3-25. Facets.

Odo is possessed by Curzon,
Dax's previous host.

THE PLOT

The time has come for Dax's zhian'tara, a ritual that allows a new Trill host to interact with his or her previous incarnations. Dax has put off returning to Trill for the ritual, so now a Guardian has come to bring the ritual to her. Dax has asked her each of her closest friends to participate, each one giving up his or her body for a few hours while a prior version of Dax inhabits it.

Meanwhile, Nog prepares for his own rite of passage: An entrance exam for Starfleet Academy. The young Ferengi has been spending practically every free waking second preparing for it. But his uncle Quark remains far from happy about Nog's chosen career path, and may just take steps of his own to sabotage it!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko/Joran: Sisko volunteers to take on the most challenging of Jadzia's hosts, the insane musician Joran. This allows Avery Brooks to do his best Hannibal Lecter impersonation - and he's pretty good, raising his voice a pitch to eerie effect. Once back to himself, Sisko continues to provide support to Jadzia, pushing her to confront her fears about her own worth by confronting Curzon.

Dax: The Joran scene not only gives the episode a dramatic jolt at the midpoint, it also crystallizes Jadzia's internal conflict for the episode. Though she has persuaded herself that Curzon washed her out of the initiate program in order to push her to re-apply and try harder, the experience has left her with lingering doubts. These doubts are only amplified by meeting her previous hosts: a famous legislator, a brilliant engineer, an Olympic gymnast. Even the unstable Joran was a great musician! Dax fears she doesn't measure up to them, fears Joran all-too-happily feeds as he dismisses her as being "a pretty girl," and nothing more. Terry Farrell remains an excellent nonverbal actress, and her physical reactions to Jadzia's encounters with her the earlier versions of Dax are fully convincing.

Odo/Curzon: For all the build-up given to Joran, the major external conflict of the episode is provided by Curzon, Sisko's friend and the man who has loomed over Jadzia as a larger-than-life figure from the very first episode. Finally seen in the flesh, the initial impression Curzon makes... really live up to all the mentions of him over the first three seasons. Like Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois takes the opportunity of playing a new character to go a bit over-the-top - which, combined with writing that makes Curzon into a boorish heavy drinker, results in a character who comes across as distressingly obnoxious. Fortunately, the last Curzon scene sees both Auberjonois and the script paring back, allowing some genuine emotion and thoughfulness to come through - which serves both actor and character far better.

Quark/Rom: Quark is not amused at the host Jadzia has chosen for him - the warm and maternal Audra, who spends her time chatting with Jadzia about motherhood while brushing the young woman's hair. He might have taken that parent's feelings about her children to heart before tampering with Nog's entrance exams. Then he might have been less startled by Rom's ferocity at his tinkering with Nog's entrance exams. "I will burn the bar to the ground!" he threatens, if Quark ever again tries to interfere with Nog's ambitions - and he means it, something Quark is smart enough to recognize.


THOUGHTS

Facets acts as a follow-up to two episodes: this season's Equilibrium, which introduced us to the Guardians and to Joran, and last season's Playing God, which dealt with Jadzia's past difficulties with Curzon. Cues from both of these stories are picked up here, with the incident in which Curzon washed Jadzia out of the Trill academy forming the central conflict of this story.

Thankfully, writer Rene Echevarria recognizes that meeting all the previous incarnations of Dax, with Jadzia wrestling her own feelings of inadequacy, is enough to propel the story.  This episode is entirely a character piece, with no attempt to shoehorn in some external threat. There is the plot complication of having Curzon try to remain in Odo's body. But it's presented as something Odo also wants, and is resolved in large part by Jadzia - and Curzon - overcoming their own character flaws, rather than through any kind of "action." This is the joy of watching a series that has confidence in both its characters and its audience: Not every episode has to have jeopardy; the characters themselves provide enough to keep us interested.

Facets is a good episode, and provides another opportunity for Terry Farrell (frequently sidelined this season) to show her steadily-growing range as an actress. Plus, it's always enjoyable to see the regulars getting to act out of character, something Avery Brooks particularly seems to relish.

