Prophecy

DVD, Smallville S10 (Prophecy)

It begins with much promise, Lois becoming Super-Lane thanks to a dubious wedding gift from Jor-El, while Oliver gets to the Bow of Orion, the weapon that can defeat the coming Darkseid, but it all soon gets bogged down with multiple characters and fantastical directions that have no explanation. For a start, it was good to have Terence Stamp finally returning to voice Kal-El's pa at the Fortress of Solitude, because without his presence it's been an empty place. It was also nice to see Kara again, a chance to finish out her story and send her to the future thanks to her Legion ring, clear the playing field so we don't have her helping Clark against Darkseid, or Queen, as it's likely to be. Even Star Girl was okay in her brief appearance. And the Toy Man, Winslow Shott, was well played again from his prison cell. But then we have a whole other team of villains introduced - I say introduced, but they were only seen sitting round a table, so whether they'll be prominent in the last episode, or were mere names to throw up there that the comic lovers are going to be excited by, I don't know. If that was the case, and they were only Toy Man's little gang and have no further importance, then what was the point of having them at all? I still don't understand his plan to take control of Metropolis' water by buying up businesses that are on the line that governs it, or some such nonsense. It was just confusing and bizarre, seemingly all setup for Lois to become a danger to Clark. And we know he's not going to die in the penultimate episode by the hand of his bride!

Talking of which, we have to have the last melodramatic moment of cold feet from Lois, however selfless it seems: she's realised, as if it would take that long to realise, that marrying Clark would make her his weakness to be exploited, but what's the change? She would still be a weakness if anyone knew who The Blur was, and though it's laudable for her to be concerned that every moment he spends with her is one less person saved, it's an issue that must have been discussed between them long ago, surely! Clark knows he can't save everyone, he's not there to be a slave to his powers, but to use them. He can save some, but he can't be there for everybody all the time, he has to have a life, otherwise he'd just be a robot. His gift is to help in the way that he can, not give up being himself, much like we can all give to charity, but that doesn't mean we give everything we have and feel guilty at any moment when we're not working towards that goal. I put it down to last minute hysterics and the need for some kind of cliffhanger just before the finale. We know it'll all go off without a hitch, there'll be a big wedding, hopefully as many characters as possible from the series' past will be there, and either it'll be interrupted by Darkseid or it'll be the culmination of the series, post-battle. Either way, it was just a soapy way to create false jeopardy between the characters.

It is those two characters that have made the last couple of seasons worthwhile, because when they've focused down onto this pair, they've shown a different, more interesting side to Clark, far from the circular 'romance' disasters of prior seasons that was one of the most irritating tropes of the series. And this episode is no different, with the potential to have a lot of good stuff coming from Lois receiving Clark's powers and him having to go around powerless. That was more than enough for an episode, but they only touch on it in the scene where they're staked out outside the only business that hasn't sold to Marionette Ventures - she uses Super-hearing for the first time, and tellingly, though she has the abilities, it shows how much work it took for Clark to train himself to use them properly, not to mention the moral questions around them, and it's more than just doing 'the squinty head tilt': Lois is disheartened by the number of cries for help she needs to ignore, and they liken it to triage. Clark's learned to prioritise and it's a revealing moment for her and for us that explains why he isn't constantly dashing around twenty-four hours a day. But this is as far as that exploration goes while they force the story down a path to Lois coming to kill Clark, which happens seconds before sunset when the powers will be reversed, so the power of the story is watered down by a desire to throw too many more things in there and spoil the broth.

The episode would have been fine with Lois learning what it's like to be Clark, and I'm surprised they'd never done a switch like that before - maybe they had, but I don't remember, though Clark's certainly lost his powers before, as we're reminded by the talk of Gold Kryptonite, which Oliver has dug up in order to use against him now that he's fully under Darkseid's dominion. His position as trying to get the Bow and cure himself from his evil influences (the Bow was Orion's, son of Darkseid who chose the righteous path of light), would have been a satisfactory B-plot, even if he hadn't run into Kara. It's all a little too busy and a bit awkward as they cram in everything they want to, too much, before the finale comes a-calling. Then Granny Goodness makes a reappearance, destroy's the Bow (which is like some prize at the end of a dungeon in 'The Legend of Zelda'), and finishes Oliver as a good guy.

The idea of getting Jor-El's blessing for a Kryptonian 'life union' was good for the mythology, but daft when you think about it, because Jor-El isn't really there, it's only a program of him or something like that, so why would Clark feel the need to consult a computer program? Then you have to wonder how Toy Man was able to create a device that would take over someone so quickly and easily that they'd do his bidding. And while he had Lois there, why not command her to break him out? Unless he likes being in prison and it's just another game to him, the same as the reason Clark suggested he hadn't told anyone of Clark's Blur identity. It wasn't very sensible of Lois to agree to being controlled by Toy Man in the first place, especially when she had the power to go and stop the villains - so little of it made sense, either narratively or for the characters.

I just hope that they got out all of this stuff before the finale to clear the decks, clear their minds and do a proper, rip-roaring conclusion to the ten years of a series that could easily have bowed out long before that, but had somehow struggled on through all the 'pain' of the middle years after they lost the promise of the premise, then began to find it again by making it about Lois and Clark in Metropolis. One sad thing is not seeing the Kent Farm at all, only hearing Clark's found a buyer, so there seems a chance it could be out of the picture and won't appear in the final episode. That would be a great shame, considering it's almost a character in itself, but I get that the theme is Clark moving beyond his childhood upbringing and coming into the man he's supposed to be, out from the under the wing of both his birth Father, Jor-El, and his adopted Father, Jonathan Kent, while still respecting all they brought him to. We even get a good view of the Superman costume that's been waiting for him in the Fortress. I can't remember how that came into being, whether it was made or was within the Fortress always waiting for him to come to his destiny, but I didn't think even that looked all that great. But that's getting into the nitpicky, and it's too close to the end to worry about minor things, you just have to go with it and hope for some good themes along the way, as this season has managed to do on a number of occasions. We'll see if the writers can get their act together for one last time, or whether I'll be wishing Darkseid had vanquished the Man of Steel and put us out of our misery.

**

Chimera

DVD, DS9 S7 (Chimera) (2)

Odo's position on DS9, residing with the enemies of his people, had become comfortable once he'd had his wish granted and was living happily ever after with Colonel Kira. In his early years on the station he'd had to build and rebuild trust with the 'solids' all his conscious life and had come to find his Changeling nature constrained by their worldview and mores. This was exacerbated by his intensely personal and private attitude to his true self that he kept hidden, refusing to regenerate with others around, though somewhat comfortable shapeshifting given the right circumstances. But as the war had hotted up and his people, the Founders of the Dominion, had left no wiggle room for even the hint of diplomacy or justice with the Alpha Quadrant races, this had simplified Odo's life: he had no place for his people because they refused to operate in the same moral sphere that he had always lived by and could not countenance abandoning, even if it was to reunite with his physical nature, the mind more important than the physical even for such an unusual form of life. Once Kira had been won, he was a comfortable Constable and only had to worry about keeping order, which is where he'd always found his satisfaction and did very well. He was effectively reset to the early seasons where his place was assured, his niche carved out, except with the longing to find out about his origins removed: he'd found out and it was unfortunate, but they weren't compatible with his existence.

