Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season Four

Welcome to my first-time-ever Deep Space Nine "rewatch." First up: season four. 

No you haven't missed a few posts, I'm just beginning with season four. I've tried numerous times with season one, going back all the way to the premiere episode of the show, which I watched the night it aired (January 3, 1993 - on home Christmas break from college). So I figured I'd capitalize on my TNG momentum and start with the season where Worf joined the cast.

There's some precedent for success with this approach. Back in 1999 I jumped into season seven with no problem and watched it all the way through to the finale. That finale coincided with both my leaving Dayton, OH for good as well as the end of a brief relationship with the girl who deserves the credit for getting me into any non-TOS-Trek. The night after I left Dayton, driving back east and breaking up the journey in a hotel room in Salamanca, NY, I caught a repeat of the finale and this scene very nearly made me check out of the hotel and drive back to Dayton. It was one of those nearly overwhelming impulses when a vulnerable moment/ fork in the road synchs up with something on the TV or the soundtrack and you very nearly dash out and change your life for what almost certainly would be misguided reasons. Glad I didn't, in retrospect, but I remember the feeling quite clearly; who wouldn't? 

I urge you to go to this review of S4 over at Where No Blog Has Gone Before. Not only will you find much more involved reviews of all the below, if you scroll down to the comments, you can read all my initial impressions and - in most cases - expanded remarks. I thought it'd be pretty lame to simply reproduce my comments from there, so all new (albeit abbreviated in most cases) remarks below. Let us begin. 

25.

 

Odo collapses and Bashir discovers that 
he is losing his ability to maintain solid form.

This is not the worst episode of season four. If you like the Changeling-saga, you might even think it's one of the better ones. Me, the Changelings make no damn sense. Their motivations, their abilities - they can change Odo into a solid? Really? And they can become any animal in the galaxy and beyond? Seems kind of odd they decided to have a regular old centurions-and-warships empire and have terrestrial political ambitions considering the thousand different ways these abilities would allow them to not have to do things that way at all - are nonsense, their visual is atrocious ("Odo with boobs!" must have been on the same whiteboard as "Ferengi butt heads!"), and well, I hate them. The Dominion is lame, and the Changelings are lamer. 

So, bottom spot it is. 

Giving the Sphere Builders in Enterprise virtually the same terrible visual ranks in the Top Five Decisions of Berman-Era Trek. 

I realize Odo's losing his powers isn't to be so closely examined - it's an X-Men plot, meant to be temporary. I get it. But it all relies (and augments) a basic un-Trek quality of DS9 that rubs me the wrong way. Someone once opined the difference between Trek and Star Wars is  that one is sci-fi (Trek) and one is sci-fantasy (Star Wars). This made sense once upon a time, not so much anymore. Doesn't make one worse than the other, just different genres, really, with different expectations, different requirements, different things you can get away with. You can get away with "They turned Odo into a solid!" in sci-fantasy; you shouldn't be getting away with it in sci-fi. 

Ah well. On the order of hills to die on, boats left the dock, etc, this is up there with the Old Man Yells at Cloud meme. Who cares. Trek has been sci-fantasy since at least Nemesis, really, and probably all the way back to TOS (aspects of it anyway) and likely will keep mutating. ("Punch it!")

Lastly, there seems to be some confusion about Odo's sexual abilities from random Bajorans. The implication seems to be now that he's a solid, hey, look out ladies! Or at least this one lady:

She should have made her move when he was able to assume any shape, no? Are the Changelings punishing Odo for killing another Changeling by turning him into a solid bang machine? What? Wouldn't they (sorry) simply not give him a penis, if punishment was the motivation? This whole thing makes zero damn sense. Rene Aubjernois does a good job with the character, all the kudos for the actor; the character/ concept is ridiculous. Hell, I got over Neelix and even grew to like that Talaxaian bastard, maybe something similar will happen with Odo. I hope so.

24.

 

Worf accidentally destroys a civilian ship during battle and faces a hearing to determine whether he should be extradited to the Klingon Empire.

An aspiring director can do the opposite of each scene here and come up accidentally with a pretty good deal. I don't know what LeVar Burton (who directed it) was thinking with the characters in flashback directly addressing the camera, but it's amateurish AF and does nothing but give the impression flashy tricks are being tried because the script is so boilerplate. Beyond boilerplate; microwave pizza, even, from a gas station. 

These Trek-trial episodes never make sense, Starfleet/Federation-wise. Ron Canada does a decent job as a vaguely Klingon-like prosecutor, but who cares. Well, he does, I guess, but it's an expensive spice lost in an unsavory stew.

