While walking the station in the middle of the night, Benjamin Sisko meets the alluring and mysterious Fenna. Their attraction is instant, but their time together short-lived. Whenever they get together, she runs off and vanishes in short order. It's eventually revealed that Fenna is a psychic projection of another woman, trapped in a loveless marriage with an egomaniacial scientist -- and that her subconscious alter ego is a threat to her life.
When the writing staff bought this pitch (from outsider Mark Gehred-O'Connell), it was something in the mold of Rear Window or Vertigo: a strange tale about Julian Bashir growing infatuated with a woman no one else had ever seen. It ended up moving far away from that premise, though with the best of intentions. The character of Sisko hadn't had much to do this season, and the writers were keen to address that. Moreover, they were still trying to define him as a character, and felt that making him more emotionally available would help.
The final result conjures thoughts of Cinderella more than Hitchcock, with Fenna's quick escapes. Her truly wild hair and odd costume also make her more a fairy tale than a mysterious figure. Sisko's quick infatuation feels straight from a fairy tale too. It seems like we see almost every moment the two spend together, and that hardly feels like enough basis for a relationship beyond simple infatuation. A sense of more passing time might have helped.
I also think it was a mistake to set the story specifically on the fourth anniversary of the death of Jennifer, Sisko's wife. I get that we're being told that Benjamin has never opened himself up to a new relationship before this, and that that gives stakes to what unfolds. But while he does have to open himself up to love eventually, I feel like he'd be more guarded against it on the anniversary, not less.
The episode has another problem in Gideon Seyetik, the overbearing husband of Nidell (Fenna's alter ego). He's off-putting and unlikable, so the audience can feel little but contempt for the way he stands in the way of his wife's happiness (and Sisko's). Even though in the end he acknowledges he's a terrible and unhappy person, he doesn't actually want to put in the work to change that about himself. It's a love triangle (or rhombus?) in which the audience hopes one of the points dies in fire. (Which I guess is exactly what happens, when Seyetik dies terraforming a star.)
Despite flaws in the premise, though, the episode does manage to deliver quite a few good moments for the regular characters. Chief among those is all the material between Ben and Jake Sisko, comforting each other over the death of Jennifer, being honest with each other, and voicing their love for each other. It's a big gesture for Jake to tell his father that he's okay with his dad pursuing another relationship.
There are also several fun moments of comedy. Sisko asks for Odo's help in searching for his mystery woman, and Odo grows ever more annoyed at his inability to provide any useful details. Dax wants to dish about Sisko's love life, playfully challenging whether his reluctance is because she's now in a female host. Quark tries to leverage romance for profit, angling to sell Sisko holosuite time. And annoying as Seyetik is, there is humor in the reactions to him by Kira (who begs for an escape from social obligations) and Bashir (who, perhaps finding a kindred spirit, is truly entertained by the man).
Other observations:
- Even a scientist doesn't cook using the Kelvin scale, surely.
- Seeing the Deep Space Nine officers in their uniforms aboard a Starfleet ship populated by officers in the Next Generation uniforms makes me think of the weird mashup of uniforms they did in the movie Generations.
- At the end, Sisko tells Nidell that Fenna was just like her. He must be telling her what he thinks she wants to hear, because that's manifestly false.
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