Move Along Home DS9: 1-9

It is at this point that DS9 really begins to show its frayed edges.  Star Trek in all of its forms has always been an anthology show, with a different story each episode, but in order to make an anthology work, the audience has to understand the structure.  There have to be rule, elements of familiarity around which the story can be built.

The benefit that Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) had was that it was inheriting the very strong format of the Original Series (TOS).  DS9 was attempting something much more risky, in that it was abandoning the concepts of a ship and crew with a mission of exploration.  Instead, the station would act as a fixed point, and the stories would come to them.  But by abandoning the Star Trek format and also by creating a "Station" where roles and interactions were less well defined, the audience had very little point of reference.

Everything was in motion, including the shift alliances among the principal characters.  In fact, DS9 had the greatest antagonisms among the principal characters of any of the Star Trek franchises.  It took a long time to iron out how each character fit, and at many times they were at each other's throats.

All this uncertainty gave the audience an uneasy feeling, and upon rewatching, the same instability is still present in this early episode. One of the dangers present in every science fiction program is what I call the Twilight Zone effect.  This is the tendency for story elements to be so obscure, so disjointed and without reference that the audience has no idea what's going on.

Minimalist sets, often bare stage with weird lighting and disjointed scenes, creates a hostile environment.  The result is that the audience is more confused by the lack of storytelling than entertained by the novelty of each scene.This Twilight Zone effect is in full display in the current episode, "Move Along Home."

Synopsis

In this episode, the station is visited by travelers from the gamma quadrant.  Much is made of the fact that this is first contact with a species from the other side of the wormhole, and should be a momentous occasion.  Instead, it turns into an extended session at Quark's gambling room.  After winning at the tables, and then losing when Quark begins to cheat, the Ouadi suddenly decide to kidnap Sisko, Dax, Kira, and Bajeer and use them as pawns in a holodeck-style game of overcoming challenges.  In fact, they appear to be playing avatars in a game of Dungeon, with the officers as the pieces and Quark rolling the dice.

The dialogue is replete with word salad, irrelevant answers, non-responsive NPCs, and conversation that does not advance the plot. 

Quark and Odo engage in rather meaningless dialogue with each other and the Ouadi leader until Sisko's team eventually loses the game and are returned to the station, unharmed.  The show ends with the new species leaving the station in their ship.

Overall
The show is still struggling with interactions between the characters.  Scheming Quark is supposed to be the saloon-owning Maverick character, with the crusty and irascible Odo as the town sheriff.  The two of them are supposed to develop an amiable antagonism, with each secretly acknowledging the other's worth.  The problem is that this relationship hasn't been fully realized yet.  The antagonisms are too harsh and unmitigated.  There is little understanding.

The same is true for the other characters.  Bashir is still very annoying and equally useless, Jadzia is obstinate (go on, leave me....) without offering convincing and creative arguments or solutions, Kira is athletic and willing, but is given no great moments when her skills are showcased, and Sisko hasn't found a balance between command and reason.

In the end, no satisfactory resolution is offered to the major question asked by the show: how will DS9 come together to face the challenges of what comes through the wormhole.  If anything, the answer at this point is  - none of them has anything to offer.  Despite the puzzle-solving premise, most of our characters were passive and defeated throughout the episode.

This would have been an excellent episode for season 5, when it could serve as a vehicle for highlighting interactions and idiosyncrasies. How do Ben and Kira share power and how does each rely on the judgement of the other; How do the science and medical officers respect each other's knowledge and abilities and work off each other's contribution to bring a scientific solution to the problem;

As it is at this point in the series, the writers have no answer for these questions, and so the interactions are empty and artificial.

Roses
One of the best parts of the show was the prologue at the beginning, showing the interaction between Sisko and his son Jake.  Jake is the most believable child actor that the Star Trek franchise has ever seen, and this brief discussion about girls and Jake's friend Nog is relaxed and natural.  It serves to elevate Ben Sisko and humanize him, make him more relatable, and it also reveals Jake as a powerful source of narrative later on in the series.

Thorns
The writers are struggling with Quark's character.  This episode should have been a showcase of the strengths of his character.  To this point in the series he is a truly a-moral and despicable (worthy of being despised) character with no redeeming qualities.   It is his cheating that brought them into the awkward situation, and his failure that causes them to be kicked out of the game.  This episode should have been a moment for the writers to explore his worth to the DS9 team, and instead it simply re-affirmed that he really has no contribution to make.

As one of the early episodes in the series, we should be exploring the strengths of these characters and their role.  In this episode, each of them was a blank slate.  None of them had really outstanding, character-defining moments.

In the hopscotch scene, Bashir observed the behavior of the girl, and experimented with it - although failing the first time.  Dax then improved upon his first trial to create a better solution, which ultimately worked.  This should have been an incipient interaction between two scientific minds, but instead came across as Bashir blundering foolishly and Dax scolding him and then presenting the "right" answer.  The fault lies in the writing, which should have communicated that they were working off each other's ideas, rather than trying to one-up each other.

Later in the show, each of the outcomes was arbitrary.  Julian was targeted by the lights; Jadzia got her foot caught; the three fell from the ledge - all very passive and arbitrary outcomes, leading to a moment where none of them really accomplished anything.

Summary
In the end, I think the shared experience did lead to a better understanding of how these officers could work together, but the weakness of writing sacrificed many opportunities to strengthen both the team and the storytelling.