DS9 Stories/News: Goodbyes

Source: http://deflipside.com/?page_id=1693

by Christopher DeFilippis

DeFlip Side, Vol. 1, No. 6
(First Appeared: June/July, 1999; First Light E-zine, Issue #82)

This is going to be short and sweet, folks. My original plan for this month’s column was to bid a fond farewell to Deep Space Nine, until recently the best show on television. I was going to do an in-depth review of the final episode, exploring whether or not it brought the Dominion war arc to a satisfying conclusion, as well as if it proved a fitting send-off to the best Trek series ever; my swan song to the swan song, so to speak. But those ne’er do-wells at Paramount took the wind out of my sails. After watching the finale, I came to only one inescapable conclusion: It’s not over.

After all, Sisko left his baseball behind.

Of course, there’s also the question of his unborn child, his career in Starfleet, a new Defiant that needs to be broken in, an unfinished real estate transaction on Bajor and his promise that he would return “in a year from now or yesterday.” But the baseball is the cincher. He doesn’t leave home without it, much less take up permanent residence in Prophet limbo. We haven’t heard the last from him or the rest of these characters. I don’t know when or in what format, but we’ll see them again. Bet on it.

This fact colors my opinion of the two-hour series finale. As a final good-bye, it would have left too many loose ends. But as a “so long for now” it was perfect. It brought enough closure to satisfy, but egged us on just enough to keep our expectations for a return simmering on a low frame somewhere in the back of our brains. Like Kira and Jake, we’re all gazing out of a portal on the Promenade, waiting patiently to see what happens next.

I’ll spare you all a long-winded essay on what I liked and why. Different parts of the finale will have appealed to different people for different reasons. But there is no call for excess exposition. After all, we’re not talking about “Mirror Image” here (the legendarily confusing finale to the TV series Quantum Leap). Instead, I’ll be as succinct as possible:

The Good Stuff:

• The death of Kai Winn.
• The kick-ass battle scenes.
• Kai Winn’s unfortunate demise.
• Garak’s revenge on Weyoun.
• Barbecued Kai.
• Nog’s promotion.
• Pah Wraiths 1, Kai Winn 0
• Kira’s ironic role in the liberation of Cardassia.
• Kai Winn all gone.
• Ezri’s nearly exposed breasts.
• Bye bye Kai.
• Sisko plowing Dukat over the cliff’s edge in a flying tackle.
• The old bag bites it.
• Martok’s self-satisfied belt of blood wine while standing on bloated enemy corpses.
• She’ll finally shut up.
• The faint hope that once O’Brien accepts a teaching position at the academy, he’ll attain some kind of rank (Where does “Chief” fall, anyway? As far as I can tell, it’s somewhere between ensign and lieutenant. So Nog outranks him now? Not a proud legacy for more than a decade in uniform…).
• Winn-kabob.
• Damar’s last stand.
• Burn Winnie burn.
• Worf’s new-found honor and influence with the Klingon council.
• Are those Kai burgers I smell?
• Bashir finally gets some.
• Armagedd-Winn.

The Bad Stuff:

• Vic Fontaine’s schmaltzy send-off.
• A too-short stand-off between Dukat and Sisko that smacked of the
• Kirk/Mitchell showdown in “Where No Man has Gone Before” (“Get on your knees and pray to me, James”).
• A tuxedo-clad Odo melting into the Great Link.
• The use of stock footage of a Klingon getting blown down a corridor on a wave of fire (from The Undiscovered Country, I think).
• Worf’s flashback sequence that held not a smidgen of Jadzia memories. (I guess Paramount didn’t want to have to pay residuals to Terry Farrell.)

 

As you can see, the good clearly outweighed the bad. I think the very best thing about the episode, and the series over all, was that I could never tell exactly how things would turn out. And even when I did have a pretty good idea of where things were going, the characters would reach their destinations via completely unexpected routes.

