Day 94: DS9, The Quickening

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S4EP23, “The Quickening”

 Summary: While visiting the Gamma Quadrant, Bashir, Kira, and Dax pick up a distress signal and go to investigate. There, they find a planet that was devastated by the Dominion centuries ago, cursed with a disease (that they call “the blight”) that can become fatal at any time (in a process called “the quickening”). The inhabitants have mostly resigned themselves to it, to the point where their “hospital” is basically a house of euthanasia. Bashir, naturally, wants to try to help, especially when he’s approached by a pregnant woman named Ekoria (Ellen Wheeler), who wants to live long enough to deliver her baby. Trying to cure the disease would be difficult at the best of times, but after one major setback, Bashir can’t even rely on technology to help him. Not that that’s necessarily going to stop him.

Standalone Thoughts: I had clear memories of watching this episode the first time around, and as a result, I was a little apprehensive going into it. Some of it was situational (it wasn’t a good day for me, and as I mentioned in “Babel”, the fact that the episode involved a disease made me very uncomfortable), which could have colored my opinion, but from what I recalled, it involved Bashir being arrogant and being taken down a peg, and while it’s good for characters actions to have consequences, it still hurts to watch, especially if you’re fond of the character. Then I actually watched it, and was pleasantly surprised. Sure, there’s a scene where Bashir brings up the idea of arrogance, but he doesn’t actually act all that arrogant. He’s confident in his abilities, sure, but he never seems to be showing off, and clearly is trying to help his patients as best he can. So while he still winds up having to learn a lesson, it’s easier to watch because we don’t have to deal with a lot of unpleasant behavior before Bashir is forced to change. I could get behind this trend.

That aside, the episode has a lot of interesting ideas. Not only does it briefly touch upon the question of what you do when a sick person doesn’t want your help, but it brings up an idea that doesn’t get explored in Star Trek as often as you might expect; what do you do when your technology fails? Even in this episode, it doesn’t get as much attention as I might have liked, but it’s still an interesting idea, and I’m glad the writers at least put a little thought into it. It certainly helps keep the episode engaging.

Upon a second viewing, I’d say this is a decent episode, certainly much stronger than the last two. The acting is solid, all the technical stuff surrounding the aliens and the planet does its job, and the fact that the blight is connected to the Dominion allows us to be reminded of their reach and their threat without shoving it in our faces. It might not be essential viewing, but it fits in well with the DS9 universe, and that can be almost as good.

How it Relates to the Whole: Other than developing Bashir’s character a little more, the biggest thing this episode does is introduce the idea of Bashir’s old teddy bear Kukalaka, who will be used as a bit of business a few times in subsequent episodes. Seems like an odd thing for the writers to take from this episode, but hey, what do I know?

Other: *While it has no connection to the rest of the episode (it clearly exists just to allow most of the cast to get a paycheck that week), the opening bit featuring Quark tampering with the station’s systems to advertise his bar is delightful. It probably couldn’t have sustained a whole subplot, but the little we got was wonderful.

*Bashir’s excited speech about travelling in the Gamma Quadrant is sweet on one level, but it kind of comes out of nowhere on another. Actually, it kind of feels like something you would have seen in Season One, complete with his attitude not jiving with the people around him. It’s a more naïve enthusiasm, I suppose, as opposed to the still upbeat but more tempered attitude Bashir has nowadays. I suspect the intent with the speech was to draw a contrast to what Bashir is like at the start of the episode to what he’s like at the end, but it doesn’t entirely work in that context precisely because Bashir has matured. A little editing of the speech could probably have fixed that, but I also think it would have been an excellent episode to put in Seasons One or Two. If nothing else, I’d have been more than happy if it had replaced “The Passenger”…

*There’s a really nice effect at one point that involves simulating the rising sun. The fact that it involves a matte painting makes it even more impressive to me for some reason.

*If you see this shot…

…and don’t wind up thinking about The Lion King and the song “Circle of Life”, then you are a better person than I am. Knowing the context of the shot makes it even worse.

Best Line/Exchange: Upon careful consideration, I went with this one;

Bashir: Well, some people don’t like to be around the sick. It reminds them of their own mortality.

Ekoria: It doesn’t bother you?

Bashir: Sometimes. I prefer to confront mortality rather than hide from it. When you make someone well, it’s like you’re chasing Death off, making him wait for another day.

I don’t know any doctors personally, but I suspect a lot of them have philosophies very similar to Bashir here, so that aspect of things rings true. It’s also interesting when you look at it in the context of Bashir himself, especially given his ambivalence about turning thirty back in “Distant Voices”, which is a slightly milder version of hiding from mortality. Perhaps he’s matured a little more between now and then, and I for one can get behind that.

After the Fact Update: For once, the DS9 Companion doesn’t explain why “The Quickening” and “To the Death” were switched around, though based on the “Quickening” entry, it sounds like they were having some logistical problems that might have contributed to it. That said, it did hand me some confirmation about a future event, which just makes said event all the more baffling to me. But rest assured, we’ll be getting there soon enough.