We know from Garak's torture of him in Season 3's 'The Die is Cast' that his longing to discover who his people were had been replaced by a strong desire to return to them. He'd even gone through the stage of being seduced into their way of thinking, that solids aren't really important, the only meaning to be found was in The Great Link, the merging in liquid form of all the Changelings together. He'd walked that path with the Female Changeling and had come to the realisation of her negative intentions, or at least her misguided understanding of the solids, people that had become friends to him and that he'd seen perform many noble acts of generosity and justice, and he didn't see that in his own people. Life had become black and white for Odo, he was happy with Kira and knew he couldn't be with his people when they were in their current attitude, but you always sensed that he wanted to be a Founder apologist, someone that could see both sides of the argument, though while war was ongoing that could never be resolved. The introduction of Laas into his life unexpectedly upsets the balance and makes him question everything he's accepted about his whole life because he really hasn't had that outside perspective, an alternative to the warlike and preemptive actions of the Founders who act out of fear and experience of their own treatment at the hands of the solids. Laas shows up with exciting new possibilities.

For a start, Odo has the opportunity to link again, which he hadn't done since the Female Changeling, something as natural to their form as talking is to humanoids, and which is essential for their race to be complete, both as individuals and a group entity. You realise how much he's given up that he can never experience the link, cut off from his people and the ability to exist as he was designed to. Laas' simple, clipped logic and reluctance to fit into any mould of the solids' so different and constrained lives is a blast of air into a room where Odo hadn't even been trying to breathe, but had become satisfied with less than breathing. Laas is both an embarrassment to his own personal space of accepting his nature in private, but keeping it closed off in public, and a siren call to adventure. To go off into the great unknown, travelling through space must be the most complete freedom a being could experience, and if that had been all Laas offered, it wouldn't have been such a hard decision, but he came with a plan and a quest, one that would have given Odo new purpose, too, away from the concerns of his people versus his friends, away from duties and constraints, the ability to completely let loose and be whatever he felt like - it must have been an alluring prospect, and it's something he's internally conflicted about, though at this stage of the series it's more a conflict about Laas and his presence on the station, because as Odo tells Kira, he's happy being there with her and wouldn't want to leave.

Before we come to Odo's choice, he goes through a burgeoning realisation of a crisis of identity. He's lived in bipedal humanoid form for thirty years, and learned to make a life that way, but as Laas presents to him, he hasn't really been living the way he was designed to. Suddenly he has to wake up and look around himself and question whether he really is part of this community or whether they merely tolerate him. O'Brien is quick to retort to Laas' coldness and unfeeling rudeness when Odo tries to introduce him to his colleagues and really only Kira can see how deep Odo's situation has become with the appearance of this non-Founder Changeling. She cares for his wellbeing so much that she risks everything by freeing Laas and letting Odo know where to meet him: it shows how much she cares that she was willing to give him the chance to choose what's best for him rather than keep a grasping hold upon him, something impossible to do with a person that can change to liquid. Maybe she always realised that Odo was needed by his people and had the need of his people to be complete, and all this is a well-judged precursor to his eventual leaving to return to the Changelings and provide that outside perspective of positive experiences with the peoples and lifeforms they feared. To remind them of the similarities: because the Changelings and the Federation, and indeed, any race that has curiosity enough to go out exploring space, share that adventurous spirit of being drawn to the unknown out there.

That was the motivation, at least in part, of the one hundred infant Changelings being sent out, one of which was Odo. I imagine part of the reason was to gather intelligence and knowledge so as to be prepared for whatever threat faced them, but a large part would have been that desire to know what's out there. The hundred infants is almost a legendary story, mythic in its magnitude, which is why when it's brought up again here, it fires the imagination. There must be ninety-seven others out there because we know Odo was the first to return home and apart from Laas there's only ever been one encounter, the baby that was dying in Season 5's 'The Begotten,' that merged with Odo and restored his shapeshifting nature after it had been removed by his own as punishment for killing another of his kind. This leaves such scope for others, and no doubt some would have died, either from the hatred of solids or the dangers of space, but it was a quest worth pursuing and something that, had the Dominion War not ended, could well have been an option for a conclusion or genesis to Odo's storyline, a new beginning. Because, however you look at it, unlike Quark or Kira, whose lives were bound up with DS9, Odo always had the yearning that meant he was going to be either an eventual wanderer or a prodigal son.

I saw a lot of connections with the 'Highlander' franchise because Laas opens up this realm of possibilities, not just for his willingness to fully explore his abilities, existing as some kind of bird until the flock eventually died out because of the influence of humanoids, living with solids, swimming through space like the Wind Fish from 'Zelda,' but because he had lived multiple lifetimes - he'd been out there for two hundred years, and while he lived with the 'mono-forms' for a while, even having a mate, they couldn't have children. At least he wasn't forced to run around seeking the heads of his fellow Changelings so that there could be only one! We don't know how long Odo would have been adrift, whether he came through the Wormhole to our Quadrant (which we assume), or whether he floated all the way from the Gamma Quadrant, but we know he's old, as are all the Changelings. Like the Immortals they don't seem to be able to reproduce (so how did the infant Changelings come into being?), so there appears to be a set number of them and who knows how long they've lived. For a species that can exist for a century as a rock or a tree if they choose it, life would never get boring. Odo's difficulty is that he thinks so much in terms of not causing aggravation to others, and following his code of justice, he's content with behaving like a solid, even though he can only approximate their image. Laas' words cut deep as a Klingon dagger, because there's some truth in them.

Odo has effectively limited himself, he's mentally so restricted that he doesn't even think to offer to link with Laas until it comes up in conversation and Laas shows interest. His bad experiences of being pulled off course by the Female Changeling have almost blocked an important part of him off, and with Laas that is gradually opened up again, readying him for the eventual place he'll need to take up with his people for their own good, and his. Surprisingly, Quark once again shows what a good friend he is to Odo by giving him a talking to, making him aware in his own harsh and unrelentingly bleak way that humanoid nature is to fear 'the other,' a programmed genetic response that means Odo and his kind can never be truly accepted for who they are for being a threat. Quark doesn't speak for all peoples, he's very Ferengi and un-Federation in his principles and values, which leads us to view 'DS9' as a bleak and hopeless part of the Trek universe, but that's not really true. Quark sees things one way and he paints the worst picture possible, he doesn't sugarcoat anything, he knows Odo needs to know this stuff, or thinks he does. Just like in 'Crossfire' when he gave the shapeshifter advice, or 'The Ascent' where we saw the pair of them surviving, using their antagonism against each other to keep going, Quark and Odo are one of the greatest and most unsung friendships in Trek history. Partly it's because we rarely see them alone together, and partly they're on opposite sides of a divide between justice and lawlessness, though both had skirted around a little to the other side of the fence over the years with their interaction with Federation personnel and each other, but they understand each other, and while Laas thinks he knows Odo's nature better than Odo does, it's actually Quark who knows him best. Laas sees what could be, Quark what is, or what he perceives is.

Yes, Odo could be a wall of fog or pillar of fire, could become a space-borne creature roaming the stars, or live many lives as different animals, but the question is, would it fulfil him? Laas is a wanderer, and Odo is fixed in position, it's not just his shapeshifting nature, it's the mental picture he's created, the mould he's built to fit into something: life, I suppose. It's a good metaphor for those approaching the middle of life, going through their thirties, trying to keep everything the same as it was, because that's what they know, but being confronted with a dawning that they haven't thought beyond the mould they were poured into. That's the great thing about Trek, certainly Trek in the Nineties era: it was written by people of varying ages and experiences and so it not only appealed to varying ages and experiences, but it also matures with age, revealing layers that hadn't been considered before. For Odo, it leads to an assurance of his decision to stay with Kira and the life he knows - as appealing as Laas' offer is, he suggests Laas is still searching, effectively, for what he's already found, and that no amount of physical change could bring him. It doesn't end his wish to be with his own kind, but he accepts that can't happen at the moment and resolves to see whatever needs to be seen through to the end. This new level of understanding between him and Kira brings us to one of the most beautiful scenes between them - we'd already seen one of the most sensitive, when they're discussing things earlier in the episode, and throughout she does whatever she has to for Odo.

