Deep Space Nine Review. Episode 1x12 "Battlelines"

Kira and I are taking the Kai through the wormhole.

There is just something unintentionally funny about this line. It sounds like premise to a really stupid TV game show.

You want my hat don't you asshole. Admit it you bloody want it. I shall wrestle you naked for it before I let it leave my spiritual bonce!

Synopsis

The Kai takes a trip to the Gamma quadrant in a runabout, and it all goes badly wrong. I mean what other way was it going to go. Oh and war is like really bad as well. I feel some heavy handing Trek sermonising coming on.

Review

Do you remember the Culture Clubs "War Song" . Well this episode reminds me of it. Like Boy Georges song; its heart is in the right place, but the overly simplistic and unsubtle nature of both this song and "Battlelines" really spoil the point that they are trying to make, ironically derailing much of the valid points they were setting out to make. Honestly when Sisko is spouting the gospel to Shella and Zlangco, stick the tune on in the background and you'll know what I mean!

Kai Opaka makes an unexpected visit to DS9 (She's never left Bajor before.) She wants to have a butchers at the celestial temple. Sisko and Kira are sceptical (It's not like shuttles crash a lot in Trek after all. Teehee!) but agree to take her for a quick sojourn through the Gamma quadrant and straight back to DS9 again. I must admit that Camille Saviolas(The lady who plays Opaka) face is a treat during the trip. She looks like a kid going to Disneyworld or something. Nice touch! They are about to go back when they receive a signal (which obviously had read the script) Sisko wants to investigate it later when she's safely back, but Opaka implores him to check it out there an then as she doesn't get out much. They find a moon orbited by satellites that has lifeforms on the surface, but one of the satellites fires on them and they are forced to crash land. The Kai is killed by the injuries she sustains in the crash (If only someone had invented a device to keep people restrained in a chair in a moving vehicle!) Kira laments that her strife torn world needed the Kai who was of great spiritual support during the occupation, and that someone as remarkable as she, died in a senseless accident on some shitty moon in the middle of nowhere. As the Bajorans fret over the delay of the Kais return, O'Brien and Dax decide to look for the runabout in the Gamma quadrant themselves. The stranded crew are captured by the inhabitants of the moon, a roughed up bunch of humanoids led by Shel la, who looks just like Roy Schieder off Jaws. He says that they [the Ennis] are prisoners on this moon and are at war with the Nol - Ennis, who will now see the surviving trio as allies of the Ennis as they landed on their turf. The Nol - Ennis duly attack the Ennis stronghold and inflict many casualties.

Look it wasn't my idea to have the fucking talking dolphin on the show!

Kai Opaka suddenly appears though. She is restored to full health. Bashir discovers biomechanical microbes in her body which might explain her "doing a Jesus". Soon the "casualties" start reanimating as well, they have the same microbes in their bodies also. Roy says they shouldn't be surprised at this, it is a constant process. They have all died and been revived many times. Roys people exiled them here as they and the Nol Ennis wouldn't stop fighting each other on thir world. Far from immortality being a blessing, they are cursed by their people to fight a never ending war. (nice.) This is the important revelation of this episode, and it has two problems with it. I'll bring the first up now. the writers of this episode want to put across the message that war and hate are bad (as we obviously don't know that already.), and they consciously decided not to elaborate on the nitty gritty of the conflict. Just plain show that these people behave like mindless assholes. To do this the whole conflict gets simplified to something resembling a war themed straw man. The creative writing cliches are all there. We don't know what started the war, tick. We are all motivated utterly by mindless mutual hatred. We are (ironically) both as bad as each other, and our enemies are entirely like us, but we are so motivated by each others destruction to notice this. The "war" is nothing but a plot device to get the message across. Sometimes this is done to such an extent that it doesn't even make sense. In the next scene Sisko says that his people will rescue them, and he will take them all off the moon. Arrange a ceasefire with Zlangco (the leader of the Nols) and we can all leave (a place and life Roy says is hell), but he breaks the ceasefire to "kill " Zlangco and his men. I mean is Roy really that stupid? He has the chance to finally ESCAPE HELL! All he has to do is hold fire for a few days, get beamed up and they will never have to lay eyes on the Nols ever again (Sisko says the two groups will be relocated to different worlds.) But he launches a pointless attack that serves no purpose. Anyhow why has seemingly no-one ever just thrown the towel in with all this war? They seem to have been there for a long time, or so it is implied. This is what you get when you simplify stuff like this.

