The Dogs of War (2)

DVD, DS9 S7 (The Dogs of War) (2)

'The line must be drawn here! This far, no further,' so says Quark, the last true Ferengi unconsciously emulating the famous words of Captain Picard in 'First Contact.' Quark had been largely lost, not just in the final nine-part arc, but in the whole season, you could almost say the last third of the series since the war began, though he had a number of episodes within that period. In the final arc he barely features, there only to walk on with a drink and some wise words, before shuffling off stage again. It might appear to be a waste of the series' fast depleting time to give over its penultimate episode to the Ferengi extended family's last visit to the station, and equally it could have followed the pattern of penultimate-to-series-or-season-finales begun in 'TNG' where 'Pre-emptive Strike' was good, but not great, or 'Transfigurations' was forgettable before the monumental 'The Best of Both Worlds.' It became a disappointing trend that some of the last episode slots the writers had available to them as they closed out a series for good were variable in quality: 'Emergence,' 'Bloodlines' on 'TNG,' 'Natural Law,' 'Friendship One' on 'Voyager,' 'Demons,' 'Terra Prime' on 'Enterprise'… That pattern hadn't quite been set and thanks to 'DS9' was not chiselled in stone at this time, once again proving that this was the highest class of Trek ever created - not only did they complete the run of episodes up to the finale with tremendous flair, they brought us a Ferengi episode that even those that couldn't stand the race must have admitted was one of the better episodes of the series.

I reiterate from other reviews that that sentiment about Ferengi (when it referred to 'DS9'), was never mine, and I consider this to be not just a better episode, but one of the series' best. I always think of it as a last Ferengi knockabout episode, but while that is a key part of the story, it is by far not the only one. I'm not sure if it's the A or the B plot, but one thing's for sure: there are so many plots that you might even say we have a C, D and E! Well, there were plenty more letters in the alphabet. The incredible cast list heralds what must be the most recurring characters for a single episode ever: you've got the various Ferengi, you've got the villains, minor characters we've seen before, some not for many years, and even the glorified extras of the bar, Broik and Dabo girl M'Pella, are given part of the limelight. It's astonishing that they could jam in so many people and yet it never feel rushed or illogical in any way. Jeffrey Combs even does double time in a superb combination of Weyoun and Brunt which if you didn't know (and failed to notice the onscreen credit), were played by the same actor, you'd never guess! On the same day as I watched this, I re-watched the Season 1 finale of 'Discovery' and what a miserably put together piece of rubbish it was - I'd go as far as to say it's in the running for worst Trek episode ever and I think I'd even watch the awful 'Shades of Grey' above that one. It got Trek, no it got storytelling itself, so, so wrong that it wipes good Trek from your memory like a Romulan mind probe. Watching 'DS9' reminded me why Trek is so great, or had been so great: the craft that went into not just the production, which 'DSC' succeeded at, but the believability factor and the portrayal of the races, restores all despairing brain cells that had died with that poor ending to a frustration-strewn season.

There are multiple races in this episode, all being used in the way that is so, so right: you have Kira, a Bajoran who is also a figurehead for the Federation in its dealings with Damar's Cardassian Liberation Front, that must continue to walk that tightrope between serving the Federation's purpose for her, and being sensitive enough to know when to keep her creased nose out of the eyes of the Cardassians she's there to support. She's like a caged bear when circumstances force her, Damar and Garak to seek refuge in Enabran Tain's dusty old basement, wanting to do something to strike back at the Dominion, but knowing from where she is she's powerless. The Dominion, using Cardassian collaborators that would sacrifice their world's future for personal gain, have put an end to the carefully constructed network of Damar's resistance: all the bases have been annihilated and it's their belief that Damar, too, has been killed when his ship, piloted by Seskal, is obliterated when they go to meet with further potential allies. It's a miserable beginning to the episode, and the cruel, ruthless nature of Cardassian psychology is shown up to their detriment, as well as its arrogance when we see the new puppet leader, Legate Broca. Damar and his two allies lie on their beds in this dark, dingy cellar, depressed and demoralised, until Mila brings word that the people think Damar still lives. Kira hits on this as a last, desperate solution: extreme circumstances require extreme measures, and while the military is all but ruined, the civilian population are ripe for turning into a force against their oppressors.