I am left with a few questions, though. One thing I wondered about right away: What about Verad? He was a Dax host, however briefly. Shouldn't he be included? I'd have at least liked some mention as to why he didn't qualify. Also, I wondered why Curzon's revelation was such a surprise to Jadzia. Doesn't she have access to all of Curzon's memories? She certainly talks about events from her past lives often enough. Shouldn't that information be readily available to her at any time? The scene itself was good, with both Farrell and Auberjonois giving wonderful performances - but I couldn't escape the sense that everything Curzon was saying should have been information she already knew.

This is still a good episode, though. A fine character piece, with several good scenes and some fine performances. A worthy effort all around.


Overall Rating: 7/10

Previous Episode: Shakaar

Next Episode: The Adversary

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2-19. Blood Oath.

A final mission for some old friends.

THE PLOT

80 years ago, a pirate known only as The Albino was conducting raids against the Klingon Empire. The Empire assigned three of its best captains to destroy his operation: Kang (Michael Ansara), the strategist; Koloth (William Campbell), the icy killer; and Kor (John Colicos), the full-blooded warrior. The captains succeeded, but the Albino escaped and took revenge, arranging to fatally infect each of the three Klingons' first-born sons. Kang's son was also the godson of Curzon Dax, who along with the three captains swore a blood oath to hunt down The Albino and take revenge.

Now the three old Klingon warriors have come to Deep Space 9. Dax realizes instantly what this must mean. She privately doubts that she can murder anyone in cold blood, even the assassin of her godson. But when Kang refuses to acknolwedge her as the Dax he knew and releases her from Curzon's oath, Dax becomes determined to make him change his mind and see it through - even when Kang indicates that this will be a one-way mission!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Attempts to stop Dax from pursuing Curzon's blood oath. He takes an authoritarian stance, ordering her to stay on the station. When it is clear that this won't work, he tries to reason with her. The one thing he doesn't attempt to do is to forcibly restrain her, which perhaps demonstrates the level of respect Sisko has for Dax. Under similar circumstances, I would fully expect Sisko to call security on his other officers, but he allows Dax to leave.

Major Kira: She also attempts to talk Dax out of the blood oath. She uses Dax's own words about each Trill life being separate and individual - that Jadzia is not bound by any of Curzon's obligations. She also speaks as the voice of experience when it comes to killing, advising Dax of the personal cost of what she proposes to do.

Dax: This is an excellent episode for Terry Farrell. The Trill/host divide has been an interesting area to explore in previous episodes, which have mostly fallen on the side of the personality being more Jadzia than Dax. Here, we see the other side. Jadzia may be very different than Curzon, but she still carries all of his memories and the emotions that go with them. The Albino's murder of Curzon's godson weighs on her just as it did on him. The Blood Oath Curzon swore may not technically bind her, but she insists on upholding it, even if she has to fight Koloth, Kang, and Sisko to be allowed to play her part. Farrell does a splendid job throughout this episode, and does some particularly good nonverbal acting in her final scene, a wordless tag that is flawlessly played not only by Farrell, but also by Avery Brooks and Nana Visitor.

Klingons: This episode reunites TOS viewers with the three most memorable Klingons from the 1960's series: Kor (John Colicos), Kang (Michael Ansara), and Koloth (William Campbell). It's not surprising that Kang and Kor come across more strongly than Koloth, given that they were stronger characters to begin with. It is interesting the way in which the characters have been developed. The coolly diplomatic Koloth is now referred to by Kor as a "stone face" who "feels too little." Kor, the most outright warrior-like of the TOS Klingons, has become a creature of appetites for - well, basically for "wine, women, and song" - while ruminating on his days as a warrior, and clearly regretting that those days are now behind him. Kang is the leader, stubborn and fatalistic, and the most inclined of the three to dismiss Jadzia as not being the same person as Curzon. In his own way, he is also trying to protect Dax, believing that their mission is a strictly one-way affair.


