Morale is down on the station as war with the Dominion seems imminent. Jake Sisko is determined to cheer up his dad, and has his sights set on a 1951 Willie Mays baseball card as the way to do it. With Nog's help (and latinum), he tries to buy the card at auction. But when a peculiar scientist named Dr. Giger outbids them, they begin striking a series of elaborate deals all around the station to get the items Giger wants in trade. Meanwhile, Kai Winn comes to Captain Sisko for advice on how to deal with Weyoun in an upcoming diplomatic negotiation.
Star Trek has done its share of comedic episodes, some of them great. But sometimes the formula is to pair a dramatic "A story" with a lighter "B story" -- often to mixed results. This episode inverts that formula, making a comedy of the "A story" and pushing the serious stuff into the "B story." It's very odd... but it mostly works.
Jake and Nog have gone on a bartering adventure before, but this one has a specific goal in mind, and thus higher(-ish) stakes. Jake pulls out all the stops to guilt Nog into helping him, pointing out that Nog owes his entire Starfleet career to Jake's dad. And while Jake gets obsessed (to a point that he'd rather his dad think he got drunk and yelled at Kai Winn than spoil the surprise!), he is able to explain the obsession in a way that feels true: his father has always been there for him. They have been through a lot together, and Jake wants to show he cares.
Some of the trades Jake and Nog wind up making are more enjoyable than others. Sweet talking O'Brien is just fun. Writing Kira's speech and enhancing Worf's opera recordings each play to the pair's different strengths in a clever way. But Nog sneaking into Leeta's bedroom -- while she's sleeping! -- to steal Julian's teddy bear back is pretty creepy. (And apparently was only included because show runner Ira Steven Behr thought that Kukalaka was a ridiculously stupid name when they first gave it to the teddy bear. This only made the other writers want to mention it again as much as possible.)
The story plays out almost like a parody of a Star Trek episode, in a rather fun way. A veteran Star Trek actor, Brian Markinson, plays the quirky Dr. Giger. And at first, Giger seems like any other Trek scientist with promising technobabble -- until you hear his theory that death is caused by cellular boredom. (He's not entirely crazy, though. Take his fear of spreading germs by shaking hands.) When Jake and Nog try to get Odo to take it all seriously, he throws them out of his office; a serious character like Odo has no place in a story like this. And when Weyoun gets in on the action and actually abducts Jake and Nog, Jake spins a fantastical science fiction tale about timeline pollution and Starfleet Intelligence... which is enough to convince Weyoun that the first, real story was the truth.
Yet as broad as it all is, the B story manages to not clash against it too harshly. The plot is a direct preamble to the Dominion war, with Kai Winn worried for Bajor in the coming conflict. Sisko pledges he'll do anything to protect Bajor... and begins proving that here by actually working with Kai Winn and giving her good advice.
Though Kai Winn isn't really in many scenes, it's a good episode for her. After she was made quite sympathetic earlier this season, here she's vulnerable and accepting of our hero Sisko. She also turns her trademark condescension on another villain. When she grabs Weyoun's ear and declares "we are nothing alike," you practically want to cheer for her. (Weyoun also takes abuse from Sisko, who dispenses with diplomacy to tell him off in their first scene together.)
Other observations:
- This is the first episode directed by actor Michael Dorn. There isn't a lot of flashy camera work, but every character (save Dax) has at least a small scene, and Dorn seems quite capable of getting a good performance from his cast mates. (However, some non-speaking actors during the auction scene really exaggerate their nods as they make silent bids. Among Hollywood's more arcane rules is that a director is not allowed to give specific direction to a single non-speaking performer in a crowd without triggering a bump in their pay.)
- The parody of Star Trek gets most explicit when Jake talks about his lack of money, and explains that humans now "work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." Script writer Ronald Moore directly lifted the line he wrote for Picard in First Contact, saying in an interview that "I take great glee at mocking my own work."
- There's a prominent shot of Sisko playing with the baseball on his desk. It's probably here because it reinforces why Jake wants the baseball card so much, but it's also reminding the audience of this item in advance of its symbolic role in the next several episodes.
- Giger's catch phrase about the "soulless minions of orthodoxy" makes me smile every time. At first, it just seems like a random insult, but with repetition, it begins to seem as though he perceives an actual league of adversaries: the Klingon Empire, the Borg Collective... the Soulless Minions of Orthodoxy.
- But the "lions and Gigers and bears" joke is just a bridge too far for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment