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.

If Wishes Were Horses DS9: 1-15

Synopsis

Quark and Odo at the bar discuss imagination and the future of family entertainment while referencing Quark's holosuites.  Julian and Jadzia are having dinner while Dr. Bashir professes his infatuation for her.  While Dax clearly discourages his attention, she is amused by the reaction she is causing. 

On the bridge, Major Kira and Commander Sisko are studying an unusual energy reading, Elevated thoron emissions in the plasma field.  Meanwhile, Miles O'Brien is putting his daughter Molly to bed with a story about Rumplestiltskin. A minute later, the small evil dwarf does, indeed, appear in the O'Brien's living quarters, "offering his services, if you should need them."

O'Brien calls Sisko to his quarters to report the situation but Ben is stopped by Jake, who has an issue of his own: a famous baseball player "followed him home" from the holosuite.  Dr. Bashir, sleeping after his dinner with Dax, is dreaming about her when he is awakened by what appears to be Jadzia herself.  Without any way to tell that this isn't the real Dax, he is surprised when she begins kissing him.

Ben calls the senior staff to the Operations center and it becomes apparent that these manifestations of imagination are appearing throughout the station.  Odo reports that it is snowing on the Promenade, while Quark is losing heavily at his gambling tables.  Dax says she's picking up a subspace disruption, with energy disappearing into its core. "I was afraid of this," Dax complains. "The proximity of the wormhole is amplifying the rupture."  The computer finds a match with a similar disruption in the Hanoli system. That system was destroyed when the rupture completely engulfed it.

Rumplestiltskin:  And  yet you can't deny how this imagination of yours empowers me, can you?  Empowers me in a way that somehow terrifies you.

About halfway through the episode, however, we find the three main Figments, Rumplestiltskin, Dax2, and Buck talking privately with each other.  It is revealed that these three are more than just projections of imagination, and that they have an agenda.  "We don't know any more than when we started."

Following Dax' advice, Sisko decides to use the strategy of the Vulcans at Hanoli and explode a pulse-wave torpedo at the mouth of the rift, despite the fact that the Vulcans were spectacularly unsuccessful and the entire Hanoli system was destroyed.

As the torpedo is being prepared, others of the crew, including Kira and Odo experience Figments of their own.  Finally the torpedo is launched, but it seems to only have a momentary effect on the rift, before it begins expanding again.  At this point, Rumplestiltskin offers to use his magic powers to make the rift go away, in exchange for Miles' firstborn (Molly).

Caught in the dilemma between saving millions on Bajor and losing his daughter, Miles hesitates and Sisko comes to the realization that the rift itself is a manifestation of their imaginations. By convincing the staff to believe this as well, Sisko makes the rift disappear.

Back in his office, Sisko is visited by one of the Figments.  Bokai confesses that the three figments are an alien life form, "on an extended mission exploring the galaxy."  They use non-confrontational methods to learn about other species.  Human imaginations are unlike anything they have ever encountered before.

Sisko: Was it really necessary to put the whole station in jeopardy?
Bokai: But we didn't, Ben.  It was you.  It was your imaginations that created everything.  We were just watching you to see where it took you.

Ultimately, the Figments leave the station without revealing anything about their own species.

Analysis

Story by Nell and William Crawford.  It's only right that the guilty parties be named up front. The Star Trek storytelling system frequently employs devices for encountering the unknown.  As explorers, anything could be lurking on the next planet, anything could wander through the wormhole.  The premise of the show is about solving mysteries.

When this is done well, the crew slowly assembles the clues that point toward a solution to the mystery. The audience begins to put the pieces together and eventually everything begins to make sense. Slowly, the unknown begins to take a recognizable shape.  

When this is done poorly, the clues never add up to anything but more questions and the unknown remains an enigma.  This is a less satisfying outcome because the resolution is not based on the development.