This rule holds true for the future of Deep Space Nine. It’s a foregone conclusion that Sisko will come back. Just watch; he’ll soon get tired of playing pinochle with Wesley on the astral plain and shuffle back into his mortal coil for a return to his old life. But to what effect? Will he be considered a lord on Bajor? Will his new found Prophet wisdom cause a rift between him and his all-too-human friends and family? Will he have hair? I can’t even guess at the possibilities.

Of course, we’re most likely to be hearing from Worf the soonest. I just hope the powers that be use the opportunity they’ve created to full effect in the next movie. Worf’s position as Federation ambassador to Qo’noS lends itself to a sweeping story that could encompass the Federation and Klingon Empire and propel the franchise forward, something it sorely needs after the disaster that was Insurrection.

The one thing I do not want to see is a feature length film that combines the Next Gen and DS9 casts. The writers have a tough enough time as it is finding useful roles for the entire Enterprise-E ensemble with each outing. If they tried to add the DS9 crew as well, the screen would be packed tighter than Seven of Nine’s Wonder Bra, but with a far less marvelous result. I’ll pin my hopes on a small-screen reunion that will give the DS9 characters and plot lines free reign.

In the meantime, I guess I still have Voyager to give me my Star Trek fix, though it’ll be like going from heroin to methadone. Now that the DS9 writers are freed up, maybe they can help put Voyager on the right track and raise it to the standards we’ve come expect from Star Trek. But I’m not gonna hold my breath. I don’t have to anyway.

When DS9 premiered, I still had a maniacal hatred of new Trek. I wasn’t sucked over the Next Gen event horizon until Generations hit the theaters. And by the time I got into DS9, it was well into its run. So I ask you to pray with me now that channel 11 in NY soon starts rerunning the series from the beginning. There are three years worth of episodes I’ve never seen. It’s a little something extra to look forward to.

See Pop? Sometimes it works to your benefit to be a day late and a dollar short…

DS9 Stories/News: DS9 Stories/ News: Odo & Kira Relationship Review (9)

 ”The Abandoned”

Review originally printed in ORACLE

Newsletter July 2011

____________________________________

 

Review written by Mary Shaver

Odo’s explanation confirms Kira’s suspicions about the purpose of the objects. “I thought it was something like that. After all, you don’t need an entire set of quarters just to sit in your bucket.”

“I don’t use the bucket anymore,” Odo answers, shyly proud. This statement alone is a huge step for Odo. The bucket represents the smallness of the world Odo chose to live in. By discarding the bucket, Odo is throwing off many of his self-made shackles. He is no longer constricted – and no longer constricting himself. Odo has kept the bucket as a reminder of how he used to be, and it turns out to be the perfect receptacle for Kira’s gift of the houseplant. Kira gazes fondly at Odo as he repurposes his bucket. It is a touching moment, made even more poignant by the flashback scene from “What You Leave Behind” when Odo presents that bucket to Kira as a precursor to his leaving her for the Great Link.

           

 

In the Infirmary, the orphaned child has grown into an adolescent and a dangerous one at that. Escaping the confines of the Infirmary he threatens and intimidates the patrons on the Promenade, including felling Bashir with a single blow. Dax, who was with Bashir, realizes their patient is a young Jem’Hadar, and calls for security. Odo bolts out of his office to apprehend the disturber of the peace. He orders the Jem’Hadar to stop. Instead, he comes at Odo. As he prepares to attack, Odo liquefies his form and the Jem’Hadar flies right though him. As Odo resolidifies, the boy, rather than pressing the attack, bows down reverentially. Odo is surprised by this behavior, but determines that the Founders, who created the Jem’Hadar, have implanted in their genetic code a moral imperative to worship their creators. The Jem’Hadar that Odo and Kira battled on board the Defiant didn’t display this reverence for Odo. Perhaps it was Odo’s shifting shapes that triggered this Jem’Hadar’s submissive deference.

         

DS9 Stories/News: DS9 Stories/ News: Odo & Kira Relationship Review (8)

 

“The Abandoned”

Review originally printed in ORACLE

Newsletter July 2011

____________________________________

 

Review written by Mary Shaver

ODO:

 

Is that all you can think about?

