The Defiant picks up a distress signal from Starfleet Captain Lisa Cusak, who has crashed in an escape pod on a barely habitable planet. The crew takes turns talking to Cusak as the ship races to reach her before atmospheric conditions kill her. Meanwhile, aboard the station, Quark is hatching a new scheme for profit and trying to distract Odo, as Jake watches it all unfold as character research for a story.
This episode started out as an idea from intern Pam Pietroforte, who suggested that Sisko be noodling around on a subspace radio and accidentally make contact with a woman from the 1940s; he's aware she's from the past, but she is not aware he's from the future. Attempts to make that story work faltered, as its romantic undertones were difficult to reconcile with Sisko already being in a relationship with Kasidy Yates. The story was expanded to include multiple people talking to this woman from the past... and then, oddly enough, that key element was transformed into a final twist. The episode's entire concept seems like an afterthought in the final product.
But Kasidy Yates was incorporated into the story. She and Sisko are having some friction in their relationship, as she's present all the time at Sisko's job, a piece of his life she's normally not a part of. It's a plot that resonates somewhat with current events, as couples now work together from home and are around each other more than was usual. The drama here is turned up, though, with Kasidy actually doing her job with Sisko, and basically complaining much of the time how much she doesn't like his job. (Too much paperwork. It makes him crabby.) Captain Cusak's role is to sound Sisko out and make him take a more objective look at the situation before any permanent damage is done to his relationship with Kasidy.
Similarly, Cusak is used to draw out other characters on their feelings. With Julian, the lesson is roughly that he defines himself too much by his work. With O'Brien, it's that he bottles up too much of himself and doesn't share it with his friends and family. On their way to learning these lessons, Cusak pokes fun at Bashir (and the Star Trek franchise generally) by faking an encounter with a malevolent creature, and she calls O'Brien out (and Star Trek: The Next Generation generally) by noting how a counselor can be a valuable asset if you make use of it.
But oddly, these meaningful interactions are all human-centric. We don't see Worf talk to Cuzak at all. Dax isn't even aboard the Defiant for this episode. (More on why a bit later.) It's a little strange that what's clearly meant to be a "ripples in the pond" episode -- showing how the show's different characters each respond uniquely to one person -- doesn't actually use most of the characters.
Not in that storyline, anyway. Back on Deep Space Nine, an oddball pairing is thrust together, with Quark for some reason allowing Jake to "sit in" on some of his "nefarious" activities. (Lesson one: don't think of yourself as nefarious.) That pairing never really works for me... though fortunately, this story is really all about the relationship between Quark and Odo.
It's a bit of a long walk, detouring through Odo harassing Quark over petty code violations, Odo learning the significance of observing anniversaries for some couples, and Quark demonstrating that he definitely knows how to make Odo doubt himself... but it ultimately ends with Odo actually letting Quark get away with something out of friendship. It's the Lisa Cusak story that's supposed to be about characters really learning something about themselves, but I'd argue that it's Odo who learns the most here: Quark really was a friend to him over the years as he pined for Kira.
Other observations:
- Actress Debra Wilson was cast to play Lisa Cuzak without the powers-that-be seeing any of the auditioning performers until after they made their choice. An interesting approach that makes total sense here.
- The visual of Morn spinning like a top on his bar stool is pretty funny.
- We see the Defiant launch a shuttle for the first (only?) time on the show, along with a new kind of shuttle design. It's an odd expense for such a small scene, particularly right before a season finale, but it looks cool.
- And there's more expense in showing the planet where Cusak has crashed. There's a great digital matte painting to show the landscape, and then the classic Star Trek caves are rigged to take on water as the away team enters.
- Same SPOILER about Dax that I've been mentioning lately... but the reason she's only in the final scene of this episode is that show runner Ira Steven Behr gave Terry Farrell a week off to go on auditions. Her departure from the show had been locked in -- and there's definitely some bad blood there, according to some. But Behr at least respected that an actor has to work, and let her go find some. (And sure enough, Terry Farrell went on to the sitcom Becker right after Deep Space Nine.) Also, speaking of Jadzia's departure, note the way the camera cuts right to her after O'Brien comments that some of them might not be around some day.
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