So let's talk about the definition of a story.  A story consists of 5 elements:  A character is placed in a setting, from which a conflict emerges that is developed and eventually resolved.  Each of these pieces interact to form an overall story that conveys meaning to an audience that leaves them with a feeling of satisfaction.  When a narrative is lacking any of these core elements, it remains just that: a narrative.  And the audience is plagued will all kinds of 'fridge logic' about inconsistencies and loose threads and slowly the story begins to fall apart.

In the most rewarding stories, the elements have a definite interaction, so that the conflict emerges from an interaction between the character and the setting.  There's something about the past experiences of Major Kira that leads her to sympathize with the stubborn Mullibok in the previous episode, Progress.  A generic security officer would have simply completed the relocation, probably with a forced teleport, and there would be no episode to write about.

Similarly, the development is guided by an interaction between the character and the conflict. In the example above, the security officer would have dispassionately moved Mullibok back to the home world.  That's what Sisko would have done.  There would be no opportunity for any soul-searching and character building on the part of the officer because we don't know anything about him.

Kira has a soul to search, a soul we've become familiar with over the course of the season. The conflict is the arbitrary use of authority to dispossess a countryman, and it is Kira's relation to Cardassian authority (her character's past) that makes this conflict ironic; Kira is being asked to act in the same way that she despises the Cardassians for acting.  If she didn't despise the Cardassians, we would not care about Mullibok.

The resolution is based on things that happened in the development.  If, after agonizing over her role in the relocation even to the point of losing her position on DS9, Kira didn't have to make a choice in the end (because the moon suddenly exploded on its own, for example)  then that struggle would lose most of its meaning for us.  In the end, it wouldn't matter.  We have terms like Deus ex machina, to express how that diminishes the value of the story.  We would say it weakened the ending.

This episode suffers a bit from this last problem.  We spend the entire development of the story creating and implementing a plan to explode a torpedo in the mouth of a rift, programming and adjusting and waiting anxiously for its completion and worrying anxiously that the scheme might backfire and destroy the entire system, and finally the resolution of the story is based on magic that has nothing to do with any of those things.  There is a disorienting plot whiplash that occurs in the minds of the audience.

In the meantime, we have amusing but unrelated scenes of snowing on the Promenade and Odo with an emu that don't provide any support to the resolution.  They are just there for spectacle, or to put things less pejoratively, for color.  Half the stations residents are experiencing manifestations, Sisko tells the station log.  Does each of the residents have an alien observer, or is it just these three?  Did the figments merely create an environment where imagination becomes real and anyone can participate?  Why then do they seem to be so closely connected with the form of the leprechaun, the ball player, and the Trill?  Each of these little details, rather than pointing the audience toward an answer, instead confuses the story.

When the resolution comes, we should be able to look back over the development and see it all line up into one supporting structure.  Everything should fall into place.  The character, the setting, the conflict, the development and the resolution should all, in hindsight, look like a cohesive whole. 

Progress DS9: 1 - 14

Synopsis

Another split episode with two storylines progressing at the same time.

In the primary narrative, Major Kira is asked to evacuate one of Bajor's moons to make way for a power extracting procedure that will render the surface uninhabitable.  Unfortunately, there are some residents who refuse to leave and Kira beams down to relocate them.

One of these residents in particular, an elderly Bajoran named Mullibok who has lived there 40 years after escaping from the Cardassians, is adamant that he will not leave his home.  Kira stays behind to persuade him.

 In their ensuing conversations, she begins to learn of and appreciate his way of life and the motivations that drove him to this remote refuge, motivations that continue to be part of all Bajorans in the wake of Cardassian occupation.  And yet she also is aware of the danger he represents.  Kira admits to him that to defeat the Cardassians, the Bajoran resistance had to "hang on like fanatics" a phrase that pleases Mullibok because that is his own intention.

Charmed by his determination and fearful to become another Cardassian oppressor, Kira returns to DS9 to plead with the Bajoran government representative.

Bureaucrat: "I wish we had the time to be more delicate, but we don't."