Killing?  Isn’t there anything else

that you care about?

 

JEM’HADAR TEENAGER:

 

I… I don’t think so.

 

ODO:

 

But there’s so much more to life

than that… there’s so much for you

to discover… to experience…

 

EPISODE OVERVIEW:

 

Odo learns that not everyone can expand beyond the limitations of their natures.

 

EPISODE SUMMARY:

 

An abandoned baby, discovered in some cargo salvage, turns out to be a Jem’Hadar whose genetic engineering accelerates his growth.  Within a day he is an adolescent and Odo agrees to take the teenager under his wing in an effort to help the youngster grow beyond his warrior nature.  

 

EPISODE ANALYSIS:

 

 

Quark purchases some salvage from a Boslian trader and is surprised to discover a baby of unknown origin hidden in the wreckage. Bashir’s examination of the baby turns up a number of unusual readings, most significantly that the child has an abnormally high metabolic rate. Within hours the baby has grown into a child of 8 or 10 years. Not only is this mysterious child growing at an alarming rate; he also seems to have remarkable cognitive abilities. Without any external stimuli, he has learned language, speech and  has the capacity for reasoning and understanding.  Bashir concludes that this child is the product of genetic engineering that is far advanced beyond anything seen in the Federation. To add to the mystery, the child is missing a key enzyme and without a synthetic substitute, he will die. A culture that is capable of this level of technology surely wouldn’t have overlooked something so basic; it must have been a deliberate omission. Bashir is stymied.

 

“The Abandoned” is the first Odo-centric episode since the devastating events of “The Search.”  Despite whatever internal conflicts he might be experiencing after finding his people and learning that they are the Founders of the Dominion, Odo is soldering on in the humanoid world. And while he finds no common ground with his people as to their philosophy of the universe, Odo did take away some positive things from his encounter with the Great Link, and is beginning to embrace his Changeling heritage.

 

While Dr. Bashir is searching to understand the anatomy of the orphaned child in the Infirmary, Odo, searching for a better understanding of himself, is beginning a journey of self-discovery. The first step in this journey is his decision to move out of the stifling little closet at the back of his Security office that has been his make-shift home since the days of Terek Nor, and take regular crew quarters.

 

We learn this as Kira arrives with a gift for his new quarters – a houseplant. Odo answers the door chime and very deliberately chooses to greet her outside his quarters in the corridor. Unabashedly interested about the configuration of his quarters, Kira at first peers over Odo’s shoulder, trying to get a peek inside the room, and when he closes and locks the door she confesses her curiosity  – and she apparently isn’t alone. According to her, “everyone” is curious to see his quarters. For a painful moment Odo seems to be reliving the sort of curiosity he used to excite while a lab specimen. Kira is blissfully ignorant that her words and actions have caused the Constable some consternation, but Odo quickly recovers and invites Kira in. She looks in wonder at the strange collection of items that populate the room and seem to be scattered everywhere. Somewhat apologetically, Odo explains that he hasn’t finished organizing everything. From his expression Odo appears to be looking for her approval. When he then goes on to clarify the purpose for the objects – to practice and explore his shapeshifting gifts – Odo is acknowledging the next step in his journey. Shapeshifting is no longer something he does simply as part of his job when the need calls for it. His reluctance until now to change shapes arguably has its roots in the things he was forced to do when confined to Mora’s lab and when he was taken out ‘on parade’ for the entertainment of the Cardassians. Meeting his people and learning at the feet of the Female Changeling has altered his thinking and now Odo is beginning to understand what it means to be a shapeshifter. He has discovered that the ability to mimic various shapes, forms, textures and surfaces can be a joyful and pleasurable experience. For a man who has seen so little joy in his life, this has to be something of an epiphany to Odo.

