Dax and Worf are getting married... if Dax can win the approval of Sirella, Martok's wife and stern leader of the House. But first: a raucous bachelorette party for Dax, and a traditional series of physical trials for Worf and his "groomsmen."
Staff writer Ronald Moore had been the go-to guy for Klingon episodes going back to The Next Generation, but he says he was especially eager to write this script for two reasons. First, he'd pushed on the previous series for Worf and Troi to marry, and never got his way. Second, he wanted a chance to undo some unintended damage he'd done to Klingon culture. For the episode "Redemption," it had been a plot point that women could not serve on the Klingon High Council. This snowballed over the seasons into an almost Ferengi-like marginalization of women in Klingon society. Here, he sought to balance the gender roles a bit by making Martok's wife Sirella the absolute ruler of their House.
It's in this that the only real drama of the episode comes: can Dax swallow her pride and win over a disapproving mother-in-law? And it does lead to some intriguing moments of culture clash: Martok's observation that Klingons don't embrace other cultures, they conquer them; Sirella's utter disdain for the alien she's being asked to welcome into her House; Dax being made to reckon with the fact that the respect earned in her past life as Curzon affords her no benefits now. But unfortunately, we don't actually see the scene where Dax turns the corner with Sirella. It's a story line without a climax.
And that's not the only important scene in this episode that we don't see. After Odo betrayed everyone during the Dominion War arc, he and Kira reconcile during an overnight conversation in Dax's closet. If this feels like a cop-out, Ronald Moore and show runner Ira Steven Behr thought so too. The original plan for this episode had been to have Odo announce publicly that he could no longer be friends with anyone, as he couldn't expect any of them to trust him anymore. For the rest of the season, Odo would be on a slow journey back to normal. Very late in the game, the writers all realized it wouldn't be good for the show or actor Rene Auberjonois to so thoroughly isolate Odo for so long. But it was so late in the game that there wasn't time to write a reconciliation scene for this episode. Thus, Kira and Odo vanish into the closet in turmoil, and emerge the next morning as friends.
In fairness, though, both of these missing scenes would have been quite heavy and serious, had we gotten to see them -- and that's decidedly not what this episode was about. Comedy is king here, and much of it really does work. The broad moments are fun, like clumsy Alexander taking out a waiter, everyone stepping back in unison to "volunteer" Bashir, Dax's wild party, or fading to black on the over-the-top sounds of Worf and Dax being whiffle-batted by their wedding party.
The fast one-liners are crisp, like Quark noting Alexander's handsome looks must come from his mother, the withering banter between Martok and Sirella, Quark calling Worf a "walking frown," Quark declaring there will be "no refunds" for the feast Bashir and O'Brien don't eat.... well okay, basically, it's quite a funny episode for Quark.
The more subtle moments work too, like Martok grousing about the paperwork that comes with promotion, Dax explaining why she's content to let Worf be a "groom-zilla" (she's done the wedding thing plenty of times herself), and Terry Farrell's convincing portrayal of a hangover the morning after Dax's party.
But the moments that work best are the improvisations by the actors. This sort of thing was normally discouraged on Star Trek, but here director David Livingston actually staged a real party with live music on set... and asked Aron Eisenberg to take center-stage. After some initial panic, Eisenberg came up with Nog's hilarious "hissing cat dance," which the cast and crew so enjoyed that Terry Ferrell joined in with him to cap the scene. (This relaxed mood trickled into other scenes too; J.G. Hertzler shows Martok's bewilderment at Sisko's baseball in a fun way.)
The episode serves up a pretty satisfying blend of "what you'd expect of Klingons" with a few surprises. Despite the characters' expectations of what a Klingon bachelor party will be, Worf's trials of deprivation and suffering are what I know I would imagine. But I'd also expect the conflict between Sirella and Dax to ultimately be solved through combat of some sort, and I'm pleased it was not. The wedding itself is fun too, with eye-catching red outfits, booming drums, moody lighting, mock swordplay, and a great speech about marriage being a union to fight against common enemies. (More great improv here in the reaction shots: Armin Shimerman shows how bored Quark is by the whole thing, while Nana Visitor conveys Kira's complete fascination with another culture's rituals.)
Other observations:
- The opening log is careful to tell us that the Dominion War is still on. Don't tune out thinking all the excitement is over, viewers!
- The reference to the starship Sutherland is a callback to The Next Generation, as is the ship's captain, Shelby. When writing the line, Ronald Moore was thinking that yes, this was the same character we met in "The Best of Both Worlds." He'd forgotten an explicit promise to Pocket Books that the TV series had no plans for the character, and that the Star Trek spin-off books could do as they wished with Shelby without contradiction. Consequently... maybe it's her, maybe it's just another captain with the same last name.
- In the scene where Worf goes to Martok questioning his marriage to Dax, there's a lovely slow camera push-in as Martok explains that one does not choose who they fall in love with. It's great that the heart of this speech plays in a single take.
- We didn't see Dax win over Sirella. We didn't see Kira and Odo reconcile. And we don't see any of the people you'd expect to show up at Worf's wedding -- not his human parents, and not the crew of the Enterprise. The producers did at least talk about the possibility of the latter, but it was going to be a lot of effort and expense for wordless cameos. Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton, both active Star Trek directors with offices already on the Paramount lot, were reportedly ready and willing. But the decision was made that if they couldn't get the entire Next Generation cast, they'd go without any of them.
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