Still obsessed with Les Miserables after his capture in “For The Uniform”, Eddington plans his all-star cast and Hollywood treatment from inside the brig
Sisko gets some intel that the last remnants of the Maquis — most of whom were wiped out when Cardassia joined the Dominion — plan to launch some missiles with cloaking devices (acquired from the Klingons) at Cardassian targets that would likely start a war. Sisko enlists the help of our old buddy Eddington (Kenneth Marshall) who’s been imprisoned since Sisko caught him a few months back. Eddington blames Sisko for what happened to the Maquis, but reluctantly takes him to a planet in the Badlands. Turns out the Jem’Hadar beat them there and have the last of the Maquis, including Eddington’s wife Rebecca (Gretchen German) imprisoned there ready to transport back to Cardassia. There never actually were any missiles, as it was a plan put into place by Eddington before he was arrested. Sisko gets the Maquis members out while Eddington stays behind and dies to save them.
Why it’s important
This episode was right on the bubble, but we reviewed it for two reasons. It essentially ended the Maquis, despite the Chakotay-led group on Voyager that’s unaware of the Dominion and all other goings-on in the Alpha Quadrant. And it also is very emblematic of the very strong run up to the end of the fifth season, in which the threat of a war with the Dominion is more real than ever before.
The back and forth between Eddington and Sisko on the runabout — in which its explained that the instability brought on by the Maquis was partly why the Cardassians turned to the Dominion — put this episode over the edge and made it tapestry worthy.
Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, I think he even kind of looks like me!
What doesn’t hold up
Eddington’s plan is, shall we say, ridiculous. Apparently, before he was captured, Eddington told the Maquis that, at some point, they should send a message directed at his first name (Michael) that they plan to fire missiles at Cardassia. The idea being that doing so would prompt someone to get Eddington out of jail and take him to the alleged “missile site” where he could save the remaining Maquis. And it turned out to be enough for Sisko, who knew Eddington well, to take the bait.
But what if Sisko had been otherwise occupied — or what if the Klingons hadn’t decided to share the message they intercepted and shared the knowledge that they provided the Maquis with cloaking devices? Remember that when Eddington was imprisoned, the Federation and the Klingons weren’t allies. Or, hell, what if Sisko had decided he couldn’t trust Eddington enough to enlist his help?
“Is it that the loaf of bread I stole for supper?” “I punched Q in his face, if you don’t stop it with this Les Miz thing…”
Final thoughts
Logical goofiness aside, this episode is a favorite of mine. The banter between Eddington and Sisko is strong, better than the uneven showing in “For the Uniform”, the episode in which Eddington was captured. Part of that is the stronger showing here by Avery Brooks but also the angrier Eddington we see.
Not that it’s a flaw, but it is too bad that we never see Rebecca or the handful of Maquis again or even learn what happened to them. My guess is they were imprisoned, but that’s not made clear. There’s a line in Voyager about the former Alpha Quadrant Maquis being in prison, FWIW.
Coming next week …
War! Huh! Good god, y’all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
“Doctor, did you not get the memo about the new TPS reports — I mean, the new uniforms?”
Part one: Worf and Garak head to the Gamma Quadrant in a runabout after receiving a message from our old bud Enabaran Tain (Paul Dooley), assumed killed by the Dominion back in “The Die is Cast”. They stumble upon a huge fleet of Jem’Hadar ships and manage to get a message to DS9 before they’re captured. As Sisko starts readying the station for a Dominion attack — and loops in Gul Dukat, still apparently engaging in a private war with the Klingons — Worf and Garak are taken to a prison camp where Tain is being held, along with General Martok (J.G. Hertzler), who apparently had been replaced by a Changeling before we first met him in “The Way of the Warrior”. Even more surprising, Bashir is being held there(!) meaning he’s been replaced by a Changeling back on the station. Sisko decides to close the entrance to the wormhole — Starfleet’s not in a good position to fight a war — but the efforts are sabotaged (almost certainly by the Bashir Changeling) and as the credits roll … the Dominion fleet enters the Alpha Quadrant.