DS9 Stories/News: The Magic Of Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Joint Trill and the Higher Self

Source: http://bajorron.blogspot.com/2012/02/magic-of-star-trek-deep-space-nine_15.html

Jadzia, meeting her “shadow self” in “Equilibrium”

One of the more fascinating races in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are the Trill, a species of humanoids who share existence consciousness with a slug-like creature called a symbiont. Throughout the series, the psychology of such an existence is explored quite thoroughly, as several episodes are devoted exclusively to the special problems and challenges Trill science officer Jadzia (eminently portrayed by Terry Farrell) faces due to her ‘joining’ (as is the term) to a symbiont called “Dax”. These symbionts live on after the “host” dies, we are told, and Jadzia is just the latest in a series of joinings of the same symbiont to previous hosts.

So what is the exact relationship between symbiont and “host”? Early in the series it is established that for all practical purposes, Jadzia is a separate personality from all the previous hosts, and that due to the joining, a unique personality is established by a merging of host and symbiont. Yet, this is the outside world view, as Jadzia herself adopts a very different attitude and, in the episode “Dax”, seems to hold herself responsible for the alleged sins of her predecessor, Curzon. And later in the series, in “Blood Oath” she does exactly the same when upholding a Klingon blood oath that Curzon swore but that she herself feels obliged to fulfill.

Jadzia seems very much in touch with her ‘previous lifes’, especially with Curzon, as she is often quoting him and his wiles, sometimes ad nauseam. In one episode, “Equilibrium”, she even encounters a previously unknown host, Joran Belar, who turned out to be an unsuccessfull host and whose joining had been suppressed both by the Dax symbiont itself as well as by the Trill officials.

Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell)

This all seems to point towards an existence in which a personality is brought into intimate contact with a -more or less- immortal and ‘higher’ mentality. The symbiont seems to fulfill the role of the Higher Self, the Individuality, while the various hosts deliver the Lower Selfs, the Personalities, the mortal “incarnations” that throughout the ages allow the symbiont to discover Itself. The actual act of the Joining -which is shown in the episode “Invasive Procedures”- then becomes an initiation, in which the Higher and Lower Selves are connected to each other. In that particular episode, the actual moment of contact between host and symbiont is shown as an extatic moment of enlightenment. In fact, the candidates selected for joining are referred to as “Trill Initiates”. Those initiates have followed a rigorous regimen of training and study and are subjected to numerous tests in order to determine capacity for joining.

After the joining, the newly joined Trill need some time to establish and equilibrate their new existence. We witness this in Deep Space Nine’s final season when Ezri, Jadzia’s successor, needs to come to terms with her symbiont while being stationed at DS9 in the thick of the Dominion War.

What emerges is a new and stronger, and more balanced personality. Eventual character flaws are smoothed over, so we see the single-mindedness of Jadzia turn into the warm and versatile Jadzia Dax, and the insecure Ezri into an effective officer. The symbiont cannot be moved without killing the host; an interesting reference to the irreversible nature of initiation: one cannot undo it, it is a Rite of Passage.

I cannot help seeing this as depicting the initiation pathway that -in fact- aims at re-establishing the same kind of inner cooperation between the two aspects of our soul: the Higher and Lower Selves. The severe and sometimes tedious preparations, the tests, the discipline and dedication of the Trill candidates: it is all too familiar. Now, of course, the analogy is not exact, but enough parallels may be discovered to trigger a lasting interest in the development of the Dax character. More on this subject in due time!

The Trill Homeworld

DS9 Stories/News: Birthday Alert – Colm Meaney’s 3 Day Birthday Special

Cont.

O’brien Must Suffer

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O’Brien Must Suffer

http://www.stick-online.com/boards/index.php?topic=2151.0

But you gotta admit, this guy has life tough!