Kira takes time out to have a chinwag with the Kai. Opaka says that Kira is so chuffed off with the inmates because she sees stuff in them that she doesn't like in herself. Kira is mortified that the Kai thinks she is just someone who likes a good fight. She says that the occupation forced her to fight, and that all she has ever known is violence. But that doesn't mean she likes it. She's had her fill of violence. This is the first time we see that Kira is a religious person. That she deeply reveres the Kai, and why she was so hurt to think that the Kai may see her in that light. That the violence she committed doesn't square with her beliefs. And it's safe to say that the reason she was so pissed off in the early episodes, is that the Kai correctly deduces that she has never come to terms with the violence she has committed, and that she has to to find peace in herself. In a way it echoes Sisko's encounter with her, as he had yet to move on after Jennifer's death.

Bashir discovers that the microbes are tailor made for this moon and that anyone "infected" will die if they leave the biosphere on here. This is the second thing wrong with the revelation I mentioned. This reminds me of a comment a video games reviewer made about mid 90's beat em up "World Heroes". In this Street Fighter 2 esque game (and I mean really esque in parts!!) the plot was that a genius scientist had built a time machine in order to find out who the best fighter in history was. As the reviewer pointed out. What a monumentally lame use for something so marvelous and full of potential. Likewise, these guys went to so much trouble, creating immortality nanites, (tailor made for a moon as well.) - and just to teach a bunch of fuckwit warring tribes a lesson! Think of the wasted potential of that! Fortunately, Cheif O'Brien manages to penetrate the sattelite defence grid with a decoy, and slip in to retrieve them all. Kai Opaka meanwhile stays behind (not that she had much of a choice.), she believes that the prophets wanted her to be in this place to bring peace to these two factions, as was Kira - to find her inner peace. (or was that what I read in a self help book I shoplifted?)

Mistakes and Questions

Opaka gives O'Brien a bracelet to give to Molly (It's like she knew shew wasn't coming back or summat!!), and they make it out as sort of a big deal. Was this a plotline that was simply abandoned, or did she just give Molly something to flog on EBay?

How big a bunch of bastards are Roys people? Making them fight for all time? It is one of those incidences where the bad guys are made to pay the price by being subject to a far worse evil than the one they originally committed.

Kira calls the Kai "Opaka". In later episodes the Kai is called "eminance". Admittedly Opaka's successor is probably a stickler for formality. But Kira is shown to be reverential of Opaka. It's a bit like a devout Catholic saying addressing the pope as "Ratzinger"

The nacelle on the exterior shot of the crashed shuttle is nothing the same as the one we normally see on the model exteriors.

Bashir uses a medical tricorder to pronounce someone dead. You know what was supposed to be difficult to do.

The Kai may have survived if they had had seatbelts. Just a suggestion in a fast moving ship that gets buffeted around a lot.

I'm surprised Sisko and Kira didn't get the book thrown at them for putting the Kai in danger in the first place. I don't think "The old girl didn't get out much to be honest your honour!" will cut it at the tribunal.

Betty's Thought for the Day

Two scenes stand out in this episode that don't fit in the review. The first is when they discover Kiras file kept by the prefect (Not mentioned by name as Dukat) on her resistance activities. She is displeased (to say the least) to hear the rather perfunctory description of her resistance days! Secondly Bashir does suggest that he could "switch off" the microbes and let the warring tribes be at the mercy of death again. He suggests it is the "kindest" thing to do. Not only is this willingness on DS9 to muddy the waters, but it also leads Roy to the conclusion that it is the ultimate weapon, if his lot live and the others die. We see how he has become so corrupted by war he can't think in any other terms than that, even for an act of "mercy". It's one of the few subtle moments in this very unsubtle episode.

Summary

Battlelines is alright. It suffers however from the contrived immortality microbes thing, and the fact that the nature of the war and the sermonising around it lack subtlety and any real form of depth, and the planet sets and alien design aren't up to much either. It's not terrifically profound stuff to state that love and peace are better than hate and warfare. We sort of know that. The scenes with Kira and the Kai are probably the highlight (if also not terribly profound stuff either.) of the episode, and it really exists to get the unifying Opaka out of the way for future strife on Bajor in later episodes . Its not a terrible episode, but there's nothing really great about it either.

Rating 6 / 10

Next Time.