THOUGHTS

Blood Oath is an irresistibly entertaining episode. Its main drawing point may be "episode with the TOS Klingons," but writer Peter Allen Fields has crafted a story that uses those three characters for something other than just a big TOS reunion.

In fact, other than building on their 1960's characterizations, this episode has no real connection with TOS. The words "Kirk" and "Enterprise" are never uttered. Nor are the words "Tribble," "quadrotriticale," or "Organian." Instead, the three Klingon warriors are united with Dax on a quest, in a story that owes more to Akira Kurosawa's samurai pictures than to 1960's Trek, and I think the episode is much the better for it. This is a good story first, and features the three TOS Klingons mainly as a bonus for fans. You could watch this episode without having seen a second of 1960's Trek and not feel as if you were missing anything.

This is a tightly-paced episode, one which effortlessly mixes thoughtful moments into a genuinely exciting storyline. The final action scene, as Dax and the Klingons infiltrate The Albino's lair, is unusually well-executed for 1990's television. All of the performances are good, with the scenes between Michael Ansara and Terry Farrell particular high points.

In short: A good one.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Profit and Loss
Next Episode: The Maquis

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2-17. Playing God

A close encounter in the wormhole.

THE PLOT

A guest comes to the station: Arjin (Geoffrey Blake), a young Trill initiate who is to be mentored and evaluated by Dax. She will supervise him for two weeks, and make a recommendation as to whether or not Arjin is ready to serve as host to a symbiote. It's not an experience Arjin looks forward to: As Curzon, Dax was notorious for washing out initiates. Jadzia is just as nervous, because she was one of the initiates Curzon attempted to eliminate, and she is determined not to be as harsh as her predecessor.

While flying a routine mission through the wormhole, Dax and Arjin encounter an anomaly. When they bring it back to the station for study, they discover that it is a "proto-universe," a newly-born universe that is going to steadily expand into a full universe of its own. Initially, Sisko favors containing it so that it will collapse back into nothingness. But when Dax discovers evidence of life in the proto-universe, a new solution must be found. And it must be found quickly - before the proto-universe expands and, in so doing, destroys the station!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: His friendship with Jadzia Dax has grown to a point at which he clearly trusts her as much as he did Curzon, albeit in a different way. It seems clear enough that Curzon, the "old man," was a mentor to him - a favor he seems to be repaying now to Jadzia, the young woman. When he sees Jadzia being too soft on her initiate, when confronting the young man's inadequacies would actually make him more likely to reach his potential, he speaks up. When Jadzia protests that Sisko doesn't know "what Curzon did to (her)," Sisko challenges her assumption that Curzon was her enemy, pointing out that she toughened up under Curzon's abuses and made it through a program where most initiates fail.

Dax: One thing I love about Deep Space 9 is that almost all the regulars are interesting. Dax has the built-in complexity of being essentially two distinct beings in one: Jadzia and Dax, with the line separating the two always interesting to explore. Here, we see Jadzia determined not to put her new initiate through the same hell through which Curzon put her. Jadzia bears a lot of lingering resentment toward Curzon, whose treatment was evidently not so much strict as downright abusive.

We also continue to see Jadzia's delight in unusual experiences, from her love of Klingon cuisine to her collection of lost composers. When she hears that O'Brien is trying to root out Cardassian voles on the station, she gets instantly excited, chirping that she's "never seen a Cardassian vole," and getting down on hands and knees to crawl into a duct for the pleasure of coming face-to-face with one. Jadzia's entire personality seems to be dominated by a near-obsession with experiencing as much of life as she can.

Quark: Seeing a downcast Arjin trying his hand at drowning his sorrows, Quark shows his compassionate side and asks the young man to tell him what's wrong. When Arjin says he believes he's thrown his chance at becoming a joined Trill away for a pointless outburst at Jadzia, Quark "reassures" him by telling him about his own past indiscretion, which cost him a lucrative future. When asked how he recovered, Quark responds that he never did. He's now "tending bar at Wormhole Central," he tells Arjin, adding that "You only get one chance at the Latinum Ladder. Miss it, and it's gone." What really makes this anti-pep talk funny is Armin Shimerman's delivery. This isn't Quark being snide - This is Quark genuinely trying to be helpful, without even the tiniest awareness that he's actually making the young man feel much, much worse.


