DS9 Flashback: Q-Less

Among Star Trek fans, the character of Q was widely loved. It was inevitable that he would put in appearance on Deep Space Nine. That this would occur only a few episodes into the life of the series was not only a surprise, but I think a misstep.

A runabout returns from the Gamma Quadrant with a human archaeologist aboard, the roguish Vash. Though at first no one can understand how she got halfway across the galaxy years before the discovery of the wormhole, the answer becomes apparent when her former traveling partner, Q, arrives on the scene. Vash is looking to make a quick buck, and clean break from the troublesome entity. Q, of course, has other ideas.

According to series writer Ira Steven Behr, the staff was under a directive to "'show that we're still part of the Star Trek universe' by bringing over people from the other series." Hence, the appearance on Deep Space Nine of Lursa and B'Etor, and now another Next Generation pair. According to show runner Michael Piller, though, the original pitch from writer Hannah Louise Shearer was for Vash only.

To me, crossing Vash over makes some sense. Her role on The Next Generation was to clash with the show's sensibilities in general (and Captain Picard in particular). It was like oil and water over there -- intentionally, and to good effect. Bringing her into the world of Deep Space Nine, where she would blend easily with the show's sensibilities in general (and where she'd get along with Quark in particular) is a logical way to highlight the differences of the spinoff series.

But Piller was looking for a way to bring Q to Deep Space Nine. He knew enough to admit (in an interview) that "if you just have him come on and say "Look, is this the new show?,' it's silly." But he wanted to have Q all the same, and since Vash had last been seen in Q's company, Piller thought he'd found a natural opportunity. When he assigned script duties to staff writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe, it was with the directive to add Q to the story.

Wolfe was a veteran of The Next Generation who had made the jump to Deep Space Nine. Years later, with the benefit of hindsight, he speculated that this actually worked against him on this episode. The Deep Space Nine characters were still largely unknown at this point, but "Q was familiar to me ... and he was so fun to write." The two familiar characters, Q and Vash, gobbled up all the screen time, resulting in a guest-star-centric episode.

It's questionable how true this episode is to the character of Q in any case. Sure, he's funny here. I laughed, even re-watching it. But his motivations for wanting to stay together with Vash are unclear. She should be so far beneath him as to be completely uninteresting after their time together. Actor John de Lancie said the behavior he was asked to play here amounted to "skirt-chasing," and though he could imagine Vash's connection to Picard being some kind of motivation for Q, it's not part of the script. (And rightly so. This episode is already enough of a sequel to an episode of an entirely different television series.)

The Deep Space Nine characters really are bystanders in their own story. Odo, Kira, and Dax are barely in the episode. (Jake is absent altogether.) Bashir's role is to creepily chase two different women (having given up on Dax for the moment?), before literally sleeping for the back half of the episode. O'Brien's job is to provide exposition for anyone who hasn't seen the Vash and Q episodes of The Next Generation. Sisko's one meaningful scene is to punch Q in the face, but it hardly makes Sisko look daring since Q is rather de-fanged in this episode -- he doesn't even retaliate with "Qpid" level playfulness, much less "Q Who" level deadliness.

Quark is the one regular character that gets anything of substance this episode -- and it isn't necessarily great. His bargaining skills fly out the window the moment Vash molests him. (Oo-mox puts the sexual harassment shoe on the other foot. Hooray for equality?) He's ostensibly better at pimping merchandise at an auction than Vash, but his actual technique doesn't provide the strongest evidence.

There are at least a couple moments dropped in that, while not paying off well here, do set up some good things for future Deep Space Nine episodes. Bashir tells his story of confusing a preganglionic fiber with a postganglionic nerve for the first time. O'Brien's there to hear it and roll his eyes, too, the beginning of the "frenemy" phase of their relationship. And, in a purely flavorful tidbit, this episode marks the first mention of "gold-pressed latinum."

Other observations:

• This episode is so guest-star oriented that it even makes room for a boring scene in which Vash interacts with another guest star to stash items into a deposit box. I can only imagine that the scene is so long because the writers think they're cleverly hiding the episode's "Macguffin crystal" amid other items. It's a tissue-thin pretense that fails to conceal anything.

• Speaking of that crystal, the fact that it turns into a giant space alien at the end of the episode is a worthless, out-of-nowhere twist that only serves to make the episode feel like a spiritual sequel to another Next Generation episode, "Encounter at Farpoint."

• Q actually says the word "technobabble" out loud, making it canon of a sort.

• What the hell is going on with Vash's weird necklace-that's-also-earrings?

• It's still too early in the series for the Morn to be a source of fun. But we still get some mirth from a non-speaking character when the six-fingered alien raises his hand to bid at the auction.

I'll be honest. Because I have of course seen The Next Generation and I do know Vash and Q, there's a part of me that enjoys this episode. As an installment of Star Trek, it might even rate a B-. But as an episode of Deep Space Nine, it's a C at best.