It’s montage of different scenes from different episodes, but it’s suprisingly representative. He didn’t actually commit suicide though.
The funny thing is: the producers deliberately put in at least every season, an episode themed “O’Brien must suffer”
-He gets cloned and his clone is the victim of a conspiracy while he’s held captive on some desolate planet in a cave.
-He is arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and tried for a crime he didn’t commit by a culture whose verdicts are decided before the trial.
-He starts randomly time-warping around during one instance of which he witnesses his own death.
-He is falsely convicted of espionage and in a Matrix/Inception-esque way, he experiences a 20-year prison sentence in a matter of hours by having the experience, stimuli, and such scanned into his mind.
-His wife is possessed by an alien entity who forces him to commit sabotage to his own station, lie, frame one of his friends, and attempt to kill some other non-corporeal beings.

-His daughter was aged(in a time warp, of course) to the age of 18. Without her parents or human contact. She basically becomes this feral monster girl, though they manage to de-timewarp her.
-His other child has to be transplanted into some alien’s womb in order to save his wife and baby after their ship is attacked. The woman happens to be his superior officer.
-On that note, he’s one of the only enlisted people on the entire show who actually ever does anything(besides guards and stuff) so he has to call everyone sir. Including a punk 22 year old ensign.
-He gets stuck in a little metal cargo box for violating some obscure law on an essentialists planet…for over 24 hours.
-The station of which he is the chief engineer has at least 3 minor malfunctions which only he can resolve at any one time and a major failure at least every 3 episodes.
-He’s a direct descendant from one of the High Kings of Ireland…and nobody, fate included, cares.

The woman who falls off the bridge is his wife.

Luck O’ the Irish? Hmmm…this guy is in need of some.

O’Brien Must Suffer

According to DS9 executive producer/writer Ira Steven Behr, “O’Brien is everyman. In a show about humans and aliens, he’s as human as you get.” Similarly, Behr’s writing partner for the first four seasons of the show,Robert Hewitt Wolfe, says, “He’s just a regular guy, a guy doing his job. He’s just the most unlikely of all heroes because he’s a family man with a daughter and eventually a son and a wife and they have arguments and a real relationship, and he’s just a working class schmo, I mean obviously he’s a really bright guy and very good at what he did, but basically, a working class schmo just trying to get through his day.” (Crew Dossier: Miles O’Brien, DS9 Season 5 DVD, Special Features)

The DS9 writing staff had a running joke with a semi-annual “O’Brien Must Suffer” episode. Among these were “Whispers“, “Tribunal“, “Visionary“, “Hard Time“, “Honor Among Thieves” and “Prodigal Daughter“. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) According to Ira Behr, “Every year in one or two shows we try to make his life miserable, because you empathize with him.” Robert Hewitt Wolfe further explains, “If O’Brien went through something torturous and horrible, the audience was going to feel that, in a way they wouldn’t feel it with any of the other characters. Because all the other characters were sort of, I wouldn’t say larger than life, but nobler than life, but O’Brien was just a guy, trying to live his life and so if you tortured him that was a story.” (Crew Dossier: Miles O’Brien, DS9 Season 5 DVD, Special Features)

Those Episodes Were:

Whispers

Episode 2×14

Upon returning from a mission to the Parada system, O’Brien begins to notice the crew acting strange around him and suspects there may be some unknown influence at work.

Tribunal

2×25

When Cardassians arrest Miles O’Brien for working with the Maquis, he’s put on a Cardassian trial, where the verdict is known before the trial begins: guilty.

Visionary

3×17

After receiving a minor dose of radiation poisoning, O’Brien inexplicably begins experiencing a series of jumps into the near future. Meanwhile, a Romulan delegation arrives on the station, expecting an intelligence report on the Dominion.

Hard Time

4×19

Convicted of espionage, Miles O’Brien is given the memories of twenty years in prison in a matter of hours. Returning to DS9, O’Brien finds he cannot shrug the memory of his awful experience or rid himself of the guilt he feels over the death of his cellmate.

Honor Among Thieves

6×15

O’Brien, working undercover for Starfleet Intelligence, befriends the man he will have to betray.

 

& Then, there is “Time’s Oprhan”

An accident on the planet Golana sends Molly O’Brien through a time portal three hundred years into the past into an uninhabited world. Beamed back too late, Molly returns to the present eighteen years old with no immediate recollection of her life or her family.