Kira: "So instead we'll act like Cardassians..."

Threatened with being replaced, Kira returns with two Bajoran relocators, but the residents react violently, and Mullibok is hit by phaser fire in the struggle.  Dr. Bashir stabilizes him and Kira again remains behind to tend to him.  In their ensuing conversations, Kira tells Mullibok a story from her childhood about a tree.

Kira:  It was the ugliest, most gnarled and battered old tree I'd ever seen.  Even the birds stayed away from it.
Mullibok: ...but you loved it.
Kira: I hated it.  Because it had grown so huge its branches blocked out the sun for kellipates (miles).  And its roots buried themselves so deep in the soil that nothing else could grow there.  It was a big, selfish, annoying...
Mullibok: nasty...
Kira: ...nasty! nasty old tree.

Bashir reports back to Sisko on the station and he, concerned that Kira might be jeopardizing her career, travels to the moon himself.  It is this conversation that is at the heart of the story, a story that is less and less about the stubborn Mullibok, and becoming more and more about Major Kira.

Sisko: You have a job to do here Major and you're not doing it.
Kira: It's not that simple.
Sisko: I'm not saying it's simple, I'm saying it can't wait.

After a night of growing respect, Major Kira helps Mullibok complete the construction of a kiln but, in the face of Mullibok's intractability, then destroys it with her phaser before setting fire to the cottage.  Kira then beams him off the surface, leaving it free for the energy transfer project to proceed.

Self-sealing Stem Bolts

The second narrative again follows the exploits of Nog and Jake as they attempt to parlay an excess shipment of Cardassian yamok sauce into some kind of profit.  After trading the yamok sauce for self-sealing stem bolts, they trade the stem bolts for land on Bajor's surface.  Nog is unhappy because, living all his life in space, he doesn't understand the value of land, but Jake talks him into it.

Later, Jake and Nog learn that an important development project by the Bajoran government needs their land to get underway, and in triumph Nog sells the land to Quark who is prepared to drive a hard bargain with the government.land agents.

Analysis

Initially, this feels like a light-hearted episode, as the last one was.  But the metaphor inherent in the narrative soon becomes obvious.  Much more than the simple plot is happening in this episode, and it becomes a fulcrum about which the whole narrative of the first season turns.

In a classic TNG story, we visit a world for a single episode, learn of its conflict, which we develop and resolve in about 40 minutes.  Unfortunately these constraints often limit us to simplistic and incomplete resolutions, with the audience left to work out the ramifications on their own.  But the storytelling platform of DS9 is different, not quite as transitory.  It is only on Bajor that we can stay and experience the planet's recovery; only here that we can fully understand the implications of the Federation's actions.

Ironically, It is one of the strengths of being based on a space station rather than a starship.  The captain can't just fly away at the end of the episode and leave the hard work of recovery to the remaining residents.  Sisko wants to make Mullibok's story a starship story; to do the job and leave this little moon. As Kira states, "It's not that simple." 

This is the first turning point of this season.  Simplistic solutions like that of the previous episode, Storyteller will be contrasted with a longer and closer examination of the Bajor reconstruction.

The most interesting thing happening in the DS9 narrative at this moment is the recently concluded conflict between the Bajorans and Cardassians, told primarily from the perspective of the survivors.  Not all survivors were warriors and resistance fighters like Kira.  Others were Cardassian prisoners who were broken by the occupation, and still others fled from the conflict, seeking peace on a remote moon.  This story allows us to see recent history from their perspective.

It also gives Kira her first struggle with wielding power.  The use of power, even legitimate power, can be problematic.  And this conflict does not supply us with easy answers.  Both Nana Visitor and Brian Keith are electrifying and charismatic, they are a perfect match.  Keith had the harder job, making a curmudgeonly character so likeable that the audience sympathizes with him.