He presents himself in a shower of sparkling light that could have looked very silly if the episode hadn't built up to that moment in such an organic way, or if the effects hadn't cut it, but it's a lovely moment to crown an episode that is better than you think, almost a great one. The difference is that it does come across like an episode from the early seasons. We're back to Odo's judgement or loyalty being questioned - no one's suggesting he step down as Security Chief, but Martok expresses concern that he's in charge of the prisoner after Laas has executed one of the General's troops who became threatening, but effectively couldn't have harmed him, by doing the 'Terminator' thing, turning his arm into a long sword for stabbing (I almost wanted him to say, "You call that a knife? This is a knife," in the 'Crocodile Dundee' tradition, though instead we got, "Mine's bigger," in the Q tattoo from 'Voyager' tradition!). How I wanted Martok in the episode, especially so we could have seen him and Laas go at it. Why? Because the soft-spoken Changeling was played by the same actor, JG Hertzler (credited as Garman Hertzler), and the fact that he has such a different attitude and speech pattern (modelled after Captain Kirk, according to Hertzler in 'The DS9 Companion'!), that you would never even think of the two in the same episode. Like so many of the great Trek troupe, Hertzler proved he could successfully tackle multiple roles, the makeup doing half the work for him, but his acting choices vastly informing the character. He would go on to continue this ability with other aliens in both 'Voyager' and 'Enterprise,' though I really wanted to see Martok again, via time travel or whatever, because he's one of the greats.

Laas may not have been classed as one of the greats, but he was compelling, to Odo more than anyone. I like that the Constable has a moment to explain to this more experienced Changeling who's been out in 'the world' that what he has dismissed as unimportant or unattainable (a link to the Chimera title), Odo still finds right and good, and while things will never be perfect, he doesn't have the wanderlust to go out into the universe and explore in the hope of finding something deeper. That's essentially what I read into it, anyway. Kira proves her mettle by letting him go, and I even love the mechanics of their meeting: she sends Laas to a planet with an orbital tether, whether because he'd be able to know it from sight, since he doesn't have an onboard computer or guidance system to differentiate planets, or because a tether means he can slide down it, because you have to wonder how a Changeling gets through a planet's atmosphere, though if he can turn to mist he could float gently down - in this case time was of the essence. I also like that Kira risked everything in the same way O'Brien did to rescue Tosk, another reason this has the feel of a very early episode. How she didn't fall under suspicion I don't know, except it wasn't important to the story, just that Laas needed to be gone without Odo feeling he was at risk. Kira was the last person to see him, surely there are security cameras in the Holding Cells and the computer would have registered that she deactivated the forcefield. Of fire and fog this Changeling could make himself, but no one would seriously believe in him passing through an energy field! If he had been part of an extradition to the Klingons it would have given them material for further exploration of solid versus liquid rights and attitudes towards those that look like the enemy during a time of war, but they already had enough on their plates to tie up.

Which leads me to a few loose ends of my own: the question of whether Keiko O'Brien is on the station this season during a war, or not - we keep getting hints, and in this one O'Brien's worried because, unlike Odo, he didn't get a nicknack for her from their trip to a conference (Trek characters love their conferences - couldn't they just have logged into the website and participated from there? They could have linked a Holosuite up for a live broadcast!). He offers to buy Odo's Rigelian chocolates from him (which Odo pronounces 'Rig-alien' where I always thought they were called 'Ry-jelian'), another example of the writers ignoring the fact that in the 24th Century humans don't have money. Like Jake in 'In The Cards.' He could have been offering to barter something, I suppose, but it's best to gloss over such statements and not look too deeply at offhand remarks or you can go mad! I'm not sure how fast they were coming in to the Bajoran system on their Runabout, but it couldn't have been at warp or Laas wouldn't have been able to fly faster than them in space, but you wonder why they'd have slowed to impulse before actually reaching Bajor or DS9. Maybe there's a speed limit to avoid ships all warping into each other. Lastly (or Laas-ly), we hear again of the virus affecting the link, proof that Laas isn't a Founder because he's clean (although not any more since we'd later find out Odo carried it unknowingly to his people, unless the potency had worn off after the first link with the Female Changeling). I wouldn't have said this was that good an episode, but it sensitively deals with Odo's identity and proves far more engaging than expected, despite no Phaser battles or ships fighting. Real Trek, you'd have to say, building character like in the early seasons.

***

Dominion

DVD, Smallville S10 (Dominion)

The Phantom Zone: not my favourite place. Zod: not my favourite returning character. Callum Blue: not my… you get the idea. From the off it didn't look like this was going to be a winner, even with the novelty of Justin Hartley, he of the Green Arrow, directing the episode, as well as returning from Star City or wherever he took off to with Chloe. I would even say he did a good job with the material he was given, making the Zone as unpleasant and grey as ever before, filming the strange, tent-like locations in the extremes of motion, this emphasising the impermanence and hopelessness of the place. But he wasn't given much to work with. Zod has made himself ruler of this desolate prison, and he wants to stay there and have dominion over it? Why? Wouldn't he rather Darkseid had promised him a nice fresh planet somewhere to colonise or destroy at his leisure, than this hellhole? Or is he so insane that he'd rather rot in a bar-less prison where the only entertainment is staging gladiatorial duels to the death. For one thing he'd surely run out of people to fight in his arena, but then he was never really that farsighted or a good planner. Heroes take note: good planning skills essential for a successful life! That's really all there is to it, except that the inevitable happened - you guess as soon as Queen and Clark stumble upon these fights that they're going to end up going at each other, and you also guess that they'll use this to make their escape somehow. And that's exactly what happened.

The point of the story is that Oliver doesn't want Clark to know he was infected with Darkseid's 'darkness,' sporting the invisible omega forehead symbol. And this is exactly what Zod uses to apparently get him onside to take out Clark to please Darkseid so he can rule the Phantom Zone… with a brother. What is it with this guy and his obsession with having a brother? Can't he rule singlehanded or does he need someone he sees as an almost equal (not an equal because he's obviously got to be the superior one), to show off to? Even that fun would pall eventually in the endless bleakness of the Zone, so you'd have to say the biggest crime he commits there is a lack of imagination and forethought. I wonder if the Roman blood and sandals epics such as 'Rome' or 'Spartacus' were around at this time because the episode's bloody, stark and violent nature suggests they were being influenced by something. And it was bloody: slashes and slices, red stuff flying all over the place, even more dramatic for the desaturated style of the cinematography and the slow motion visuals Hartley favoured in battle. But apart from Queen's secret concerns over being discovered as a Darkseid minion what else is there to glean from the episode?

Zod's ridiculously low expectations to want to be ruler of the land of boredom was enough, but then there was the whole odd countdown to destruction so that the Zone would be off-limits forever, but at least that second oddity was explained at the end: Lois had so much faith in Clark that she refused to let Tess explode the whatever and just give Clark however long he needed to return safely. Three weeks, as it happens. It was good that she never postponed the wedding, which is now in two days time at the end of the episode, as that really showed her faith (or her desperate need to believe Clark would get back somehow if only not to miss his own wedding!), and she did add something to an otherwise fairly empty and meaningless episode that was little more than an excuse to bring back Zod (this time both Zod's: the one that had been a consciousness in Lex if I recall, and the Callum Blue version, bonded together if I'm reading it correctly), so at least they carried on the tradition of returning characters. But why have a countdown at all if it could just be stopped, why not wait for Clark to get back, then blast the crystal or whatever they had to do? It leaves us at the end with Oliver setting off to find a special weapon of some kind that Hawkman knew about which could take care of Darkseid, and the return of the black blob creature, so we assume it knows what he's doing, maybe wanting to be led to this thing to prevent its use?

