DS9: The Forsaken E1 S16

Synopsis

A delegation of ambassadors from the Federation has been sent on a fact-finding mission to the wormhole, and Commander Sisko assigns Dr. Bashir as their liason:  tour guide and babysitter to keep them out of Sisko's hair.  One of the delegation is Lwaxana Troi, mother of Deanna Troy from TNG.

Quark: Oh, my ear! Please!
Lwaxana: Yes... and I know where it hurts the most, you little troll.

While in Quark's bar, Ambassador Troi had a valuable brooch stolen and Odo's shrewd investigation was able to return the item.  This captured the eye of Lwaxana and she began a courtship of Odo that he felt was intrusive and made him feel uncomfortable.  In an attempt to get away from his unwanted admirer, Odo claims to need to inspect the upper pylon, but Troi insists on accompanying him.

Julian Bashir continues to have difficulties with the increasing demands of the visiting dignitaries and he complains to Sisko about how unreasonable they are being.  Sisko responds that every junior officer must endure these kinds of assignments, including himself when he was a fresh officer working for Dax.  

On the operations deck, O'Brien is struggling with the Cardassian computer, which insists on arguing with him about his requests.  Dax and O'Brien locate an un-manned probe that has travelled through the wormhole, and they decide to bring it closer the station to investigate.  They download the probe's data core into the station computer, and in doing so also seem to have brought along a digital life form.  The digital entity is compared to a puppy in that it likes activity and attention, and doesn't want to be put back on the probe.  At the same time, the intrusive program is causing problems with the mechanical systems of the station, causing malfunctions in the elevators and other systems.

It is these malfunctions that begin to cause problems for the others.  Odo and Troi become trapped in the elevator, forcing the taciturn Odo into conversation with the loquacious Lwaxana.  But more alarming is the realization that Odo can only maintain his shape for 16 hours before being forced to resume a liquid form, something he feels extremely private about.

As he and Lwaxana converse, we begin to see a more caring, less manipulative side of Ambassador Troi. When the moment comes when Odo must resume his liquid form, a non-judgemental Troi is there to catch him, gathering him up in her skirts because he doesn't have his container.

Julian is having his own troubles with the increasingly annoyed ambassadors.  His extensive tour of the station leads to the "habitat ring" when O'Brien's attempts to regain control of the computer lead to a malfunction and plasma explosion very near to Dr. Bashir and his escorts.   Expecting the worst, Major Kira begins cutting through the locked door and preparing to treat plasma burns.

O'Brien sequesters a section of the station's computer and runs all commands through this section, in effect creating a digital play pen or "doghouse" as he calls it, and lures the entity into it.  This frees the rest of the station's computers to resume normal operations, releasing Odo and Lwaxana from the elevator, and opening the doors to the damaged pylon to rescue Bashir's party.   However, the ambassadors emerge from a sealed access tube, unharmed and praising the quick thinking and cool head of Dr. Bashir.

Analysis

Odo: You are not at all what I expected.
Lwaxana: No one's ever paid me a greater compliment.

In all of the Next Generation canon, there are about three things that really annoyed me: The Ferengi, Q, and Lwaxana Troi.  And my least favorite member of the Enterprise crew was Worf.  If there was one thing I was glad about in transitioning to the new series, it was the prospect of saying goodbye to these old annoyances.

In all cases, these were the things that made the jump.  Still I believe that in bringing Troi back to DS9, they specifically wanted to address some of the excesses of her character. The quote above was putting into the mouth of Odo what the writers hoped that the audience would say about Lwaxana.

I believe that the scene with Odo and Lwaxana in the stalled turbolift was what the entire episode was built around - those 5 minutes of character development for Troi and Odo.  Everything else was written to build up to, and to provide circumstance and background for, that one moment in time. 

It provides a huge amount of background to Odo's character, not only factual information, but also how he remembers his early contact with Bajorans in a laboratory, and his difficulty connecting in social situations.

Obviously Odo, in many ways, is carrying on the "outsider" role of Data, who was himself an inheritor from Spock.  But in an important difference, Odo is not without emotions - he feels pride in his work, contempt for Quark and other criminals, longing to find others like himself.  The part of his character that is like Data and Spock is his detachment from human society.  He is constantly explaining to whoever will listen that he is not really human but is only copying the externalities of human appearance.  The same thing may or may not be true about his personal aspirations and emotions. Like Data, he feels isolated from the humans that he is trying to emulate.

Odo: Your sensitivity and discretion are appreciated.
Lwaxana Troi: Well, next time you see me, I'll give you a lot more to appreciate.