23.

O'Brien's mind has been altered to create memories of being incarcerated for 20 years on an alien world on charges of espionage and sedition.

Look: Miles O'Brien is no Jean-Luc Picard. The episode hinges on a dynamic performance from Colm (maybe it was the director, who knows) and it didn't get one. All of which is to say, an emotionally powerful performance that connects with the viewer goes a long way in excusing silly-technical things. This is obviously the "anti" "Inner Light" episode, for example, and no one really focuses on the impossibility of the aliens' technology in that episode. Everyone's too busy being emotionally involved in Picard's story. The episode seems to realize it's this emotional journey that is the important part, and "Inner Light" ends with that wonderful scene of Picard alone in his ready room, playing the flute, reflecting wordlessly on the amazing experience he's had, how he's back, etc.

Here, we get only "the gloom whisperer." There's a better plot in here where O'Brien realizes how life-transformingly happy he is to not only not be in some cell smelling his own farts devoid of family for years, but not having aged as many years as he thought he had. What? How could this not be in the script? How can the episode be so uninterested in this? Did they not realize the human dynamics of such a plot/ the dramatic consequences? Seems so. Some of the reviews I've read on this one don't seem to comment on that, which is weird; here is a clear-cut case of reach exceeding grasp.

Does Starfleet not care at all that this alien culture did this to one of their officers? Seems grounds for something, does it not? It just slips into the background. 

22.

  

Worf, Dax and a revered Klingon Dahar master, Kor, search for the Sword of Kahless to unite the Klingon Empire.

It's mildly cool to see Kor again. He's not used too effectively here, and his bickering with Worf is forced, makes Worf seem less-than-Worf. Plus, how many damn times are we going to hear "Klingon blah-blah, unite the Empire?" It's hackneyed, stop it. 

I started with s4 because I like Worf. My memory is that DS9 was referred to as "Deep Space Worf" after Dorn joined the show. But he really doesn't have all that much to do this season. The Worf-centric episodes are, for the most part, very awkward and/or forgettable.

Magic swords exerting malevolent influence on their wielder is the whole point of the Elric series; this episode needs more Elric.

21.

 

 
Quark, Rom, Nog, and Odo are accidentally thrust back in time 
to Roswell, New Mexico, Earth, in 1947.

The good: some fun stuff from the Ferengi in this one. I've nothing but praise for the actors playing Ferengi on this show. Shimerman, Eisenberg, Grodénchik - all great. The set-up is kind of fun. An homage to "Tomorrow Is Yesterday," somewhat. Fine.

The bad: everything else. I'd also like to point out that the idea of Ferengi having sex organs on the sides of their faces, unprotected, is biologically unsound. Far be it for me to criticize the Preservers or whomever the hell-this-week-in-Trek-canon seeded the galaxy for humanoid lifeforms, but that one seems a little dumb. Also dumb? The universal translator as something literally inserted in one's ear that you can wiggle with a pen-cap or whatever. FFS. Who greenlights crap ideas like this?

It's mildly cool to see the shuttlecraft flying into the a-bomb explosion. There's some fun here, but it's kind of messy.

20.

 

While Odo assists a pregnant Lxawana Troi, Jake falls under 
the spell of a mysterious alien.

Oh good: a pregnant Lxawana episode! Someone up there likes me. 

The Lwaxana/ Odo/ Michael Ansara stuff isn’t so bad, actually (although, as explored much more in depth over at the WNBHGB review, they dropped the ball, somehow, in Odo’s big speech scene. Did they not realize the dynamics of this? How?) But the Jake/muse storyline is kind of gross. The muse/artist relationship has sexual overtones implied within it, so the difference in ages adds a dynamic that distracts rather than compels. The muse comes across like one of these teachers banging her junior high student. Which is fine - not the act itself but the story idea. This could've gone the "Sub Rosa" rate, and FWIW the Dog Star Omnibus position is ‘Always veer towards and not away' if veering one way is ever in question. 

Anyway, it's there but not acknowledged or explored, which makes it seem ickier than had they actually been more explicit. 

19.

 

Bashir is captured, with Chief O'Brien, by a truly outrageous group of Jem * Hadar  who are attempting to overcome their genetic addiction to Ketracel White. Meanwhile, Worf is finding it difficult to leave security matters to Security Chief Odo.

How do you follow up a Pregnant-Lwaxana-and-Odo episode at the We Hate McMolo Factory? With a Jem-Hadar-slash-teach-Worf-a-contrived-lesson episode. Thanks, Ira!

