7-9. Covenant.

Gul Dukat, Master of the Cult of the Pah-Wraiths!

THE PLOT

Kira received a visit from Vedek Fala (Norman Parker), whose calls for faith in the Prophets helped keep spirits high during the Occupation. But that same Occupation shattered Fala's faith, and he now serves a new religion - The Cult of the Pah-Wraiths!

Fala slips Kira a homing transponder, and she is beamed directly to Empok Nor.  The abandoned station has become a headquarters and refuge for the Cult. In addition to a new home, the Cult has taken on a new Master: Gul Dukat!

Dukat believes he and Kira are "bound together by destiny." He hopes to convince her that he has changed, that he is now the benevolent presence he has always pretended to be. He basks in the love of his followers - and Kira becomes determined to expose his lies and corruption to those followers. Dukat is left with one last resort: To convince the Cult to join him in mass suicide!

"We will shed the flesh that ties us to this world and deliver ourselves into the waiting arms of the Pah-Wraiths!"


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: Briefly present, to justify Avery Brooks' name in the credits as Sisko hears about Kira's disappearance. But this is strictly a "contractual obligation" appearance, and if that scene were removed it would make no difference to the overall episode.

Col. Kira: Horrified that her old teacher has turned to the Cult that attacked Sisko. "It was your faith in the Prophets that got us through! How could you of all people would turn your back on them?" She remains moderately sympathetic to the Cult members, whom she sees as dupes of Dukat, but she is scornful of the Cardassian. She does not believe he's changed in any way, and the familiar excuses he makes for his past crimes are the best evidence for her position. When she finally decides that Dukat does believe, she is even more unsettled; the faith of a zealot is the last thing that needs married to all of Dukat's other faults.

Odo: We see him only briefly, but it's clear how devoted he is to Kira. He orders her favorite drink, not for himself but for her to enjoy once she joins him after morning prayers. He talks about wishing that he was able to share her faith so that he could spend that time with her - But he won't fake that faith just for that end. We again see Odo acting as a sounding board for Kira at the episode's end, listening to (and arguing with) her conclusions about Dukat. They both view Dukat's actions through the lens of their own experiences with religion. Devout Kira thinks Dukat is a true believer; skeptical Odo believes he is simply using the Cultists' faith to prop himself up.

Gul Dukat: Me, I agree with Odo. Dukat may pretend to regret his past actions, but he still denies any culpability. Killing Jadzia was unfortunate but necessary; Kira's mother loved him, or at least convinced herself she did; the Occupation would have been so much worse without him tempering his people's brutality. He's articulate and charismatic, perfectly fitting the role of cult leader, and he is finally able to bask in the love and devotion of his followers. But in the end, this is just a new role - like benevolent dictator, freedom fighter, or leader of the Cardassian Empire - that is important to him mainly in how it props up his self-delusions.


THOUGHTS

With just a little more script work, Covenant might have been a great episode.

Certainly, much of it is good. Re-using Empok Nor as a base for the Cult of the Pah-Wraiths is a smart idea, a budget-saver that fits perfectly with established continuity. The portrayal of the Cult members not as villains, but simply as people who have lost their faith and are looking for purpose and meaning, is believable, and Dukat works perfectly as a cult leader.

The Kira/Dukat interactions remain compelling, and Marc Alaimo continues to make Dukat the most multi-faceted villain of the Star Trek franchise. I agree with Sisko's assertion that he's evil - but he's not simple, Snidely Whiplash evil. This is a villain who wants to be a savior, and much of the time convinces himself that he is one. By now, Kira believes she knows exactly who Dukat is - But her attempts to expose his duplicity attain a rising desperation by the end, when she's left trying to avert a Jonestown-style mass suicide.

I would actually have rated the episode higher had Kira failed in that attempt. The ending, in which she finally proves Dukat's treachery and all of his followers turn against him, is too simple, pat, and easy for this episode. Had Kira been left to watch helpless as this tragedy unfolded not for any great purpose, but simply so that Dukat could evade responsibility for his actions - That would have been vastly more effective and convincing. Too dark for a Star Trek show? Maybe, maybe not - But I think it would have been the right ending.

But a weak finish doesn't undo all that's good in Covenant. Propelled by the fine performances of Nana Visitor and Marc Alaimo, the episode works until the end. It's just a shame that it stumbles to such a limp and disappointing close.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: The Siege of AR-558
Next Episode: It's Only a Paper Moon

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5-24. Empok Nor.

Garak menaces Chief O'Brien's engineering crew!

THE PLOT

The station's plasma conduits are breaking down, leaving the staff in a bind. With Cardassia having joined the Dominion, there is no source for replacement parts, and no ability to replicate those parts. The only reasonable possibility is Empok Nor, a Cardassian space station that was abandoned a year earlier, during the Klingon/Cardassian conflict. Chief O'Brien assembles a team to scavenge the station. Knowing the Cardassians' tendency to leave booby traps, Sisko orders one addition to the team, someone with extensive experience with Cardassian sabotage: Elim Garak!

