DS9 Flashback: Heart of Stone

Many episodes of Star Trek (particularly the various spinoffs of the 80s and 90s) juggle two different story lines, an "A plot" that's the main dramatic focus and a smaller "B plot." Every once in a while, though, it's the B plot that turns out more successful. So it was with Deep Space Nine's "Heart of Stone."

Kira and Odo pursue a Maquis raider to an unstable moon, but encounter a problem on its surface. Kira's foot becomes trapped in a strange crystalline formation that is slowly expanding to envelop her body. Meanwhile, aboard the station, Nog tries to convince Sisko to write him a recommendation to join Starfleet Academy.

As conceived, the main story here was the Odo/Kira one. It's a long con by the Changeling Leader (with Salome Jens' name held out of the opening credits to preserve the surprise), who is probing Odo's reluctance to rejoin them. Disguised as Kira in a sophisticated display of shapeshifting that includes withstanding phaser shots and confusing both tricorders and transporters, she draws all sorts of information from him. Where does his name come from? What dire situations has he been before that bonded him to solids? Ultimately she learns his big secret: he's in love with Kira.

The situation was loosely inspired by a scene from the film adaptation of the Ken Kesey novel Sometimes a Great Notion -- more specifically, as show runner Ira Steven Behr put it, "a great scene in a not so great movie." A character's leg becomes trapped under a large log, and he drowns when the water rises over his head. Unfortunately, their attempt to recast this scenario for science fiction proved too much for the production to realize. As director Alexander Singer noted, the growing rock effect was the sort of thing that, "had this been a feature, they would have spent months in preparing, and shooting tests and so on." On a television budget and schedule, they got, in Behr's words, "a horrible, horrible prop." Nana Visitor said "I looked like a big old hot fudge sundae, and my head was the cherry on top."

The actors do their best with it, salvaging some good moments out of the unfortunately hokey situation. Rene Auberjonois arcs Odo carefully from a standoffish opening scene, through tension-cutting humor and more technobabble than he's usually asked to handle, and is great in the final revelation. Even sadder than Odo confessing his love under such circumstances is when he realizes he's been duped -- because he can't believe Kira would actually love him back. Visitor is great in shading her performance just enough for you to sense something is off without quite pegging it; it's fun on a re-watch to know that she's playing the Changeling Leader as Kira. It's an intriguing physical performance too, with her voice strained once the "rock" reaches her lungs and throat -- not to mention that Visitor had to overcome her claustrophobia for the second time in a season to play this.

But it's the B plot that really shines in this episode -- and not just because the A plot was compromised by the visuals. Staff writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe was the one who suggested that Nog (more than Jake, or Wesley on The Next Generation) would be most interested in joining Starfleet. And the reason behind it is heartbreaking -- he sees his father Rom's squandered potential, and doesn't want to end up the same way. It's a story about class and lack of upward mobility, a great use of the capitalist Ferengi on the show for something other than comedy.

The acting here is even better. Aron Eisenberg (who initially needed reassurance they weren't writing him off the show) gives one of his best performances of the series, crediting his scene partner Avery Brooks for feeding him a performance of his own that drew this out in response. Even the secondary performances are good in this half of the episode: we see that Jake can't even conceive that Nog would be serious (as he's already rejected Starfleet himself), we see Quark push too far in his keeping his brother down, and we see Rom stand up in defense of his son. It's all very emotionally honest, and perhaps extra resonant for many Star Trek viewers who might wish for their own place in this idealized world.

Other observations:

• It's great watching Nog try to blend human and Ferengi customs (handshakes and bribery).

• The rock encompassing Kira may look silly, but the Star Trek caves have never looked better. This is surely the same set used throughout The Next Generation and earlier Deep Space Nines, but it seems to be painted and/or lit a bit darker and more realistically here.

• I wonder, when "Kira" orders Odo to leave her behind, if his refusal came as a surprise. To a Founder, having an order refused seems generally unthinkable.

• An off-screen alien, Ensign Pran, is mentioned here. The writers made him purposefully unusual -- a pregnant male whose offspring "bud" on his body -- knowing he would never be seen. They wanted less human aliens to at least exist in Star Trek, even if it wouldn't be practical to show them.

• I'm not sure if the writers yet knew where they were heading at the end of the season, but the bell is rung again loudly in this episode: "No changeling has ever harmed another."

It's tantalizing to wonder: if the prop rock had looked more convincing, might this have been one of the all-time best episodes of Deep Space Nine? Hard to say, though there's still a lot to like here despite shortcomings that can't be ignored. I give "Heart of Stone" a B.