Odo is initially horrified by Troi's advances, and yet when they part ways, Odo speaks of sensitivity and discretion, things not normally associated with Lwaxana Troi. And the audience completely agrees with Odo, and finds his sentiment perfectly appropriate.  This is the power of this episode.

Following our discussion of Story Types,  there were really three stories happening here in parallel and only very loosely interrelated.  Dr. Bashir's story was one of Enlightenment.  An enlightenment story is when the hero is shrouded in confusion.  The conflict is between perception and reality.  Others are confused about the hero's role or value to them, and the hero may himself suffer from that same confusion.  The conflict is resolved when the true role or value of the hero is revealed and understood.   

Sisko gave Bashir the unpleasant job, mostly to demonstrate his lack of respect for the doctor.  This was a junior officer's job, something to give the cocky new academy graduate to take the spring out of their step, and that's all Sisko could see in Bashir. By the end of the episode, Bashir emerges as a competent officer, and Sisko has found a new understanding and the glimmerings of respect for the doctor.  The shroud of confusion about Bashir and his role on the station and his value to Sisko were dispelled, and Bashir's role as a hero is revealed under pressure.

Odo and Troi's story was also about enlightenment.  Odo tells Troi that he is a very private man and clearly his character begins the story shrouded in mystery.  As he talks to Lwaxana, this mystery is dispelled somewhat and both Troi and the audience learn a great deal about him.  But Odo learns something about himself as well, that he does not always have to hide, and that revealing himself to Lwaxana, his native and liquid self, is not as dreadful as he thought.

At the same time Troi reveals some of her inner insecurity, her need to put up a brave front, and her capacity for caring and empathy.  The audience, with Odo, attains a better understanding of Lwaxana and we like the person underneath the brash mask that she wears.

Against these more complex tales of enlightenment, O'Brian's is a straightforward Fight the Monster story, with his inhuman opponent being a cute puppy-like computer entity, whom Miles keeps as a pet.

Thorns

Sadly, this wasn't one of Benjamin Sisko's finer hours.  On two separate occasions, he seemed to be a bully that delighted in the misery of others, despite the fact that he had a hand in inflicting it on them.  While Bashir was just a little inconvenienced by his host duties, Odo was genuinely distressed by what appeared to be workplace sexual harassment.  All Ben had to offer was a wry grin.  I'd like to think that the transformation of Sisko, at least where Julian is concerned, has begun, however.

Most of the ambassadors' scenes were forgettable; cartoon characters sounding the same note whenever they appeared.  And unfortunately most of the O'Brien story was lost in meaningless technobabble.  What was it that caused the plasma explosion in the habitat ring?  Was it an unexpected malfunction of the station computer because it was being distracted with other tasks? Was it the digital entity fighting back?  We never had a clear explanation for the cause of actual events in the narrative, because that wasn't important to the writers.

We had the same problem in the last episode, If Wishes Were Horses, in that we never clearly explained what caused everyone's imagination to begin manifesting itself.  While Sisko was conversing with the alien who claimed to cause the manifestations, Dax was still at Ops investigating elevated Thoron emissions.  In the end, the technical explanation wasn't important:  aliens did it.

Dax's blunder in allowing a unknown probe to infect the computer with a virus seems embarrassing to modern veiwers.  One would think that after all the probes that TNG had encountered to their detriment that some security procedures would be in place.

I think the true problem is that the writers don't have an intuitive understanding of what makes an interesting hard science episode.  This is continually shown in the writing for Jadzia, Miles, and Bashir - characters that are very slow to develop a presence on the show as compared to Sisko and Kira and Odo.  The more technical aspect of their characters is hidden behind personality quirks and we have yet to experience a problem that Dax's 300 years of scientific knowledge has adequately addressed.  Scotty and Spock solved problems, Geordi and Data solved problems, Miles and Jadzia have yet to be used in that capacity.

Vortex DS9: 1-11

Synopsis:

Two members of the crew from a newly arrived Miridorn ship with a bad reputation show up at Quark's bar and attempt to sell to him a recently-stolen sculpture.  Although it is obvious that they have a prior arrangement with Quark, he appears to stall the negotiations. A fourth person, Kroden, shows up wielding a phaser and attempts to rob them.  In the ensuing fight, one of the Miridorn is killed by the phaser and Kroden is arrested, with the other Miridorn vowing revenge against Kroden and eventually Quark.