Not terrible, just ‘meh.’ I like the passive aggressive misdirection in that summary above. Worf would find it less difficult if anyone bothered filling him in on the things he needs to know in order to do his job.

* Is that the kind of joke that's older than dirt in DS9 circles? I apologize, even if it isn't.

18. and 17.

Sisko and Odo got to Earth to help protect against a Dominion invasion 
but it’s a false flag, or something.

Given my attitude on the Dominion and Changelings, it’s no surprise this two-parter more or less bounces off me. But I did like two things:

(1) Some franchise karma restored for Brock Peters after Undiscovered-Country-ing the poor man by casting him as Sisko’s Dad/ Jake’s grandfather. And (2) the scene between Changeling-O’Brien and Sisko, which is not only a nice little scene in its own right but also looks ahead to BSG, where this sort of thing plays out between skinjobs and humans.

16.

 

Cast out of Klingon society because of his brother's dishonor, Kurn asks Worf to kill him, while Kira and O'Brien investigate a mysterious high-energy discharge 
just outside Bajoran space.

We’ve seen the dishonor thing with Worf and the Sons of Mogh already. To bring it back and run Kurn through these kind of paces all before wiping his brain seems a lot of 90s-extreeeeeeeeeme for no sensible reason. I liked the little bit at the end where some pain crosses Worf’s face at his brother’s non-recognition, but too little, too late.

Why do this to Kurn? Was Tony Todd done with the role? Unless there are more Kurn episodes to come playing off this plot development, it seems a real waste of the character.  

15.

 

Dukat seeks Kir’as help in regaining his rank in the Cardassion Union.

The Cardassian soap opera proceeds apace. Not bad.  I like Ziyal fine, I like the idea of Dukat as some kind of renegade guerrilla fighter. A lot of the Dukat/ Kira stuff just gets repetitive, though. I like Dukat, or rather, I like Alaimo’s portrayal of him, and as a general bad guy for the series. 

14.

 

An elderly Jake Sisko relates the story of how he lost his father 
to a temporal displacement accident.

From a cursory search of online reviews, everyone seems to love this episode. Not me, I’m afraid. It’s not bad, but a couple of things work against it: 

(1) the old-Jake/fan-visitor story never feels real. Like literally none of it: the fan-visitor’s appearance, the fan-visitor’s fandom, the staging, old-Jake’s reaction and subsequent story-spilling, old-Jake himself. (1.5) I wasn’t too enamored with Tony Todd’s performance in general, actually, in any of the timeframes. This is worth mentioning, as I normally like him in just about anything. And (2) What’s the arc, here? The episode ends with alterna-Jake, who re-integrates Ghost Sisko to his point of departure, i.e. when he was struck by a bolt of techno-babble (as coined at WNBHGB). Sisko has some fragments of alterna-Jake’s story to relay, but it’s “Hey, cool story, Dad.” It prevents the consequences of the action from impacting any major member of the cast, a big writing room no-no. Wouldn’t it have been more interesting if Jake retained memories of his future self, somehowf?

And yet… I mean, it kinda works? Writing room no-nos are broken all the time, in Trek especially. Everything I just wrote applies to VOY’s “Course: Oblivion” for example, an episode I not only love but find very poignant. What gives? I’m reminded again of that old axiom, it’s how things make you feel that you remember, not what they actually are. Perhaps that’s the case here. Or perhaps I’m just an inconsistent bastard – whatever works!

How close is Cirroc Lifton at forty-two to Tony Todd at forty-two when he filmed this one?

Not too close, but it's wild how he could pass for Avery Brooks' real-life son in that picture.

13.

 

The Defiant becomes trapped in the atmosphere of a gas giant 
while battling with the Jem'Hadar.

Nothing wrong with a little back-to-basics action sort of episode every now and again. I liked those parts more than the Battle of Great Actors in Terrible Visuals (pt. ongoing, really) between Quark and James Cromwell. 

12.

 

After he nearly dies because his contract kept him from seeking medical help, Rom organizes the Guild of Restaurant and Casino employees, a union for Quark's downtrodden staff, and they go on strike.

Okay, so prior to this re-watch, I had a fairly consistent anti-Ferengi stance. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find myself getting more of a kick out of them rather than being annoyed. The visuals and voices will always bug me, but the little touches the various actors are bringing to their roles and the broadly ridiculous-satire of the Ferengi civilization slowly won me over. This episode makes little sense – sometimes that ridiculous-satire aspect gets away from them – and they kind of fizzled on the story it seemed they started out to tell. But man is Brunt (“FCA!”) is a lot of fun. Jeffrey Combs really does great work on this show under his various guises.

