The Passenger (DS9)

Some of the most watchable, and yet most forgettable, early Deep Space Nine episodes feel like solid Next Generation episodes. I love DS9 primarily because of the ways it differentiates itself from its predecessors (and even from its successors). I'm not as impressed by an episode that rides on guest stars, that doesn't enrich or develop the characters of any of the regulars, even if it's well done, even if it's entertaining and it works.

"The Passenger" is one of those episodes. Possession is very, very well-trodden Star Trek territory, for one thing. Off the top of my head, there's TOS's "Turnabout Intruder", TNG's "The Schizoid Man" and "Power Play", DS9's "The Assignment", Voyager's "Warlord" and "Cathexis" (the former of which is really very close to this premise). I'm certain there are quite a few more. So if you're going to return to that well, you'd sure better be bringing something new and innovative.

This episode at least doesn't follow the typical possession formula, where the possessor jumps from body to body. But the possession does serve as a twist ending in the story, and it's a little too predictable to be a good one.

Ok, he doesn't completely lack his own face.

Everything sort of leaves "The Passenger" as another Deep Space Nine episode that executes well, but there's no there there. The cop who's chased the fugitive for her whole life has the potential for a sort of Les Mis story about obsession, but Vantica, the criminal, is such an obvious, non-gray baddy that that doesn't take. Besides that, he's barely seen throughout the episode, and lacks his own face, which makes it hard to build a character.

Most of the plot is the crew working together to catch the bad guy, with the help of guest-star cop lady. And, of course, since a conceit is needed to keep the action on the station, the bad guy is not just trying to get away but to pull off a heist. A heist of ... a mysterious technobabble material, I guess? The word forgettable keeps coming back.

But the idea of attacking whole systems to get at protected files, and the battle-of-wits aspect to the chase are nice touches, with a little more thought in them than the typical shield modulation shenanigans these chase scenes usually entail. The pacing is good, the tension builds nicely. I have no complaints, per se, but nor was I blown away by anything.

One thing that works here is the subplot with Lt. Primmin, the Starfleet security officer who butts heads with Odo. It works because Primmin is surprisingly deep (and upon his introduction seems like he's going to be VERY one-note) and because neither of them is entirely right or entirely wrong. Odo's fear of being replaced is understandable, but it's his pride that keeps him from working with Primmin. And Primmin can't work with Odo until he gets over his own prejudices and stops thinking of him as a country bumpkin. This idea of Bajor as the boonies, the bible belt to Earth's east coast, is one that hits some good notes and isn't always explored enough. It's too bad Primmin never comes back, but the tension does - we'll see the same struggle play out with Michael Eddington and, to a lesser extent, Worf.

Maybe the story fails because it leans too heavily on Bashir and Dax, who, at this point in the series, are still the weakest regulars, both in their own acting and in the writers not knowing how to use them. Alexander Siddig plays Vantica with all the subtlety of a large mallet, and I couldn't help but think "this is not his best work." Maybe it fails because there's just nothing in it interesting or innovative. Either way, it is what it is: a pleasant, enjoyable, bland background episode that will stand out as no one's favorite. But hey, they can't all be.

 Random Observations: 

- One small blessing of this episode is a famous Odo line. In response to Kajara's "What kind of idiot are you?" he smugly replies "My own special variety."

- Deep Space Nine, moreso than other shows, has almost The Office-like cold opens, especially early in the series. These are really fun and give a slice of life that often gets lost in the action later in the episode. Here it's Bashir being way too obliviously smug in front of Kira. It's just a shame the distress signal comes before she gets the chance to give him the earful he deserves.

- Up until now, doctors in Star Trek have played the role of sages, more or less. McCoy and Crusher's status as healers also allowed them to stand as Captains' consciences and confidantes. So, as much as Bashir's early characterization is 2-dimensional and oh-so-irritating, as a subversion of previous shows it's quite clever. He's a very good doctor, but so naive and socially oblivious and self-centered he's a very poor confidante. I don't mean to hate on Bashir. I think Siddig is wonderfully talented, and by the end of the show Bashir becomes one of my favorite characters, and frankly one that I see a lot of myself in, especially in his flaws. But boy does it take a while for him to get there.

- Feel free to list possession episodes I forgot about in the comments. Would be good to have an exhaustive list. In fact, you know what, I'm adding a tag for it.