Part two: The Dominion fleet, takes a hard look at the station and then heads directly to Cardassia. Dukat follows them in his ship and tells a horrified Kira on the viewscreen that he has been in negotiations with the Dominion for months and Cardassia has … joined the Dominion. Shortly thereafter, Dukat announces that he intends to take back all of his people’s property — including DS9. A Klingon fleet limping back from Cardassia after getting beaten up by the Jem’Hadar stops at DS9 for assistance and Sisko gets Gowron (Robert O’Reilly) to agree to reinstate the alliance with the Federation and make a stand against the Dominion. Meanwhile in the prison camp, Worf is being repeatedly challenged by Jem’Hadar and Garak must overcome his claustrophobia to adjust the transmitter Tain used to send the message — Tain has died — to signal the runabout. He’s successful, and the prisoners escape, allowing Bashir to send a message to the station, allowing Sisko to figure out that the Bashir on the station is a Changeling. By this point, the Federation and Klingon fleets have been joined by a bunch of Romulan vessels, awaiting the Dominion attackers — and the Bashir Changeling has stolen a runabout with the idea of causing Bajor’s sun to explode, destroying the station and the fleet. Kira, on board the Defiant, is able to stop the Changeling, and the escapees from the prison camp make it home. As the episode ends, Dukat contacts Sisko, setting up the inevitable showdown between the two of them, and between the Federation and the Dominion.
The Dominion enters the Alpha Quadrant. Only took 2 1/2 years.
Why it’s important
Well, I’m not sure I even need to explain, given the summary. But the events of these two episodes set up the final 2 1/2 seasons of DS9. Much of the rest of the fifth season is about the lead up to what feels like an inevitable war and the final two seasons are about the war.
The sides of the conflict are drawn with the Cardassians and Dominion on one end and the Federation, Klingons and (later) the Romulans on the other. Remember that before this episode, the Federation was really tighter with the Cardassians than the Klingons, as the Federation was providing assistance to beleaguered Cardassia in the fourth and fifth seasons . This episode sets all of that on its head in a (mostly) satisfactory and compelling way.
It also sets up the Sisko/Dukat rivalry that is a major thread throughout the rest of DS9. Since the second season, Dukat had been a sort of strange bedfellow of the DS9 crew, even helping Sisko and Co. infiltrate Klingon space in “Apocalypse Rising”. Here, he becomes the series’ main villain. It was a bold choice that paints Dukat as the ultimate pragmatist and opportunist. Although I’m not a huge fan of where they take the character later, Dukat selling out to the Dominion to gain power is totally believable.
I didn’t get into it in the recap, which was long enough, but there’s also the evolving relationship between Garak and Ziyal (Melanie Smith, the third and final actor to play the character), which was a subplot back in “For the Cause” but really takes off here. Ziyal’s love for Garak (a sworn enemy of Dukat) is a big part of what happens over the course of the next season.
“Wait, you’re playing my daughter now? Well, OK. I’m Marc Alaimo. What’s your name?”
What doesn’t hold up
Buckle up. This is gonna be a long one.
Part one mostly works on its own — with one huge exception — though I’ve always wondered how Worf and Garak just happened to land at the same prison camp as Tain, Martok and Bashir. There’s a line in part two that sort of indicates the camp is just for Alpha Quadrant prisoners. But why would the Dominion do that? And, frankly, the prison camp itself is ridiculously lax. Shouldn’t there be some sort of surveillance? Also, why are the prisoners being held in the first place? There’s no indication that they’re being interrogated. I suppose there might be some value in them later …
But let’s talk about what I would consider DS9’s biggest continuity error, and possibly the biggest continuity error in all of Trek.
When we meet Bashir in the prison camp, he’s wearing the DS9 uniform we saw in the first four seasons and into the fifth. Essentially, it’s a mostly black jumpsuit with the Starfleet color differentiators (red for command, blue for medical, etc.) across the shoulders. Beginning in “Rapture”, the DS9 characters started wearing the updated versions (first seen in “Star Trek: First Contact”) which have grey across the shoulders and the color differentiators in the turtleneck undershirts. I know this isn’t the most exciting thing to discuss, but stay with me. That real Bashir is wearing the older uniform means we can fairly easily determine when Changeling Bashir first appeared on DS9 — before “Rapture”. And, people, boy does that cause some issues.
