Deep Space Nine Review. "Babel" 1x04

"Oh! I see."

Odo response to virus sufferer

Whoever says we never do culture on this blog!

Synopsis.

A mysterious virus on DS9 causes those afflicted to start spouting incoherent gibberish that makes people think they are insane, and then they die. a bit like watching too much Fox News then. (apart from the dying bit of course.)

Review.

Babel starts off with an extremely flustered and overworked O'Brien trying to fix the many, many things that keep breaking down on DS9. He is interrupted by Captain Jaheel, some alien dude who has a cargo ship and makeup that isn't really going to win any design awards for Paramount. Jaheel bitches about how he can't be delayed anymore as his cargo will start rotting. Jaheel is one of those whiny customers, anyone in the service trade hates having to deal with and on a bad day; would love to punch them in the smug face. You know - one of those who has to give their bitching; passive aggressive tuppenceworth about how crap you are at your job, like they'd do any fricking better BTW, under bad circumstances!! (Not that I'm projecting ill will to this guy because I've ever had bad experiences in a customer service based job you understand!! (-;) The chief eventually finds time for a cuppa at the replicator terminal he is fixing, which has a hidden device attached to it which must be evil because they play that "sinister" incidental music just before the opening credits roll.

"Don't laugh at my makeup asshole! The Ugnaughts off Empire Strikes Back think I'm their God!"

O'Brien suddenly starts spouting meaningless gibberish (and I ain't talking about technobabble), and cannot even write coherently either. Bashir diagnoses that the chief is suffering from aphasia, where the brain can't process words properly. But he can't detect brain damage or cranial trauma. Meaney conveys the mixture of fear and frustration that an aphasia sufferer must go through at being struck down by such a surreal and frightening condition - really well in those infirmary scenes. It gets worse. Jadzia gets struck down with it. Bashir discovers it is a synaptic virus that screws about with the brain, hence why they are spouting gibberish (and hence where the title of the episode comes from).

As more people are struck down with apahasia, the station erects a quarantine. Quark; who due to the almost stationwide replicator failure - couldn't trade, has found some way to circumvent this and allow his bar to stay open. Odo doesn't believe his cover story that Rom fixed the bars replicator, as Rom couldn't fix a bent straw*. Jaheel proves himself to be a bit of a pussy, and asks Sisko to break the quarantine for him, as he doesn't want to get sick. Sisko refuses, and then learns Jake has been struck down too.

Quark has managed to bypass the replicator problem by breaking into affected crewmembers quarters, and using the only working replicators on the station to stock his bar (must bring in long waiting delays.). This is a bit of a bummer as Bashir discovers the virus is foodbourne. Quark has unwittingly spread the virus far and wide. If this wasn't bad enough it has mutated to an airbourne virus as well! The virus is man made, but not a Cardassian one, but planted by the resistance when the station was built 18 years ago. Oh and there is the minor thing that those who are afflicted die after about 12 hours of contracting it. There is quite a nice scene in the infirmary when Bashir says that although the virus is so destructive and will likely kill them all, he would like to shake the hand of the man who designed something so clever. It reminds me of a line in the novelisation of "A New Hope", when one of the rebel pilots in a moment of grim irony, despite knowing how deadly the Death star was, and the evil it represented - couldn't help but be blown over by how fricking awesomely clever the whole contraption was. Bashir's comments are realistic. It may be badass, but it's badass with style.

It's more bad news as Kira discovers that the geneticist / resistance fighter who designed it (and hopefully the antidote) is no longer alive. But she discovers his assistant Surmak Ren, who cuts the call off when she mentions the virus. Bashir contracts the virus without discovering a cure himself. Jaheel meanwhile attempts to break the quarantine, but only manages to wreck a docking clamp and sever the fuel lines on his ship in the attempt, which means the ship will explode in a manner of minutes (according to the physical principles of when the script tells it to.). Kira manages to beam Ren up (so she doesn't break quarantine) in a runabout telling him he has to find a cure, as she is infected, and thus he is now too. Sisko contracts the virus leaving only Odo and Quark (at a fee) to set the ship free before it blows the station as well. Of course they manage it (we get some poor model work fx as well, which don't stand up well with the Babylon 5 CGI that would come a year or two later.), and of course Ren comes up with a cure, and everyone is saved (God he must have been a very observant and diligent assistant when the virus was tailor made!). And we get an obligatory "who'd be me" end scene where Sisko awkwardly bollocks O'Brien for his dodgy tea from a faulty replicator, as we have to end on a light note ho ho!

Mistakes and Questions.