The worlds least convincing clan chieftain. A sky monster that looks like a huge custard pie, and that guy was the space FBI bloke in "Trials and triblleations."

Deep Space Nine Review "Vortex" 1x11

Home? Where is it? Some day we'll know... cousin."

Odo's response to the question "What is the most common thing spouses in Alabama say to each other in an estate agents?"

Child stardom eventually took its toll on Zak and Cody of "The Suite Life."



Synopsis


Odo must escort an alien fugitive from the Gamma quadrant back to his home planet without his vengeful pursuers nailing the guys severed head to their ships hull. An alien fugitive who claims he can show Odo where he can find his lost people. What is Gamma quadrant speak for red herring?



Review


Like "The Nagus" last time, this episode sets up (well more foreshadows) exposition that would go on to form the basis of later episodes of the show. Though not quite as comprehensive as "The Nagus", it does pose the question how much of the eventual arc story was preplanned beforehand. (Unlike Babylon 5, DS9's complete story arc was not prepared before the show aired) So we kick off with Odo who is doubly concerned that Quark is dealing with a bunch of Miradorn raiders (which he denies), and about Crodin, an alien from the Gamma quadrant who appears to be worried about something or someone. Odo shapeshifts into a meeting with Quark and the Miradorn over purchasing some jewelled egg that appears to have been stolen from a looted ship nearby. Croden then walks in armed with a phaser in order to steal the expensive artifact for himself. He ends up shooting one of the twinned Miradon, Ro-Kel; dead, before Odo can apprehend him. Ah-Kel; the surviving twin, swears he will get revenge on Crodin for bumping his twin off. As this is sci-fi, it is one of those "I will not rest till I have your head.... I exist only to avenge my brother now....." revenge speeches that baddy aliens make.


Odo suspects that Quark put Crodin up to the armed robbery, and has some evidence that he had procured transport to the Gamma quadrant in secret to stash his accomplish from the hands of the law. Sisko meanwhile tells Crodin that he will have to stand trial for what he has done, and asks would he like legal representation from his homeworld, to which Crodin explains that he is estranged from his homeworld of Rakhar, and that they wouldn't send anyone anyway. He also seems to recognise Odo as a "changeling". He claims that they live in the Gamma quadrant, and that he met some at a colony once. There were also some who lived on Rakhar, but they were persecuted and driven out centuries ago. He shows an astonished Odo a pendent he has that can shapeshift, it came from the colony he mentioned.

My people have many ancient legends about changelings stored in archives. We call it Memory Alpha. Though they also have many legends about dubious teeth whitening products as well. Sell outs!


Sisko and Dax make contact with Rakhar to say they have a Rakhari in custody. The authorities say Crodin is an enemy of the people and has committed many heinous crimes, and that they want him back to answer for what he has done. Sisko realises that they must extradite Crodin to Rakhar under the noses of the vengeful Ah-Kel and his Miradorn raider ship. Odo and Crodins runabout hides in a freighters wake to get in the wormhole without being seen by the raider. Crodin says that the secret police murdered all his family for crimes he had supposedly committed against the state, and that the fate that awaits him will be unpleasant. Ah-Kel meanwhile, threatens Quark to discover where Crodin has gone. Quark complies to save his own ass (Ah-Kel has figured out that the pair set up the robbery together and he is indirectly responsible for what happened.), but to be fair he does attempt to bullshit Ah-Kel by pretending he can't get the co-ordinates they took (it's a nice hint that the Odo-Quark relationship is a love hate one. He does try to stick his neck out for Odo, until Ah-Kel figures it out 6 seconds later!) Ah-Kel says "I'll be back" to Quark (honest to God) and storms out to blow Crodin sky high. The raider duly catches up with them and they take cover in the Chamra Vortex (which looks suspiciously like the Mutara Nebula from "Wrath of Khan". Largely because it is!) where the changeling colony is located. (how convenient!) Croden flies them there to shake off the Miradorn, because obviously an alien who lives on the other side of the galaxy can magically pilot a Federation runabout just like that. Odo instantly twigs on that this colony is bollocks, and that Crodin has come here for another reason. He owns up, but says the mythology about the changelings is true. The pendent is a key that opens up a stasis chamber, with his daughter in it (the only survivor of the massacre of his loved ones) The Miradorn find them and bomb the planetoid from orbit. Odo is knocked out (Yes; yes, see the Mistakes section!) but Crodin saves his life and helps him back to the runabout even though he could have fled the extradition flight. They manage to lure the pursuing raider into a pocket of volatile Toh-maire gas, where the weapons fire blows the Miradorn sky high. Odo in his gratitude at Crodins selflessness - and as he has a kid, allows the pair to seek asylum on a Vulcan survey ship headed back to the Alapha quadrant. Crodin says Odo can keep the pendent, in the hope that he can use it to find his long lost people.