The Bashir Changeling was apparently on DS9 for four episodes, “Rapture”, “The Darkness and the Light”, “The Begotten” and “For the Uniform” (in which Alexander Siddig doesn’t appear). We only reviewed one of those episodes, but here’s a quick summary of what Changeling Bashir did in them:
— “Rapture”: Sisko starts having visions and needs Bashir’s help to save his life. So, the Changeling infiltrator would need extensive knowledge of human brains and medical abilities to fool everybody. Right.
— “The Darkness and the Light”: The only episode in which Changeling Bashir appears that isn’t eye-rolling in retrospect — assuming you buy the overall conceit that Changelings can act like anyone at anytime without raising suspicions.
— “The Begotten”: An episode in which Changeling Bashir helps with the delivery of the O’Brien’s child (carried by Kira) and the recovery of an ill, infant Changeling who eventually dies and integrates into Odo to make Odo a Changeling again. This raises so many questions that I can’t even cover them all here. But holy hell …
Really, the creators just blew it here. They used the uniform thing as a way to help the audience distinguish between the two Bashirs. But that could have been done with Bashir wearing off-duty clothes in the prison camp, if it needed to be done at all. Big picture, the Changelings’ seemingly magic abilities to mimic anyone and anything were always a stretch, but the creators stretched them beyond belief here.
One other thing. Sisko mentions the recent “Borg attack” in this episode, an apparent allusion to “Star Trek: First Contact”. The stardate in that movie puts it much later in the season (small thing, I know) and we never hear anything about how Worf took the Defiant to Earth and helped, you know, save Earth. There’s also the bit about the Defiant being heavily damaged in that movie. We never hear about it needing repairs or how it returns to the station.
Part two is where things go even further off the rails because of problems within the episode as opposed to continuity with other episodes/movies. First, let’s talk about the renewal of the Federation/Klingon alliance.
Sisko, apparently, without any higher authority, just renews the treaty with Gowron. Now, Gowron is the leader of the Klingon Empire, but Sisko’s just a (relatively important) Starfleet captain. Could he really do what he did here?
Beyond that, the renewal is (apparently?) part of the Dominion’s larger plan. The Bashir Changeling stands by and lets it happen, perhaps with the idea that it would bring the Federation and Klingon fleets to DS9 to be destroyed. But it’s clear that only parts of both fleets show up. So, sure, the supernova would have wiped out a lot of ships (and the station) but it also would have renewed a power alliance that opposed the Dominion.
There’s also the bit about Changeling Bashir modifying a runabout to carry out his plan. I’m sorry, but if security was that lax — the runabout’s shields were upgraded and a protomatter device was installed! — then the Dominion could have defeated the Federation in about 20 minutes.
Then, there’s the prison camp stuff.
Let’s assume that Garak (and Tain, before him) really could use the old life support system near our heroes’ cell to send out a signal that the Dominion (apparently?) couldn’t detect. Why, in the HELL, did the Dominion LEAVE THE RUNABOUT PARKED NEAR THE CAMP?
I remember watching in 1997 and wondering earlier in the episode how the writers were going to pull off the escape. When the camera simply panned up from the camp to show the runabout, I believe I threw a remote at the television. Unless you figure that leaving the runabout was some sort of Dominion plot, there’s just no reason to do this. And even if it was a Dominion plot, how did Garak et. al know where the runabout was? Argh …
Lastly, we have Sisko’s amazing powers of deduction at the end of the episode. Consider that he’s standing in ops waiting for a major attack. There are Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan ships ready to fight and sensors are detecting enemy vessels. Then, a non-visual transmission from the Gamma Quadrant comes from Bashir (in part one, Sisko was skeptical that a similar transmission from Tain was genuine). Sisko, correctly, figures out that the Bashir on the station is a Changeling. But, but, but … how did he do that? Wasn’t it just as possible that the message from the Gamma Quadrant was a fake?