*Odo says Rom is to thick to mend a bent straw. Which contradicts the aptitude Rom would show in fixing stuff later on down the line. I suppose this isn't really a mistake as it is only Odo'd opinion. And sometimes appearances can be deceiving.

O'Brien mouths off about being put upon in ops, after Sisko asks him to fix a replicator. Hang on! I know he's having a bad day, but this is his CO he is talking to. Perhaps Sisko took pity on him.

Quark is seen pestering patients he thinks are faking the virus to get out of paying their bar bills, in the makeshift ward. He's making a lot of noise, and harassing ill people. Shouldn't someone like Sisko or Bashir ask him to leave?

Who was guarding the docking bays so no-one attempts to breach the quarantine? Jaheel seems to have boarded his ship without anyone stopping him, and no-one is down there except for Odo at the end. Was there no security well enough to enforce the quarantine. And how could they have even enforced it anyway, if there are no security men free?

Isn't it a bit strange that this virus affects Bajorans (as well as humans and other species) as well as the Cardassians it was intended for? I mean if this virus is as clever as they make out, why not bioengineer it for Cardassians only? What would have happened if it had been passed on to Bajor itself?

Betty's Thought for the Day

The episode is named after the Babel parable in the Bible, and it does have some interesting parallels with the episode itself. If you don't know the story I'll sum it up. The people of Babel were the first survivors of the Noah flood, and had built quite a nice little society for themselves, and it was the first instance of humanity being totally unified in culture and language. They started to build a tower partly designed as a beacon of their new society should things go tits up, and partly out of hubris. To build a tower to reach the heavens themselves. God wasn't to happy about mankind getting ideas above its station and he smashed it up and scattered the human race all over the earth, and the unity of language and culture was severed forever. The interesting thing for me is that story can have two different meanings (or better still, morals of the story) depending on your world view. I think it is fair to say the conservative commentator Peter Hitchens summed it up nicely as those who see man as inherently sinful, and that these Utopian grand schemes, where mankind presumes to know better than the higher authority, always end badly. Thus God was intervening to put mankind in its rightful place. The other school see man as essentially good and even capable of being perfected somewhat. That this was a spiteful act by a jealous god determined to stunt his ambitious children, and to bring mankind down and divided, and easier to rule over. The story and the symbolism about it was the basis of the backstory to Babylon 5 (the station is a future version of the tower, and the Shadows try to do what God does in this story.) However this story is sort of a loose inverted version of the Babel myth. On here the "superior beings" built their tower (Terok Nor) to stake claim over the "lesser beings", and to reach down to the land (it was a mining station). And it is the vengeful "lesser beings" who try to tear down the tower, and "confound the language" of the "superior beings." Intentional, or am I just reading too much into it. I just though it was an interesting take.

Summary.

Babel may be the virus of the week story, and hardly original, but for a story of this nature it was a pretty good one. For an early episode it is an unusual example of an ensemble piece, with all the regulars getting something to do. It is well paced, with Quarks B plot tying into the main plot, and the level of danger increases incrementally throughout so the sense of threat feels present and a genuine race against time. The only downsides are the poor "ship blows up" scene and how quickly everything has to be resolved, and how easily the virus is cured at the end. But that is a symptom of how much they put into your average DS9 episode. All in all a well established and entertaining episode with some good scenes and sense of pace (until the end). A nice standalone well worth watching if you have 45 minutes to kill.

Rating 7 / 10

Next Time

O'Brien befriends an alien from the Gamma Quadrant who appears to be on the run. And the Prime Directive is invoked, which is a handy get out of jail card for dealing with awkward moral issues.

DS9 Review: "Past Prologue" 1x02

"It's just Garak. Plain Simple Garak!"

Yeah right.

"Tell that kindly old lady down the street, we have discovered a permanent solution for stopping Tiddles shitting in my garden, right here in this satchel!"

Synopsis


Kira has divided loyalties over a former resistance fighter wanted by the Cardassians. And the beginning of possibly the greatest mystery ever to grace the Star Trek mythos. Just what side is Garak batting for?


The teaser of Past Prologue starts off by introducing us to Garak. The only Cardassian who stayed behind on DS9 after the withdrawal. The show would tease us throughout over why he remained. He claims that he is just a simple tailor (though no-one believes him) and nothing more. But as we go on we learn a little more (but never quite why) about why he has remained, which we will look into in later episodes. He strikes up conversation with Bashir; who thinks (like everyone else) he is a spy who has stayed behind as the eyes and ears of Cardassia. He dismisses that with the line I have quoted above. It is clear from the way Andy Robinson portrays him that we are not to take this at face value. Garak clearly loves the mystery and suspicion that surrounds him like a shawl and plays up to it beautifully. Bashir is weirded out by it and leaves convinced he is trying to recruit him into his spy ring. It really is a great scene with plenty of laughs. It is little wonder Garak became as popular as he did.


