Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine
Episode
Particulars: S1EP11, “Vortex”
Standalone
Thoughts: After a long stretch of what are best described as “slice-of-life”
episodes (i.e. episodes that are generally one-offs), it’s refreshing to see
something more in the vein of “Emissary” or “Past Prologue” again. It’s not as
strong as either of those, but it’s still decent, with great acting by
Auberjonois as Odo struggles between doing his job and learning more about his
people. There are, however, a few things that are hit and miss for me. First,
there’s the fact that Quark comes across as a little too dark in this episode. His
dialogue is still mostly humorous, but there’s an unpleasant implication that
he was willing to commit murder to get what he wanted. He may be shady, but
that just seems too much for him. Secondly, there’s Croden and how DeYoung
plays him. He’s clearly meant to be a Garak type, someone who makes it hard to
tell when they’re lying and when they’re honest. In practice, something about
DeYoung’s performance is slightly off to me. There just doesn’t seem to be a
lot of emotion in Croden’s voice, and he seems relatively indifferent to his
situation, which, given what we find out later, seems odd. I’ll give the
writers credit for showing multiple sides to his character by the end, but the
majority of the role kept shifting between intriguing and breaking my
immersion. Both of those above points are more a matter of opinion than
anything, so I’m not saying there’s anything overly wrong with them. The third
one, however, I have a little more trouble with.
Without going into too much detail, I feel like the
episode ends without really accounting for the events of the final act. In “Captive
Pursuit”, it was at least acknowledged that O’Brien wasn’t following Starfleet
protocols, and there have been other moments where actions had consequences.
Here, Odo just kind of…flies off into the sunset, and unless tomorrow’s episode
picks up where this one left off (which I doubt), it kind of implies that we’re
supposed to approve of Odo’s actions, and that Odo’s not going to lose sleep
over what he did. This is somewhat understandable when it comes to what happens
to Croden—the episode at least had spent a long time showing the multiple sides
of the conflict—but what happens to the Miradorn is harder to accept for me.
You can argue that Odo was justified, but even so…I feel like there needed to
be an after action report that discussed the matter. I can understand why they
chose to end it where they did, but I think it needed one extra scene to give
the thing proper closure.
How it Relates to
the Whole: While it’s not clear whether or not the writers had things
planned out yet, this episode makes it obvious that they’re starting to move
forward on answering the question of where Odo came from. There’s nothing
concrete yet, but based on what we hear, it sounds like the idea of the changelings
was starting to take shape in the writer’s room. It’s going to be awhile before
we get a payoff to this, but it’s a good way to keep that plot thread fresh in
our minds.
Other than that, there’s not much else. Quark’s ability
to tap into DS9’s computers makes a reappearance, and we see more grey morality
on display, but while the morality was a big part of DS9’s later years, this is
less foreshadowing and more gradual development. As for Quark’s “hacking”,
we’ll have to wait and see if it ever comes into play in a big way.
Other: *While
the special effects crew has generally been improving when it comes to Odo’s
shapeshifting, the effect as he reconstitutes himself from a shattered glass is
noticeably fake. The effect itself is fine, but it doesn’t necessarily look
like he’s occupying the same space as the set. Given the position of the
various fragments, though, I think the crew was doing the best they could, so
this is less a slam against them and more an acknowledgement that this sort of
thing must have been difficult for them.
*While the illicit merchandise Quark is trading for is
never named, I have more than a sneaking suspicion I know what it was based on…
That’s a Fabergé egg if I’ve ever seen one. Hey, maybe
that’s where the seven missing pieces went…they got shot into space!
(I joke, but I did a little poking around on Wikipedia
and there was a Fabergé egg called
the Mauve egg, with very little description of what it looked like. So it’s
entirely possible that someone in the props department was a Fabergé fan and
decided to include a literal Easter egg.)
*I’ve always kind of liked the idea of “twins have a
special physical bond”, so the Miradorn situation intrigues me. Granted, it’s
not really explored, and raises some questions that might change my opinion of
the ending, but it at least offers up interesting possibilities.
*Morn actually gets named this episode. And thus another
piece of DS9’s world starts to fit
into place.
*When the Miradorn ship fires on the runabout and Odo
asks “What was that?” the computer responds “A temporary loss of stability
resulting from the impact of a concentrated plasma charge.” If I didn’t know
better, I’d say the computer was sarcastically taking Odo’s question literally.
I don’t ever remember Starfleet computers being that specific before, and it
seems like a poor design decision to have the computer rattle off a phrase like
that when you’re in the middle of a firefight. I’m not sure what the intent was
there, but I hope it’s just a one-off.
Best
Line/Exchange: There’s not a lot to work with in this episode either; the
dialogue is decent but doesn’t have that “spark” that would qualify it for this
list. So I’m going with the one line that made any sort of impact on me, even
though I’m not sure it was the intended impact;
Quark: Paranoia
must run in your species, Odo. Maybe that’s why no one has ever seen another
shapeshifter. They’re all hiding!!
On a first viewing, that line is obviously meant to be a
dig at Odo and Quark overprotesting his innocence. When you hear it on a
rewatch, however, the line turns out to be a little bit more prophetic. As I
said, it’s unclear whether or not the writers were laying the seeds this early,
but unplanned or not, it’s still a pleasant surprise.
After the Fact
Update: The summary for this episode in the DS9 Companion says that Croden’s killing of the Miradorn twin was
an accident, which at least eases my concerns about Quark’s involvement
somewhat. Still, the fact that I had the thought at all means that they weren’t
entirely successful at getting their point across.
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