Day 18: DS9, Duet

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S1EP18, “Duet”

 Summary: A freighter docks at DS9, requesting treatment for one of its passengers, who is suffering from Kalla-Nohra Syndrome, a chronic condition that only exists in a small number of people who survived a mining accident at a Cardassian labor camp back in the days of the occupation of Bajor. As these survivors are symbols of Bajoran strength, Kira eagerly heads to Sickbay to meet this person…only to be horrified when it turns out to be a Cardassian (Harris Yulin). He’s immediately thrown into the brig on the grounds of being a war criminal, though Sisko wisely insists that that claim be investigated before the Cardassian is turned over to the Bajoran government. Initial questioning reveals him to be Marritza, a file clerk who only did paperwork for the camp, but when some digging unearths a photo of the camp, he’s revealed to be Darhe’el, the leader of the camp and the one directly responsible for a lot of Bajoran deaths. Kira gets increasingly upset, Darhe’el keeps goading her and gloating about all he’s done, and Odo can’t help but feel like something still isn’t adding up…

Standalone Thoughts: Kira is generally fairly reliable when it comes to good material. Her character is a good source of conflict, but Nana Visitor plays her in a way that makes her sympathetic most of the time. An entire episode revolving around her actually confronting a Cardassian involved in the occupation should have been interesting stuff. And it is…if you can look past the fact that everyone seems to be standing on a soapbox.

To be fair, this episode isn’t “preachy” per se, but if you have even a passing knowledge of history, it’s not hard to figure out what parallels are being drawn. While there may have been a few hints here and there throughout DS9 (and possibly more explicit ones on TNG, but it’s been long enough that I can’t recall and I’m trying to mostly look at this show in a vacuum anyway), this episode all but comes out and says that the Cardassians are stand-ins for Nazi Germany, and the Bajoran occupation is a very thinly disguised version of the Holocaust. Certainly the episode makes no bones about throwing around words like “labor camp”, “atrocities” and “genocide”. The first act even starts to set up something similar to the Adolph Eichmann story, and while it quickly deviates into something more complicated, you can’t help but have that niggling in the  back of your mind. Using history as a basis for sci-fi or fantasy stories is a time honored tradition, but something about this episode’s handling of it rubs me the wrong way.

Maybe it’s because a lot of what we see in this episode winds up feeling over-the-top. Yulin is a grade-A scenery chewer the longer the episode goes on, and while part of that may be intentional, that doesn’t keep the material from feeling overly broad. Visitor isn’t quite as bad, but having to hang around Yulin for most of her scenes probably did wind up impacting her performance slightly. And the longer you think about it, the less Darhe’el’s plan makes any sense. I won’t spoil anything, but there are a lot of wonky things going on with the timeline that suggests that Darhe’el had a plan long before there was ever any need for him to have a plan, if that makes any sense. Not to mention that the ending is as trite as you can get, in multiple ways, believe it or not. So combine all that with the blatant aping of history, and you may have a recipe for something that grinds my gears.

For all that, though, I try to acknowledge both the good and the bad of episodes, and there is some good here. The episode is at least trying to offer up moral dilemmas and shades of grey, and there are some good points raised as a result. If the writing and acting had been a little more subtle, we might have been looking at another “Past Prologue”. Instead, it’s closer to “A Man Alone”. And at least that one had a faint streak of ridiculousness in it.

How it Relates to the Whole: We get a return of Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo), the former head of DS9 who appeared in “Emissary” and then (at the time) left the station for good. Dukat will eventually become a recurring character, but it’s hard to tell based on what he’s used for here if that was part of the intent of bringing him back in this episode. We also finally start to get some details about the horrors of the Cardassian occupation, which will come into play more and more in later seasons. Otherwise, it’s mostly a standalone character piece.

Other: Surprisingly, I don’t have much of any random observations this time around. Most of this episode is focused solely on the conflict, so there aren’t a lot of humorous asides or a small detail worth pointing out. Most of what I do have is related to the filmmaking rather than the episode’s content—unnecessarily huge closeups, a technobabble exchange that wasn’t necessary, and the mostly pointless placement of a Chekov’s Gun. Since I didn’t want to leave this slot empty, though, I figured I’d offer a brief explanation if nothing else.

Best Line/Exchange: There wasn’t a lot that jumped out at me in this episode, so I ultimately chose this;

(As Sisko tries to get Kira off the investigation and the two of them seem to be gearing up for another Bajor vs. Federation discussion…)

Kira (sighing): You think this is all some personal vendetta on my part, don’t you?

Sisko: I think you’re too close to be objective, yes.

Kira: You’re right. I’m not objective. But I’m your first officer, and I give you my word I will conduct myself accordingly.

(Sisko starts to speak, then stops and sighs)

Kira: You once said we were friends. I’m asking you now, as a friend, please, let me conduct this investigation. I owe it to them.

Sisko: You mean the victims.

Kira (with increasing emotion): That’s right. The ones who moved too slowly and never moved again. I’m asking for all the Bajorans who can’t ask. Let a Bajoran do this.

The whole exchange does a good job of establishing the various perspectives and dynamics of Sisko and Kira, and Visitor’s performance as the conversation goes on has exactly the right impact. Heavy-handed as this episode can be, this scene, at least, is well executed.