A mysterious alien named Onaya takes an interest in Jake Sisko, stimulating his creativity through mental powers so she can feed upon his writing like a vampire. Meanwhile, Lwaxana Troi returns to the station -- pregnant and looking to escape her current husband. To ensure her baby won't be raised according to backward alien customs, she and Odo must enter a marriage of their own, and convince Troi's current husband their love is true.
Majel Barrett Roddenberry brought the germ of this episode to the writers, suggesting that Lwaxana Troi show up pregnant and claiming Odo as the father of her baby. Troi may be an alien, but with Barrett in her mid-60s, presenting her as pregnant feels unlikely even for science fiction... particularly when a Next Generation episode already depicted the character experiencing a Betazoid proxy for menopause. Still, the writers gamely tried to make the story work.
According to showrunner Ira Steven Behr, most episode outlines were worked out by the writers in two days. Especially difficult episodes could take three. "The Muse" took six. First, a lighter story was developed, interweaving four romances (Odo and Lwaxana, Leeta and Rom, Sisko and Kasidy Yates, and the O'Briens). When that wasn't panning out, the suggestion was made to follow-up on Jake's writing from the well-received "The Visitor."
Somehow, that all led to Jake being preyed on by a "creativity vampire," a notion which all the writing staff readily admits did not come off as well as they might have imagined. (Staff writer Ronald D. Moore was perhaps the harshest -- but not unfairly so -- saying: "The notion of this exotic, beautiful, older woman who comes to you and gets excited by watching you write is like the most ridiculous idea! Only a writer would come up with that.") Adding to the cheese factor is an affected, breathy performance by guest star Meg Foster.
Yet the whole story line isn't so much silly as it is just plain boring. Amorphous music underscores amorphous action. Or, I should say, "action." The climax involves people slowly crawling around the Jeffries tubes to ultimately find Onaya sitting quietly with Jake's head in her lap. It all comes dangerously close to undermining some of the greatness of "The Visitor" to name-check here in this episode the name of the novel Jake was said to have written in the future (Anslem). We don't even get the satisfaction of defeating the "vampire" in the end; Onaya escapes to go drain someone else. (Off-screen, thankfully.)
Though you'd never expect it going in, it's actually Majel Barrett Roddenberry's silly pregnancy storyline that lends anything of redeeming value to the episode. It's a rare treat to see Odo let his guard down and be vulnerable. He invites Lwaxana into his quarters and shares conversation about deep and personal secrets. They comfort one another. And when Odo speaks at his wedding ceremony, he speaks from the heart in a monologue that is legitimately moving: he credits Lwaxana for teaching him not to be ashamed of his own nature.
There are a few other nice but small moments sprinkled throughout. Kasidy Yates isn't in the episode, but the discussion between Ben and Jake Sisko about a shared trip to the Bajoran outback shows she's still very much in the picture. Lwaxana's somber talk of her daughter that died recalls one of the few halfway decent Next Generation episodes featuring her character. There's also a softly amusing scene of Lwaxana's dark mood bringing down Worf, Kira, and Dax.
Other observations:
- The visual effects are strong, particularly in the dramatic opening shot that sweeps around the station as ships dock and buzz about.
- It's nice to see Star Trek veteran Michael Ansara back... though it's a shame this new role is so one-dimensional, and the episode so rough.
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