Kai Winn and Vedek Bareil come to the station for a secretive meeting: they're pursuing an historic treaty with the Cardassians. But a shuttle accident en route leaves Bareil critically injured, and Dr. Bashir must use increasingly extreme measures to prolong his life so he can help with the negotiations. Meanwhile, Jake's friendship with Nog is in jeopardy after a disastrous double date that shows just how different their cultural backgrounds are.
This episode began as a pitch from outside team Christian Ford and Roger Soffer, who wanted to put Bashir in the role of Dr. Frankenstein, struggling to give unnatural life to an important Federation ambassador as he grows ever more inhuman. Ultimately, Bashir himself would recoil at what he'd done, and be forced to end the life of his "creation."
The series staff was intrigued, but they struggled to develop the story around some previously unknown character. For the story to work, the "ambassador" would have to be someone the audience could actually care about. Briefly, they discussed the possibility of O'Brien. Colm Meaney had been taking more movie roles, and might be looking to get off the show? Not at all, he assured them. And that's when Ronald Moore (whose track record included killing off fan favorites K'Ehleyr and Captain Kirk), suggested Vedek Bareil as the victim.
The writers all felt that the Kira-Bareil relationship had run its course, with nowhere interesting left to take it. Count me as one viewer who never found it particularly compelling in the first place -- actor Philip Anglim's drone-like delivery (even if deliberately affected to signal "serenity") always seemed hopelessly flat opposite Nana Visitor's reliably deep emotion. I say gradually turning Bareil into an emotionless robot as Kira is forced to face his death multiple times was pretty much the perfect story to utilize what both of them were bringing to their roles.
Nana Visitor does give a powerhouse performance here, particularly in the final five minutes of the episodes as she first pleads with Bashir to continue surgeries on Bareil, and then when she sits at his bedside and delivers an emotional monologue. And it's great that she does step up like she always does to command the screen, because this episode didn't really wind up being as much a "Bashir episode" as I think the original concept intended. He gets a mountain of medical technobabble to deliver, and then one big scene that I don't think plays very well.
As it's slowly dawning on Bashir that perhaps he's gone too far with Bareil, he has a one-on-one scene with Kai Winn, who has been pushing all along for these procedures to extract a last little bit of usefulness from her aide before he dies. Bashir stands up to her, calling out her vanity, selfishness, and political calculation. (All shortly after a scene where he threatened to throw her out of his Infirmary.) Sure, it makes him look assertive, but pump the brakes a bit here, Bashir. This isn't the Starfleet chain of command, where a doctor gets to outrank anyone in medical matters. You're talking to the spiritual figurehead of an entire alien planet -- the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and a good many more all rolled up into one. Sure, we the audience all hate Winn (and love to hate her), but I'd have more respect for Bashir if he showed a little diplomacy here, deploying a verbal scalpel rather than a mallet.
But it isn't Bashir's behavior that takes you most out of the moment when watching this episode. It's the B story line featuring Jake and Nog. Ronald Moore reportedly pushed this angle, feeling that the seriousness of the Bareil plot could stand some counterweight with something a little less intense. According to show runner Ira Steven Behr, the moment they saw the first dailies of scenes from the filming in progress, they immediately wondered "what the hell have we done?"
The story itself isn't a bad idea. Indeed, it's probably easier to get into that the Bareil story, and more enjoyable. Jake and Nog go on a double date, Nog behaves like a misogynistic pig (by human standards), and Jake suddenly wonders if his Dad was right all along, that humans and Ferengi are too different to be friends. (Thankfully, Ben holds to Starfleet ideals and admits he was wrong to think that.)
The problem is interpolating this story with the other one. They butt up against each other too hard. There's even a moment where Jake plotting how to restore his friendship is then immediately followed a scene of Bareil gasping and unable to breathe. The "womp-womp" ending of Jake and Nog being stuck in a holding cell comes just before Kira is forced to say goodbye to Bareil for the final time. The tonal whiplash is extreme. It does not work at all.
Other observations:
- Nice character work for Kai Winn in this episode. When she speaks well of Bareil, it's about how helpful he's been to her since the election. Any good qualities she recognizes in another person is through the prism of how they're good for her.
- At one point, we're told that a condition the Cardassians are putting on a Bajoran peace treaty is the return of all their equipment in Bajoran hands. Nobody raises the objection that this pretty obviously includes Deep Space Nine itself.
- Nog protests at one point that he doesn't even know what a Tholian looks like. This is a small in-joke for old school Trekkers. The Tholians appeared just once (prior to this episode) on the original series, where we saw only their heads -- and then only on a rainbow-colored viewscreen that strongly suggested we weren't seeing the "real thing" anyway.
- There actually were some fans out there into Bareil in a way neither I nor the series' writers were. The production received lots of fan mail all addressed from "The Friends of Vedek Bareil" after this episode, expressing their disappointment, and including photos of the memorial services they'd held for the character.
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