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.

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