Mistakes and Questions


Ah-Kel and Ro-Kel were played by the same actor (Randy "Degra the Xindi" Ogglesby) using the split screen technique. Watch when they first step into the bar to give Quark the nod and then walk off, you can see one "twin" walk behind the other, and he suddenly vanishes! Insert Twilight Zone theme now.

Remember in "the passenger" when Bashir says that tricorders aren't effective in deducing whether someone is dead. Well they work just fine on Ro-Kel in this episode.


The Miradorn twins are apparently so physically interconnected that they effectively act as one being. So if one dies, then they only function as half a person, or whatever. Hey guys if that is true, pick a safer job than raiding ships then! You know, not one that involves shooting, and being shot at.

The most obvious strange thing in this episode is when Odo is knocked unconscious by falling debris. Now a human is knocked out because we have skulls and brains and blood vessels etc. Odo is just made of goo, and in "Heart of Stone" we see him using his abilities to deflect falling rocks. And even if he can be knocked out, why does he keep his shape? Shouldn't he just revert back to his liquid state or something?

Odo's actions at the end are rather odd. I can understand that hew is grateful that Crodin saved his life when he could have left him to die. That Crodin has a kid, who would be orphaned and have no family, if he was put in front of a Rakhari firing squad. That Crodin is more sinned against than sinner. But the fact is Croden committed armed robbery and murder! I know Ro-Kel was a dick (if his brother is anything to go by). But he killed a man all the same. You can't even call it self defence. Crodin walked in there with a weapon, with the intent to commit armed robbery. Shouldn't there have been some consequences over this. (No I wouldn't have sent him to Rakhar, and I sure as hell wouldn't have let the little girl set foot on Rakhar. I'd have lied and said he was killed in the bombardment, which they do.) Couldn't the Vulcans have taken him into custody? If anyone would give him a fair trial, they would.


Betty's Thought for the Day.

This episode looks into the origins of Odo's people, who from the pilot episode, their origins it was established, were unknown to Odo and everyone else. We sort of learn here that they are from the gamma quadrant. They instinctively like order just like Odo, and that they got around a bit, but were persecuted and driven away from worlds. That they seemed to have been lost to legend and appear to be paranoid and isolationist these days (Well Quark speculates this for the absence of any but Odo anyway!) It was interesting how much of this would seem to be true as the show progressed, and that by driving them away, the galaxy may have learned the hard way the maxim that there is no such a worse enemy than a possible friend that was snubbed.

Summary



Vortex is the first episode to deal with the ongoing quest to find Odo's missing people. It sets up interesting threads about what happened to them and what would eventually become of this quest. As well as showing that although he may deny it to some extent, Odo still feels very much an outsider on the station. The episode is a well paced and never loses focus, and actually goes "out there" to seek the action rather than just all being set on the station. It feels a bigger and fuller episode than some of the other season 1 episodes which seemed rather contained. Although the issue of Crodin seemingly escaping Scott free from what he did may be a little bit iffy, this is a very well put together and entertaining episode.



Rating 8 /10


Next Time.

We learn, shock! That war and violence is actually a bad thing! We also learn that no-one in the 24th century has any concept of the seat belt. I'm sure it's not that big a deal, I mean when are these people ever in a position where they may be jolted around in a space ship travelling at a zillion miles an hour?

Deep Space Nine Review "Move Along Home" 1x09

"First Contact isn't what it used to be!" Sisko.

How do you think I felt mate. I had to watch the fucking episode?

Not the kind of shit you had in mind when Paramount signed you up for that exciting new sci-fi show is it?






Synopsis


A first contact visit on DS9, with an alien race from the Gamma quadrant obsessed with games goes awry (Come on what other way would it go?), and puts the crew in jeopardy. And it forced me to sit through this 45 minutes of guff. I mean I actually sat there writing notes about this damn episode. If that isn't above and beyond services to the blogosphere, I don't know what is.



