Change Your Image
whyesit
Reviews
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: What You Leave Behind (1999)
An almost perfect finale, though a shame that Odo didn't get a longer speech
There are any number of highlight in this finale, oen of them being that Odo ended the war by sharing the cure. I was somehow disappointed that he didn't get to elaborate on his motives when he was asked by the female changeling why she should trust the Federation. After all, the last time we saw Odo, he was outright bitter and furious about the Federation trying to commit genocide to his people. We never got to see on screen how he moved from there to reconcile with the Federation and to even defend it in front of another changeling. This should be material for great(er) drama, and it's a shame it was not explored (just like it's a shame that in season 6 we never saw on screen how Kira forgave Odo for his betrayal).
And Odo's line - "I'm well aware that the Federation has its flaws, but a desire for conquest isn't one of them" - isn't exactly the best summary of his life on DS9. DS9 is not about whether the Federation was peaceful or belligerent - the show is actually quite vocal that the Federation as an institution is skrewed up. DS9 is all about human relation and individual decency, and it would have been more satisfying if Odo articulated this in the finale - something like, I know that the Federation has its flaws but I also came to know many solids can be trusted; we have differences but they have accepted my difference, even my desire to go back to the Link; some solids engineered the disease, but some other solids risked their lives to get me the cure; being solids means they are all different individuals, the vice of some should not be projected to all... Given that one highlight of the premier was Sisko trying to explain the meaning of linear existence to the wormhole aliens, it would also have been nice to have someone bridging the gap between solid and the liquid beings.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Shadows and Symbols (1998)
Why does Sisko needs to be biologically prophet?
This is the one plot idea I truly can't understand: where comes this urge to make Sisko biologically descendant from the prophets? The story doesn't really require this; and in fact, it compromises one very beautiful theme that has characterized the Sisko-and-Prophets arc up to this point , that is, the hardship and possibility of communication. Sisko's first interaction with the Prophets in Emissary was about a human painstakingly communicating to non linear non corporeal aliens the meaning of corporeal existence in linear time. There's a great deal of beauty in that act of reaching out and building the bridge across an abyss of difference and mistrust and incomprehension, a beauty that rings so true to the original Star Trek spirit. And it makes perfect sense that the aliens chose Sisko as their emissary simply because he was the first corporeal being to make that understanding possible. But to reveal that Sisko's existence was planned by the prophets all along? Why then would there be any problem of communication between them? It feels like a massive let down that cheapens the core message of an otherwise beautiful arc.
(A comparison could be made with the ending of season 2's "second skin". The writers said that they have been tempted to let Kira's identity remain ambiguous but ultimately opted to make leave her unquestionably genetically Bajoran. I feel that was absolutely a better decision: it definitely lends more emotional depth to the show that Kira was able to empathise with a Cardassian father IN SPITE OF herself being unquestionably Bajoran. Similarly, Sisko's status as emissary felt more earned that he's just a human being with no prior relation to the prophets).
And on a lesser level, the idea is also problematic because it makes Sisko's family yet another dysfunctional one, whereas up till this point DS9 has rightfully deserved all the credit for being the first major sci fi show to portray a loving and solidary African American family. There really is no need to throw that away for add some cheap mystery.
However this and other questionable plot ideas feel circumstantial, as a viewer I can disregard them easily and still be awed by the general, organic coherence of the saga thorough 7 seasons. That even missteps like this can't curtail the coherence of a show really shows how amazingly well built DS9 is...
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Children of Time (1997)
A good story spoiled by a bad ending and how to fix it
There are many nice elements in this episode, but the ending is simply awful. OK, the crew landed on a planet with an illydic community formed by their own descendants and were told that they were fated to crashed back 200 years when they depart. After a lot of argument and soul-searching the crew accepted that history must repeat and bravely flew to their fate, only to find that ... Odo (of the originally crashed crew) sabotaged the plan to let them go, essentially wiping out the community, because he didn't want Kira to be killed in the crash once more??? What the hell? Doesn't he feel any connection to all those people he knows since 200 years? How does he expect Kira to live with the knowledge that to save her life 8000 people disappeared?
However there are some very touching elements about the community - I liked the idea of Dax's guilt that she was to be blamed for the crash and lived with it for 200 years; I liked the idea that Klingon identity had become a cultural definition and one could be Klingon by birth or by choice; the cute Quark program teaching maths; and most of all the day when the settlers believed that the crew (ie their ancestors ) would not want to repeat history and calmly carried on with the last day of their existence. And I guess there could be a different way of ending the episode - the community ending up disappearing is not a problem, but it could be written as a matter of fate ?
For example, the Dax settler could have acted in good faith when he suggested that they could calibrate the departure in a specific way that creates a duplicate of the Defiant so that one could go home and the other leaves behind to preserve the community history line - after all he's had 200 years to figure it out and there was that Thomas Riker precedent. However it could turn out that the crew having gained the knowledge has already changed history (after all would you fall in love the same way with the person having already met your great great great great grand daughter?), and they could realise that something's wrong when the supposed day of the crash turns out to be sunny when according to history it should have been stormy. The crew could be anxious of racing against time to find a way to recreate the original condition before sunset so as save the settlers, even that would mean they wouldn't be going home ; but the settlers could convince them that this is all part of the Path laid out by the Prophets; and what matters is that they have existed and will be remembered by friends --something their Kira taught their ancestors before she died. Then they could spend the day together plowing and planting as in the episode... That would leave a more bittersweet ending and an experience the crew (and the audience) would want to remember rather than forget, no?