I suppose Sisko figured it out because the computer told him Bashir had last been at a runabout pad, and Sisko could have figured that the real Bashir wouldn’t have ever been there at that point in time. But Sisko’s next actions are odd. He tells Kira (on the Defiant) to destroy the runabout, not to just stop or capture it. In other words, there’s no doubt in his mind that the Bashir on the station has been a Changeling.
Finally — and props to you, if you’ve made it this far — where in the hell is Odo in these episodes? He shows up at the very beginning of part one and then is only mentioned in dialog. In all other episodes involving Changeling infiltrators, Odo is a huge part, and the return of his shapeshifting abilities could have made for some interesting scenes here. Not seeing him much in this two-parter isn’t necessarily an error, but it’s odd.
Final thoughts
So, I realize I just tore this two-parter to shreds. Funny thing is, I also really enjoy watching it. I actually think it’s incredibly representative of DS9.
That is, the two-parter was incredibly ambitious — frankly, to a fault. It stacked the deck so high that the only way for our heroes to win was with some really ridiculous plotting, i.e. the Dominion parking the runabout near the prison camp and Sisko’s amazing deductive powers. Now, I’ll take “ambitious to a fault” over “boring and episodic” any day — wait until we get to Voyager, people — but I need to point out faults when I see them. And there are just a TON in this two-parter.
It’s too bad the creators didn’t avoid the uniform nonsense, had found a more plausible way for the prison camp gang to escape (a stolen shuttle?) and for Sisko to have more obvious clues. None of that would have been that difficult, but the creators just got sloppy. Shame.
Coming later this week …
A much shorter review, we promise. Eddington’s back!
“You put the Changeling in the pyramid and shake it all up … “
Our friends on DS9 stumble on a baby Changeling, basically in the way now-human/once-Changeling Odo was found back in the day. Odo tries to bring the baby out of his shell in gentler ways than Bajoran scientist Dr. Mora (James Sloyan, returning from “The Alternate” back in season two) did to Odo. The methods seem to be working and the Changeling begins to bond with Odo … but it eventually dies thanks to some radiation it encountered before the DS9ers discovered it. But, as it dies, it merges with Odo … who becomes a Changeling again, as a result.
Sigh. Another sci-fi character with daddy issues.
Why it’s important
Odo regaining his shapeshifting abilities is a huge domino for DS9. After he becomes a Changeling again, he sort of reverts to what he was for much of the third season — an outsider whom the Founders very much want to return home — as opposed to the pariah he was in the fourth season (after he killed another Changeling in “The Adversary”) or the struggling human we had been since he was made human in “Broken Link” for killing that Changeling.
As a Changeling, Odo helps shape the future of the Alpha Quadrant in the final days of the Dominion war, as we’ll get to in later reviews. It’s very unlikely he could have had the impact he had as a human.
Oh, yeah. And this happened.
What doesn’t hold up
The subplot in this episode — where Kira has the O’Briens’ child that she’s been carrying since late in the fourth season — is pretty by-the-numbers. We see Shakaar (Duncan Regehr) again, but in a pretty meaningless role. You might wonder why his elevation to Bajor’s first minister in the third season didn’t warrant mention on this site. Basically, his impact after that episode was as Kira’s boyfriend, not as a Bajoran political leader. And his presence here is just annoying, as he and O’Brien jockey for position in the birthing process.
Beyond that, it’s annoying that the baby Changeling seemed to be doing fine and then so suddenly gets ill and dies. I know the creators sort of foreshadowed this by saying it was ill to start the episode. But they really made the events here too much of a gut punch for Odo.
Final thoughts
That complaint aside, this is really a strong episode that’s well acted on the Odo front. Bringing back Dr. Mora and giving Odo some closure on his difficult upbringing (if you can call it that) was nice. Rene Auberjonois really shines in an episode in which he spends a lot of his time speaking to a beaker full of goo.