Review


Sisko is dolled up in his dress uniform. He has little time to fret over Jake's increasing friendship with Nog. A Wadi delegation from the gamma quadrant (The first official contact with a gamma species by the way) is on its way. In a worrying early sign of what standard we can expect of the episode - the look of the Wadi is just lame! They are basically just these weird looking humans with long hair, some pink tattoo thing on their foreheads, godawful spangly shawls, and the leader Falow who has a comedy Fu Manchu beard. He looks like the right wing pundit Richard Littlejohn, if he was dressed up to star in some bizarre mid eighties panto themed porn movie (It wouldn't surprise me if Littlejohn had done this for real!) The Wadi aren't interested in all that first contact protocol spiel and cut Sisko short, they want to head to Quarks for the games. Wadi love games you see. (Sisko's "Are you fucking serious dude?" face when they snub him like this is one of the few highlights of this episode.) Sisko sits forlornly in a bar looking bored (I wrote the book on that mate!) as the Wadi barter with Quark at the dabo wheel. They then spend the next few hours winning the game consistently. Threatening to clean Quark out totally, he gets one of his Ferengi waiters to rig their game to lose. Falow catches him red handed. Quark tries to placate his pissed of patron to no avail. (He offered them their winnings and a bottle of brandy on top. Not that I am defending Quarks antics, but it makes what the Wadi do in this episode even more reprehensible) They menacingly challenge him to a game of their own. "Chula".

Anymore skeletons in the closet Richard?.....

Of course there are!

Sisko awakes in a gaudy looking maze, which screams of "they cut the design budget we thought we were going to get." Falow appears and starts acting like a weirdo (this ain't David Lynch guys!) imploring Sisko to "Move! Move along home!" Bashir is in the maze, as is Kira and Dax. Bashir thinks that the Wadi are performing some first contact behavioural test (like rats in a maze)


Back in the bar Falow is babbling arse about "shaps" and "Chula" in his stupid game thing. And this is a huge problem with this episode. In large segments of it nothing happens, or what does happen is either meaningless or complete bunkum. The gist of the episode is that Falows board game in the bar, controls the shitty Fort Boyard / Crystal maze level thing our four heroes are trapped in, and what puzzles they must solve. Now that in itself isn't a bad idea. In the hands of a good script (and with better set design), this could have been the basis of a thrilling and well paced episode. But the whole feel of the episode is so bland and uninspiring. I think they were aiming at a sort of surreal, visually suggestive "the Prisoner" feel to the episode. Now I'm not really a huge Prisoner fan. But at least you have to give them credit for making it so visually surreal, you thought your brain had done a right turn 300 yards before sanity! Instead we just have insipid scenes in bland looking sets. One of the "games" involves just drinking a drink in a room full of partying guests and some poison gas, where drinking the drink acts as the antidote. Boooring!! The scenes in Quarks involve us watching them play some silly board game, that we don't really know the rules too, and thus don't care. The only (unintentionally) fun scene is the "Allamairaine" scene, which is seen in the still at the top. Where thy have to ponce around playing hopscotch with some little kid, and doing silly actions to the rhyme:




Allamaraine, count to four,
Allamaraine, then three more,
Allamaraine, if you can see,
Allamaraine, you'll come with me..."




which when you hear it will stick in your brain till the day you die. It will never leave your consciousness ever!!! Phil Farrand was right. Avery Brooks looks so reluctant to have to do this! Made me laugh anyway!

Odo questions Quark about the disappearance of the four of them. He surmises the pieces on the board are representations of them, and if Quark loses a piece, they will be harmed. Quark decides to take the easier route at first, whilst Odo suspects the four are on the Wadis ship somewhere. But a rescue attempt in the holodeck thingy just beams him back to the bar. Quark changes his mind and chooses a riskier but quicker route to move them all home, but rolls badly. One piece must be sacrificed to save the rest of them. Quark begs Falow not to put in such a position. Armin Shimmerman really seems to overact this part, he's literally on the floor crying and grovelling. Whether this was just Quark "playing up" to make Falow budge, or he really was this traumatised I do not know. What I do know is that they missed a chance to put a bit of pathos in the story. Quark and Odo don't know which piece represents which person. wouldn't it have been interesting to see Quark deciding to let the women he loves (Dax) live at the expense of the woman Odo loves (Kira). Or to save the Federation commander and face the wrath of Bajor over Kira, or the Federation vice versa. Missed opportunity. Falow reprograms the game to randomly kill off a player, and Bashir is zapped. But don't worry he reappears at the "home" area which is precariously located over an unstable rockface. Dax is injured and can't cross. She says she should be left, but Sisko and Kira remain with her and try to cross elsewhere upon which they fall and plummet to....

