly capture him! We'd even see that exact tactic used to brilliant effect in 'Insurrection' in development at the time, maybe an idea thrown in from this episode? Might be too much of a stretch as I don't know how far along the film was when this was written, although the episode itself aired only a couple of weeks before the release of the film, so maybe not as much of a stretch as Earth to Qo'noS?

Another little nugget, pertinent for our modern times of technology being at the heart of stripping away privacy and the right to it, is the intriguing notion that there was a record of Kira having a visitor, they could track that, but not who that visitor was. We know that people can be pinpointed by their combadge (used to wily effect whenever someone wants to appear to be somewhere they aren't), but presumably the technology could have the capability to track everyone at all times, but doesn't. This suggests to me that Federation society doesn't allow people to be tracked, thereby preserving their rights despite the usefulness of being able to search out a particular person at any given time. Starfleet officers give up this right by wearing a combadge, but the general public, not serving, can still be aboard a Federation facility without being tracked. It would be useful to know that a suspected criminal had come aboard (that's what they pay Odo for… if they pay him), no doubt they could even take it to the genetic level and tailor it to individuals like that, but they choose not to (though I'm sure Odo's extreme need for surveillance makes him wish the Federation didn't operate in this manner). Just a little aside in dialogue can say so much about the attitudes and mores of this optimistic future society. But amidst all that optimism Kira's words still have the ring of truth when she replies to Fala's acceptance of how he 'believes the Pah-Wraiths are the true gods of Bajor, she believes The Prophets are, let's leave it at that,' by saying the only problem with that worldview is we can't both be right: and as shown, the Pah-Wraiths lead to destruction.

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