Past Prologue (DS9)

The second episode of a show gets a smaller budget than the pilot and less attention, but it's just as crucial, especially if the pilot was original enough to make people a little unsure what they were getting into even after it ended.

TNG's second offering, The Naked Now, made the mistake of trying to be a lot like a TOS episode, to assure the old fans that they were still getting Star Trek. Deep Space Nine might have been tempted to try the same stunt, delivering a TNG-style offering. And they do offer us two TNG guest stars in the form of Klingon sisters and politicos Lursa and B'Etor. But it's more of an Easter egg for returning fans than anything else -- the sisters' role on TNG is totally irrelevant to their presence as galactic petty thugs here.

For the most part, this is Deep Space Nine opening with DS9 strengths, not TNG throwbacks. It's a plot with Bajoran politics at its center, a looming Cardassian threat at the edges, and interpersonal cast conflicts throughout. Plus, it introduces Garak, one of many semi-regulars that will enrich the tapestry of Deep Space Nine life.

There's no real "B-Story" here, just a few different threads that come together in the end. The first thread, though, feels as if it's going to be a B-Story, as the young, naive Julian Bashir is joined for breakfast by Garak, the enigmatic tailor that Starfleet assumes is a spy. This relationship has absolutely captivated fans, many of whom have turned it into a bonafide 'ship. It's easy to see why. Garak is supremely quotable, and Bashir feeds him the perfect straight lines. Dialogue between them crackles with nuance and double meaning.


Clearly excited about his enigmatic breakfast, Bashir bounces up to Ops despite having no reason to be there and begins to pester the rest of the crew. Ops is playing the role of the bridge here, but visits to it will diminish as the show goes on. It's where everyone has to be though, when plot comes crashing into the system in the form of a Cardassian warship chasing a Bajoran vessel carrying a former resistance fighter turned Kohn-Ma terrorist.

Tahna Los is kind of a dull white guy, like pretty much every other former Bajoran freedom fighter we'll meet over the course of the show. When it comes to non-clergy Bajoran men on this show, it seems like the writers don't make much of an effort at characterization. They're all pretty interchangable. But Tahna is the first, I guess, so we'll give him a pass.

The conflict here is mostly an internal one for Kira. While the rest of the cast (including Garak and Bashir) are involved in tracking the nuances of the criminal plot that brought Tahna and the Klingons to the station, Kira is being forced to choose between old loyalties and new, and to confront whether she's sold out by allowing and assisting the Federation presence on Bajor. Nana Visitor plays internal angst really well, delivering certain lines such that you can just tell she doesn't quite believe herself.

It also becomes a conflict with Sisko, with Kira attempting to go over his head on the decision about whether to grant Tahna asylum. The attempt is hilarious -- why would Kira ever think a Starfleet admiral would trust her over a Starfleet commander? -- but understandable. Kira needs to be in control of things and gets frustrated when she's not. For her, doing something is better than waiting for someone else to make a decision, even if it's a stupid something.

I love the Sisko-Kira arguments, by the way, because they're written in such a way that it's not clear who's right and who's wrong. But it is clear who wins and who loses.

The episode has internal conflicts driving interest throughout, but it finishes with action, and pretty good, keep-you-guessing action at that. The one odd thing is that Kira and Tahna are so blase about sealing off the wormhole. Their back-and-forth is almost entirely about the economic benefit of the wormhole for Bajor, but it completely ignores the whole "Celestial Temple" angle. As a setup for the rest of the show (which this episode does mostly strongly) it's a curious omission.

This is a pleasantly surprising second episode, and one that makes me eager for more Deep Space Nine. I'm investing in not just these characters, but this place, and the surprisingly complex politics within and around it. And we haven't even gone through the wormhole yet!


Random Observations

- Really nice Kira-Odo scene here that sets up their friend relationship as one where Kira trusts Odo enough to be vulnerable in front of him.

- Weird that Kira and Tahna are old friends, but call each other by their first names (the Bajoran family name) rather than their last. It's like the writers forgot that detail about Bajorans.

- No Quark this episode. (Or Jake actually). I can't decide if this is smart or not, dropping some characters early on to focus on better developing others. But I have to say I didn't miss him too much.

- All Cardassians are hams. It's a simple characterization, but somehow it works wonders. Garak is much more subtle than, for instance, Gul Danar, but there's a subverted hamminess to his performance as well.