Meanwhile in ops, a Cardassian warship fires on a Bajoran transport and destroys it, but they are able to beam the pilot to safety. The Bajoran man is able to let out a pathos laden "help me out" speech before passing out from his injuries, which is of course a cardinal rule of telly. It turns out the guy is a former fellow freedom fighter of Kira's. (this is a DS9 stable. Kira seems to know just about every guest star of the week as either a former resistance member / collaborator / black market; arms trader, who managed at one time to make her acquaintance. I wouldn't be surprised if Kira could enter a McDonalds in Fiji and recognise the burger flipper as a former member of her cell.) Tahna Las; disturbingly is also a member of the Kohn Ma. The Kohn Ma is sort of on the Al Quieda end of "freedom fighters". They continue to attack Cardassian targets and civilian ones at that. They have murdered Bajorans they didn't like, and are generally not very nice. They have been disowned and banished by the provisional government, but Tahna requests asylum on the basis that his Cardassian pursuers are going to resort to much more than strongly worded questioning if they get hold of him. Sisko is skeptical, for one thing the Kohn Ma continue their attacks on the Cardassians, and because he doesn't entirely believe that Tahna is sincere about cutting his ties with his organisation (and the episode gives the impression we are right to think he hasn't cut ties.). Kira however is keen to bend over backwards to get him asylum. He is after all a fellow freedom fighter, which she believes Bajor needs more of. After going over Sisko's head and appealing to Admiral Schoolmarm, Sisko bollocks her with this cut down remark.

"Go over my head again, and I'll have yours on a platter!"

Presumably accompanied with crinkle cut chips, what with the nose and all that. Ironic cannibalism.


The conflict between these two isn't really the crux of the episode. The actual moral dilemma lies within Kira herself. Kira still has a pretty rose tinted view of the occupation. It was evil Cardies versus the plucky Bajoran underground. That was the world she grew up in. However Kira is beginning to see that Bajor (or at the least herself) is going to have to think bigger picture despite whether she wants to or not, lest her world goes under. Although Kira would ideally have the Federation bugger off tomorrow, and that the wormhole may bring problems. she knows that Bajor is on it's arse, and that her people need to rebuild and try to take advantage of the situation. Tahna (who has been granted asylum as he is on pain of torture if captured.) on the other hand says Bajor should tell the entire galaxy to fuck itself. Bajor should look after itself and everyone else can take a running jump. This is where we see that this is an episode as much about a conflict of ideas, as a conflict between individuals.

"Nice to see Andy Robinson doing his little bit to quell superfluous rumours!"


We see the begining of Garaks friendship with Dr. Bashir in this episode. Now as anyone who knows anything about Star Trek knows that there is some online speculation amongst some fans that Garak is gay, and that he and Bashir are more than friends. I don't want to comment much more on this, firstly because it is really irrelevant to the characters in the context of the show and their character arcs. Secondly because it is a bit silly, and thirdly because it is amongst the least interesting background questions we could ask about this multi layered and fascinatingly enigmatic character. Garak has spotted the Duras sisters, who apart from their secondary mission to draw in TNG viewers; are covertly meeting with the Duras sisters. Now I don't object to this as some kind of stunt to get more viewers (this is TV folks they do this stuff.). And surprisingly their presence makes sense in the context of the plot, not just some daft attempt to crudely shoehorn a popular character into a story that doesn't justify their presence, apart from some gratuitous figure boosting stunt. Garak is able to trick the sisters into thinking he is a proper Cardassian spy spy, rather than being a possible Cardassian spy. they tell him about the bomb they are selling him, and offer to betray him to the Cardassians after they sell him the goods. Julian who is hiding in the changing room of the tailors can then pass this third person information on to Sisko, where they decide to let Tahna think he can pull his bombing mission off, and lie in wait to capture him before he completes it.