End up in Quarks bar. Falow explains they were never in any danger and glibly smirks that it was only a game anyway. He says they should try another first contact one day. Sisko looks like he wants a first contact too. Where his boot makes first contact with Falows face. The end.


Mistakes and Questions

Julian doesn't wear a dress uniform at the beginning of the episode. He claims he lost his. The real reason is that no male lead in TNG wore a blue dress uniform, so one was never made. Thus they couldn't borrow one from the props department!

I'm surprised the girl doing the "Allamaraine" rhyme didn't get zapped by the force field. She clearly fluffs the actions several times. Another chance for wanton cruelty to a child denied!

How daft is Bashir. He does the hopscotch actions to follow her, but doesn't realise he has to say the rhyme too. Duh!!!

Was Dax serious when she said she would leave Sisko if he was hurt and she wasn't?


Bettys Thought for the Day


This is one of those episodes where part of the premise actually becomes so immoral, or just plain wrong, that I feel I must downgrade the final rating purely on this basis. Even disregarding this downgrading of the score on this behalf, this is still the worst episode of the season, but it isn't quite as bad as say; "Meridian" or "Profit and Lace.", more a 3; than a 1 out of 10. No what compounds the awfulness of this episode is Falow's "it's a game" comment after the way he treated the four unwitting "contestants" in his stupid Chula thing. That comment is the default excuse of the bully (or the perennial "It's only a joke"), in justifying the tormenting of a victim who probably didn't think it was either of these at the time. Now I'm not justifying Quark cheating them, or rigging his tables to get the huge winnings back (I'm surprised these guys who love games so much, are this surprised that this does go on.) But let us reiterate how despicably Falow behaved (to people who went out of their way to welcome and entertain him and his asshole mates at that, on the part of the Starfleet officers.). Yeah he'd be angry Quark tried ripping him off, anyone would be. But, and this is the smoking gun my friends. HE KIDNAPPED AND TORMENTED INNOCENT PEOPLE AGAINST THEIR WILL TO GET BACK AT A MAN WHOSE CRIMES WERE NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THEM IN ANY WAY! That is just despicable! And not only did he do this. He PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY HARMED THEM AS WELL!! Both Kira and Bashir cried out in pain when they hit that force field during the Allamaraine nonsense. They were suffocated with nerve gas. Dax was visibly in lots of pain on the earthquake. Hell, they even thought Bashir was dead at one point, and that they would die a horrible death plummeting off a ravine! Even aside of all of this. It would be a pretty traumatic experience to subject an unprepared person to. But whatever am I blathering on about here? It was after all only a game.

Twats. I'd have blown their ship up when they left! It is after all only a game!


Summary



Move Along Home is by far the weakest episode of the first season. Whilst not as bad as the bottom end of the later seasons, it's still pretty lame. It's obviously a victim of budget cuts, but suffers from insipid design and uninspiring set pieces and imagery. Falow's actions are nigh on reprehensible and there is no fall out or negative consequence on his behalf. He just dismisses it and buggers off. Boo! I watched this episode because I had to review it. I don't think I'll be watching it again any time soon. A poor effort.


Rating 2 / 10


Next Time.


"The Nagus" Where we have the final reimagining of the Ferengi. (Ferengi v0.3). And I become entranced by a 150 year old mans ear hair.

Deep Space Nine Review. "Captive Pursuit" 1x05

"I am Tosk."

"I'm sure you are."

Odo / Tosk small talk

"So let me get this straight. I don't get a cool "victory is life.", free drugs and an entire fleet battleships to blow shit up like my badass cousins. I just get to be chained up by the bloke who played that other Q on Voyager, and can look forward to being put in a zoo cage where jeering kids will throw chicken nuggets at me if I'm lucky! F*&%^&*& F$%&%*&^ B$£$%^^&!!!!"

Synopsis.

O'Brien befriends a strange alien visitor from the Gamma Quadrant, who appears to be on the run from something. And we learn that if you want to, you can shirk making difficult moral decisions by saying it goes against the "prime directive".

