Day 161: DS9, Field of Fire

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S7EP13, “Field of Fire”

 Summary: The morning after celebrating the promotion of Lieutenant Ilario (Art Chudabala), Ilario is found shot dead in his quarters. The killer used a gun with a bullet, which is unusual in the era of phasers. Ezri is assigned to the case because she studied forensic psychology at Starfleet Academy, though she’s not sure how much help she can be. She does, however, have a trick up her sleeve, albeit one she’s reluctant to use; she can draw upon the experiences of Joran Dax (Leigh J. McCloskey), the murderous host who we learned about in “Equilibrium”. When another person is murdered and O’Brien determines that the gun is a prototype weapon with a modification that lets it “beam” the bullet to its target, Ezri bites a bullet of her own and lets Joran out to play. Which means she now needs to solve the case before the killer strikes again…or before Joran makes her do something she’ll really regret.

Standalone Thoughts: This episode is extremely hit or miss for me. On the one hand, it’s got an excellent concept and has some great moments. On the other hand, some of the material that’s necessary to make the episode work is pretty flawed. Which means that your enjoyment of the episode will depend entirely on how far you’re willing to stretch your suspension of disbelief.

To begin with, the whole episode hinges on Ezri deliberately bringing up Joran’s personality so she can communicate with it. But we’re never told how this works. We’re just told there’s this ritual Trill can perform that we’ve never heard of before, and we’re expected to go along with it, even though we’re never even told how it works. Also, wouldn’t it make more sense to have the old personality temporarily sublimate the current one, instead of this weird thing where it’s like an invisible presence that makes it look like you’re talking to yourself? You could still have a similar plot that way, with Joran trying to slide back into his murderous ways and Ezri reasserting control at key moments. Plus the two actors could still interact, but make it clear that it’s all in Ezri’s head, representing the conflict going on. As it stands, it just feels a bit contrived.

Then there’s the gun itself. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome idea, and the material surrounding it (effects, discussion, etc.) make for the best scenes in the episode. But there are parts that aren’t that well explained, or explained in a ridiculous way. Who brought the plans for a prototype gun onto DS9 and put it into the replicator, and why? How did O’Brien hear the story of Davy Crockett using frying pans to ricochet a shot and translate that to “used a mini-transporter to fire the bullet”? And even though they try to just sneak the explanation by us by cloaking it in technobabble, the entire concept of transporting a bullet but it somehow keeping its momentum just seems ridiculous. I like the idea, but I think it needed a little more work to be plausible, even factoring in the sci-fi angle.

Finally, there are just a lot of other little missteps. The dream sequence Ezri has is a little too over-the-top with slow motion and odd angles, which makes it hard to take seriously. It also means that another scene that’s actually supposed to be taking place in real life winds up feeling like another nightmare, and it’s not until the end of the scene that we’re certain it actually happened. I’d applaud it if that was the intent, but I don’t think it was. The episode seems to be setting up O’Brien and Bashir having a bigger involvement in the story, but they just kind of vanish after the gun concept is established. Sisko doesn’t seem to suspect what’s going on with Ezri, even though he of all people should be able to hazard a guess (see “Facets”). Above all, the solution to the mystery itself is clever, but Ezri and Joran figure out who the killer is because the killer literally walks into the turbolift with them and they just magically conclude that’s who they’re looking for. Obviously, there are time constraints or things that aren’t as important to the story, but all these problems can wind up diminishing the impact, and I think that’s what happened here.

For all that, though, there is good to be found here. De Boer and McCloskey play well off each other, and McCloskey does an excellent job of playing the devil whispering in Ezri’s ear. Since that’s what carries the episode, it manages to keep the story from feeling completely implausible. The gun is also a neat concept, as I said, and the motive for the killer isn’t bad, either. With more rewriting, this might have been a pretty good mystery episode, or at least one that had a lot of atmosphere. As it is, it’s an episode with potential nearly buried by the mishandled elements.

How it Relates to the Whole: I don’t believe this episode has any real connection to future events, although it does leave the door open for Joran to affect Ezri’s personality or for the gun to play a larger role. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if there’s a followup to this, but I’m not expecting any; we’ve only got twelve more episodes for it, after all.

Other: *I do like the fact that Odo realizes there should be powder burns on the victim because he reads old crime novels (something established in earlier seasons, for bonus continuity). That being said, I did wonder why O’Brien and Bashir weren’t at least somewhat aware of it as well; given how big they are on the Alamo, you’d think they’d have least heard of the phenomenon of powder burns. Then again, the holodeck sanitizes things, so maybe it strips that aspect out of the simulation.

*One thing I couldn’t help but notice was that it’s brought up at least twice that the crew can’t imagine a Starfleet officer shooting someone in cold blood. And then there’s the fact that a prototype rifle just happened to turn up in the replicator patterns. Which makes me wonder/hope that there had been some intent to bring Section 31 into this, because this sounds exactly like the sort of things they’d do. It also sounds like it could make a fascinating tale in its own right, and I’m sad that it didn’t go anywhere.

Best Line/Exchange: Nothing really jumped out at me here. So I decided to see what I could find in the episode’s best scene, and came up with this;

Joran: Good, we have a victim. You have him in your sights. How do you feel? Truth, now.

Ezri (after a second’s pause): Powerful. In control.

Joran (voice dropping to a whisper): Good. That’s what the killer’s feeling.

Ezri: I’m not angry, or excited.

Joran: You’re calm, relaxed.

Ezri: Detached.

Joran: Now you’re getting it. You do your killing from a distance, you’re cold, methodical. Maybe you’re a scientist, or a doctor.

Ezri: Maybe. But why kill like this? Why not choose a victim on the Promenade, or at Quark’s?

Joran: If you want to know the answer, pull the trigger. Find out.

This is probably not as impactful when you see it written down as opposed to acted out, but it’s pretty well done all the same. Having the unsure of herself Ezri feel confident for once, but in a way that could lead to disaster, is a nice touch, and the description manages to sound, if not alluring, then fascinating, in the way that we like to see or read about spies. Combine this with good acting and dangerous music, and I think you can see why I consider this the best scene of the episode. If nothing else, it gives the proceedings a nice bit of tension.

After the Fact Update: The original draft of the story had Joran confined to the holosuite, which isn’t quite as good as what I suggested but might have felt a touch less awkward than what they actually went with. It’s good to see that my instincts that something was off are on point.