We really get to the heart of the issues of this episode in the scene with Odo and Kira. Kira is in a bad situation. Her complicity in allowing Tahna and his accomplices to gain asylum. Her bending over backwards to vouch for a guy who turns out to be a sort of space Bin Laden. And it was all for nothing. He used her naivete around the motives of all "freedom fighters" to pull of more attacks. She says that although life in the resistance was seven shades of awful, the simplicity and black and white nature of her world back then was somehow appealing. (Odo himself when proposing chucking the Duras sisters in jail without charge -mused that while Cardassian rule was tough in comparison to the bureaucratic, compromising fudge of Federation procedure - it was at least simple.) Kira is now confronted with a world that is more ambiguous and with more grey areas. She no longer knows what being patriotic to her people actually entails. Odo implies that the changing nature of society means that these values also change, and that it the crux of the difference between Kira and Tahna. Kira joined the resistance out of necessity. She saw that the Cardassians were beating and violating and working her people to death in the labour camps, and that no-one in the galaxy seemed to give a shit. That she would have to take up arms in a guerrilla war to drive the Cardassians offworld. If Kira hadn't faced the Cardassian occupation, I doubt she would even have fired a phaser in her life. she joined to free her people. Not for herself. That sounds like a moral decision based on patriotism to me. Tahna on the other hand fights because he enjoys killing and violence. He fights because he wants to impose his values on everyone else, and you can stare down the end of his gun if you disagree. Tahna fights for himself because it's what makes his dark heart pound with glee. That is why Kira makes amends for "helping" this man, and why she "betrays" him. Because she does what she thinks is right for her people. Something Tahna would never do.

She accompanies him on their mission, ostensibly as a sympathiser. He reveals he plans to collapse the wormhole so Bajor loses it's real estate status. He claims the Cardassians and the Federation will leave the world alone after this. I thought hang on! The Cardassians possibly. After they were driven off would they risk another conflict for a tapped out world without the wormhole? But the Federation was making overtures to the Bajorans before the wormhole was discovered. After all that effort channeled into Bajor are they just going to pack up and leave when the wormhole was capped? She sabotages the mission and Tahna subdues her. He forces her to set course for the wormhole, or he drops the bomb on the Bajoran colony they met the Klingons at. Kira manages to fly the ship into the Gamma quadrant, where Tahna in a fit of rage fires the bomb and misses the wormhole. They fly back and Tahna chooses surrender to the Federation rather than being given to the Cardassians. Kira tries to reason with him as he is led away to a cell, but he hisses "traitor" at her and is marched off. It was too bad Kira doesn't respond, but if she had; she should have said.

"You call me a traitor. You who lied to me and took advantage of my goodwill to someone who I thought fought for the Bajorans. You who I stuck my neck out, and nearly got my ass busted for, and all you did was belittle what I did for you. You who were willing to reduce our strip mined planet to some impoverished isolated backwater just so it could be "pure". You who would kill millions of innocent Bajorans on the colony purely out of spite. And you who went running to the hated Federation, when you realised you're ball sack may be slowly removed with rusty pliers in a Cardassian jail cell.

And you call me a traitor!"

Mistakes & Questions:

Odo claims he doesn't do pretence. Aside from the fact that the ability to use pretence would be valuable for a security officer who has to undertake questioning of suspects etc. Odo actually does resort to pretence. One example is him (well he is sarcastic when he does it) interrogating the Flaxian assassin in "Improbable Cause" in season 3.

Odo also claims that some ostrich from a made up alien planet sticks its head in water and eventually drowns itself, when it is frightened. This is of course a variation on the myth about ostriches sticking their head in the sand. It makes no sense from an evolutionary sense for an ostrich to inherit such as stupid trait.

Bettys Thought for the Day

The character of Garak was a real boost to the show. There is so much potential in this mysterious guy who remained on board after his people left, for reasons we can't quite fathom, and almost certainly is not there for any legitimate reason. The writers wanted to come up with a way to use him again, and I must say casting the brilliant Andrew Robinson alone made him a shoo in for a return visit.

Summary


Past Prologue is a strong episode, bringing in new layers of subtext to the show such as how a post occupation Bajor should continue, to the increased moral greying of the ocupation itself. There is a strong sense of multi layered character conflict and conflicts of interests going on in this episode, as well as an increased sense of having to do backroom deals and breaking the rules which brings the show apart from its Starfleet run starship based prediecessor. Garak is a great addition too. Such an enigmatic character. We never know why he "helped" uncover the plot, was it purely a self interested act on his behalf or an attempt to help DS9, or both? Looking back it is astounding how much they crammed into DS9 episodes at times. This episode sets up plenty of interesting stuff for the future and never loses pace, so a good continuation from the pilot.


Rating 7 / 10.


Next Time.


"A Man Alone" The charming tale of a bad man who comes up with an implausably complicated plot to smear his enemy. Keiko gripes about some stuff. Rom's personality is at odds from what was seen in later episodes, just like Baldrick in the first Blackadder series, and Count Dooku shows up standing in the background looking a bit evil. I kid ye not.