Even the Worf subplot is fun. 

11.

 

A famous Bajoran poet who disappeared over 200 years ago appears from the wormhole and convinces Sisko that he is the true Emissary, but when he announces a return to the pre-occupation caste system, Sisko points out it would disqualify Bajor for membership in The Federation. O'Brien is less than enthusiastic when Keiko announces she's expecting.

RIP to the great Richard Libertini. I’m always happy when he shows up in things. Likewise to Jane Espenson (though no RIP, of course) who for a stretch was my favorite writer; anytime I was moved to look at the credits for a TV show, it was either her or David Fury, and (I noticed) her episodes were always great, regardless of the show. 

I’m not the biggest fan of Bajorans, but I like the idea that the Prophets are real and live in the wormhole. (“God has a plan for you, Gaius.” Cut to the Opera House Celestial Temple.) And I like how Sisko’s tied up in it all, and his general attitude towards things. So, all in all, this episode lands just fine with me. 

10.

 

A Klingon fleet arrives on its way to expand the Klingon Empire at the expense of the Cardassians in the face of the Dominion threat, and Worf is brought to DS9 to negotiate.

In theory I should love this one: Klingon intrigue, fleets of Klingons, I love Gowron, Worf, etc. In the actual watching of it, it’s… okay. Probably better than okay. But this is all Trek-drama I just don’t care about. The whole “going to war” thing with Trek brings in a lot of logistics that are just not suited for Trek, I feel. As I was with Voyager, I’m surprised how much DS9 feels like a test-run for ideas better realized in BSG. 

Anyway, the Klingon/Cardassian War interests me more than the Federation/Dominion War by sole virtue of the Dominion failing to excite my interest altogether. For every Trek fan like me, though, there are dozens that like both the Dominion and the whole “war!” storyline playing out in Trek; more power to them. I raise my glass from a table in a room adjacent - k'plagh!

9.

Sisko and the Defiant crew join forces with the Jem'Hadar to stop a group of renegades from gaining power using an Iconian Gateway discovered in the Gamma Quadrant. 

Combs is great as Weyoun. The Vorta are somewhat interesting, although I don’t like the Jem’hadar nor this “we control them through the White” business. It’s just too much. Plus it’s not very original. 

That makes it somewhat difficult for me to get into the spirit of things with an episode like this, which basically just throws a military-tropes net over some nominal Trek machinery and lets it run. And yet – actually, I kind of enjoy this one. I don’t think it makes any real sense for Starfleet to be in on this mission, but there are some nice moments. And some nice Sisko moments, too, which are appreciated. I want to like this show and these characters, so I’m always looking to collect more of such moments.

And hey - the Iconians. Cool. 

8.

 

Quark is diagnosed with a terminal disease, Dorek's Syndrome, and given a week to live. Due to an unavoidable accident on the runabout Volga, Miles' and Keiko's unborn baby is transferred to Major Kira by Dr. Bashir.

You’re a showrunner. What do you do when one of your actresses gets pregnant or the kid you hired to play a kid grows too tall in the off-season? For a TV production these are real problems that have to be solved. Best if you can write it into the show somehow. Sometimes it works, sometimes it feels kind of wonky. I think what they did here with Nana Visitor’s pregnancy is probably between the two.

That kid is twenty-four now.

7.

 

Forced to bring along Dukat on a personal mission to investigate the fate of a Cardassian prison ship Ravinok that disappeared 6 years ago, Kira discovers the real reason her old enemy wants to accompany her. Sisko appears to have reservations about Kasidy Yates' coming to live on the station.

This intro of Ziyal doubles as a tribute to the movie The Searchers. Which makes Kira Captain Pike by the laws of Trek-role-counterparting as I understand them. Watch out for delta ray radiation, Nerys.

It also triples, I guess, as a showcase for how drop-dead gorgeous both Nana Visitor and Penny Johnson were in the 90s. Not that they’re not gorgeous now or that actresses should be vetted by how physically attractive the likes of Dog Star Omnibus finds them. All the disclaimers/ whatever you like. Just don't bury the truth; they were smoking.

6.

 

Sisko learns that his girlfriend Kasidy might be a Maquis smuggler. Garak and Ziyal find themselves increasingly drawn to one another.

Here is a strong Sisko episode. Sisko is a character and Avery Brooks is an actor where I spend a lot of time wondering when something is going to click. He definitely imbues the character with little ticks and physical gestures, but is it enough? For most, I guess. For me, the jury is still somewhat out. This one feels like the Sisko they should have been emphasizing from the beginning. Maybe they have, hell -  I did skip s1-s3 after all. We’ll see.