THOUGHTS

Playing God is an entertaining episode, which gets a lot of mileage out of Terry Farrell's energetic performance as Dax. The identity issues surrounding such a composite character add extra levels to her character, which lends the episode more interest than it otherwise might have. It's also well-paced, with a scattering of genuinely amusing scenes, notably the one with Quark giving his reverse pep-talk to the hapless Arjin.

For all its virtues, there are two problems limiting this episode's success. One is minor bit of sloppiness. The subplot with the Cardassian voles is clearly there to provide an excuse for the release of the "proto-universe." Fair enough, and the voles are a passable way to show the ongoing issues with inheriting a space station from the Cardassians. But once they've fulfilled their role in the plot, they vanish - never to be mentioned again. There's no indication that the voles will be a continuing issue for O'Brien, and no indication that the problem's been solved. Having done their job as a plot device, they are just forgotten about. A minor annoyance, but still an annoyance.

A bigger problem is the acting of Geoffrey Blake as Arjin. His wooden performance fails to convince at any point in the episode. This is particularly true of the climax, in which Dax and Arjin pilot a runabout through the wormhole and have to avoid nodes (think a videogame level and you'd not be too far off). The scene has some rather nice-for-the-time CGI, and Terry Farrell is good throughout. But Blake remains wooden in a climax that largely focuses on his struggle to pilot the ship through what is effectively a minefield. Because he doesn't show the emotion, it all comes off much flatter than it would have with a stronger actor.

Lest I come across as too harsh, let me restate that this is entertaining. It's briskly-paced, with a terrific performance by Terry Farrell. It's a perfectly adequate script, minus the sloppiness with the voles. But a weak guest performance and a general contentment of the episode to be average when it certainly could have been better combine to keep this as just OK, and highly expendable.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Shadowplay

Next Episode: Profit and Loss

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1-8. Dax

THE PLOT

When Dax is the target of an attempted kidnapping, Sisko, Odo, and the Ops crew pull out all the stops to prevent the kidnappers from getting her off the station. They only barely succeed. But as Sisko prepares for a hostage situation, he is thrown a sudden curveball. Ilon Tandro (Gregory Itzin), the leader of the kidnappers, hands Sisko an extradition order. Dax is wanted on his home planet, to face charges of treason and murder from 30 years ago.

Sisko is determined to protect his old friend. But when he asks Dax what is going on, she refuses to even speak about the charges. Sisko goes into crisis mode, arranging for a Bajoran extradition hearing to stall Tandro while dispatching Odo to investigate the original crime. He skillfully arguest hat the charges - directed against the now dead Curzon Dax - have no validity against Jadzia, who is an entirely different person. But with Tandro prepared for that line of attack, it becomes clear that if Dax will not speak in her own defense, then the entire proceedings are just a stall whose conclusion will be inevitable...


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: One of Sisko's better episodes, in that this episode actually seems to be making an effort to write for Sisko as an independent character, rather than simply as a generic commander. Sisko's temper is specifically referenced in the script, tying in with the many flares of temper we have seen in previous episodes. Sisko's friendship with the earlier Dax is also further explored. We get a glimpse of just how much Dax was to Sisko - not just a mentor, but practically a second father to him. We also see that Sisko is still not absolutely sure of his friendship with this new Dax, though that friendship gets further cemented in a lovely scene between the two characters about 2/3 of the way in.

Dax: The series' first Dax-centric episode, and also Terry Farrell's best performance in the series thus far. There really aren't any of the clunky line readings that have marred some of her earlier performances. She is particularly good in her scenes with Avery Brooks. A scene in which Sisko tries to badger Dax into telling all, and Dax deflects him by recalling moments from their earlier friendship, is perfectly played by Farrell. There's this lovely, half-haunted tone in her voice as she recalls trying on a ring as Jadzia that had played a part in a moment in their friendship as Curzon, only to find that the ring slid "right off" her finger.