Review

A damaged ship from the Gamma quadrant arrives through the wormhole. It is the first alien ship ever to have come from the other side. The occupant Tosk is obviously nervous about something, but Chief O'Brien manages to talk him into tractoring his ship on board. As O'Brien seems to have opened up a dialogue with the visitor Sisko tasks him with showing Tosk around the station. Isn't that cool. If this had been TNG and they had met up with the first alien visitor from the Gamma quadrant, you know Picard and Riker would hev been there in full dress uniform. But on DS9, they send the engineer in coveralls to initiate such a momentous first contact! That the guy who was a peripheral character on the old show, becomes the first man to meet someone from the Gamma quadrant! (well apart from Odo) Anyway O'Brien shows the alien around DS9, tries to learn a bit about the taciturn Tosk, and assigns him some quarters. (turns out he only sleeps for 17 minutes a night, and doesn't eat as he has nutrition fibres throughout his body. See Bettys thought....). When O'Brien departs Tosk asks the computers to locate where the weapons on the station are kept. The computer then denies him access as he is a stranger and informs security that he has tried to locate them. Er no! It actually shows him where they are. Anyone can just walk in and find this stuff out!

O'Brien reports back to Sisko his concerns. Tosk is clearly agitated about something, and has tried to pass off the damage to his ship as caused by travelling through the wormhole. It is in fact battle damage. Tosk is indeed an odd character. As O'Brien says there is no real malice in him, or indications of him being a hard case. No ill intent on behalf of the station on Tosks behalf. He is almost a naif in his manner. He is; in a way - the straightest person going. He claims that he has no vices to indulge when Quark tries tempting him with some of the more "indulgent" experiences on offer. He says he doesn't need them. He is on the greatest adventure of all (which he won't elaborate on). Which I always think someone on the Alpha course would say if you offered them a free weekend bender in Hamburgs reeperbahn.

Tosk is caught by Odo trying to access weapons. He non violently tries to escape but is cornered. He claims he has to prepare (for what?) In a holding cell, O'Brien tries to get him to spill the beans, but Tosk says that O'Brien must help him die with honour. A ship similar to Tosks appears which aggressively scans the station and the heavily armed, helmeted occupants beam aboard and storm the promenade. I say heavily armed, the suits they wear are made of spandex, which is well known for its ability to fend off ray gun hits. They are who Tosk is running from. They quickly commandeer the holding cell and capture Tosk. The reason for Tosk's strange anatomy and personality is revealed. Tosk (or Tosks) was (are) genetically created as sentient beings, specifically bred for these guys to hunt down and kill. The chief hunter is disgusted that Tosk has been captured alive (It's considered sporting to kill them), and as it was a "bad hunt", they'll stick him in a zoo so kids can laugh at him (I'm not saying the writers are trying to hammer home these guys are assholes BTW!!), the failed quarry.

"This old Gamma quadrant game is called "whips n wormholes." If you bring a bottle of Smirnoff along, I'm sure Terrans will be allowed to join in!"

The chief hunter tells a naturally disgusted Sisko that deliberately breeding and hunting a sentient lifeform is considered the ultimate test of strength, and that it is a noble and exciting existence for a Tosk, and a huge honour. I'd like to see how "noble and exciting" this prick would find it if he had was the "prey". The hunter wants Tosk transferred home to compound his "disgrace"

Now this is where the prime directive, Starfleets general order number one of not interfering in the affairs of others is brought up. Now as anyone familiar with the reviews of SFDebris will know, the Prime Directive has been used to justify some pretty lousy moral decisions in Trek in the past (well some were in this episodes future). Now Sisko says that the prime directive means there is little they can do to stop the hunters taking Tosk back. They may find what the hunters are doing, and the fate that awaits Tosk despicable. The hunt, and the entire episode is "part of their culture". Now I personally dislike this statement being wheeled out to justify cruel cultural practices (and no this does not make me a racist either.). I see it as a cowardly way to turn a blind eye to people suffering being dressed up as having an open minded philosophy to other cultures. Now unlike stuff like "Dear Doctor", this episode visibly demonstrates that the crew think that although it is "the rules", it stinks. The episode is explicitly saying that it is a lousy justification and not trying to actually say it is "moral". This episode is a good example of how DS9 was more willing to bend the rules, and shake off some of the almost dogmatic baggage Trek has. Kira says that if Tosk requests asylum he could avoid being sent home.