Sadly it has to go down as a waste of a good slot, one of the final final episodes ever on the series, and we didn't need to revisit either Zod or the Phantom Zone again, especially as there's only two or three episodes to the end (the finale is two episodes long, befitting its position capping a decade of Superman-to-be). And if they were going to bring back a character he wouldn't be my choice! Still, there needed to be a gearing up to the final confrontation, even though I don't care about that because we know Clark's going to be fine and it would be pointless to kill off other characters - perhaps they're setting up Queen to 'be' Darkseid in human form in the same way Lex was Zod, using an established character rather than get in a 'name' actor for stunt casting? Regardless, it's the personal character stuff that matters far more than that and I want to see the Kents and all Clark's friends together in some kind of happy reunion as he becomes Superman. Maybe too much to ask, I just hope they don't lose all the goodwill the season has managed to generate.

**

Field of Fire

DVD, DS9 S7 (Field of Fire)

Vulcans are superior to humans, everyone knows that, which is why, I think, ever since 'Enterprise' made them conniving, deceiving cads that's the way they've been portrayed in all productions that have featured them. And why? Because audiences don't want to see a race that's better than humans so we need to bring them down a few pegs. Not me, personally they're my favourite race and I always hated what was done to them in that series, the Kelvin films and, reportedly, 'Discovery.' But perhaps the real culprits of disgracing the Vulcan name were the writers of my favourite Trek, 'DS9'? It was 'DS9' where we tended to see Vulcans of a different hue: in Season 2 we had Sakonna, the gun-running Maquis terrorist who used logic to justify her sympathies, in Season 7 we had Captain Solok with his condescending, almost emotional rivalry with Sisko, and had to teach our Captain a lesson, logically, (with it announced there are currently forty-eight Vulcans serving on DS9, maybe some are left over from the baseball match?), and now a Vulcan serial killer, Lieutenant Chu'lak, whose motivation is that 'logic demanded' the murders. Sensing a pattern here? Yes, as Dr. McCoy would so gleefully point out, logic can be used to support whatever course the intellectual chooses, so perhaps it's the devotion to logic, the idolising of the concept that was the downfall of the race, not the Vulcans themselves. There were plenty of other Vulcans on the series in small roles (JG Hertzler, Martok himself, got his start in the pilot as a Vulcan Captain, one of several roles he played, a fact continued in the next episode), but the ones that everyone remembers were the aberrations, so shocking were they.

Maybe that's the point, these Vulcans were exceptions and that's what made them memorable. If we're going that route then Sybok of the maligned 'Star Trek V' could be said to be the originator of the alternative Vulcans, so strange to see a Vulcan emote it was at that point in Trek's screen history. You can always find precedents for something, especially in such a vast landscape as Trek, and there were always characters that railed against the logical way and often proved that having a little emotion to balance out the mind was the most complete way to exist, most perfectly exemplified by Captain Kirk himself, the middle value between Spock's cool detachment and McCoy's emotive passions. Spock learnt over the course of the films that because of his human half, he needed to bend a little and not hold to logic as the be all and end all: the beginning of wisdom, not the end. But to remind ourselves of the Vulcan mindset we have to remember why they clamped down so hard on their chosen racial outlook, and that was the fact that they were so violent and uncontrolled in their dim past that only complete detachment from their feelings could save them from self-destruction. They had very good reason to take this path of apparent enlightenment because anything would have been better than where they were headed. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that 'DS9' got the idea of the Vulcans correct: unlike what came later, they kept within the confines of Vulcan lore, and because of that were able to create standout Vulcan characters and moments that afterwards couldn't be achieved because we became so used to Vulcans behaving badly.

It was a choice and it worked well, but something I've been coming to re-watching this season of the series, is a suspicion that one choice didn't work out quite as well as I'd previously thought: Ezri. I always liked her from the moment she first appeared, but watching the episodes with such a critical and analytical eye as I have been, I'm less keen on her. It's funny, some characters have grown on me, like Kes, whom I never liked originally, but seeing Jennifer Lien's talent shine through has made me appreciate the character so much more in later years. But Ezri really is taking away from the series. It's not that she's a bad character, nor is Nicole deBoer a failure at her craft, it's just that she took so much time and exposure away from the rest of the cast that I find myself thinking how different this season is from the previous one. I always knew she got the majority of episodes, but even when she's not the focus she's heavily involved as a new toy for the writers to play with, to the detriment of the others. Take Worf, for example, or Julian, or even Odo. Any of these would have been the perfect character to explore a Starfleet serial killer loose on the station, but it's Ezri who is given the assignment. Lest we forget, Worf was Security Chief on the Enterprise and Odo has the same role on the station, yet they're barely involved. If Ezri had been working with one or the other this would have meant we didn't get her unique partnership with the memories of previous host, and murderer, Joran Belar, so it's with mixed feelings I see the episode now.

Bashir would have been a perfect matchup for the Counsellor, considering he'd have been the go-to guy regarding psychology if she hadn't have been there, and when you see the direction of travel they took with those two characters it would have made a lot of sense: they're quite friendly, often spending time together, so much so in fact that Quark's been getting jealous in recent episodes, so to see their professions converge would have made sense and been a good showcase for the pair. Not to say I don't appreciate the continuity and dredging up of backstory that meant Joran's imprint, because I do. The actor that played him was superb: devilishly subtle and manipulative, intense and unfeeling in a sociopathic way, glorying in this chance to corrupt the sweet young nature of the latest Dax host, malevolently revelling in this innocent's desperation and need for his guidance, bringing up the deep dark recesses of an evil period in the symbiont's existence. If only the series had run for another season we might well have seen this malign influence return to literally haunt Ezri because as he warns her in the final scene, she's brought him closer to the surface than the previous hosts did, which means she won't have the luxury to forget him now. I took this to mean that he could well cause psychological issues in future: the danger of getting in touch with unnatural forces, whatever the motivation. It could be seen as a warning against witchcraft and wizardry and would surely have provided a fascinating direction if Ezri had suffered because of this experience, like McCoy when he had Spock's katra in his brain, or Captain Archer with Surak's, or Tuvok with psycho Suder's violent urges.

Actually, this episode reminds me very much of the 'Voyager' episode, 'Meld,' in which again, the unthinkable has happened: someone on the crew has committed murder. In that, the story was flipped, an emotionless Vulcan had to solve the crime most subject to emotions. I think these episodes complement each other rather than this being a remake, and shows how you can do essentially the same narrative with a different character archetype. Who wouldn't want to see how Tuvok approaches such an investigation as opposed to Ezri. Or how O'Brien would deal with it, or Quark, or Kira. And we have seen examples of several of the cast caught up in such a mystery, whether it was a crime (Kira's friends and former resistance members being systematically killed off in 'The Darkness and The Light'), or something more sinister (O'Brien's strange experience in 'Whispers'). So it was Ezri's turn in the hot seat to play gumshoe and creep around the station at the dead of night when only Morn would traverse the dark Promenade. That sequence was in the grand tradition of the series to show the usually bustling, bright throng in a chilling light, or to be precise, darkness, as seen many times ('Distant Voices;' 'Accession' to name but two), but apart from giving Worf some lines his presence wasn't really essential. At least on the surface. It's actually a momentous scene because he's shown to totally accept her with the simple words "You are Dax. It is your way." He'd already essentially accepted Ezri as shown by attending her promotion party, but for him to call her Dax like that showed how far he'd come, and made the scene, otherwise a little odd, worthwhile.

