The blurb on Amazon Prime reads: “A reunion with a member of the Bajoran underground forces Kira to choose between her people and her duty as a Federation officer.”
I’m not sure she’s a Federation officer, since she wears a Bajoran uniform, but whatever. For some reason, I failed to take good notes on this one. Probably because it wasn’t very good, and it suffers from a lot of character and premise of the show situation set-up. I’m going to “cheat” a little bit and react to Phil, too.
We start with Garak, the simple clothing merchant! So, Phil thought he was really creepy. I probably did think that the first time I saw him too, but I remember this being my favorite recurring character (i.e. not a regular cast member). He’s probably the only recurring character I can name besides Gul Dukat, and the only other ones I can think of are the Bajoran religious people, and I couldn’t remember Garak’s name until re-watching the show… wait, I thought of another, but he’ll be in a comping up episode, and I’m digressing.
At any rate, this character is interesting, because he’s “obviously” the Cardassian spy, or is he? Maybe we shouldn’t judge, he might betray us to the Cardassians, but let’s keep him around so at least we won’t be considered racist. That’s today me talking, and not the me as I was when I originally watched the show. However, it is interesting that his behavior in this episode eventually seems to be at least somewhat supportive of the Federation, like maybe he’s some kind of double agent. I find his refrain “I am but a simple clothing merchant,” quite humorous and enjoyable, and other people I am familiar with in real life have since used similar phrases to my further enjoyment. I expect it’s not unique to this show.
Now Kira has the “butch” hair, but she actually looks really cute in it, despite it being very short. The first time I saw it I didn’t like it, but I have long since gotten used to it. I re-watched some of the premiere, and I think her hair actually changes slightly during the episode, and it didn’t look so oompa-loompa in later scenes. Regardless, this is what we have now, and I think through the rest of the series, and she looks really cute.
I’m starting to forget which episode is which, so I’ll need to take better notes in future and write these sooner before watching more episodes. I’ve watched through episode 7 at this point. Going off of what Phil has said, I do recall the “Bajor for Bajorans” line and actually liked it. It kind of rings true with Kira’s earlier disdain for the Federation moving in after the Cardassians’ withdrawal. This is the today version of me seeing this. I probably wouldn’t have been as keen on the phrase if it left any impression on me at all back in the day. It’s a very forgettable episode and all I really remember about it was the set-up. I wish I had a better literary-type term as “set-up” doesn’t sound right, but oh well.
So at this point, I’d like to mention the Bajorans also seemed a little like Palestinians[1] to me back in the day and now, what with all the “terrorism” going on[2] and thinking about when they were introduced, Ensign Ro wanted to wear that earring thing that Kira is wearing, but it was against Federation regulations for some reason, and it kind of reminds me of the idea of a hijab[3] or something not being allowed. I don’t really want to get deep into it, but let’s just say it’s reminiscent of things. This is okay, because we are talking about a fiction and sometimes in fiction, and especially in sci-fi, things are turned on their head to show a new perspective. This is a little bit subversive, perhaps, but it also makes things interesting. Please keep in mind that just because one thing happens to resemble another thing doesn’t mean that X is always Y.
So Lursa and B’Etor show up, and Phil correctly notices their Klingon Space Boobs™. This is funny, because these are well known characters from Next Generation, but he’s not wrong. As a teenager, I enjoyed the eye candy even though I thought it was very bizarre even then. I mean, it’s not really “practical” clothing, is it? Seems odd for a Klingon, but maybe it’s some sort of bravery test. I think we should try not to think any further about this and be glad that we did not. Klingon Space Boobs™ are enjoyed best without thinking.
So, the plot of the episode was pretty obvious, I had seen it before, but it was also forgettable. I enjoyed Garak inviting Dr. Bashir to try on a suit at 11:55, though. The “Admiral Bureaucrat” stuff was forgettable, but I got a kick out of her reporting back to Sisko who then chastised Kira for going over his helmet. Also he was a “good” terrorist because he wasn’t going to kill anybody, just destroy Bajor’s primary means of sustainability, nasty capitalism allowing them to survive on their own without help form the Federation or something.
“Odo breaks all the laws of conservation of mass again in this episode.” Yeah, I was wondering the same thing myself when he disguised himself as the bag, which I think was in the premiere, and in this episode he disguises himself as a rat. So, maybe he doesn’t have the mass of a full grown human, and he’s just a liquid shell with force fields, but the rat is still pretty tiny. I really should have paid more attention when to get screen shots.
Since Phil brought up Star Wars, I will take this opportunity to state that I am/was a Star Wars fan who also likes Star Trek. Someone once asked me the question as it if had life or death consequences and fortunately my easy honest answer was the “correct” one.
Grade C-
I enjoyed Garak, seeing familiar characters Lursa and B’Etor, the Bajoran politics was interesting even thought the plot was pretty obvious, and I liked the bit about Odo not being able to do the Bajoran nose and ears, which I remembered from the first time I saw it. But most of the actual minutes were pretty lousy.
1. I probably didn’t understand what a Palestinian was back then.
2. There’s a theme of terrorism running though the show, and keep in mind that the World Trade Center was bombed a little over a month after the airing of this episode.
3. I was not familiar with the term hijab back then.
I did enjoy Garak, once I got past his creepiness. His over-the-top attempts to get the doctor into the dressing room at a particular time seemed suspicious at first, and turned into a fun way to have someone “accidentally” overhear what was going on.
I did like Kira’s hair better in this episode. It wasn’t bad in the first one, but it wasn’t great. Somehow I think the shorter hair actually looks more feminine on her. The medium-short cut she had before wasn’t all that flattering. I suspect she’d probably look very nice in long hair, but that is my default preference anyway.
And I had no idea that those two Klingon females were recurring characters from TNG. I really do need to go back and watch more of these. Currently I’m also going through M*A*S*H, one of my all-time favorite shows, but I’ll get to the other Treks too. This endeavor is quite enjoyable.