Birthing Damar into legend, a mythical folk hero, was something that happened without him doing anything, aside from his daring exploits, of course. But the people took his name on as a source of hope and so he chooses to get off his bed of misery and try to turn things around. With the solidifying of his continued survival, the people can be fired up, and I love how Kira stays in the shadows as Damar takes the floor in a fury of purpose after their attack on a Dominion target, melting away as Damar's position rises. They so succeed at pulling the heart strings, and at every emotion, it's a wonder to behold as tensions mount and ebb, the action a result of logical progression and sense. In some ways a light episode, but not to be taken lightly, it's a deeply personal experience. Some episodes are best left unshared, and this is one of those. I'm not sure why. But it's not one you'd pick out to watch on the fly, it needs to be seen as the semi-culmination of a multi-part saga (just as you wouldn't stick in 'Sacrifice of Angels' on a whim), of a season, of a war and of a series entire. Perhaps for that reason it stands out, it takes a long time to get to this point, however many times you've seen it, and it's a mirror of the characters' own circumstances of reaching somewhere after many years, mainly Rom, but Quark too, who sees what he's become and doesn't like it, rages about it, yet knows what he really thinks - he likes to play up his image of being the true Ferengi, but he is soft. It's this interplay of soft and hard, implacable enemy and close friendship that gives the episode a keenness, because this is almost all there is left.

If Damar is a living legend to his people, Quark is a beacon of Ferenginess, but only to himself. He's struggling to maintain the ways he knows, in the light of extreme social change like you could never have believed, all because of his Moogie's careful reforms over the last couple of seasons. It's really incredible how they could turn a race that was so defined on its ear (!), yet when you see it happen it makes perfect sense, not just because Rom is the ideal candidate to form a fairer, kinder Ferengi society, one at odds with Quark's deep-held, yet lovably hypocritical beliefs, but because the seeds have been planted ever since Moogie and Zek became lobe to lobe and her influence spread. Quark at heart really is kind, and abhors violence. He just wants to make a profit, and he does want to make a fair one. He does have a conscience, he does care, he has succumbed to the bubbly and cloying insidious goodness of Federation 'root beer' values, and it doesn't matter how much he doth protest (too much?), he's fighting his true nature when he refuses to conform to the new Ferenginar and proudly states his bar will be the last outpost (see what they did there - hee, hee, glorious!), of the true Ferengi. Even then he has to rely on his brother's charity in freely giving him back the bar which Rom bought off him without even having to haggle when Quark's mind is on the Nagus-ship which he wrongly believes is coming to him. Even then, he's planning to turn it down, turn down his ultimate dream of untold riches because he stands on principle and if he has to see Ferengi society crumble away he'd rather not be part of it.

Either way, the joke's on him: even if he had been made Nagus by Zek he'd have taken on this role when it had been reduced in power, the reason for having it in the first place, so Quark would have been just as unhappy as finding out that his brother was the actual recipient of the honour. The family politics continue even to this point, because Rom was the 'favourite,' he was the gentler one that needed more help and Quark is more like his conniving, cunning Moogie than he was his profit-failing Father, so he sees himself in her which makes it even harder. But Ishka sees what she's accomplished with Zek and knows that Rom will continue in that direction. My only hope is that if they do touch on Ferengi civilisation in 'Star Trek: Picard' they show how it has changed for the positive, without losing its Ferengi identity. And if they can bring in Max Grodenchik and Chase Masterson as Rom and Leeta it'll be thrilling! Though, thinking about it, when they brought the Ferengi into 'Voyager' they were the same old Ferengi, reverting to the simplistic 'TNG' variety. Here, it's truly brilliant writing to shape it so that Trek gets to have it both ways: Quark remains true to his personal values even while reform comes to the un-reformable, a most Trekkian solution. Amongst both these main plots of the death and rebirth of the Cardassian underground, and the death and rebirth of the Ferengi, there is time for the expected social commentary on one hand, and developments in the war on the other. No area goes unexplored - in fact that's true of Avery Brooks' directing, too.