Can you buy that Worf would spend his time secretly following Ezri around? I think it was more that he was out and about for some reason, perhaps contemplation. I can imagine him going for walks alone on the Promenade in the dead of night, so when he sees Ezri creeping around he felt concerned for her safety, but didn't want to make his presence known. She's a bit jumpy anyway, having had a nightmare in which Joran demands to be let loose, filmed in a terrific style where the motion is blurred and indistinct and ends in a barely glimpsed moment where Joran grabs her and throws them both off the upper level of the Promenade! (If only Sisko had called a few minutes earlier he'd have woken her from such a scary night terror!). So they're definitely going for a horror style with the story, though there's also a sliver of humour here and there (such as Ezri's need to say something to Chu'lak when they're alone in the Turbolift, and the best she can come up with is: "By the way, I'm Counsellor Dax"!), muted behind such serious and deadly games: much like the Emperor's new cloak, Ezri possesses something which can't be seen by anyone and makes her look a little silly when she's out in public. No, not clothing, but Joran himself! He's actually all in her mind, but she speaks to him as if he's there and you can see the occasional funny look she gets from passersby, making a name for herself as the crazy Counsellor (if only Deanna Troi could have made an appearance as she did on 'Voyager' and 'Enterprise' and they could have met, Troi a perfect mentor for Ezri, though at that point Marina Sirtis was a big-time film actor, the 'TNG' films still hot property, though 'Insurrection' had been out for a couple of months by the time of this episode).

When Quark comes over it's well choreographed to look natural, rather than Joran having to leap out the way or the barkeep subconsciously staying out of his personal space. Joran edges away a little, all his movement so well controlled, from the pointed face to his body language and voice, restrained at times, poking at Ezri to 'Trill up' and put herself squarely in the mind of the killer, almost pushing her too far, but always trying to keep a lid on it in case she gets rid of him, something he can't control. He's the best thing in it - look at the way he tilts his head after Chu'lak's fired into the wall they're standing by, exhilarated by the blast of compressed air from the hole, his hair blowing about, triumphant that Ezri has finally shot someone. He is more charismatic than the first actor to play the role (though maybe not quite so as the second, as that was Sisko himself!), but then the original was a performance artist rather than an actor. I'd have loved to have seen what that guy would have done in this deeper exploration of the role where before he was more of a background figure who was a presence and didn't really speak, though the new actor had great presence and a strong reading of Joran. He'd previously done the business as another creepy and dangerous man, Tieran in 'Warlord' on 'Voyager' a couple of years before, so his credentials were sound. It was a waste of talent that 'Enterprise' didn't bring him back for another role, like so few of the 24th Century-set series' talent they didn't bother to call up again, too many of their guest stars being forgettable, even though they did get a few Trek actors from the 90s generation.

It would have been a nice touch if they'd had Joran say he knows what it's like to be in Sisko's mind as he and Ezri discuss the Captain, since Sisko hosted the Joran memories in 'Facets' during the Zhian'tara ritual of the current host 'meeting' each of the past ones. It was good that they went into Trill culture with the Rite of Emergence, though it is rather surface level and we don't hear any reasoning for it or what part in plays in Trill life, it's just a means for conjuring up Joran. I noticed the word 'Zhian'tara' as part of the ritual, though she said 'zy-an'tara' rather than 'shan'tara' as it was pronounced before. One thing they got so right were the haunting strains of Joran's composition that had literally haunted Jadzia in Season 3's 'Equilibrium' when we first learned of the existence of a host that had been kept repressed in the symbiont's memories, an excellent callback to a chilling, but simple little composition that expertly ties this episode to that one. What helps to isolate Ezri and keep her on edge, more than just the unsettling nature of a murderer at large, is the internalisation of the story to her: she's alone with Ilario, the first victim, shortly before he dies, then when she wakes up it's all from her perspective, she's not called in to help with the investigation, naturally, not being in Security, so is outside the investigation team and has to follow the hubbub to discover what's going on. Similarly, much of the episode is without the input of her colleagues, otherwise she'd have no need of Joran, and when they do contribute Joran constantly belittles them in her eyes so she'll be more likely to get back to just the two of them. And finally, the episode goes out without her discussing the events with anyone else, just dealing with Joran, having solved the case and stopped herself from carrying out summary justice, something else that makes you wonder what influence Joran might thereafter have in her life, but was sadly never explored.

For an episode that is so psychological in nature, from the ritual of bringing Joran to the forefront of her mind (was that pot bubbling away supposed to be the mud the symbionts live in on Trill?), to the deduction work and discussion around the station, there's a lot of technology to enjoy, most notably the TR-116 rifle equipped with a micro Transporter that enables it to fire through walls! It's a brilliant bit of kit (and a weapon I'll always associate with the Farsight in 'Perfect Dark' on the N64, which also allowed you to focus and fire  through walls at will!), and looks quite nice, though reminiscent of the latest Phaser Rifles that debuted in 'First Contact,' with a little modification. It does bring up the question of why they didn't simply search for this particular weapon in the quarters of all the Vulcans once that had been narrowed down, or why the computer couldn't just do a sensor sweep and report on the location of any tritanium. I do wonder why they had this particular rifle up on a wall on DS9 if it had been abandoned as a concept, but it was great to see a Science Lab on the station, something so rarely used since the early seasons, and I think the last time was not since Season 6's 'The Reckoning' when Sisko was examining the Bajoran artefact. Could the micro Transporter be an ancestor in the design tree of the prototype personal Transporter featured in 'Nemesis'? The mention of 'regenerative Phasers' makes the mind whir with possibilities of what this might be, though I imagine it would be a cycling power frequency or something, such as what they used against the Borg when they adapt to a beam. We also see an interactive photo frame that shows a still image that can also be set in motion, something that didn't exist when this episode was made, but has since become another of the many gadgets that clutter up people's homes.

Ensign Bertram, a suspect, but not in the way we think, collects weapons, though more contemporary or alien than Sulu's interest in historical weaponry. And Saurian brandy is once again a featured player in events, making young Hector Ilario drunk as he staggers home with Ezri taking him under her wing - it seems synthehol doesn't cut it for celebrations, or was this just a one-off misdemeanour in the midst of war? One thing we haven't heard from much on Trek are fighter pilots, which is what they call Ilario, though it quickly transpires they're referring to him piloting the Defiant - when they first mentioned it I pictured those little one-man ships the cadets flew in 'The First Duty' on 'TNG,' because I can't recall much in the way of small fighter craft being seen on Trek, perhaps as a way to stay out of the 'Star Wars' dogfighting style and keep Trek to its own flavour of larger vessels engaging in combat. One such vessel is the USS Grissom, destroyed by the Jem'Hadar, one survivor of which was Chu'lak. It couldn't have been the famous science vessel from 'Star Trek III' as that was lost in the film (although, being 97 he was old enough to have been aboard that ship!), but it's nice to know the naming legacy continues (though perhaps it should have been the Grissom-A?). It's cool to see the old coloured shoulders style of uniform in the photo of Ilario in his Academy days, or shortly after, and shows the attention to detail they put into this series to make it hold together like a real universe should. Even such little character details as Odo's interest in 20th Century crime novels proves useful for determining the unique nature of the weapon used to make the kills.