This story gives a great opportunity to learn more about Kira Nerys, a character who is quickly taking over the show.  the difference between this episode and the one before it, also a split episode, is clearly evident in the quality of the writing.  While the writers couldn't take O'Brien or Bashir serously, Kira and Sisko are given serious treatment.

Sisko:  You have to understand something Major: You're on the other side, now   
           Pretty uncomfortable, isn't it. 
Kira:  It's horrible...

While Kira is still the main focus of this story, I believe that Sisko reaches a major turning point at this moment.  Until now, Sisko has been an authoritarian leader, pushing people around, as he did with Julian earlier in this episode. In this scene with Kira, he is finally able to strike the right tone, to find a middle ground between concession and direct order.  To work with Kira, rather than against her.  This is the moment when he begins to see Kira as a friend and a fellow team mate rather than a subordinate. And to approach problems more as a local leader and less as a starship captain.

This is also the moment when Kira begins to accept her role as a leader who has to make hard decisions rather than as an agitator and a rebel who can rail against the monsters and burn everything to the ground.  At this moment, Kira is Bajor.  She wants to embrace all of Bajor's children and bring them back to the fold and erase the last fifty years of history.  As Kira herself says, "It's not that simple."

When Kira tells the story about the old tree she is using a double metaphor. The obvious reference is to Mullibok himself, a nasty old man standing in the way of progress.  But even as she is clearly talking about Mullibok, she realizes that she is also talking about the bitterness of the Bajorans. It is hard not to think of WB Yeats poem "The Two Trees" as the writer's reference for this. This tree has grown up in the heart of the Bajoran culture, one of defensiveness and isolation.  And this bitter tree is blocking out the sun of their culture, preventing anything from growing.  She doesn't know if the civilization on Bajor can ever flourish again without cutting it down, or if the tree "had a lot of character" and was worth preserving as part of the culture.

When Kira sets the cottage on fire, she is letting go of the Old Bajor that Mullibok represents.  He moved there 40 years ago, about 10 years into the Cardassian occupation, and built this refuge stone by stone, just as Bajorans have built up their bitterness and anger over the years.  They have become used to their unhappiness and are hesitant to give it up.  Not ready to say that this tough life they have built for themselves should give way to something better for everyone.

 In order for this new Bajor to thrive, it must let go of the old hatred, their old bitterness;  not just at the Cardassians but at the Federation who refused to intervene, at the universe which doomed them to this arbitrary fate.  And this is the choice that is ultimately brought before Kira.  This is the question the story must answer.

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

Battle Lines DS9: 1-12

"Away from here...  To live one life, to die in peace.  To us this is an ancient prayer that has never been answered."  

Synopsis

Kai Opaka, the Bajoran spiritual leader appears unexpectedly on DS9 and asks to be taken on a visit through the wormhole to the Gamma quadrant.  On the far side, the runabout picks up an unexplained transmission.  The Kai expresses an interest in investigating and against his better judgement Sisko agrees.   The crew traces the signal back to a moon that is protected by a network of satellites.  One of them fires on and disables the Rio Grande and the runabout crashes on the surface.

In the crash, Kai Opaka is killed.  As Mjr. Kira morns the loss of her mentor and hero, the crew is approached by the bedraggled residents of the planet, a group permanently at war with a similar group in a conflict that has lasted for decades. Learning that the residents don't control the satellites, Sisko initially surmises that they are on  penal colony. During the introduction, the equally ill-equipped opposing force attacks and kills several of the band, although Kira is instrumental in driving off the attackers.


In the aftermath of the attack, Opaka comes into the cave, in apparent good health, despite having been
declared dead by the doctor 20 minutes before.  Soon, other fighters killed in the attack begin to show signs of life and Julian surmises that artificial microbes of some kind are returning the prisoners and Kai Opaka to life after they are killed.  It is apparent, however, that this continual regeneration has become more of a curse than a blessing, dooming the residents to perpetual war, fighting and dying without progress being made on either side.  Like the warriors of Valhalla, they fight all day and then resurrect the next morning to do it all over again.

