Initially, I was not really certain what to make of this episode. It isn’t good, but I’m not going to rant. I was mostly uninterested throughout. There are a few items I’d like to touch on, but this will likely be a shorter column from me.
Primary Plot
The primary plot is about politics. Politics and the interactions of politics, treaties, and legalities between three imaginary political bodies, only one of which had I any inkling of prior to starting this WatchParty project. If you’re into this sort of thing, and you’re deeply familiar with the universe/setting, this may be a great episode for you. If not, well…
As a comparison, what if the plot was about an attempted kidnapping by the Tamil Tigers of a Canadian diplomat in Australia for some reason. It might make a pretty good yarn, but I’m not going to be tempted to pay much attention.
Anyway, some aliens kidnap Dax as an “extradition” attempt for a crime that the previous version of Dax, before the current, attractive trap became Dax. See? You already don’t care, don’t you?
Why the kidnapping attempt if there is a mandatory extradition treaty (apparently there is, with the Federation). Because technically they are on Bajoran soil on DS9. Technically. So, we have to go through a whole song and dance and have a hearing on whether or not Dax could and should be extradited and what it all means for the future.
There are a couple of decent things that come out of this episode. The first is this woman:
She’s a delight in everything I’ve ever seen her in. I’m ashamed to say I can’t name a single other thing I’ve seen her in, and I could not tell you her name. But every time she’s on screen on something I happen to be watching, she always does a great job. She’s natural, fantastic, and just hits it out of the park. She’s a joy in this episode, and probably the single best actor on a DS9 set so far (John De Lancie as Q is right with her—it’d be a fun argument).
In this particular episode, she’s a bureaucrat who hates bureaucracy. She’s old and doesn’t want to waste time with formal fluff. She wants short answers, plain language, and getting to the point. She’s a breath of fresh air as a judge for any courtroom drama on TV anywhere, and in the Star Trek universe she’s like a 1.21-gigawatt beacon of common sense blasting out from the middle of a fetid, damp, dank swamp of bureaucratic malaise. Her best line is, “I intend to be here to supper, not senility.” She’s Grade AA.
The other thing worth mentioning in they do get into some reasonably interesting, and possibly even thought-provoking territory about what it means to be a person. Since the Trill are a symbiont consisting of a host and a space-cockroach-possessor, and since the crime took place prior to the current host even being born, who is at fault, who is guilty, etc.? This could have been explored more, and had some potential pro-life arguments too, which, come to think of it, may be why they dropped it and moved on. In 1993 abortion was still a very much hotly debated issue, and even if they wanted to talk about it on Star Trek, they damn sure wouldn’t have wanted to come down on the pro-life side of things.
Regardless, the entire political and legal maneuvering of the entire episode comes to naught. Why? Because the murder they want to try Dax for didn’t involve Dax at all. It comes out that Dax was banging the wife of the guy he-Dax was thought to have murdered, and this is revealed by the bangee wife to get now she-Dax off.
I’m sensing a trend here with the writers. They try to come up with something complicated (failing), let it all play out, and then have a “twist,” that surprises you. But the twists they keep coming up with end up undermining the entire plot of the episode and making it all irrelevant. When they do that with Indiana Jones, you get all the fun of an Indiana Jones movie out of it.
When they do that with Clue and show you three different endings and keep showing you all the potential holes of the plot, but they do so cleverly with fun and humor (and Yvette… oh Yvette), you get all the fun of a Clue movie.
When they do it with DS9, you Sisko and the impotent Federation just kinda stumbling through it all.
This episode had about 5 minutes of content in it. Let’s play a little Clue and show you how it could have happened:
- Kidnappers attempt to kidnap Dax.
- Dax abduction thwarted.
- Kidnappers try to claim extradition.
- Kidnappers have no extradition treaty with Bajor, hence the kidnapping.
- I would suspect that kidnapping is illegally universally. Attempts to kidnap on Bajoran soil under joint Federation administration is illegal in both Bajor and Federation territory.
- Arrest kidnappers for breaking the law.
- Kidnappers assert diplomatic immunity.
- Sisko allows kidnapper gov’t to send diplomats to assert diplomatic immunity case while holding actual kidnappers in jail.
- Sisko Persona-Non-Gratas kidnappers when pressed, kicking them out of Federation space permanently.
- Kidnapper gov’t can now send a diplomatic envoy to press an extradition claim to both the Federation and Bajor. Since they’ve already attempted to kidnap the target, this will be an uphill battle to prove that the extradition attempt isn’t in bad faith.
This does several things:
- It makes Sisko look smart and competent, instead of stupid and impotent.
- It keeps Dax safe for years. This isn’t going to play out quickly.
- It provides a recurring plot point and complication to play out over the course the show. Dax is involved in something, have a vague legal threat hanging over her head… I’m sure it could be played up to be actually interesting.
- It avoids a silly “infidelity saves the day” ending while also ramping up some of the political drama and providing a “model U.N.” real diplomatic piece for the Star Trek nerds to nerd out about.
Instead, we have lame, dumb Sisko who can’t assert himself. He’s impotent and he knows it, and through him we know it of the Federation too. Maybe there’s a reason Sisko got the job out in the ass-end of space at DS9. Maybe he did fail upwards, and the rest of the Federation doesn’t really suck.
I guess we’ll find out.
Other Thoughts
It turned into a rant, didn’t it? Oh bother…