The Storyteller DS9: 1-13

Synopsis

In a split story, Dr. Bashir and Chief O'Brien visits a village on Bajor that claims their existence to be threatened by disease.  When they arrive, however, Bashir finds the distress to be localized to a single elder of the village who is dying of old age.  However, this particular elder is the Storyteller of the village called the Sirah, who fills the important ceremonial function of leading the villagers in driving away the Dal'rok, an undefined cloud of energy that threatens the village once a year.

The Sirah names O'Brien his successor before dying, bypassing his own apprentice who has tried to drive away the Dal'rok and failed. O'Brien has no idea what he's doing, of course, but the apprentice explains that this attack by the Dal'rok is an elaborate ceremony created by the original Sirah as a method to unite warring townspeople who were on a course to destroy the village.  The creature is created by a piece of celestial orb, and the Sirah works with the collective emotional power of the village to seemingly repel the cloud of unstable energy.

During the last night of the Dal'rok's approach, O'Brien demonstrates his failure as the Sirah, and the apprentice takes over and performs the ceremony correctly, assuming his rightful place as the Storyteller.

Back on DS9 the other story plays out between the rival Bajoran factions of the Pacu and the Navot. Ben Sisko is the mediator, facilitating the meeting. The ambassador for the Paku, Varis, is a precocious teenage girl, who feels that it is important for her to appear strong and not give up anything in the negotiations with the Navot.

While the talks are stalled, she instead spends time with Jake and Nog, enjoying the chance to be a teenager again.  After listening to Jake's respect for his father, and Nog's counsel to see compromise as an opportunity, Varis is able to work out an agreement that restores land to the rightful owners but also allows trade opportunities between the two groups.

Analysis

Sadly, this was not one of the stronger episodes of the first season.  It was another of the family specials with goofy moments and extended periods of making O'Brien look foolish, it just didn't have much substance.  There were glimmers of inspiration, such as the young woman asked to be the leader of her people, attempting to live up to her own image of her father.

Once again, Commander Sisko is given an opportunity to be a wise and benevolent advisor, and instead comes across as a petulant whiner.  Varis is obviously impressed with Jake's opinion of his father, and father figures are important to her, so she is ready for advice, but instead Sisko just keeps pushing for what he wants.

This split storytelling is reminiscent of the Love Boat or MASH or other sitcoms of that era.  It works with a very light format which emphasizes the comedic elements or the romantic ones. But it doesn't allow time for in-depth narrative, and its message has to be simple and clear

The problem here is again with tone.  One story begins with a dying village elder and proceeds to an embittered apprentice attempting murder - hardly the usual light comic fare.  Were we supposed to laugh at O'Brien's sincere attempts to perform the role asked of him?  Why did the camera grind on and on documenting Miles' failure?  Once again, the DS9 crew were merely observers of an unusual village ceremony but took no real role in resolving the crisis.

A similar situation was created with Jake and the oatmeal in Odo's regeneration container.  The writers were reaching for humor that fell flat and felt awkward.  But embarrassing main characters is what passes for humor.  This was probably a low point in the first season.

And again, the message was unclear.  Were these villagers so superficial that they had to be swayed by the Miles and Julian show?  Wouldn't a more permanent solution be better, one that removed the need for the false Dal'rok monster and asked the villagers to put aside their ancient unresolved differences and act like mature members of a single community.  Instead of the conflict of, "the village needs a new Sirah," we would have preferred to be looking at the conflict of "The village needs to stop acting like gullible children and face their larger problems.

Kira and Quark have a great scene together.  It had nothing to do with either story