Garak proves his usefulness almost immediately, disarming a device that would have turned Empok Nor's airlock into a deathtrap. Once aboard, the engineers begin searching for the needed parts. But Garak makes two disturbing discoveries: a bio-gel that he finds only when he makes skin contact with it, and two empty stasis tubes that housed members of the Cardassian First Order, a group that is violently xenophobic even by Cardassian standards. Their statis tubes were apparently set to wake them as soon as the station was breached.

Now they are hunting the Starfleet intruders. Garak's skills as a spy and assassin seem to offer the best hope for combating them... but Garak is sliding ever further into xenophobia himself, turning gradually against the very people he was sent to protect!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: When O'Brien suggests scavenging parts from Empok Nor, Sisko barely hesitates. He does take a moment to verify that the salvage team won't be likely to run afoul of the Dominion, however, and he bribes Garak into going along to help protect the engineers, both of which show a level of caution not always typical of Sisko.

O'Brien: The strongest character material of the episode is when Garak brings up O'Brien's military service during the Federation's war with Cardassia. Garak remarks on O'Brien's audacity at the Battle of Setlik III. This battle was first brought up in the TNG episode The Wounded (the show that introduced the Cardassians), and we saw there how uncomfortable O'Brien was with the things he had to do to survive the conflict. He is similarly uncomfortable here, insisting that he is no longer a soldier but an engineer. But as his men begin to die around him, O'Brien steadily returns to the soldier role, particularly when he is pushed into a battle of wits with Garak... a battle the engineer ends up winning.

Nog: Remains highly enthusiastic about his Starfleet career, to the point that his eagerness to volunteer for every duty available can become slightly annoying at times. His respect for O'Brien is entirely genuine, both from his own observations of the man's hard work and from hearing his father talk about how the chief can fix anything.

Garak: "Lately I've noticed that everyone seems to trust me. It's quite unnerving." It's good to see that Garak - and the writers - are aware that he has become too "safe" as an ally. Part of what makes Garak such a satisfying character is that you can never fully trust him, and that edge has diminished a bit over time. This episode might have served as a reminder that he remains dangerous and unreliable... Except, of course, that Garak does exactly what he was sent to do, right up until the bio-gel makes him "turn bad." And by turn bad, I mean turn into a stock psycho who is vastly less interesting (and less fun) than normal Garak is. Before that turn, we do get some good moments between him and O'Brien, a previously unused character pairing. The scene in which Garak needles O'Brien about his war service is a particularly strong one, leaving me wondering how much better this episode might have been had he gone to the station with a secret agenda that would put him at odds with O'Brien, with no evil bio-gel required.


THOUGHTS

Empok Nor is a story of two halves. The first half, in which the engineering team goes to the abandoned station and eventually finds itself being picked apart by Cardassian commandos, is very good: Tense, well-acted, with good character material and meticulous direction by the ever-reliable Michael Vejar. The second half, in which Garak goes crazy and Andrew J. Robinson recreates his "Gemini Killer" persona from Dirty Harry, is rather weak and silly, derailing an episode that had been on track to become a fine, spooky piece.

The performances by Colm Meaney and Andrew Robinson are terrific, as expected. The guest cast is undistinguished but perfectly adequate. What keeps this episode from hitting the mark is the script, which never quite finds a proper focus. The subplot with the Cardassian First Order never receives an adequate payoff; this strand is simply and conveniently cut off at the exact moment Garak becomes homicidal. Nor does the "evil Garak" material particularly work. Unlike Garak's nastiest moments in The Wire, his behavior in this episode doesn't seem to stem from his own personality - It's forced upon him, effectively turning him into a different character. The two halves don't really gel, and there's no sense that the events of this story will have any repercussions whatever.

I would also like to raise the question: Why didn't the DS9 crew make sure to have backup supplies of Cardassian equipment? There was a lengthy period, from the end of Season Three through to the first part of Season Five, in which the Federation appeared to be on good terms with the Cardassians. Surely using that opportunity to stock up on parts that could not be obtained from other sources would have been a simple matter of common sense? Had this been addressed with even a throwaway line ("Dukat sabotaged our spares right before leaving the station to join the Dominion), then I'd be fine by it. Instead, it appears to be a situation that exists solely because the plot requires it.

I will say that this is a quite watchable episode, with some good moments. The O'Brien/Garak pairing works extremely well, with the series' most straightforward character forced to interact with the series' least straightforward one, to amusing effect. The scene near the beginning, in which Garak prods O'Brien about his military background, is excellent character material. Also very good is the closing scene, with O'Brien's admission that he was actively trying to kill Garak all the more effective for being underplayed. It's just a shame that these moments and performances are stuffed into an episode that's otherwise unworthy of them.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Blaze of Glory
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