DS9 Flashback: Body Parts

Yesterday's news of the passing of actor René Auberjonois was the latest of several Star Trek deaths in the past week (including writer D.C. Fontana and "Charlie X" guest star Robert Walker). It would be great if I had a strong Odo episode to review today, a "Necessary Evil" perhaps. But Deep Space Nine built up such an array of strong characters, and was so good about giving them all their episodes in which to shine, it simply didn't line up that way. (And, sadly, we were made to care about so many characters and the actors who played them that we'll no doubt be going through this loss many times again, just as we did a few months ago with Aron Eisenberg.)

The great work will remain, though. Even in episodes that weren't as strong, the actors' work was often excellent, showing just how well these people understood their characters -- more than the audience, more even than the writers. One great example of this keen insight involves the Deep Space Nine episode I am here to talk about today, "Body Parts."

A medical misdiagnosis leads Quark to briefly believe he'll be dead within a week of a terminal illness. Before the mixup is revealed, he makes plans to sell his remains on the open market. When the buyer, his nemesis Brunt, shows up to collect his merchandise, Quark is trapped between two horrible outcomes: honor the contract by killing himself, or break the contract and become a pariah stripped of all his worldly assets. Meanwhile, a runabout accident that threatens Keiko's life forces Dr. Bashir to transplant her unborn child into the only other available safe option, Major Kira.

At the surface, this episode is a bit of ridiculous fun. We get a dream sequence tantamount to an angel and demon arguing over Quark's shoulders about what he should do, complete with an elaborately made up Max Grodénchik playing the first Ferengi Grand Nagus. We get to see Garak intrigued at the notion of being contracted to murder Quark... by Quark. (Quark's ensuing paranoia is also great for a laugh.) Because none of this is especially deep, nor is it truly laugh out loud funny, the episode comes off somewhat slight. We never for a moment think that Quark will actually kill himself to fulfill the terms of a contract.

But the episode played very differently in the mind of Armin Shimerman, who had to play Quark and make this dilemma real. As he explained in one interview, "Quark had always believed he's an outsider on the space station, and that the only thing that's his own are his Ferengi ways." In these terms, breaking his contract with Brunt means giving up the only thing that makes him feel like himself. It means fully "assimilating" into detestable hew-mon society. It's a loss of self that might as well be a loss of life. But the episode doesn't really succeed in making any of this subtext text. We're not really invited to empathize much with Quark, we're only invited to laugh at him.

Another case in point -- this episode was directed by Avery Brooks, who you might expect to understand his fellow actors more than the average director passing through for an episode. Shimerman recounted filming a scene in which Brunt insults Quark, and Brooks felt that a bigger reaction was called for: "Avery took me aside and said, 'Hey this guy's just insulted you. Aren't you going to react?' And I said, "Avery, your character would take umbrage if he was insulted. But my character is insulted every episode, every day. If he's to survive in this particular environment, he must slough off insults, otherwise he'd be in fights every day.'" Brooks took his point and let Shimerman play the scene his way; again, it goes to show that no one will ever come as close to understanding Quark as the man himself.

The episode's B plot is another instance where what we see doesn't dig as far down into the emotional truth of things as it might have. It was a story line born of necessity: Nana Visitor had informed the producers she was pregnant. The writers had no interest in giving Kira a baby with Shakaar, and they really weren't sure what to do. Laura Behr, the wife of show runner Ira Steven Behr, pitched the solution: move the baby that had been given to Keiko earlier in the season over to Kira. It's a fun gimmick you could only do in sci-fi, and vastly preferable to hiding Nana Visitor behind tables for half a season.

But the episode spends as much time explaining away the gimmick (basically: "why can't the baby be moved back?") as exploring its emotional ramifications. There is a nice little arc about the O'Briens asking Kira to move in with them, and the three of them all becoming closer. But there's a lot more here that could be unpacked that the episode ignores or merely brushes against. What must this experience be like for Keiko? She's lost her baby as though through a miscarriage... and yet the baby is fine. She seems to bounce back a bit fast. What is this really like for Kira? We've never once heard her consider having a baby, and now one is thrust upon her... that won't even be hers a few months from now.

Sure, all of that doesn't necessarily need to be packed into this episode. But viewing ahead, you learn that the show never really digs into much of this at all, instead opting for sci-fi versions of typical sitcom pregnancy jokes. It's great that the show found a way to keep Nana Visitor fully involved throughout her pregnancy (which the actress herself acknowledged), but it's a shame they didn't better mine the unique story they created.

Other observations:

• One character whose motivations and feelings do get stated clearly in dialogue, oddly enough, is Brunt. He explains at length why he's so repulsed by Quark, referencing in the process past episodes showcasing Quark's immoral behavior: protecting his profit-earning mother, and settling with striking workers. (It's another great Jeffrey Combs performance, perhaps his best as Brunt.)

• The final scene is more potent than you might expect from such a light episode. Everyone showing up with a gift to help Quark get back up on his feet is somehow quite touching (even if he undercuts it by haggling with Sisko to receive the help.)

"Body Parts" is actually a fine episode. But I feel like it wastes several opportunities to dig deeper. Perhaps the writers simply aren't willing to take the Ferengi that seriously. I give the episode a B-.