Jadzia Dax is evaluating whether a young Trill initiate is fit to be joined with a symbiont, and the process is not going well. Her charge Arjen is somehow rigid and uncertain at the same time, unready for joining in ways that recall Jadzia's own past rejection by Curzon, the previous host of her very symbiont. But Arjen may yet be able to prove himself when a crisis befalls the station: an emerging microuniverse that threatens our own with its growth. Meanwhile, efforts by our heroes to solve the problem are stymied by an infestation of Cardassian voles.
This is a bit of a schizophrenic episode that doesn't quite come together. For the second episode in a row, three different plots are presented (though they're interwoven a bit this time). The problem, apparently, was that there wasn't really agreement on what was the primary story here. Outside writer Jim Trombetta was taken with the "protouniverse" aspect, and the ethical dilemma of whether to destroy it to save our own. Showrunner Michael Piller felt that wasn't where the meat of the story was, and did a last minute rewrite attempting to elevate the Dax plot line.
Piller was at least right in this: there's little tension in the protouniverse story, because every Star Trek viewer is going to know that high-minded Starfleet ideals won't allow our heroes to destroy other life to save their own. Transparent though the conceit is, it does at least provide the opportunity to explore how the non-Starfleet characters feel here. (Ever pragmatic Kira notes that it's "us or them," and not a hard call. Odo speaks from personal experience when he says you can't destroy life just because you don't understand it.)
Still, the episode misses other opportunities that might have been fruitful: having life inside the protouniverse reach out and solve the problem, for instance. And the finale is quite unsatisfying; our heroes unheroically dump the problem on the other side of the wormhole where one can only assume it will one day become someone else's problem.
Piller was also right that, in theory, a deeper dive into one of the main characters is a stronger place to focus an episode. But neither of the two basic conflicts involving Dax are especially compelling. The internal one is an inauthentic arc, as Jadzia has long since joined with Dax and thus should already have reached some kind of acceptance with Curzon's behavior toward her. That, or if Jadzia really has unresolved issues there, show us a story that engages more directly with her past host. (A late season three episode would do exactly that.)
The external conflict is even less satisfying, because it's all about Arjen, who isn't a particularly interesting or consistent character. Or at least, you have to read a lot into him to make him one. Over the course of the episode, we learn that he's only really after joining under pressure from his family. Still, he really wants it, so unless he's self-sabotaging, he should be too smart to fall for any of Jadzia's tricks. Clearly, she comes on extra loose and playful with Arjen to get a rise out of him, to get him to drop his guard and see if he's really mature enough to be a host. You would think after a lifetime of delicately saying whatever his parents want to hear, he'd be able to go a day or two telling his "field docent" Dax whatever she wants to hear. Or at least without blowing his stack on her.
It's a Dax episode overall, but another character it's surprisingly good for is Quark. Armin Shimerman gets great physical comedy both small (giving us that fun Ferengi "pleading gesture") and large (his massive reaction when O'Brien accidentally hits him with the sonic generator). He's also hilarious in the scene where he tries to give bartenderly advice to Arjen, a blunt "sometimes you only get one shot, and you blew yours."
Other observations:
- I mentioned earlier that the episode has a third subplot. But I'm not so sure the "vole eradication" thread is really a full-fledged storyline or just the Macguffin to facilitate jeopardy from the protouniverse.
- The operatic owner of the Klingon restaurant makes his final appearance on the series here. The notion that Dax taught him a song was clearly an inspiring tidbit for the writers, who would quickly lean into Dax's connections with Klingons.
- Less a subplot and more a one-off scene, we learn that Jake is in love with a dabo girl and his dad isn't ready to handle it yet. This too is an idea the writers would explore, early in season three.
- Actor Richard Poe makes his first Star Trek appearance in this episode. Here, his Cardassian is unnamed, but later he would become Gul Evek, and appear not only in more Deep Space Nine episodes, but on two Next Generations and one Voyager too.
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