When I first saw this I thought it was an absolute classic, and a standout of the season - while since those heady days of youth I've come to regard it as not quite that classic, it still has much to recommend it, successfully generating an atmosphere of danger and depravity, not from the actual murderer, but from the killer within. With its creepy moments and temptation from Joran, it vindicates the (over)use of Ezri by her being the only character that could have approached such a problem from this personal an angle, and even though she is taking too much screen time away from the main cast, this was one that worked with her examination of forensic psychology, something she had a slight understanding of and I feel would have been given more time to go deeper in future had the series continued, and if they didn't pick up on such threads in the novel series (which I've never read), then I'd be very surprised. There's a hint of 'Quantum Leap' or 'Randall and Hopkirk Deceased' about it, thanks to the invisible assistance of Joran (rather than Al or Hopkirk), and features strong directing, good use of music (the mysterious, wistful pan-pipes especially), and very cool tech, although I can never get the image out of my mind of a cameraman running back and forth between rooms to create the effect of Ezri seeing through walls thanks to the 'DS9 Companion'!

****

Booster

DVD, Smallville S10 (Booster)

A slightly patchy episode, but it comes through in the end, just like Booster Gold! When I saw the title I assumed it was going to be about this guy, but being a non-comics reader I didn't know anything about him, except that he was the Blue Beetle. At least that's what I thought he's supposed to be, then you get this whole story about some lad that ends up getting infused with weird alien technology in the form of a blue 'scarab' that is somewhat like the Iron Man suit, all CGI clunking armour that spreads over the user, or victim in this case. It transpires this Booster is from the future, so maybe there are stories about him being in era of time and he was the one to wear the suit, I don't know? What I do know is that, after the initial signs of Lois coaching Clark on being Clumsy Kent, I wasn't looking forward to some cheesy new superhero moving in on The Blur's patch, and the episode looked like it was taking a turn for the worse. Happily, I was proved largely wrong, and while I felt it could have been a little more substantial, and for once I wished for 'bigger' special effects (in the scene where scarab lad comes to blast Booster), it had the essential character that this season has been forced to concentrate on, and which has made it a standout in the series compared with the last several seasons, only excluding Season 9.

Once Booster talks of taking Clark/The Blur's place by grabbing the 'key to the city' and thus adoration in the eyes of Metropolis' population, you have to guess he's from the future, partly because of the technology he uses to fly around or blast people, which appears more advanced than the usual stuff we see, and also that he has secret knowledge of Clark's destiny - though the way they played his last scene made it unclear if he knew he was going to be called Superman, even though he was suggesting Clark use the 'S' and make it something super, as if in his timeline he wasn't aware of the final name Clark chose? Maybe it was just the way the actor played it as he was hot on branding and should have said something like "you will," when Clark agrees to get brainstorming on something, although on the other hand he couldn't have made it more obvious so perhaps he was being a little condescending giving such blatant hints and must have known Superman name. Anyway, my theory, thanks to my limited knowledge of Booster Gold/Blue Beetle, was that the young teen that looks like a blue beetle in the suit was going to turn out to be Booster Gold in his past who would grow up to be the man of Gold (loved the Steel versus Gold analogy of the episode, by the way, though I suspect this is all old hat to comic lovers as I think Geoff Johns who wrote the episode was a comics writer - for all I know he may have been the creator of Booster Gold, or well known for writing him, but I don't research and take the series as they give it to me, so I may never know!), and this was why he had saved him.

Booster is from the 25th Century, the time of the Legion, and having stolen a Legion ring, travelled back in time to in some ways put right what went wrong in his life when he chose the wrong path in life, ruined his career and had nothing left, though really he enjoys the glory of heroics, the publicity and the clamour of his fans, something Clark helps to turn around by the end of the episode, importantly, while also working out what's right for his own personas of Blur and Clark. I liked that the biggest problem he really had with hesitant, clumsy Clark was how it would reflect on Lois, a selfless and typically generous-spirited point of view that she's able to reassure him won't be a problem. It is these things, and Booster's tragic past, or actually, tragic future, which he's escaped from, that makes the episode worth spending time on a new character this close to the end. It was important that Clark didn't just suddenly begin acting weak and wishy-washy for no reason, but now that the idea's been well presented and we're so close to the end, they can go for it. I'm not sure anybody would have wanted to see ten seasons of Clark stumbling around (although it was fun to see him recognise the similarity between Jaime, the young scarab lad, and himself when he was at school, one of the first scenes of the pilot being him dropping his books in front of Lana, though they had the masterstroke of that being because of her Kryptonite necklace). But you need to differentiate Clark from his hero persona if it's to be public, and this episode ably achieved an organic transition and motivation.

Cat Grant is the returning character of this episode, though as she's already been in the season she doesn't count as a returnee from a previous season, and they're really running out of time now if they even have one new returnee for each of the final few episodes, which there's no guarantee they will. But surely Pete will be back, who knows about Lana, or anyone else? I doubt they had the budget to get everyone back, even for the finale, but there's always hope. Cat is a little less annoying, and gets to wear a cheeky Wonder Woman-esque costume, or part of it, with The Blur saving her in spectacular fashion, causing her to bake some cookies to say sorry to Lois, with the 'S' logo on the front! I must admit, when Booster was talking about Clark's red and blue outfit I was imagining he was referring to the Superman suit, as I'd forgotten he has the red leather jacket emblazoned with an 'S.' Still, we get a really cool moment when Clark rushes to the scene of the scarab's violent attack, then seeing a phone box does what he will do many times in the future. It's pretty funny, really, since phone boxes are all glass, so he may as well just have jumped over a wall, but it was a very nice touch, and although the confrontation was fairly low-key, especially when you can't help but think of the myriad superhero films and their inflated budgets, looking a bit small fry, the character stuff made it important, even down to seeing the lad's face inside the helmet like 'Metroid,' terrified because he can't control the armour's rampage, and using Clark's own words Booster is able to inspire him to take control and power down the weapon (had the Kord Industries guy been in it before?).

I do miss the interactions with Green Arrow in these episodes, but they've managed to stay focused on Lois and Clark's great friendship and partnership which is what makes the season so good, and they interwove the three lines of story well, Clark's uncertainty about the need for a diversionary persona that can fly under the radar, the extreme opposite of Booster Gold's desire for fame and riches poking him into taking the beetle by the horns (he actually doesn't, leaving it to the real hero inside Booster to do that, but it sounds good), and Jaime the scarab boy who's been made to feel worthless, but realises he has potential and the mentor to help him reach it. Which all goes towards making it a well written episode and one with goodness and rightness, a light, but meaningful story that continues to build towards the ultimate goal of Clark donning the mantle of Superman. I had thought that with Tom Welling directing, Clark would be in it less, but he was as much in evidence as ever, so well done Tom, you did good.

***

The Emperor's New Cloak

DVD, DS9 S7 (The Emperor's New Cloak) (2)

Three years had passed since most of the actors had portrayed the alternate versions of their characters, the Mirror Universe (always referred to in this episode as the 'Alternate Universe') created by Jerome Bixby for 'TOS' (this episode dedicated to him as he'd died the year this was made), ignored during Season 5, the last dealings with that sadistic, brutal parallel form to the one we know so well occurred on our side of the border when Intendant Kira and the Mirror Bareil visited for a rather different take on the concept in Season 6. So this was the series' last approach into that land which the Ferengi learn is best avoided - The Avoided Country rather than the The Undiscovered one. The last of 'DS9' and the last chronologically to date, since 'Voyager' never explored it (except in spirit with the EMH's fictionalised version of his crewmates in 'Author, Author,' or the future imagining of how history might have been remembered by an alien race in 'Living Witness'), and 'Enterprise,' set before even the first encounter our world had with the MU, showed that even in those early days it had deviated vastly from the Trek Universe we know and love. 'Discovery' apparently features the MU significantly, despite still being before Starfleet's first contact with it, so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out, most likely set entirely within the constraints of that reality, like the 'Enterprise' two-parter, unless they want to bend canon to breaking point, or possibly a secret visit that neither side kept records of.