There’s also the nice bit at the end where Kira, now childless, confers with Odo, who is also childless. Although the whole idea of Kira carrying the O’Briens’ child was a way to explain Nana Visitor’s pregnancy, the payoff in this episode’s final scene is a nice moment.
Now … there’s the matter of “Dr. Bashir” in this episode that we’ll get to soon.
“I have good news. I have made a decision designed to increase your unhappiness.”
Keiko returns from some trip that sort of explains why she’s never around and tells O’Brien that she’s actually an alien who’s taken control of Keiko’s body. She gives O’Brien a bunch of stuff to do on the station and tells him if he informs anyone, she’ll kill Keiko. O’Brien gets everything done with the help of Quark’s dumb brother Rom (Max Grodenchik) and realizes the thing in Keiko is likely a pah-wraith, sort of the evil version of the prophets who live in the wormhole. Keiko’s plan seems to be to use the modified station to kill all the prophets. O’Brien leaves the station with Keiko in a runabout and then activates the modifications on the station and fires toward the wormhole. But the shot hits the runabout instead, killing the thing inside Keiko. Keiko is shaken, but OK.
Why it’s important
In what could have been a pretty forgettable episode, we meet the pah-wraiths, who play a major, major role down the stretch in DS9. We even learn that they’ve been hanging out (banished to, really) the fire caves on Bajor.
Also of note is the continued evolution of one of the series’s worst characters, Rom. By this point, he’s still the moron he was early on, but he’s also a “engineering genius”. To the show’s credit, they establish this and then let it evolve to the point where Rom’s skills are key in the events surrounding the Federation’s defense of the station against the Dominion. Still, it’s too bad the creators did such a poor job of writing Rom the rest of the time.
Rom, dumb in all things… except engineering?!
What doesn’t hold up
I truly hate this episode. It’s just so full of nonsense. It’s the worst of the “O’Brien suffers” episodes that we saw about once a year throughout DS9’s run. Colm Meaney, as usual, makes something out of the material, but it’s still a bad episode.
First of all, how would a pah-wraith banished to the fire caves for thousands of years have any idea how to modify the station’s systems? Granted, the creator knows what Keiko knows, but Keiko’s a freaking botanist! And given that she was surprised by O’Brien’s actions at the end, it’s not as if she was all-knowing.
Beyond that, why did she need to be in a runabout near the wormhole in the first place? She could have stayed on the station and gotten a pretty good view of her plan coming to fruition and not exposed herself to O’Brien’s switcheroo. There’s no evidence that she needed to be near the wormhole — and she likely was trying to secure the thing for ALL the pah-wraiths and not just herself. So, really, the only reason for her to be on the runabout was so that O’Brien could have a way out.
Then, there’s Rom. Now, it’s true that the Ferengi (Quark, Rom, Nog) can be good additions to episodes — whereas Ferengi-centric episodes are largely stupid if not pointless. But Rom’s actions here just are too hard to swallow.
Basically, he’s able to ascertain what’s going on by looking at the tasks O’Brien has him complete — which MIGHT make up half of O’Brien’s assignment — and remembering the wormhole/prophets stuff Leeta (Rom’s Bajoran girlfriend) has told him. A lot’s made about Rom being super smart after DS9’s first couple years (in which he was just written as an idiot) but his assessment here is a freaking miracle.
And you thought being married to me was a “torture O’Brien episode”
Final thoughts
Then, there’s Keiko. Ugh.
Rosalind Chao’s not a bad actor. But the performance and writing of Keiko throughout DS9 paints her as mostly a nag who complains a lot. Initially, her plot line involved her unhappiness on the station where a botanist had little to do — and that was somewhat passable. But the school stuff mostly went away after the first season and Keiko basically became the unhappy wife.
It’s telling, then, that Keiko appeared just five times in DS9’s final three seasons, including in the final episode. With the Dominion war raging, there was a lot less for her to do — and, really, she and daughter Molly should have likely been away from the station while fighting was going on, anyway.
This episode really gives Chao the most to do that isn’t relegated to her family, other than the school stuff. Chao isn’t bad in the role, but the episode is just so full of holes that her performance isn’t nearly enough to make it a better overall viewing.