From the very first episode, the consistent strength of Farrell's performance has been her nonverbal acting, which is capitalized on here. There are a lot of scenes where Dax doesn't speak, but simply sits and occasionally reacts. Farrell plays these nonverbal beats beautifully, whether in a movement of her eyes or a quick expression that flicks across her face, or even in a moment in which she carefully shows no expression. It's a very good performance matched by strong writing, which together take a character who was already promising and turn her into a character who this viewer now wants to see much more of.

Odo: Unlike Sisko, he does not automatically assume Dax's innocence. He almost seems to be working from the opposite assumption - that Dax's silence probably points to guilt. He does act to secure Dax's position until after the hearing by using just the right mix of duress and finesse to get Quark to give up his bar so that the hearing can be held on-station. When he goes to investigate the original crime, he is both thorough and tenacious, perfectly willing to pursue a lead that might implicate Dax (the very same lead that ultimately exonerates her).

Dr. Bashir: In what has been sadly typical form for the character, he starts out the episode sexually harrassing (for comedy relief) a mercifully oblivious Dax. When he observes her being kidnapped, he leaps into action... getting himself promptly knocked out, when taking 5 seconds to contact Ops (as he does when he comes around) before leaping into the fray would have been immeasurably more helpful. Then again, had he behaved sensibly, the entire "exciting first Act" could not have happened.

As has also been typical, both actor and character fare much better when treated more seriously. The Julian Bashir who testifies on Dax's behalf only to be trapped by the opposition is a very well-played character.  In this scene, he is knowledgeable but honest, even when he would wish not to be. I would like to see more of that Bashir, and less of the sex-starved, bumbling idiot from the teaser.


THOUGHTS

This is the obligatory courtroom episode. Every Trek series gives us one or two of these. TOS had Court Martial and The Menagerie in the first season alone; Enterprise offered up Judgment (and, arguably, Stigma) in its second season. TNG certainly had its share of courtroom episodes, too. It's a standard device. Of course, it's standard for a reason - the strict structural guidelines of courtroom drama tend to make for an at least entertaining episode.

But Dax is better than most of the titles I've mentioned (it's not better than The Menagerie, but that would be asking too much). The script, co-written by Trek favorite D. C. Fontana, uses the courtroom structure both to tell a solid standalone story and to develop two of the series' main characters. The standalone story works, with the revelation at the end a suitable sting with which to close out the piece. It moves along nicely, and is well-structured. It's... at the very least awfully convenient that Odo can reach the planet on which the crime took place and return with a witness all within the relatively short time in which the hearing lasts. But it works dramatically, with the backstory parcelled out at a sufficient pace that we have a reasonable picture of this past civil war by the end.

If it simply worked on that plot level, this would be a pretty good episode. But where it really impresses is as a character piece. D. C. Fontana's TOS episodes always stood out to me as ones that were very good at revealing character. This script offers some excellent character development for Sisko and Jadzia both. It also advances what we know about the Trill society. The quiet scenes between these two characters show us the friendship that previous episodes have largely been content just to talk about, and also underline the fragility of that friendship as Sisko tries to form a bond with this new Dax. The courtroom scenes provide an ideal setting to deliver exposition about the relationship between the Trill and the host, and about Jadzia's pre-Trill background, in such a way that it doesn't come across as exposition. Indeed, for a large portion of the episode, that exposition is Sisko's defense. We come out having learned a lot about these characters, a lot more about the Trill, and the information is given in a way that feels dramatic because it is part of the conflict of the story.

Overall, this might be the best Deep Space 9 episode yet. More to the point, by making a couple of the main characters feel more convincing and three-dimensional than they have before this point, this episode does an important job of laying groundwork for even better and more dramatic stories in the future.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Q-Less
Next Episode: The Passenger


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