On his first mission after promotion to captain, Sisko takes the Defiant into Tzenkethi space, responding to a coup on the homeworld. But the ship is sabotaged en route, locked into a lethal attack pattern that will devastate the planet and provoke a war if it can't be stopped. It's the work of a changeling infiltrator on board the Defiant -- and the crew has only a few hours to find it.
The writers of Deep Space Nine were reportedly crafting a cliffhanger to end season three of the show, but then were redirected at almost the last minute by the higher-ups at Paramount. They shelved their plans involving a changeling infiltration of Earth (to come back to later, in season four) and came up with this smaller scale story of being trapped aboard the Defiant with the enemy.
The results are quite effective, a claustrophobic tale of suspense and suspicion reminiscent of John Carpenter's The Thing (right down to the blood test for determining who isn't human). Paranoia isn't normally a tool in Star Trek's kit, but the episode rises to the occasion. Director Alexander Singer (with clever editing) employs unusually lingering takes to foster suspicion, and encourages slightly "off" performances from the actors, whether they're really themselves (the historically traitorous Eddington) or actually a changeling (as Bashir is when we see him on two different occasions; it's subtle work by Alexander Siddig).
The treatment of Eddington here is especially fun. The writers knew that faithful viewers would be suspicious of him, even though they make no mention of his double-cross in a previous episode. In fact, Eddington has a long and honest scene with Sisko where they discuss promotion, the command track, and career ambition. Fans nevertheless expressed certainty in the hiatus before season four that Eddington would be revealed as a changeling. In response, the writers resolved never to make him be a changeling, and would ultimately make him a Maquis to outmaneuver the audience.
"Who's the changeling?" isn't the only game played with the viewers. Sisko's opening log entry makes it sound -- for a brief 10 seconds or so -- like he's leaving the station or dying or something. Instead, he's being promoted. This change was an "it's just that easy" moment of the writers asking executive producer Rick Berman if they could do it, and getting a simple "yes." As staff writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe put it: "Whenever people would do articles about Star Trek they would talk about the three captains: Kirk, Picard, and Janeway. We were like, 'Screw that! Sisko's just as much a star of the show, and he's saved the Federation's cookies often enough that he deserves the title.' Personally, I wanted to make him an admiral."
In other ways, the script isn't going for surprise at all. Everything Odo is going to do throughout is carefully telegraphed in advance, as he reminds us he doesn't use weapons, he's never killed anyone, and no changeling has ever harmed another. The climatic final fight, with twin Odos and changelings violently reaching into each other to attack, is inevitable and satisfying. (And the dying changeling's threat a nice setup for the future, despite not being an explicit "cliffhanger.")
Other observations:
- Though Kasidy Yates isn't in this episode, Dax asks Sisko how their relationship is going. It's a very different thing, having the lead of a Star Trek series in a continuing relationship.
- Speaking of different, I'm not sure what the advantage is in having a previously unmentioned alien race as the Macguffin/target in this story. Seems like there could have been more tension if the Defiant had been heading for a Klingon colony, or the Romulan neutral zone, or some such.
- Fun touch that Bolian blood is blue.
- The Defiant gets several new sets for this episode, including engineering and the mess hall.
- The shot of Odo throwing the other changeling against the warp core -- a camera move with a CG morph -- would have been ridiculously difficult and expensive to achieve at the time. They cleverly cheated it by filming that moment in widesceen, then panning across that locked-off image (in the 4:3 television format of the time) to create the motion.
Season three of Deep Space Nine marked a big step up in the series' quality overall, though I think it did this more with consistency rather than particularly standout installments. No season three episode approached, for example, the excellence of season one's "Duet." Yet fully half of the episodes I graded a B+ or better in this rewatch. My picks for the top five of season three: "Second Skin," "The Die Is Cast," "The House of Quark," "The Adversary," and "Past Tense, Part II."
Next up, season four and the arrival of Worf!
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