I digress, for the history of the MU is not the question, but its final appearance in the timeline so far. When I thought about it, the way the actors were able to slip back into the selfish extremes of their alternate compatriots impressed me, especially as some had only had one previous outing (Regent Worf joined the fray in Season 4's 'Shattered Mirror'), while others had been there from the opening visit of 'Crossover' (Intendant Kira looks ever more different to our own Nerys thanks to the Colonel's beautification this season with a more loose hairstyle hanging over her face, while the Intendant continues to sport the short-cropped mean look she's always had), and still others made their debut and finale all in the one episode. These characters most impress upon the memory, with Brunt a capable hero and considerate friend, brave, moral and a skilled engineer and accomplished cook, so far from the slimy, bullying, coward of our universe. And Vic Fontaine is a real flesh and blood man of the evil Klingon-Cardassian Alliance which makes absolutely no sense. He should have been with the rebellion! I jest, for of course the fact he's not a hologram and yet has the same name and face as one created for an entertainment program is totally ridiculous and bends the rules of canon to breaking point - even if Vic were based on a real person he'd have been dead for centuries. But then that's the point of the MU, the desire to portray the Trek world in reverse to its usual good sense, careful scientific theory and thoughtful character development (which makes me think is the reason 'DSC' used it, by many accounts, as that series itself sounds more MU than Prime!).

The downside of this gay abandon to all sense and rules (well, not all the rules, they still have the same laws of physics, warp drive, etc, seemingly), is that while it can be fun, it also has little satisfaction unless the events are meaningful for characters from our side of the universal divide. In the past this has meant Sisko (or son Jake)'s connection to the Mirror counterpart of his deceased wife, Jennifer, something that made 'Through The Looking Glass' the best of every iteration of the MU I've seen, because it had real consequences. The point of the MU in general is to do whatever you want and have no consequences (which is why so many feel the 'Kelvin Timeline' as it's now known, the alternate reality of the recent trilogy of films, wears too thin, too quickly, a mere shadow for the Trek of old, too soon to develop bonds with imposters, flaky incarnations of people we've known so well for so long), which sounds like a recipe for a fun outing, and can be, but also can end up as little more than a cartoon. The idea of constraint breeding creativity proving so true, so often, that the petulant, entirely self-serving tyrannical versions of the characters have so little merit or attraction. I'm with Andrew Robinson, who found Mirror Garak a bit of a bore to play since there was nothing to him, but a cartoonish sadist (Hobbies: KILL! KILL! KILL! And when he's not KILL!ing he likes to dabble in a spot of torture), so far from the subtle, subtext-riddled isheaspyorisn'the? of our own glorious Garak.

The actors seem to have fun, Regent Worf constantly having tantrums whenever things don't go exactly as he wants, completely dishonourable at every turn, and flying into a rage where he pulls apart his own command chair and flings it across the deck. Perhaps the fault is in the writing with this episode, that there's isn't a lot to grasp onto, apart from the literal grasping of the Ferengi, though for once in altruistic mode, as they carry the fritzing cloaked cloak of Martok's Bird of Prey through the station's corridors for the delectation of Mirror Ezri in the hope of securing Grand Nagus Zek's release from Mirror captivity. That was an excellent sequence, and the fact that the actors practiced dutifully to pull it off to a high standard shows how seriously they took their work, however comedic it was often flavoured. It's clear that the writers, as with so many stories in the first half of this season, wanted to have fun with a concept one last time, almost as if they didn't want to do too much war-related writing so as to leave the majority of the larger picture for the final third of the season when it would become an actual serial in order to wrap everything up. So they were enjoying themselves and being much more experimental. Not all experiments work wholeheartedly - real life Vic worked brilliantly as a flash in the pan, a surprise out of nowhere that served to remind us that in the MU anything can happen at any time, just as we first learned when Mirror Odo was splattered in 'Crossover,' or a Ferengi was murdered in each of the 'DS9' native MU instalments.

That's just it, the formula of the MU is all present and correct: a Ferengi is mercilessly killed; the same red-hued Transporter device developed by Smiley O'Brien, is used to travel between the universes; Regent Worf flies around in his outsized Klingon vessel; Intendant Kira slinks about like a Slinky; even what I took to be Dennis Madalone's Marauder was seen again, last known to be knocked unconscious by a metal tray from the hand of Mirror Nog. At least I think the scar-faced mercenary type that enters Terok Nor's Cargo Bay with Captain O'Brien and Bashir, was the Marauder, but he didn't get much exposure. So the elements are there, but as with 'Shattered Mirror,' it seemed to me to be all window dressing. At least in that one a few new elements were added thanks to Michael Dorn's addition to the cast since the previous visit to the MU. This time we have Mirror Ezri at the heart of the action, along with her good friend Brunt. Brunt, as I noted before, was strikingly different, and a character you wanted to cheer on, but Ezri… Yes, she was very different to our kind, caring, compassionate and self-doubting Counsellor, with her spiky hair and black motorbike leathers, but like the other MU characters she seemed very two-dimensional, even despite having an awakening of conscience (who'd have thought Quark would have ever become the kind of person to offer to help her work on her conscience, even if it was said partly in jest as an excuse to spend more time with her).

I can see where the germs of the established characters' growth was meant to come from: Quark has been infatuated with Ezri ever since he first saw her, and while Jadzia was more real to him because she loved spending time with Ferengi and playing their games, Ezri has remained something far-off, falling into the clutches of Bashir since they spend so much time together. So this episode was working off the back of that running theme for Quark this season, it's just sad that that was the best the Ferengi got in terms of ongoing story-lines, almost forgotten in the upheaval of a final season, the essentially Starfleet hero nature of the war arc, and as noted, the prevalence of experimental episodes which meant that a good chunk of the cast had little more than a few cameos in some episodes. To an extent it had always been the case that some characters would fall to the background for a few episodes before they got a starring role, and that was even more in evidence in the last couple of seasons as the growing roster of recurring characters ate into the time some of the main cast would have had, just as bringing in Ezri meant she took a lion's share of the exposure in Season 7. There was a line in this very episode that summed up Quark's entire season at a blow: when Quark pleads that he must go with Rom to help fix the cloaking device, Mirror Ezri  says, "You're a bartender, Quark, what are you going to do, mix him a drink?" Tending bar became Quark's main occupation as he'd grown out of the days of scheming and plotting behind the station's back, his plots causing many an adventure for DS9 when it was more reliant on adventures occurring within its bulkheads than being concerned with the vastness and fate of the Alpha Quadrant itself.

I feel the episode needed some unknown quantity to make it work better. Maybe Mirror Moogie, or creepy Keiko, or even Mirror Keiko… Only joking, I like Keiko a lot, and this was another episode she could so easily have been worked into, probably some scary assassin vying with Garak for Worf's approval. It would even have been an opportune point to get Jadzia back - though they mention her, it's said she was killed in an Alliance attack, more's the pity. I know the realities at the time meant Terry Farrell would never have been invited back, even for the tiniest cameo, it's a sore point, and in a universe where anything can happen, it's exactly where even in that scenario of the time, she could have been brought in. Perhaps she could have been given the heroic death that our Jadzia never received, piloting the Mirror Defiant in battle against Worf's ship. It wasn't really a battle thanks to Rom's shrewd use of the cloak to sabotage the great vessel, leaving it at the mercy of Captain O'Brien. One thing I will say, O'Brien in the Captain's seat was a natural fit, and with Bashir by his side it worked even better! What was missing from this MU story was the kind of thing that made Smiley a good character in the first place: the inspiration our Bashir brought to him in 'Crossover' that led him to rebel against the long-established order he'd accepted for so long. And look how far he's come, leader of the rebels, a brave, confident Captain in his own right. The MU wasn't enough on its own to carry a story, it needed the missing character development that some of the others had. The exciting possibilities of change for the better that made us care about Smiley in the first place.