Either way this one is a success. I'm pretty anti-Maquis - I especially hate that they call themselves after the French Resistance from World War Two, that just rings so untrue to me - and it still managed to reach me.

5. 

 

Odo’s hidden feelings for Kira surface when the visiting Bajoran First Minister, Shakaar Edon begins to court her.

A very moving episode. They got the details right for the experience they were trying to get across. I’m not a big Odo fan, as you might have noticed. Mainly it’s just the Changeling aspect, I find the visual/ concept too vague. They (and Rene Auberjonois) managed to reach me nevertheless, especially at the end where it’s left unsaid just why Odo has changed his mind about soundproofing his quarters. Subtle enough pay-off to a rather conspicuous set-up from the beginning. 

Speaking of, I get that Odo is exercising his shape-shifting in his quarters in what I’m sure is a methodical manner, but the idea of his having this after-hours turning-into-beasts-and-swans side (all with this dubious-looking “equipment”) makes my eyes roll fairly hard. 

This bit where he waits for Kira to respond to something in a way he knows she will is great stuff.

Who plays Shakaar? Is that Ronin from Sub Rosa? You bet it is!

"Not just one but TWO of the HOWARD women," says Picard, every time he appears.

4.

  

Bashir plays a 1960s secret agent in a holosuite, when Garak unexpectedly intrudes, but his help is needed when the DS9 computer uses the holosuite to store the patterns of other crew members during a transporter accident.

This is neither perfect Trek nor perfect Bond pastiche. But it’s a very agreeable stretch of terrain between those two things. It drags whenever they feel the need to literalize what’s going on (re-stabilizing the neural energies or what not). I rank it as highly as I do mainly because it’s fun, and hey, fun is enjoyable. Both Siddig and Robinson imbue their performances with appropriate pathos. Or is it ethos. I need to look this up, be right back.

Okay, so ethos or the ethical appeal, means to convince an audience of the author's credibility or character. Pathos or the emotional appeal, means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions. Apparently neither of these is what I was thinking of.

3.

 

 

Bashir tries to free the population of a Gamma Quadrant world in the Teplan system of an engineered disease left by the Dominion 200 years previously.

I just don’t get the Gamma Quadrant/ Dominion. What is their deal? They’re so over the top, but for what reason? The logistics don’t make sense.

Logistics aside, this was a fine enough little episode, I just get grumpy when my brain starts picking apart the Dominion/ the GQ. Is there a stretch of the GQ on the other side of the wormhole that is Dominion-free, or something? How? Why do they care? Why did they stop? 

2.

 

 

Sisko attempts to rescue Jake after he is lured into the war-torn Mirror Universe by his mother’s living counterpart.

I didn’t expect to enjoy this one. I think the mirror universe concept kind of worked once (and then again as a callback in the Enterprise two-parter) and that it’s unfair that the other shows couldn’t do one, but hey, only so much to go around. Because the concept ceases to work the second you call the slightest attention to it. Sure in an infinite universe there are infinite possibilities, but that doesn’t (or shouldn’t) mean there’s just ONE mirror universe where everyone from the various series lives and interacts and they’re all evil. It’s too much. 

And yet, I mean, it’s mainly an excuse for the actors to do something different here and there, and they’re kind of fun. And this is no different. I can respect DS9 for trying something a little different and giving their mirror episodes a bit of continuity. And I like Smiley (mirror O’Brien) and the Intendent (mirror Kira).

Wouldn’t Jennifer Sisko be evil, though? Are some counterparts just not mirror-y? Or was “our” Jenn Sisko secretly evil? Either way, she and Jake had some nice scenes. 

1.

 

 

Dax is reunited with Lenara Kahn, whose previous host was the wife of one of Dax's former hosts, Torias Dax, and the two struggle with their feelings for one another.

Here’s a wonderful story with great performances. A lot of heart in this one, sold primarily by the performance of guest Susannah Thompson. Kudos to all involved, but especially her. 

Does this retcon the Trill customs we learned about back in "The Host"? I think it does, but I don't quite remember the specifics. Not a dealbreaker either way.

I feel like I should have more to say, but there it is. Great stuff.

~

And now: the leftover screencaps.

"Damn it, Miles...!"

I love that Garak looks like he could launch into a talk show opening monologue in this shot. "It can be hard keeping up with the Cardassians, can't it?" (Audience groans) "Why does everyone groan when I say that?"

Oh, it's not so distant.

Until next time, friends.