In subsequent interrogation, he reveals that he has recently arrived from the Gamma quadrant and intimates that he has knowledge of other shape-shifters like Odo.  This includes the location of an existing colony, which he will reveal if Odo takes him there and lets him go.  Odo expresses an intense interest in locating others of his race but he dismisses Kroden's tale as a lie.  As proof, Kroden produces a small necklace that appears to have its origins with the "Changelings."

Notified of  Kroden's legal predicament, his home planet demands his immediate return to face even more grievous charges.  Sisko asks Odo to escort the prisoner back through the wormhole, avoiding the Miridorn ship who has vowed to avenge the first Miridorn's death.

Unfortunately, the Miridorns discover the prisoner's absence and track them through the wormhole.  In an effort to escape, Odo allows Kroden to pilot the runabout into the Vortex.  Kroden lands on an asteroid where he reveals a stasis chamber with his daughter inside.  He also admits that his information about Odo's race is only from folktales, and that his story of an existing colony of changelings was a lie, as Odo suspected.

The Runabout

Returning to their ship, Odo is struck by falling rocks caused by the Miridorn's attack.  Kroden is tempted to leave Odo and escape, but instead chooses to save the unconscious constable despite the implications for his future.

Back on the runabout, Odo tricks the Miridorns into destroying their own ship, but instead of returning Kroden to his home planet to face execution he puts Kroden and his daughter on a nearby Vulcan vessel to make a new start on the Vulcan homeworld.

Analysis

This probably is the best episode for DS9 since the pilot.  It gives us a complex character, Kroden, to follow, and continues to reveal things about him right up until the very end of the story.  The conversation with Odo on the Ganges regarding his persecution and the death of his family allowed us to see this lying fast talker in an entirely different light.  The reveal that the asteroid contained "the thing he values most in the universe" was itself surprising, and then to find out that his object of value was his daughter, was completely unexpected.

The sequence of redemption, once underway, was skillfully carried to its logical conclusion - rescuing Odo after the tunnel collapse - but done in a believable way with expert touches, like the fact that he was tempted to leave Odo to die until his daughter prompted him to do the right thing.  Rather than a cliched grifter and con man, we finally see Kroden as a man driven to extremes by desperation.  Faced with the prospect of permanent imprisonment or even execution, we can see that there is almost nothing he wouldn't do to rescue his daughter from permanent stasis as well, including some very underhanded deals with Quark.

Girl in a Box

Similarly, our opinion of Quark goes through a transformation as well.  Initially, we despise his cowardice in revealing Odo's destination, but our disgust is tempered by Quark's own remorse at his actions.  Quark only feels safe from reprisal because he is sure that Odo will never give up his prisoner, which he realizes will mean Odo's death.  Rom is untroubled by this eventuality, but Quark is slightly appalled by it. 

Odo is the character that experiences the most development.  First, we find how much he is motivated by stories about others of his kind, more changelings like him.  We learn that this race is known in legends from the Gamma quadrant and likely had a large presence there at one time.  Further, Kroden tells that the Changelings were distrusted and "driven out" of other societies, planting the seed of a suggestion that Odo may not like all of what he finds about his people. This gives the audience many building blocks for supporting further development.

In another way it continues to reveal the setting of the space station.  Deep Space 9, as its name implies, is not in the same situation as a starship like the Enterprise.  It cannot, at this point, project power across the wormhole, nor even defend itself adequately from passing freighters, much less armed warships like those of the Cardassians.  Commander Sisko is still placed in a tenuous diplomatic situation where he wants to avoid making enemies in the Gamma Quadrant and has limited authority to negotiate with the planets he finds there, all of which are first contact situations.  DS9 is a diplomatic outpost, not a military one.

The episode was full of storytelling flourishes.    Quark shape-shifts into the form of a glass tumbler  to give us a visual reminder of what it means to be a changeling, but it also happens to be his glass which is broken in the fight, a detail that simultaneously draws attention to the reveal when he resumes his humanoid form, and also gives us more information about his abilities.  Merely breaking the glass does not hurt him.  Similarly, the Chekov gun revealed in the first act (the changeling key) is fired in the second act when it becomes the key to open the daughter's stasis chamber.  I also loved the excellent use of the Vulcan ship as a narrative device to provide Kroden with a rescue but also to convey the sense of cosmopolitan interest that the wormhole has attracted.  It seems perfectly natural that the Gamma quadrant has attracted the interest of Vulcan exploration.

Unlike the surreal feeling of Move Along Home, and the absurd overlay of The Nagus this episode felt like it was grounded in reality.  The conflict, and the solution, were consistent in tone with where this series eventually wants to be.