DS9 Flashback: Move Along Home

Even the most ardent fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will acknowledge that the show wasn't great right out of the gate. Its first season is widely agreed to be its weakest, and some will point to one episode in particular as the the series' very lowest point: "Move Along Home."

The Wadi, an alien race from the Gamma Quadrant, arrives on the station for a diplomatic first contact -- but they're far more interested in gaming at Quark's than in any real discussion with the Federation or the Bajorans. When Quark gets caught cheating the visitors, they coerce him into playing one of their games, Chula. Sisko, Dax, Bashir, and Kira are all roped in too -- as actual participants in a virtual world inside the game.

While "Move Along Home" is far from good, I'm not sure it's the complete disaster many claim it to be. It swings for the fences on concept and is fun in moments, which is more than I can say for the worst of The Next Generation's first season. All the creative team acknowledges this episode wasn't their best work. Staff writer Ira Steven Behr claimed that for the rest of the season, "anytime something got screwed up... somebody would peep up 'Allamaraine!' And you'd nod and know exactly what he meant." Writer Ronald D. Moore, who would later jump onto this series after The Next Generation ended, said that when he watched this episode, he wondered "if everyone had lost their minds."

The producers chalk the problems up to money. Years of making The Next Generation had taught them to expect a budget surplus at mid-season, an opportunity to do a more lavish episode. But the elaborate sets of Deep Space Nine, together with the grand scale of the pilot episode itself, had broken the bank. Thoughts of location filming, elaborate in-game environments, and more fell by the wayside in favor of a cramped hallway and a trip to The Next Generation's already-existing "cave" set.

I think the problems are less of budget and more of stakes. In the end, there turns out not to have been any at all. Chula is revealed to be "only a game," in which none of the characters were ever in any actual jeopardy. This ran counter to the original pitch from outside writer Frederick Rappaport. Among his earlier versions of the script was one in which our heroes win the game, but are actually forced to sacrifice Bashir for real along the way. They then have to barter with the Wadi to "give back" the winnings in exchange for restoring Bashir's life.

But even before the ending as filmed, you get the sense that no one is really taking this episode seriously. When the crew arrives inside the game, Siddig el Fadil's performance, "screaming" to wake himself up from the dream he thinks he's in, is half-hearted at best. It's two really bad performances in a row for the poor guy; fortunately, his acting chops would develop much more (as would his character) as the series continued. He's not alone in phoning this episode in, though. The hopscotch-like "Allamaraine" scene deflates any hint of stakes entirely, with Avery Brooks going full "childrens' show host," and Nana Visitor's disgust at the situation seeming too real to be just Major Kira's.

There's also a real problem in the game itself not making any sense. At the "Quark level" of the game, it isn't really a game. Quark just picks "A" or "B," rolls some dice, and is told what happened. He has no idea what's going on at the "inside level" the game. It's bonkers that Quark makes the connection in the first place that people are inside -- the Wadi have not been shown to have the technology to do such a thing, and there's nothing about the trappings that he can see that implies anything about our heroes. It's also quite unclear to the audience to what degree Quark's rolling and decision-making locks in an outcome, and to what degree can the quartet's puzzle-solving abilities inside the game can affect things? Is the lead alien, Falow, actually aware of things both inside and outside of the game? How the hell does that work?

Despite all those flaws, a few elements of the episode actually do land. Armin Shimerman just goes for broke and gives his best performance yet in the series. He revels in the possibility to cheat easy marks, tries to improvise his way out of being caught, and pleads hilariously to be let off the hook when asked to "kill" one of players in the game. There are nice father-son moments between Sisko and Jake (the latter finally back in an episode after a long absence). Characters poke playful fun at each other -- Odo at Quark getting himself into hot water, Sisko at Bashir's undignified screaming, Dax at Sisko for stubbornly risking his life for hers, and more. Quite simply, this episode is not all bad.

Other observations:

• Colm Meaney is still out filming a movie, so O'Brien is still away on Earth. That means security officer Primmin is still around, though his role here is quite small indeed. The character is also completely inconsistent. Last episode, Primmin was a stickler for rules who was basically calling Odo a slacker; here, he thinks nothing odd about half the senior staff failing to show up for work in the morning.

• As we watched the episode, and the interior portion of the game unfolded with its series of puzzles, my husband noted "this is like an escape room." Totally. There goes Star Trek again, predicting stuff ahead of its time.

• As this episode was being filmed, The Next Generation was making "Birthright, Part I," which featured a crossover appearance by Dr. Bashir. His character's part in that episode was originally written for Dax, but the script of this episode needed the friendship between Dax and Sisko to help amp the stakes of the final act. So the crossover role went to Bashir, who was benched part way through this episode anyway. Terry Farrell was reportedly quite disappointed not to make the TNG appearance.

Perhaps my reaction here was too positive, after going in remembering a total stinker of an episode. But whatever the case, I still think there were enough bright spots scattered throughout to elevate a failing premise. I'd grade "Move Along Home" a C+.