A Man Alone (DS9)

So, I failed in doing my research. "A Man Alone" was intended to be the actual second episode of the show, not "Past Prologue." And I think it works a little better as a second episode, actually. It's slower paced than the other and tries a little harder to give us a slice of life on Deep Space Nine. The second scene of the episode establishes this nicely, using the huge set of the promenade to full advantage and staging three simultaneous conversations on the various levels, which set up the different threads of the story.

More on that in a second; I want to hit the first scene of the episode first. You could make a case that the Dax-Bashir nonrelationship kind of sums up everything that's wrong with the first two seasons of Deep Space Nine. The big problem with it is that the writers haven't really figured out Dax OR Bashir yet, and they're basically the two shallowest characters on the show at the outset. Bashir's characterization is that he's booksmart and streetdumb, young, and overeager. Dax's characterization is that she has a worm inside her that makes her wise beyond her years.

And that's it. At this point, that's all there is to these characters. The "locals" - Odo, Kira, Quark - all have occupation backstories tied to the plot. O'Brien has imported backstory from TNG. Sisko's backstory takes up a good chunk of the pilot, and is also tied into the plot. Alone in the main cast, Bashir and Dax just work here. So when you have two characters sorely in need of more depth, the smart move is not to throw them into a relationship with one another. It might seem good on the surface, but what you get is a relationship between two types, not two characters. Bashir hits on Dax inexpertly, cause he's all clueless and stuff. She rejects him, cause she's all old and stuff. That's it. Never mind that later we'll find out that what Dax says about Trills avoiding relationships is a complete lie.

Ok, digression over. In Quark's, Quark and Odo are at the bar watching two conversations across the room: Miles and Keiko O'Brien fighting because, basically, Keiko hates it on Deep Space Nine and feels useless, and Sisko and Dax catching up. Like I said, it's a smart use of the sets. The promenade is more open than any set on TNG or Voyager, where a starship necessitates tight corridors. And Deep Space Nine is a place where a lot of things happen at once, not just a single mission of the week that everyone's wrapped up in.

Quark and Odo's gossip session is interrupted by the arrival Ibu Dan, a Bajoran criminal Odo is not happy to see. Odo would like to just throw him off the station, but Sisko tells him Starfleet's kind of into due process and individual rights and Odo needs to get on board with that. Still, Odo makes his dislike of Ibu Dan pretty obvious, which is a big problem when the dude turns up dead locked in his quarters. All signs point to Odo as the murderer and the restless Bajorans on the station start to go full on pitchfork mob as he (with Bashir's help) rushes to solve the case and clear his name.

That A-plot is solid stuff: It helps define Odo's somewhat ambiguous social role and professional function on Deep Space Nine. Odo's outsider status meshes pretty nicely with his job - cops often feel like outsiders, since they might find themselves arresting anyone, and all close bonds are, in some sense, potential liabilities. When Quark says that being Odo's enemy makes him the closest thing Odo has to a friend, it's not a silly line. It has some real resonance. That's the essence of Odo's character: A Man Alone.

Meanwhile, over in the B-plot, Keiko is starting a school on the station. A big challenge is convincing Rom to send Nog to the school. Rom is rather jarring here, lacking all of the markers that made him into the beloved character he would become. Here he's just another Ferengi, and nearly a villain. There's not too much to say about the school plot, as it just feels very much like a setup, a loose end that didn't fit into the pilot. We've got these kids on board and Keiko, what do we do with them?

Odo's plot ends with a convoluted and sightly troubling clone-related twist, complete with a Scooby Doo-style rubber face mask ending. (Probably the most awkward part is when Sisko reveals in a voice over that the clone Bashir was growing "Woke up and began a new life.") Cloning is a pretty lofty issue with a lot of ethical nuance and grey area, and TNG did at least one episode all about the subject, so to see it turn up here as a technological MacGuffin with no discussion or ethics or repercussions is a little jarring. And the premise is a tinge convoluted.

So the episode succeeds in being meaningful and interesting throughout, but fails to stick the landing, in my opinion. In terms of establishing the tone and style of the series to come, though, it's a solid sophomore outing.

Random Observations:

- Morn, everybody's favorite barfly, is in Odo's lynchmob. This is kind of strange, though it's possible he was just swept up in the crowd, I guess.

- For more about Bashir's prowess with women, this is a highly recommended read.

-This episode features another forgettable Bajoran dude, whose name I am not going to bother to look up.

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.