The last cast member of the series to direct an episode was fittingly the Captain and star, once again demonstrating his supreme ability to juggle all these varied stories and characters without dropping one. It's like he deliberately chose to film in some of the smaller, out of the way areas of the station because these places won't be seen again, and this adds intimacy to what is a grand scale story that features countless sets. When they allow time for even Bashir and Ezri's romantic interlude (in keeping with what became a tradition, if a strange one, of throwing two main characters together at the last moment of the series - see Worf and Deanna in 'TNG,' and Seven and Chakotay in 'Voyager'), Brooks films it in a little Bajoran shop which may or may not have once been the Assay Office of early seasons. It's not a big part of the episode, but is the culmination of a number of recent episodes. It still came out of nowhere, effectively, but at least they gave us time to get used to the idea unlike the other examples I mentioned. And when Quark and Rom are discussing things they do it by going up to the second level of the bar from where Quark can look down on all he surveys, metaphorically, and it's lovely to revisit these quiet little nooks and crannies that have so often been too small to contain the epic main stories we've been watching over the final arc. Brooks also shows accomplishment in his filming of other scenes, such as the fast moving camera as we dart around the Female Changeling's office, or the bomb in the Cardassian street, or the destruction of the captured Jem'Hadar ship as Vaughn Armstrong goes out in a blaze.

It could have been any old unnamed Cardassian, but there's terrific continuity in even the little details. So they bring back Seskal, the surviving 'name' character of Damar's coterie after Rusot had already been dealt with previously, and this makes Damar seem even more alone. I know three's a crowd, and his dark hole of a hideout is cramped by sharing it with Garak and Kira, but their presence is almost worse since one's a Bajoran, the other a disgraced exile, a reminder of Damar's position at the bottom by the only company he can keep. Another wonderful touch of continuity is bringing back Julianna McCarthy as Mila, Tain's housekeeper whom we hadn't seen since Season 3's 'Improbable Cause' - again, they could easily have recast this role, but they chose to bring back the same actress and she is wonderful. When she tells them to get cleaning in that murky basement I sense it was for two reasons: to give them something to do to occupy their hands, and to give them a feeling of earning their keep, having a job so important to mental health. She was a wise old woman was Mila, though her assertion that despite not being a good cook she could keep a secret, was blown a bit by revealing to Kira and Damar that Tain, former head of the Obsidian Order, was Garak's Father! I might be missing something, but I don't know that that was common knowledge or that Garak would necessarily want it to be! I'd have expected some shock for Damar, but maybe it had been rumoured in military circles? Who knows, it's not a problem, it's just one tiny moment that surprised me.

I wonder if the Dominion genuinely believed they'd killed Damar? It's just that you'd think they would have preferred to capture him alive to make an example of him. I guess they don't follow the same rules as the Cardassians who like to think that you haven't truly defeated an opponent until you make him realise he was wrong to oppose you in the first place! It could have been lies from Weyoun as I don't think we see any scenes for the villains to react to Damar's resurgence. Whatever their true beliefs were, the important thing was that the Cardassian people found something to cling onto. It's great to actually visit Cardassia (sandy coloured from orbit, just like its ships), even if it is mainly the grim basements or tight streets rather than seeing the sights - that's one area where 'DSC' made an improvement, it had the money and the advances in technology to be able to swoop into Earth or Qo'noS from orbit right down to the streets, such visuals previously only available to the bigger-budgeted films. I wish we could have seen a larger area of the city streets, but it would have been tricky to do unless without portioning a ton of money towards huge facades on the Paramount backlot city that was used a number of times in Trek, and they must have already been busting the bank with all the things they were doing as it was. They get across the story, which is the main thing, with the people seeing their hero in person.

