Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine
Episode
Particulars: S6EP7, “You are Cordially Invited”
Standalone
Thoughts: This is clearly meant to be a comedy episode, and I’d say it
succeeds in two ways. First, it has some genuinely funny moments or situations.
Secondly, it manages to remain fun for me even though there are aspects that
have annoyed me in other episodes. The fact that the tone isn’t brought down by
those aspects is probably the bigger accomplishment.
As you could probably guess if you’ve read enough of my
reviews, one of the annoying aspects has to do with Dax. Although she says she
loves Worf and genuinely wants to get married, it’s never really felt like she’s
taken it all that seriously. If nothing else, Worf seems far more invested in
their relationship than she does. There is some explanation for part of this,
as I’ll discuss in a minute, but it’s kind of hard to support the relationship
when it doesn’t feel like both parties care for each other. This is made even
worse when Dax is being tested by Sirella; she knows how important this
ceremony is both for Klingons and for Worf in particular, but she keeps
antagonizing Sirella, including doing extra research to prove that Sirella’s
house isn’t as illustrious as she thinks it is. It’s par for the course for
her, but she’s taking it to a new level. But what makes these incidents
different from the other times I’ve pointed this out is that for once, she gets
called out for her actions. Worf, Sirella, and Sisko all point out in their own
ways that her behavior is inappropriate, and while I don’t expect the lesson to
stick, Dax actually acknowledges her flaw and tries to improve. We don’t get to
see the improvement firsthand, but it’s way better than what we normally get
with her, and thus I’m a touch more forgiving.
(It’s not worth going into too much detail, but for the
sake of completeness, my other annoyances are as follows. What could have been a
great episode featuring Odo and Kira coming to terms with what happened during
the Dominion Occupation is reduced to a semi-comedic bit of business and not
resolved onscreen. And it’s probably definitely my bias speaking, but I
feel like Bashir gets a bit ill-used this episode. Ok, so does O’Brien, but he
and the others openly throw Bashir under the bus at one point, so I think it’s
fair to say Bashir suffers just a little bit more than the others.)
As I said, the rest of the material manages to succeed as
a comedy. What I particularly like is that it follows some of the standard
tropes of wedding based comedy, but mixes things up a bit. It’s normally the
bride who’s obsessed with getting every little detail right, but here, that job
is given to Worf. And the best part is, it makes sense; Dax explains that Worf’s background makes him very invested
in Klingon tradition, while for her part, she’s already been married five times
and has less of an interest in wedding trappings. So the humor is suiting the
characters instead of being shoehorned in, and that makes it work better. I
also like the worldbuilding that they put into Klingon culture and tradition,
the banter between the characters, and the generally happy feel of the episode
(probably best demonstrated by Sisko’s opening log and the exchange he has with
Kira). So while the annoyances I mentioned are enough to keep this from being a
great episode, overall I’d say it’s a pretty good one, and exactly what we need
to relax after the stresses of the Dominion Occupation arc. You can’t have
everything be tense all the time, after all.
How it Relates to the
Whole: As this is a lighter episode, its contribution to future events is
minimal. Mostly it allows Worf and Dax to finally get married and resolves the
strained professional relationship between Odo and Kira, even if it is mostly
offscreen. Now, the romantic relationship
between them is another matter…
Other: *While
I’ll often get mad at Dax for doing things mostly to serve her own purposes, I’ll
actually accept her pushing Worf for them to get married on the station before
Alexander ships out. I’ve read enough stories about couples that did similar
things in real life that this strikes me as believable, and it doesn’t feel
like Dax is just doing it for herself. So never let it be said that I’m not
fair to Dax on occasion.
*This isn’t worth putting in “How it Relates to the Whole”,
but it’s an interesting grace note. There was a joke that started back in TNG about Worf drinking prune juice,
since he thought it was a warrior’s drink. We’ve seen him drink it here on DS9 too. Today, however, he’s drinking
blood wine at Quark’s, as though that was his preference (naturally, he’d be
drinking blood wine over prune juice while serving on a Klingon ship). If my
memory serves, he eventually moves on to drinking only blood wine, and the prune
juice falls by the wayside. I don’t know if we’ve officially entered that stage
or if the prune juice is being phased out, but it’s the first notable occurrence,
and therefore worth documenting.
*While having Bashir and O’Brien be blindsided by the
Klingon version of a bachelor party is obviously meant to be comedic (and is comedic at parts), it does kind of
run up against the Idiot Plot problem. While I’m guessing the intent was that
Bashir and O’Brien just assumed it was like a normal bachelor party and figured
that was all they needed to know, one would think they’d have enough
familiarity with how Klingons operate that they’d want to either ask a few more
questions or do a bit of research, just to make sure this celebration didn’t
end with broken bones. You would think Bashir at least would have been smart
enough to want to double-check after the fact. Apparently you can’t genetically
engineer common sense.
Best
Line/Exchange: The following exchange got me to actually chuckle out loud,
and therefore seems worthy of being chosen;
Worf: You never
told me that your wife was opposed to this marriage!
Martok: Sirella
is a woman of strong convictions. She believes that by bringing aliens into our
families, we risk losing our identity as Klingons.
Worf: That is a
prejudiced, xenophobic view!
Martok: We are Klingons, Worf. We don’t embrace
other cultures, we conquer them! If someone wishes to join us, they must honor
our traditions and prove themselves worthy of wearing the crest of a great
house.
Worf: Jadzia is worthy.
Martok: Of
course she is. She’s an honorable woman and a formidable warrior.
Worf: You
should say that to Sirella!
(Martok hesitates)
Martok: …That’s
not such a good idea. I don’t want her to think that I’m…interfering in her
domain.
Worf: Perhaps I
should speak with her. Coming from me, it would not seem like a challenge to
her authority.
Martok: I
wouldn’t do that if I were you.
Worf (suspiciously):
Why?
Martok: Well,
um…(pauses) The truth is, she doesn’t
like you that much either.
Worf (looks
exasperated): Me.
Martok: Don’t
let that bother you! I had every right to bring you into the family. And she’s
accepted the fact that there’s nothing she can do about it!
Worf (looks at
Martok sarcastically) How comforting.
Martok (laughs):
And they say that you have no sense of humor!
The deliveries of the lines, especially Martok’s, are
perfectly timed and executed, which made the “We don’t embrace other cultures,
we conquer them!” line come across as funny to me, because that very much is in keeping with what we’ve seen of
Klingons. Plus, while it’s a stereotype that doesn’t always play well, I do
like Martok being slightly afraid of his wife, in this case because it goes
against what you expect from the Klingons. But I think what I like the most is
that it’s a funny scene even though it doesn’t feel like it should be, and it
takes a lot of skill to be able to pull that off. I give great credit to the
actors on this one for really bringing out the humor of it.
After the Fact
Update: Writer Ron Moore admits that resolving Kira and Odo’s issues
offscreen was a cop-out, but it was partially due to the fact that they were
originally planning on going in an entirely different direction with Odo
(having him withdraw from the crew), and when the producers disapproved, this
is what he had to come up with on short notice. It’s still not great, but I can
totally understand that.
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