"My own special variety" Odo
I can't think of anything particularly pithy to say about this line. I just think it is a splendid retort!
Dodgy looking alien cadaver of former baddy scientist. I wonder where this plot may be boldly going?
Synopsis
It's the alien possesses one of our heroes story. Bashir commits crimes against acting, and Adrian Chiles shows up. God are "Daybreaks" ratings that bad?!
Review
Bashir is yet again boasting about his medical skills, and just how fricking awesome he is. This is just in case we forget that he is supposed to be an overbearing swaggering great cock of a human being, for about the fifth time this season. (They crank the asshole scale to 11, by having him banging on about "destiny fated him" to be a great healer*, and that he even impresses himself sometimes. What a cockend) God, or the prophets intervene to shut him up with a distress signal from a Kobliad ship which is breaking up. They rescue security chief Ty Kajada (who looks and sounds like Na'toth of Babylon 5. I can't imagine why! (-;{). There is another occupant in one of the cells. Kajada implores Bashir not to save his life and to leave him to a fiery fate, as he is an extremely dangerous criminal. Bashir refuses to just leave him there, and the dying man implores him to "make me live" before croaking on there the spot.
On DS9 Kajada wants to inspect the body of Vantika (the dead criminal). she is paranoid about being doubly sure he has kicked the space bucket. He was some mad scientist who used various incredibly dodgy methods to prolong his life anyway he could, and has the habit of faking his own death to evade capture.
Odo warns Quark not to have eyes for a shipment of rare deuridium ore bound for DS9, in the manner of him having eyes for Jadzia. This is where we meet Adrian Chiles lookalike, Leutenant George Primmin, a Starfleet security officer who appeared for this episode and the next. Primmin was essentially a prototype version of Michael Eddington, a qualified Starfleet security officer who would conflict with the unorthodox approach to law enforcement by Odo. This was a good idea, and brought some good conflict scenes between Primmin and Odo, and Odo and Sisko, where Odo even threatens to resign in a scene very reminiscent of "The Search" where he felt his position was being undermined by Starfleet. Admittedly it works better in the context of the whole Dominion thing, what with the increased security and other issues we shall look at when the time comes. So perhaps they shelved this plot for later, when it was more dramatically in context, and why Primmin disappeared so quickly.
Whilst Dax surmises Kajada is so zealous about the threat even a dead Vantika poses, because she has been so consumed with apprehending him for so long. Primmin complains to Odo, that namedropping the deuridium shipment (that is very valuable as the dying Koblaid species need to survive.) in front of everyone in Quarks bar was a risky idea. Odo tells him to fuck off and mind his own Starfleet business as he's chief here. Sisko warns a put out Primmin that he shouldn't be seen as lording the Starfleet spiel over their Bajoran hosts, and that no-one watches "Daybreak" anyway.
"Should have stuck with Christoyne on the wun shoaw! Having to pretend to be interested in whimsical TV links on roundabouts in Swindon, and bat colonies, sure boyts being on deep spoyce noyne!"
Odo realises someone has purged a load of computer files through a complex but indirect means. Kajada says Vantika has pulled this stunt before. Sisko doesn't accept that Vantika has somehow survived his death, but he may have an accomplice who wants to steal the valuable ore. Things get more mysterious when they discover someone snuck on board Kajadas ship and pinched some files pertaining to the humanoid brain. A cloaked figure threatens Quark in his deserted bar. He claims to be Vantika! Quark had pre - agreed to help him gather up some mercenaries to er... borrow the ore freighter, thus why he was nearby when the ship was damaged.