In several instances Opaka reaches out to make connections with members of the DS9 staff.  Initially she gives O'Brien her necklace, intending it for his daughter.  She also has words for Sisko and makes a more emotional connection with Kira, for whom she has always been an inspiration.  She urges Kira to let go of her life of violence, an attitude she has adopted during the Bajoran war for independence against the Cardassians.

Sisko is expecting a rescue from DS9 and offers to remove the inmates from this prison if only both sides will declare a truce and agree to cooperate.  Peace talks are arranged but it becomes apparent that neither side is willing to make peace with the other.  With help from the ship's computer, Dr. Bashir determines that the microbes that regenerate the fallen warriors can only operate on this planet, and those dependent on the microbes will die if they attempt to leave.  This includes Kai Opaka.



Searching for Sisko's missing runabout, Chief O'Brien and Dax locate the moon with the satellite sentries.  O'Brien is able to avoid their attacks and engineers a solution to communicate with the surface, and beam out the stranded team. Unaware of her situation, Opaka declares her intention to stay with the warring prisoners on the moon and perhaps bring peace to this unhappy situation.  She feels that prophecy has led her to this moment in time, and it is her destiny to help.  Lacking any other alternative, the DS9 crew are beamed away by O'Brien, leaving the Kai alive but trapped on the far side of the wormhole. 

"Prophecy can often be vague, Commander.  That's why we must test it."  Kai Opaka

Roses

This episode had both high and low points.  The Kai Opaka was a majestic figure and we could certainly believe that she was both the spiritual leader of the oppressed Bajoran people and the person inspiration of a fighter like Major Kira.  Her ultimate fate as a permanent resident on the far side of the wormhole from Bajor is an interesting choice for the storytelling of the series.

On one hand, it does make the Kai more or less immortal, being sustained by the microbes of the orbiting satellites.  But only if she stays on that world.  In a very real sense, Opaka has adopted white martyrdom made famous by Irish missionaries in the 8th century.  Their sacrifice was not to be killed for their faith, but to renounce their homelands in Ireland, never to return.  This is the very sacrifice that Opaka is making.

On the other hand, this development removes her from Bajor and potentially lessens any direct influence she might have in negotiating a peace.  This leaves the way clear for Sisko and Kira to take on the larger roles that Opaka hinted at for each of them.  At this stage in Ben Sisko's hero's journey, Opaka would be required to die (like Obi-wan or Dumbledore).  Instead, the story gets to retain a powerful and well conceived figure while freeing Ben and Kira from her influence at the appropriate time for them to develop further.  Opaka experiences both a literal and figurative death, but remains a figure to play some part in the future.

One of the gaps in storytelling from DS9 so far is that we lack any motivation or connection to the Gamma quadrant.  Yes, many cultures are interested in travel across the wormhole, but the DS9 team itself is not.  They don't have any reason to explore the Gamma quadrant.  That doesn't seem to be their job for the Federation at all.  Others will do the exploring while they wait and keep the home fires burning.

So they are perched on the edge of this vast unknown, but have no reason to travel there and must wait for the stories to come to them.  This episode, however, begins to establish ties to the Gamma quadrant.  By remaining in the Gamma quadrant, Opaka could become a pilgrimage destination for the spiritually faithful Bajorans, giving them a reason to travel to the other side.

Kira got her own chance at character building from the writers here.  In a comic moment right at the beginning of the episode, a discovered list of Bajoran activists lists Kira as a minor functionary, a designation which offends the major.  In her mind, she was a major player in the Bajoran resistance, part of how she frames her identity.  Later, the Kai asks her to compare her own understanding of the war to the warped perspective of those on the prison world.  While Kira initially rejects the comparison, she comes to understand that she, and many Bajorans like her, have some of these same attitudes. 

