Day 136: DS9, One Little Ship

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S6EP14, “One Little Ship”

 Summary: The Defiant is taking a break from Dominion War efforts to investigate an anomaly that causes objects to shrink when they pass through it (they grow again if they come out the same way). Dax, Bashir, and O’Brien take a runabout into the anomaly for a closer examination…just as the Defiant is attacked and boarded by a Jem’Hadar ship. Although it looks bad, there are three things on our heroes’ side. One, the Defiant’s crew is smart enough to work together to try to take the ship back. Two, the Jem’Hadar First (Scott Thompson Baker) and Second (Fritz Sperberg) are butting heads, because the First was bred for combat in the Alpha Quadrant while the Second is from the Gamma Quadrant and has much more experience. And third, the runabout managed to find its way out of the anomaly, and despite (or perhaps because) of their small size, they may be able to help. Cue the special effects teams making things look larger or smaller than they actually are…

Standalone Thoughts: What intrigues me about this episode is that it’s completely set up to be another comedy episode—a shrunken ship and crew could get into all sorts of trouble—but it manages to be fairly serious. Sure, the episode is aware of the ridiculousness of the situation, but it adds some gravitas to proceedings, mostly in the form of earnest line readings and serious music. So while the episode is fun, it’s not funny, if you see what I’m getting at. In fact, if you stripped out the material surrounding the shrunken runabout, you’d have a pretty intriguing episode on your hands. Not only is the “characters being held prisoner coming up with a creative way to beat their captors” a classic trope, but the interactions between the Jem’Hadar continues some of the depth we saw in “Rocks and Shoals”. The idea of the new “Alpha” Jem’Hadar having a different style and therefore butting heads with the “Gamma” Jem’Hadar is a good one, and could lead to a weakness worth exploiting in later episodes. A lot of that comes through very clearly here, though perhaps due to the absurd situation, some of the interactions between the First and the Second have a bit more of a “kids these days/the older generation knows better than these young punks” vibe. I think it’s up to each individual person how seriously they take that conflict as a result.

The other thing really worth noting is that the effects and sets surrounding the shrunken runabout are simultaneously well done and a little cheesy. I can’t tell if the scenes where we see the tiny runabout zooming around the Defiant were done digitally or with a model on a string, because there’s a slightly fake, jerky quality to it. But whether or not that was intentional or just the effects not aging well, I think that adds to the charm. The whole scenario is clearly inspired by Fantastic Voyage and the like, so an old school sci-fi feel is perfectly in keeping with the situation. On a related note, the set for the console that Bashir and O’Brien have to make their way through is great, simultaneously looking like the oversized innards of a piece of technology and like something out of Tron (although much brighter). So while the situation is inherently ridiculous, the acting and the effects do manage to mostly sell us on the idea that the characters are tiny, which means that the main conceit of the episode is a success.

I did enjoy this episode, although I’d probably place it somewhere in the upper middle of the pack. It’s fun, but does feel somewhat like a deviation from the main story, despite the presence of the Jem’Hadar. It just has the sense of an episode that could have been done in a prior season, with the Jem’Hadar replaced with any other enemy. Plus, a lot of the episode relies on technobabble, and while it’s delivered quickly and efficiently, that might be a turn-off for some people. Even so, I think it’s mostly well-done, and maintains the quality level of this season so far. Not bad for a fluff piece.

How it Relates to the Whole: I’m pretty sure this episode doesn’t have any long-term effects. Certainly nobody else winds up shrunken down as far as I remember. Just think of it as a fun experiment that managed to keep the Dominion War in focus, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Other: *The episode’s pretty tight today, so there wasn’t a lot of extraneous material to comment on. Moving right along, then.

Best Line/Exchange: As I said, the dialogue in today’s episode was primarily a stream of technobabble, so picking a line was difficult. In the end, I wound up with;

(It was established earlier in the episode that Klingons write poems after significant events)

Dax: Is that your poem?

Worf (hesitates): Yes. (to a waiter) Blood wine.

Dax: Can I hear it?

Worf (pauses again): It is not finished yet.

Dax: Oh, please, just the first line?

Worf: All right. But, it is my first poem.

Dax (nods) I understand.

Worf: And I have worked very long and very hard on this.

Dax: I know.

Worf: And I do not wish to be ridiculed.

Dax (looks exasperated and holds up her hand): I promise.

Worf: Very well. (looks down at his padd) “This is the story of a little ship that took a little trip.” (looks back at Dax) What do you think?

Dax (clearly choosing her words carefully): It’s, um…well, it rhymes.

It turns out Worf hasn’t actually written anything, but I do kind of like the dynamic here. Worf’s buildup to the poem could either be read as insecurity or him knowing Dax’s personality and trying to cut off any opportunity for sarcastic remarks, and the “poem” itself is both charming and terrible. It’s a good way to wind down the episode, both to dispel lingering adrenaline and to end on a humorous note. Somebody really knew the right amount of pacing there.

After the Fact Update: While there is no explanation as to why this episode and “Far Beyond the Stars” were swapped, I’m going to guess it was to allow more time for post-production for the scenes with the tiny runabout. Also, I was correct that this was an idea that had been kicking around since the TNG days, and was finally deployed when the writers had (at least temporarily) run out of ideas. At least one of the writers also agrees that the Jem’Hadar were the wrong villains for the piece, so maybe I’m not as contrarian as I think.