Dax thinks Kajada is right that Vantika managed to "transfer" himself from death. He has a tidgy mind control thing that works by bullshit science altering brainwaves (look does anyone really care about the minutia of this?) so he can possess them. Bashir thinks Kajada has been "possessed" (though if she had, why would she say he could cheat death? Encourage them to at least entertain the possibility? Vantika could just do what he wanted undetected?). I must add that this was the original idea in Morgan Gendell's original draft (and it perhaps would have been a more sensible "host"). But honestly you never fall for Kajada being Vantika for a minute. Odo says they should cut her out the loop in the investigation. That she'll be forced to show her hand and reveal herself. But Kajada just does her own unofficial investigation and is incapacitated in the attempt. It turns out Bashir is Vantika (yeah, I was surprised as well. Not!), he leads the mercenaries on a runabout to seize the freighter. We know Bashir is now evil, because he starts speaking slowly in a deep voice. Now I don't know if this was bad direction, or just Alex Siddig being thrust into such an unusual take on his normal role (Alex is a good actor in my opinion, and he played Bashir very well.) but his performance as Vantika is just... bad. It is so forced and laboured. He threatens DS9 to release their tractor grip of the freighter, or he'll attempt to escape, killing Bashir (which is a bit weird for someon so determined to be essentially immortal) and spreading yucky deuridium all over the Bajoran system (because it's not like a star system is very big volume wise, relative to a small cargo ship or anything) Dax suggests sending an EM signal through the tractor beam that would reawaken Bashirs personality and they stall him long enough to do just that. Vantika fights the Bashir personality, but he prevails and lowers the shields where they beam him out and stun him with a phaser (not because he's dangerous. Sisko just likes to take time out to enjoy himself!) They manage to extract Vantikas personality from the doctors, and it gets trapped inside a futuristic ashtray thing for all eternity, which of course Kajada has to arbitrarily vapouris much to the shock of the regular crew, because obviously the laws of due process aren't that big a deal. In short; the DS9 team are triumphant once more.
Mistakes and Questions
There is no background music in the opening shot of the runabout flying through space, or one of the exterior station scenes. A first I believe. It certainly feels weird to listen to.
Bashir says medical tricorders find it difficult to register death. Obviously because that ability isn't all that useful to a doctor anyway. But he then registers a death with one in this episode. Then he does in "Battlelines". Need I go on!!
Kira and Bashir beam onto a burning ship with toxic gasses in the atmosphere that is also venting into space rapidly. Note to the runabout manufacturers. There are things called spacesuits (or at the very least breathing apparatus) which are very useful in an oxygen poor /deficient environment (i e: most of the bloody universe), why not equip your ships with them.
Odo says Dax has 10 lifetimes of friends to choose from, before shacking up with Quark. Shouldn't that be 7 lifetimes?
Bashir says humanoids only use a tiny bit of the brain. This sounds suspiciously like that old urban myth "you use only 10% of your brain" which is not true at all. You use all your brain.
The thing Vantika uses on his fingernail to transfer his entire neural capacity to another is tidgy. In "Our Man Bashir" transferring the neural capacity of a humanoid nearly flooded the entire stations computer capacity to the max. Awesome bt of design that!
Betty's Thought for the Day.
Bashirs comments about him being fated to be a great healer, or being touched by destiny to be the great doctor he is would be shot down in flames in the fifth seasons "Doctor Bashir I Presume?" I won't spoil the revelations in that episode. But it is certainly an interesting contrast to what he says here!
Summary
There is nothing inherently that bad about this story, though it isn't all that great either. It's a pretty statndard "alien possession of the week" affair. It's pretty entertaining as it is, and the whole Odo / Primmin conflict is probably the strongest part of the episode (nice payoff when Primmin saves the day using Odo's unorthodox methods!), and sets up a plot thread that would be more effectively used later on down the line. It is a bit let down by the laboured acting in the "Bashir is possessed" scenes, and some of the contrived sciencey bits. But it is an enjoyable if fairly forgettable episode.
Rating. 6 / 10
Next Time
"Move Along Home". The low point of season 1. We watch some daft looking aliens play a boring game. Our main heroes hopping about singing stupid rhymes. And you can act like a complete bastard, because it's only a game after all.
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