DS9 Flashback: The Wire

As Deep Space Nine was approaching the end of its second season, the character of Garak had made three appearances on the show, definitely cementing his "recurring" status. With his fourth episode, "The Wire," it felt like he crossed over into something more: a key part of the series.

The normally secretive Garak has been unable to hide the intense headaches he's been experiencing, though he emphatically refuses Dr. Bashir's attempts to help... at least, until his body begins to fail. He was a spy, he admits, for the Obsidian Order -- and he was given an implant allowing him to resist torture by stimulating his pleasure centers of his brain. Faced with exile and what he regarded as a hellish life, Garak found a way to activate the implant and leave it on nonstop. Now the device is breaking down, and the intense withdrawal may kill him.

This episode began with a very different premise pitched by staff writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe. He suggested that Kira battle an addiction to stimulants dating back to her time with the Bajoran resistance. The concept was shot down as one that would tarnish the character of Kira too much. But Wolfe revived the idea later with Garak in the central role. It being later in the season, and following the expensive "Maquis" two-parter, the series needed to alleviate a budget crunch. This time, Wolfe was allowed to run with his idea.

So-called "bottle shows," which can be filmed for minimal expense (on existing sets, and with few guest stars and visual effects), are often very dialogue driven. For this, they sometimes get a bad reputation from the fans -- especially fans who love action-packed Star Trek episodes the most. But the best Deep Space Nine to date ("Duet") had been a bottle episode, and when the producers finished assembling this installment, they thought they'd done it again. The fans, by and large, did not think as highly of "The Wire." I think the truth is somewhere in between.

I think the split here is similar to that over the TV series Lost -- particularly the ending of that series. Fans of Lost who were most engaged with the mysteries of the island were disappointed. Viewers more engaged with the drama of the characters had plenty to enjoy, even through the final season. Here, in "The Wire," fans who wanted concrete answers about Garak and his background were disappointed. But viewers who could get into the drama between Garak and Bashir (and the new mysterious spymaster Enabran Tain) found plenty to enjoy.

We do get some firm answers about Garak. All past innuendo aside, this episode firmly establishes that he was a spy for the Obsidian Order (named here for the first time). His unfailing pleasantness in past episodes now gains new context -- we learn he was essentially high as a kite in every moment we've seen him so far. (And it's all the more shocking in this episode to see the mask slip.) Subtext tells us why he lies all the time -- he was trained to do that in his former career, and he probably does it now partly on inertia and partly to entertain himself in an otherwise bleak existence.

But yes, much of what we "learn" here is contradictory and unreliable. Is Garak an "Oskar Schindler" who helped prisoners escape Cardassia Prime (also named here for the first time), or is he the ruthless agent who destroyed their ship? Is either story true? Is Garak so conditioned to lie that even at death's door, he can't do anything else? Is he so sure he's going to die that's he's just extracting what last little bit of fun he can from life before the end by stringing Julian along? It's all ugly and unresolved, but in a way I find compelling and intriguing.

One thing that's clear, Andrew Robinson is amazing. His performance here is excellent. He demured somewhat to the writers, noting once in an interview: "I wish there was more writing like that for television. I think we'd have a much healthier industry." Certainly, television today is far more willing to embrace darker areas -- though I think it's the technique that shines here, not just the decision to go dark or mysterious.

And while this might be the moment Garak became essentially a main character, the show also does right by the actual main character featured in it. This really is a Bashir story, focusing on his struggles to save a patient. We see his professionalism, as he stoically endures every bit of bile that a detoxing Garak has to throw at him. We see his morality, as he questions Odo's practice of monitoring all of Quark's communications. We see him defend a friendship to the utmost, in many contexts -- he weathers Dax challenging if Garak even is a friend, and he takes off alone into Cardassian space in a last ditch effort to save Garak's life. Alexander Siddig noted that this episode did for his character and Garak what "Armageddon Game" did for his character and O'Brien. (And in a similar way, even, forcing two people into close proximity.)

This episode also introduces us to Enabran Tain, former head of the Obsidian Order. Tain was almost certainly intended as a one-off character, but makes such an impression in his one scene here that he would be brought back later for multiple appearances. There are certainly nods in this episode to the relationship that would ultimately be established between Tain and Garak -- though I suspect like Tain himself, this was just a happy accident that wasn't planned.

Other observations:

• In the opening scene, Garak notes Bashir's reputation for entertaining lady friends. Certainly, Bashir came off that way in his icky pursuit of Dax in earlier episodes. But aside from one brief relationship, we've never really seen Bashir as a serial dater. It sort of skims by in this episode because it does sound right.

• Though the Garak/Bashir relationship here is not new, I believe this is the first time that their intellectual debates over culture is featured. (Here, Garak thinks Federation prejudice prevents Julian from enjoying the most acclaimed Cardassian novel.)

• Keiko is referred to here as "Professor O'Brien" for the first time.

• The "Obsidian" Order was reportedly called the "Grey" Order in the first draft of the script. The name was changed when someone pointed out that Babylon 5 had a "Grey Council" that might come off as too similar.

• This was the first episode of Deep Space Nine to be directed by a woman. Kim Friedman had a long television career before this, though this was the first time she directed "sci-fi" (despite being a fan). I think her skill with the actors shows; the fact that this episode wasn't mired in sci-fi technobabble gave her a chance to shine. Friedman would go on to direct more episodes of both this and Star Trek: Voyager.

A key episode in the development of Deep Space Nine (or at least, its characters), "The Wire" also happens to be one of the better episodes of season two. I give it a B+.