Even the Cardassian youth that speaks out in excitement, proclaiming Damar's name, had been in a 'Voyager' episode (he was the young Tuvok in 'Gravity' that had aired earlier that corresponding season on 'Voyager'), and interestingly the one credited Jem'Hadar of this episode was also in that (Paul S. Eckstein), and had, and would have, other minor roles in Trek. Velal is brought back for his second appearance as the representative of the Romulan Empire in meetings aboard DS9, and the minor characters, really extras, of Broik and M'Pella (she'd played various uncredited roles across the series), were also given their dues. One character that might not have been expected to return was the USS Defiant, in the form of the Defiant-class USS Sao Paulo. You couldn't have had the coming massive pile-up of starships in battle in the finale without it, really. Although Bashir doesn't like the carpet he must have been pleased to have a proper Sickbay because I seem to remember him complaining about the lack of any such facilities back in Season 3's introduction of the original Defiant in 'The Search' - this time he's off to check out his Sickbay, so things have definitely changed in the intervening years. I especially love that former producer and writer Peter Allan Fields (now sadly deceased), returned to help write this episode, like everyone coming back to the fold for a last push.

Lastly, there are a couple of small moments that are nonetheless important: Bashir informing Odo that he was the carrier rather than a victim of the nasty shapeshifter-crippling plague leads to a short discussion between the Constable and Sisko that Starfleet is abetting genocide by not giving the Founders the cure. He points out to the Captain that when the Federation needs its dirty work done they look the other way, referring to the unofficial Federation-created Section 31. It may not be sanctioned, but it's still not being opposed. This may have been a further prodding to Odo towards his coming decision to leave the solids and return to his people permanently. We've seen Odo can be as hypocritical as any of us ('Things Past'), but he still holds himself to high standards and those that claim to have ideals, and it's true that the Federation comes off looking bad in this. It's also the case that the reforms in Ferengi society had nothing to do with the Federation, so it's another development that occurred in parallel, which they can't claim as being part of other than leading by example, but even there the most Federation-exposed Ferengi, Quark, is still adamantly opposed to their ideals of equality, from the tips of his lobes right down to the garishly painted toenails we see Brunt shamelessly pedicuring. The other small, but integral scene is Kasidy's revelation that she's to have a baby, the warning from the Prophets suddenly taking on more meaning. Will we see this other Sisko child in 'Picard'? Oh there are just so many possibilities in returning to this time period plus twenty years.

I knew I loved this episode, but I didn't expect it to hit home as much as it did. It remains one of the most full, charged, complete stories, yet also keeps moving, covers so many things in as satisfying a way as you could desire. It has action, it has meaning, it has social commentary, it deals with multiple established cultures, it has in-jokes that are mere touches you wouldn't even notice unless you knew your Trek. It is lovingly made, lovingly written and acted, and is good enough in tone and mood and success, to be the finale itself, but it isn't over yet and it knows it, and it sets up the last push wonderfully. Like 'Call To Arms,' the incredible finale to Season 5, there's just enough war talk to remind you of the big picture (Martok in his Chancellor's cloak!), while also finding time to service so many, many characters, the small, personal details, the grand gestures of Damar and Rom, it's a real bundle of everything Trek can, and should be. Brooks pulled it all together beautifully, giving us great reassurance throughout an adventure that was at times bleak, but never hopeless, especially in that last quiet scene between Sisko and Kasidy. It's the kind of reassurance and warmth I have yet to see in modern Trek, that has been missing for years as it tried to be something it wasn't. I can't say more to sum up its qualities than to praise its beauty and to declare that this is one of the best episodes of the series, from direction on down to every other aspect. Amazing. And all named after an obscure Klingon quote from 'Star Trek VI'!

*****