Thorns

On the downside, however, Benjamin Sisko continues to be an ass and a bully to his own people.  In one particular scene, Dr Bashir makes a very mild comment and Sisko launches into a tirade about the prime directive and that people had suffered enough.  In that scene Ben comes across as very insecure, as a leader.  Who was he trying to convince, Bashir or himself?  I could have felt the attitude was justified if he was responding to a challenge from Dax or Kira, but poor Julian was so innocuous that Ben's response just seemed disproportional and inappropriate.  Looking back over the past 10 episodes, I can't find a reason why Julian has become Ben's whipping boy.

I think it is part of a larger problem with Ben Sisko's character.  What does he bring to the command?  In this episode, as in many others, he has no major contribution to make, either in terms of expertise or critical decisions.  I believe that Ben is supposed to be the audience's point of identification, and such a role is often a passive one, as an observer letting the interesting elements of the scene scroll past him and reacting to them as the audience would, mirroring their responses.  But taken too far, the observer is in danger of being wholly extraneous to the scene as it unfolds, so busy watching and reacting that they fail to take part.  And when the writers want Ben to assert his own identity, it comes across as too much, too extreme.

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. 

The Nagus DS9:1-10

Horrifying. but perhaps illuminating.

Synopsis

Excitement comes to Quark's bar, along with several Ferengi businessmen as the Ferengi leader, the Grand Nagus, calls a meeting to discuss business opportunities in the Gamma quadrant.  During the meeting, the Nagus unexpectedly appoints Quark as the new Grand Nagus while he enjoys his retirement, much to the dismay of his son, Krax, who had hoped to inherit the position.

However, his retirement is short-lived as he unexpectedly dies while talking to Quark about the dangers of being the supreme Ferengi leader.  Quark begins to settle into his role as Nagus but is troubled by assassination attempts.  It is revealed to the audience that his own brother Rom and the former Nagus's son were behind these attempts. The plot between the two culminates in an plan to push Quark out an airlock, which is only foiled when Odo shows up, leading the not-really-dead original Grand Nagus.

The Nagus revealed that he staged his death in an effort to find out if his son was ready for the job, and concludes that the murder plot of Quark was too clumsy and overt.  Quark, however, is delighted with the initiative that Rom showed in wishing to commit murder to obtain profit and all is forgiven between them.

In a sub-plot, Rom removes his son Nog from Keiko's school in an effort to please the Grand Nagus.  In a heartwarming moment, Sisko discovers that rather than sneaking out to get into trouble with the Ferengi boy, Jake has instead been teaching Nog to read.

Analysis

Throughout TNG, the Ferengi were treated as a joke.  In DS9, Quark, Rom and especially Nog represent an opportunity for them to be something more, something nobler. With this episode, we firmly established that the Ferengi are the cosmic whipping boys once again.

It's obviously a light-hearted episode, but from one perspective it gives us insight into Ferengi culture.  To obtain that insight, though, we have to take this story seriously, and unfortunately this episode just doesn't rise to that level.

I want to hope that we are establishing a baseline.  We need to see just how bad the Ferengi culture has gotten, so we can appreciate when Quark grows beyond it, and cheer on Rom as he struggles free from it.  We need to know how difficult a journey it is for both of them.

At the same time, we need to see them as the Federation sees them.  O'Brien and Sisko both see Nog as a bad influence on Jake.  Odo sees Quark as an unrepentant criminal.  In these comic episodes, we explore the roots and reasons and even justification for this cultural bias.  And with Cmdr Sisko, we begin to see the Ferengi through Jake's eyes.

On the other hand, the series still fundamentally lacks a rudder.  "Comic moments on the promenade" is just not enough to power this show.  I see that we are moving pieces into place:  the Cardassians, the Bajorans, the Bajoran resistance, the Federation, Gamma quadrant randomness, and now the Ferengi.  Each of these story elements are introduced, placed on the board, given time to develop. And DS9 was the first of the Star Trek series to embrace mytharc storytelling over static anthologies. In this first season, we are seeing that transition, and I am impatient with it.