I can't help thinking the MU had become a bit of a joke by this time. When they first went to that well, reexamining a classic of 'TOS' through the lens of the modern series, it was dark and grimy, hopeless and unpredictable. Five episodes and five years later, and it wasn't much more than parody, the extremes of the characters ruling over the story. Bashir, like O'Brien, was one of the few to still seem like a real person, even though he wasn't one of the more developed of the MU cast, and I liked that he and Smiley had something of the friendship our versions had. Maybe friendship is going too far, but they were well used to working together, you could tell, and had had success with the partnership. Back to Quark, though: his fondness for Ezri makes him stick up for the Mirror version to the point where he gets smashed to the ground, but it's the barest start of Mirror Ezri's understanding of loyalty to something more than money. Considering Quark's devotion to profit as a good Ferengi, that he could teach someone loyalty as a higher goal than money is hilarious, so there are good messages to be drawn from such a wacky episode. His personal loyalty to Zek is something else that continues her journey, even though Quark doesn't really know why he has such a drive to help the Nagus: he vaguely ponders that Zek is rich and powerful, so there could be reward, or maybe he admires the 'lobes' or success of his elder and better, and the fact his Mother is involved is another reason, but ultimately he has a simple ethic of 'when your Nagus is in trouble you're supposed to do something to help.'

Quark doesn't really seem to understand his motivations or his Ferengi beliefs, or see the polarity between them. I had the same confusion over his Blessed Exchequer piggy bank that he prays to asking for good fortune and attention from Ezri. He pays bribes by dropping Latinum into the idol's ear, but how does that work? Knowing the Ferengi, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a whole class of workers paid to regularly visit every Ferengi residence, wherever they may be, and empty out the bribes religious Ferengi have paid to their deity or whatever it is, taking them back for… I don't know, the state, a form of taxation, the personal coffers of the Nagus? Equally, the piggy bank could be wirelessly connected to the Ferengi banking institutions, and every clink that drops in registers and is kept account of. But even then it would have to be emptied by someone, and if it was Quark, then he'd have the money back, unless it's deducted from a central account. Either that, or it's a futile exercise in playacting, Quark merely taking the money back from the idol and all being metaphorical or a gesture rather than something literal. Ferengi lack of understanding is the running gag, with the easily confused Rom finding the puzzle of the MU too much to fathom for a brain that is so wired to mechanical understanding, which is why he's such a terrific engineer. Such effort at perception is one of the amusing parts of the episode, and really, Rom is responsible for when the story finally goes somewhere and the episode heats up.

That doesn't happen until towards the end when Mirror Garak is confounded by the three Ferengi telling him how worthless he is compared with the mastery of their Garak (another thing that would have been so dramatically ripe with possibility is if both Garak's had met - what a change that would have made, perhaps with both torturing the other and certainly our Garak running rings around his alternate self verbally if nothing else!). The sabotage kicks in, the Defiant comes in firing (although I think that was just a reuse of some footage from 'Shattered Mirror' - reuse is how the whole episode comes across to me, when I used to quite like it), and the Ferengi escape with Ezri's assistance. That's how the episode needed to feel throughout: dangerous, exciting and unpredictable. But it was the fact that the MU had come to have a formula at all that softened its shock value. If we'd seen the world from the Ferengi perspective as never before, every dream of avarice within their grasp, tempted to stay in such an off-the-wall universe, but rightly realising they needed the stability missing there, it would have added depth to what was a broadly comical entry in the MU canon. I can't even say it's a good Ferengi episode, and I love the Ferengi ones. It was neither humorous enough to be lumped in the comedy category, nor was it a strong enough dramatic story for Quark, who's proved himself a number of times to be capable of that role. It's good to see the changes in Quark and Rom that had taken hold over the seasons relatively stark (Quark's generousness; Rom's development of a backbone, standing up to Garak's threats), but there wasn't quite enough to hang a story on.

There were parts of it that remained underdone or never explored at all. The main being the consequences of the whole affair - we last see enraged General Martok smashing through the Cargo Bay to get at the fleeing Ferengi and the stolen cloak, but how did they get themselves back into station life without being flayed? No wonder Quark wanted to stay a bit longer - it wasn't Ezri, it was the thought of Martok waiting on the other side! I can imagine him posting Klingon guards at the Cargo Transporter night and day, especially once he knew where they'd beamed. But would he have known, would anyone have known, since they don't tell anyone where they're going, it all happens so fast? Maybe something could be extrapolated from the Transporter signature and Sisko just doesn't have time to go off on a mission to retrieve two missing Ferengi and an irate Klingon's cloak. I'd have loved to see them return and face the music. Presumably they would have been able to go home with the cloak again, although the rebels might well have commandeered it for the cause, though with the Regent in custody and his massive ship on their side, maybe they wouldn't have need of it? If they did go back without it how would they have escaped the wrath of Martok? It's all left unexplained (although I did like the fact a Klingon brings the cloak to Worf singlehandedly, while it took the two Ferengi a great effort to carry between them, showing the different physiologies of the races). I also wonder why they had to cross over on DS9 - I suppose they could have used any Transporter, but the cloak was at DS9, and perhaps it made sense that the device only works on those specific Transporters that had previously been tuned, otherwise anyone could beam between universes any time, but then Zek wouldn't have come to DS9 to use the device so it must be useable on any Transporter… Good to see the Brig (even the MU variety), as I don't recall it being used this season until now.

The Mirror Universe is a hit or miss affair, crazy, wacky, but fun in a disturbing sort of way. It's nice to know that it's still living and breathing thanks to 'DSC' so it's more relevant than ever to see these older episodes though they take place later, just as weird a thing to contemplate as anything else in that timeline - actually timeline isn't the right word because different universe's in the Trek view are different entities, whereas the timeline is something that is held to be what we know as the Prime Universe, a convention that wasn't required until the meddling of the Kelvin Timeline. Which is annoying, but at least it means that that 'timeline' or universe can be separated and dismissed from the 'serious' canon with no need to account for all the crazy wackiness within. Which can also be said of the MU, an entirely separate universe that has nothing to do with branching off timelines that current science likes to theorise about, but have just as little reality as actual time travel, and a whole lot less relevance since it means everything we do splits off into some quantum universe, or something, making us both more powerful by our every effect creating entire dimensions, and also ever more vastly insignificant as who's to say any one of the theoretical versions of us is the 'real' one. Trek has wisely tended toward keeping a coherent timeline, one that does have meaning and development, and while it's a bit of a holiday to go off and explore a variation like the MU or the Kelvinverse, especially if it appears sparingly, but regularly over the years, and changes in that time to show it's a living, breathing place, it's the original universe that matters, which is why you can kill off characters for shock value (or bring back ones that had died in our universe), and it can still make dramatic sense despite having no lasting repercussions. 'The Emperor's New Cloak' was a superb title, probably the best of the MU, and the episode has all the trappings, but sadly, it isn't an essential foray into that world of dark horror that had become a world of dark humour, nor does it reward us as prodigal daughters or sons returning to it as lavishly as we might hope.

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