Starfleet’s worst thought-out  undercover operation. We hope.
With a war raging between the Federation and the Klingons, Sisko is assigned the task of exposing the Gowron Changeling, mentioned in “Broken Link”. Sisko takes Worf, O’Brien and Odo (who’s still smarting from becoming a human) and they masquerade as Klingons participating in a ceremony deep in the Empire after being transported there in Dukat’s Bird of Prey from “Return to Grace”. Just as Sisko’s about to use a new prototype device to determine that Gowron’s a Changeling, General Martok (J.G. Hertzler, seen in “The Way of the Warrior”) stops them. In a cell, Martok tells them he’s suspected that Gowron’s a Changeling and offers to help them kill him (the device has been destroyed). As Worf fights Gowron, Odo figures out that Martok’s actually the Changeling and exposes him. The Martok Changeling is killed and Gowron agrees to begin peace talks. Odo, with some of his self-worth restored, goes back to his life on DS9.
One of the most, ahem, “fortified installations in the Empire”.
Why it’s important
The beginning of the short war with the Klingons is significant, as is the end of that war (it drags on for a few more episodes, but the lead up to ending it starts here) as is the establishment of a relationship between Sisko and Gowron. That comes into play in a major way later in the season.
Odo, again, plays a major role in interstellar matters. If he hadn’t exposed the Martok Changeling, Worf would have likely killed Gowron and the war would have continued — leaving the Alpha Quadrant ripe for conquest by the Dominion.
“Yup. The creators had a few of these when they wrote this episode.”
What doesn’t hold up
This is a great time to bring up the issue of scope that we see in a lot of DS9’s final three seasons. Faithful readers, you’ll hear a lot from us on this topic, starting here.
It’s really hard to believe that Starfleet would have sent Sisko, Worf, Odo and O’Brien on this mission. Even if you figure Sisko and Odo have a great deal of experience with Changelings — and Worf, of course, has a great deal of experience with Klingons — the four of them would have just been too recognizable. It’s actually laughable that they thought changing Worf’s hair would be even close to enough to make him look different.
Why is this a matter of scope? In early DS9, it made sense for Sisko to be in the middle of everything because the DS9 staff was small and its sphere of influence was over a relatively small area. But, here, we’re dealing with a war that could shape the face of the Alpha Quadrant — at a place that’s quite far from DS9. There’s just no way that Starfleet wouldn’t have had some commandos or spies or SOMEONE better equipped than 1) a very recognizable captain 2) a very recognizable Klingon 3) an emotionally fragile recently turned human and 4) an engineer whose abilities had no real value here. Why Dax didn’t go instead of O’Brien is another matter …
Beyond that, it’s kind of ridiculous how easy it was for Sisko and Co. to get into the Klingon installation. Wouldn’t there have been sensors to detect three human life signs in a ceremony where only Klingons were supposed to be in attendance? I know a big deal is made about Dukat’s efforts to get their names into the ceremony, but still. And, really, there’s the whole language thing (which I normally don’t bring up, but is key here) and the idea that Sisko and Co. talk so openly about their true identities with so many people in earshot. Klingons are known to be very paranoid — to the point where they’re described as “obsessive” about blood screenings.
Final thoughts
Frankly, this episode revolves too much around the gimmick of Sisko’s team dressing like Klingons. The best parts of it occur on Dukat’s Bird of Prey and in the prison cell with the Martok Changeling.
It’s also somewhat disappointing that the war didn’t really end here. We see more Klingon stuff in “Nor the Battle to the Strong”, arguably DS9’s best use of Cirroc Lofton as Jake. On one hand, that’s DS9 doing its thing as the Trek series that best handled continuity. On the other, it makes the events in this episode a little less significant.
Coming up next week …
Keiko’s back and she’s even more annoying than usual … because she’s possessed. Maybe that’s why she’s been so annoying for so long!
What if a site focused on the really important Star Trek episodes, explained how they were important and how they tied together â while tossing in a healthy dose of snark?