O'Brien tries to persuade him to claim asylum, but Tosk refuses. This scene is the strongest in the entire episode. It also highlights just how alien this guy is. He can't claim asylum as

"I am Tosk. The hunted. I live to outwit the hunters for another day. To survive til I die with honour."

Tosk simply cannot conceive of life without the hunt. It is the entire purpose of his existence, his whole world. The whole context of how he lives his life and how he thinks. He's a bit like some of the Jem Hadar were portrayed as in the show. He can't live outside the contexts of the hunt. O'Brien is visibly moved by this alien who totally lacks any form of deceit or corruption. Who speaks of honour (and this gets thrown around like confetti) and actually is the embodiment of it. Who literally is the straightest guy there is. O'Brien realises in an offhand comment to Quark, that although Tosk can't bend or even change the rules, O'Brien can on his behalf. He tricks Odo and the hunter into letting him escort his friend to the hunters ship (gesture of goodwill from Starfleet). There they incapacitate the hunters and O'Brien helps Tosk to flee and fight yet another day. Sisko who deliberately made a half arsed effort to stop them, is angry with O'Brien for deceiving his CO, but the Chief points out the hunters were unhappy he was captured (it wasn't a satisfying hunt remember), so he has backhandedly helped them too. When O'Brien leaves Sisko secretly smiles, glad that Tosk got away. It may not have been the done thing to do, but it was the right thing.

Mistakes

There is a scene at the beginning where one of Quarks Dabo girls complains about sexual harassment being in her contract. we never hear anything more about this scene in this episode or ever hear from the woman again. Was this some abandoned B plot? (she has quite elaborate alien makeup on too. I can't imagine that they went to all this trouble for a minute long scene) I am told she was originally supposed to proposition Sisko but the writers thought that a step too far.

Sisko tells Tosk he has travelled 90'000 light years in the wormhole. This contradicts the usual number of 70'000, given in most episodes.

There are security fields on the docking ring doors that glow when someone who has a weapon passes through them. We never see these again, and armed people can clearly walk through them (Invasive Procedures is a good example.) Why was such a useful system deactivated ?

Tosk can easily locate the stations weapons on the computers. So anyone can just find them. No I can't see the inherent silliness of this either.

Odo manages to confine Tosk pretty easily when he catches him trying to access the weapons lockers. I mean it's not like Tosk is ever in a situation where people want to get hold of him, and that he may need to get out of a sticky situation fast, is it?

Bettys Thought for the Day

Watching this episode again in hindsight of having seen it all before in a previous run, it is quite easy to see that Tosk is a proto Jem Hadar (though a much more pleasant chap!). He doesn't need to eat, or has need of too much sleep. He is of reptilian extraction. He was genetically engineered for combat purposes, and has difficulty thinking beyond the confines of what he was engineered for. He values honour through overcoming combative situations to the exclusion of all else. And he can shroud himself in an invisibility field. All of which to some extent were seen on the Jem Hadar. The writers have later confirmed that the Jem Hadar shroud and Tosks shroud are the same effect (they look different to me. Tosk just winks out, the Jem Hadar "shimmer" in), and that whoever clones the Jem Hadar also create the Tosks. I don't know how much of the concepts for the Dominion were layed out when this episode was written (if any), but it is a nice bit of foreshadowing. Give yourselves a bloody round of applause writer people.

Summary

Definitely the strongest episode brought out since the pilot episode at this point. At its heart it is a tale about how far we should follow or tolerate rituals and rules, even when they are immoral and actively harm us. That rules and rituals have to be bound with empathy and the context of circumstance (especially here on the frontier), or we end up with the ritual being automatically good because it is .... the ritual, hence a guy can actually justify hunting a sentient being as a "noble pursuit", which was part of the problem of the "prime directive" episodes we mentioned before, and that this one avoids. Credit must be given to both Colm Meaney for providing the emotional pathos of the episode as he gets drawn into Tosks plight, and Scott Macdonald for bringing Tosk to life with his strong physical presence, making Tosk both very alien but simultaneously someone whose plight we can all relate to. All in all a well paced episode, with an engaging story and mystery plot, that foreshadows what we might end up finding on the other end of the wormhole in later seasons.

Rating 8 / 10

Next Time.

DS9 is greeted by two old familiar characters who are on an epic mission to get fans of the Next Generation to bolster viewing figures, and Dr Bashir acts like an insufferable throbbing cockend.