Day 91: DS9, The Muse

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S4EP20, “The Muse”

 Summary: Two unexpected visitors arrive on the station, causing problems in their own way. Lwaxana Troi has shown up, visibly pregnant and upset because the man she married, Jeyal (Michael Ansara) wants to take the baby away from her as soon as he’s born, because male babies are raised by the men in Jeyal’s society. She’s basically come to Odo for sanctuary, and Odo is mostly happy to oblige, even if that leads to some complications when Jeyal finally shows up to demand his wife back. The other visitor is a mysterious woman named Onaya (Meg Foster), who approaches Jake while he’s writing a story, correctly pegs him as a writer, and offers to help him improve. Her techniques seem to be working, but as you can guess, they come with a price. Cue a very protective Sisko coming to the rescue.

Standalone Thoughts: What strikes me about this episode is that, despite the title fitting more with Jake’s plot, the bulk of the episode is taken up with Odo and Lwaxana’s story. This isn’t actually a problem, but it did set up expectations that may throw people for a loop. Just keep that in mind when you sit down to watch it.

As for the episode itself, I’d say that both stories are pretty good, but I don’t think they needed to be combined. The Lwaxana plot could probably have taken up an entire episode on its own, and its tone is a mixture of silly and romantic (in a cheesy way), which clashes with the mysterious, faintly menacing tone of Jake’s plot. The problem is that Jake’s plot is hard to sustain on its own, which is probably why they added it to the Lwaxana story. That being said, I think I know how it could have had its own episode. Either have Onaya’s influence on Jake be more gradual, thus allowing you to draw things out, or have Onaya appear and try to help several members of the crew in addition to Jake (encouraging Bashir to throw himself into medical research, driving Worf to new levels of passion during weapon practice, etc.), thus weakening all of them and leading to trouble. I think those would have worked out fine, but as usual, hindsight is 20/20.

So looking at what we’ve actually got…Jake’s plot is decent, though a savvy viewer will figure out almost immediately the direction the story is going. For all that, though, some of Onaya’s writing advice is sound (though I’ve never subscribed to the “stream of consciousness” style of writing myself), and it’s an intriguing idea. Though perhaps it would have worked better as a short story than as an episode of TV. It’s the Lwaxana plot that’s the more interesting one here, and that’s partly because the interactions between Lwaxana and Odo are really, really sweet. Much like her first appearance in “The Forsaken”, Lwaxana bucks her reputation of being pushy and annoying, and so you sympathize with her. She and Odo work well with each other, and a lot of their scenes together are fun to watch; I particularly like the bit where they play a form of hide-and-seek. It also allows for a moment where the audience gets to realize how much Odo has developed since the start of the show without shoving it in our faces, which is nice. So for those of you who dread Lwaxana appearances, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this one. I know I ultimately was.

How it Relates to the Whole: As I’m pretty sure this is Lwaxana’s last appearance (both on DS9 and in the franchise in general), there won’t be any long-lasting ramifications on her end. As for Jake, I’m pretty sure Onaya isn’t coming back either, though there is the slight possibility that some of her advice and lessons will rub off on him. Otherwise, though, this one doesn’t appear to be all that important to the grand scheme of things.

Other: *Much like “Rules of Engagement”, this episode has a surprisingly short teaser. And also like “Rules of Engagement”, I thought that was worth noting, though it neither adds nor detracts from the episode.

*While I normally don’t notice who wrote the episodes when the names pop up onscreen, this time a name jumped out at me, because the episode was co-written by Majel Barrett herself. I’m hoping the DS9 Companion will go into more detail, because I’m now I’m curious. Was there something in this story that spoke to her on a personal level? Did the main writers let her do it because this was a sendoff for her character? It’s an intriguing mystery, and even if the answer is banal, I’d like to know the answer.

*Even though there’s a reason for it this time, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in this show to keep pairing Jake off with older women. First there was Mardah, a twenty year-old Dabo girl who Jake was seeing at age sixteen, then he had a brief infatuation with Kira, then in yesterday’s episode he was offered another Dabo girl who Jennifer said was too old for him, and now this. I’m not sure if the writers intended for this to be a running theme (and if so, what their reasons for it were), but in hindsight, it’s slightly creepy. Fortunately, it doesn’t come up all that often.

*Remember in “The Visitor” when I went on that long tangent about how somebody slipped a section of a Hornblower novel into the episode? Well, they did it again, and they didn’t even try to hide it this time; screenshots won’t do it justice, but if you pause at around 10:36, you can very obviously see the name “Hornblower” on the very first line of the padd. Which once again makes me wonder what exactly Jake’s been writing…

*While she doesn’t actually show up, Kasidy Yates is mentioned today as an excuse to get Sisko off the station and unaware of what his son’s up to. I appreciate that the writers have brought her back into the picture, but when it comes right on the heels of “Shattered Mirror”, the conversation Sisko and Jake have about her winds up feeling a little disingenuous. Fortunately, it’s brief enough that people who aren’t watching as closely as I’ve been probably won’t have an issue with it.

*The episode contains two very nice callbacks, one to “The Forsaken” by having a subtle role-reversal, and one to “The Visitor” at the very end (the Hornblower thing is just a bonus). As usual, I am a sucker for little continuity touches.

Best Line/Exchange: There were a lot of bits in here that appealed to me, both as a romantic and as a writer. Ultimately, I decided to go with this, although it does contain slight SPOILERS;

Lwaxana: Don’t you see, what you want is company. Someone to take care of.

Odo: Is that so wrong?
Lwaxana: No, of course not. The problem is, I want much more than that from you. You see, I can’t help it; I’m still in love with you. And as much as I wish that you were in love with me, I know you’re not. (Odo lowers his head in quiet acknowledgment) I could stay, I could try to make you fall in love with me, but we both know that won’t happen. Then I’d end up resenting you, and our friendship is far too important for me to let that happen. That’s why it’s better for both of us if I leave now.

Given Lwaxana’s reputation, this is a shockingly mature attitude from her. But it’s also really good romantic advice, and I admire the fact that she puts their friendship before any romantic feelings. I’ve always liked the “friends to lovers” trope, and I think this is a slight variation on it, which is probably why it resonated with me. Sure, it’s a little cheesy, but it can still be effective, and today is one of those times.

After the Fact Update: The answer to my Lwaxana question wasn’t what I expected; Majel Barrett simply pitched the idea of Lwaxana being pregnant, and the staff liked it and ran with it. Jake’s plotline came along later in the development process (the original draft was going to involve four different romances), and in the end, most of the crew involved in the episode weren’t happy with it. Which is weird, because I think it mostly works out fine. But then, I’ve always been unintentionally contrarian.