Day 31: DS9, The Alternate

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S2EP12, “The Alternate”

 Summary: To Odo’s (unpleasant) surprise, Dr. Mora Pol (James Sloyan), the scientist who “raised” Odo when he first came to the Alpha Quadrant, has arrived on DS9. He’s a little more intrigued, however, when Mora explains that a probe revealed a planet that appeared to contain traces of shapeshifters, and he wants Odo to come along to check it out. Odo does so, and they manage to collect a sample before they’re forced to evacuate the planet due to seismic activity. They place the sample in a room for study, but in the middle of the night, the room is destroyed, with evidence that something escaped through the air ducts. Cue the creepy music…

Standalone Thoughts: I get the distinct impression that this episode underwent massive rewrites, and that the finished product was nothing like the original idea. There’s not a lot of other explanations for how much of a mess this episode is.

First off, the episode opens with the idea that someone is scamming Quark, and Odo plans to investigate. We get at least a solid minute of this, with so much detail that you’d be forgiven if you assumed it was the main plot of the episode. Instead, we never hear about it again (unless Odo follows through with it in a subsequent episode); it’s all just a setup to get Dr. Mora on the scene. We probably could have spent a little less time on that and still achieved the desired result, which is Dr. Mora seeing Odo in action.

A far bigger issue is what happens after they get back from the planet. Dax, Mora, and another Bajoran scientist are all knocked out and incapacitated by gas that started venting from the planet. It seems like it’s fairly serious, and Bashir isn’t sure what sort of effects it will have. Then, after the lifeform breaks out of the lab, Dax shows up, and when asked if Bashir released her, she admits that he didn’t, and had to sneak to her quarters in a hospital gown to get some clothes to come help. It just feels unexpected and off, and you wonder if the gas is affecting her somehow. This isn’t helped by the fact that later, there’s a moment where it could easily be interpreted that she moved a heavy object all by herself, for no good reason. But it doesn’t come to anything. Maybe I’m just too used to the tropes, but it felt like the story was drawing too much attention to what Dax was doing. And if the intent was for her to be a red herring, then it does its job too well, because there’s way more setup for Dax being behind it than what the actual cause is.

Oh, and that heavy object she moved? It was a pillar with mysterious writing on it that they took from the planet to study. We get two different shots of people reaching out to touch it, while semi-dramatic music plays, but besides that, it gets ignored for the rest of the episode. The writing isn’t translated, it doesn’t zap anybody with a mysterious ray…it’s like everybody forgot about it, including the writers of the episode.

Probably the biggest problem of all is the reveal of what’s going on and the resolution to the situation. All the pieces are in place for it to work, and it just…doesn’t. There’s no real foreshadowing, so everything just kind of gets dumped on us all at once, and we’re expected to just go along with it. The end result is that it feels rushed, and while you can see how it could have worked, it wasn’t given enough time to develop organically. Pare down some of the character bits (entertaining though they are) and devote more time to setting up the reveal, and maybe this would have felt a lot more believable.

As it stands, the biggest thing of note in the episode besides the awkward third act is how much the visuals and situations are shamelessly riffing on (or ripping off, if you’re uncharitable) horror movies. Alien is clearly a major inspiration here, with a creature we barely see or know anything about, crawling through air ducts, and even an unpleasant encounter with alien secretions. I’d also say part of the climactic encounter with the creature was lifted from (in my opinion) the creepiest scene of Forbidden Planet, though at least that one’s a little more subtle. Sure, it’s somewhat effective, but it’s so blatant that it’s mostly effective because of our familiarity with the scenarios, and causes more annoyance than admiration.

What I find both interesting and frustrating is that, while Odo’s a great character with a clear personality, the writers seem to have trouble with episodes centered on him, especially if it relates to where he came from. “Necessary Evil” was good, but it was just as much about general backstory as it was about Odo. On the other hand, “A Man Alone” had similar weaknesses to this one, and “Vortex” suffered from a supporting character who didn’t quite mesh with the material. It’s going to get better later, but right now, Odo appears to be in the same boat as Dax; they’re better when they’re not the center of attention. Which makes episodes where they are the center of attention difficult to work with, both to make and to write about.

How it Relates to the Whole: We get more of Odo’s backstory that was hinted at in “The Forsaken”, and while we don’t learn anything new about him or his species, it’s a reassurance from the show that they haven’t forgotten about this plot thread, and that they’re slowly working towards a resolution. I’m also pretty sure that Dr. Mora comes back in a later episode, one that handles the conflict with Odo much better than this one does. If my memory serves, though, it does sort of ignore everything that happened in this episode in order to do so. Based on this episode, though, maybe that was for the best.

Other: *Odo claims that studying humanoid death rituals is a hobby of his. There’s a good chance he was making it up so he could work his way towards revealing Quark’s scam, but I can absolutely believe it. Not only is Odo curious about humanoid life, there’s something about his stern, serious personality that I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a sort of morbid fascination with death. Or maybe I’m reading too much into this.

*While I’m generally fairly forgiving of matte paintings in shows, this particular example is a little too glaring for me to just ignore;

Not only does it not blend that well with the set, the clouds and water don’t move. If they wanted this to seem somewhat believable, they probably should have cut that detail.

*On a related note, that pillar in the middle of the screenshot is at least a head taller than everybody. And yet somehow, Dax is able to get it beamed onto the runabout and carried back to DS9 for further study. Given what we’ve seen of the interior of the runabouts, I have my doubts that it could fit in there, especially if it was beamed in upright. So unless runabouts are like the TARDIS, or there are more parts of the runabouts we haven’t seen, I’m calling shenanigans for a plot point that never even becomes relevant.

*It’s interesting how a throwaway line can wind up being all the more revealing. While O’Brien’s crawling around in the airducts, he asks Sisko and Odo not to let Keiko know that he’s risking his life. Then he says “When I come home tonight, she’ll ask me how my day was, and I’ll say ‘Fine, honey, how was yours?’ Sometimes I don’t think she really wants to know the truth. So I do us both a favor.” It suggests some friction in the O’Brien household, and that Keiko either isn’t interested in hearing about O’Brien’s day or that it will just lead to an argument about how dangerous his job is. There’s potential for a plot there, though unfortunately, the show never really knew what to do with it.

Best Line/Exchange: Even though it has nothing else to do with the rest of the episode, I’m choosing this bit;

(Sisko is trying to get Jake to properly study his homework, a Klingon opera)

Sisko: This isn’t about tests, Jake, this is about learning. You can’t learn to appreciate Klingon opera by cramming for the exam the night before.

Jake: Well, what am I ever going to use Klingon opera for?

Sisko: Well…first of all, you don’t know what you’re going to be when you grow up. You may discover along the way that you want to be a musician. Or you may find yourself…among some Klingons…in a job…somewhere.

Jake: Dad, even if I did, they wouldn’t be going around singing operas.

Sisko: It helps you understand their culture.

Jake: When was the last time you listened to Klingon opera?

Sisko (makes a realization): When I was your age.

Jake: There, you see?
Sisko: Yes. Do you?

Jake: Just because you suffered through all that doesn’t mean I have to.

Sisko (grinning): Yes it does.

It’s a nice variation on the “do your homework/when am I ever going to use this?” argument, wherein Jake actually has a point and Sisko changes tactics from “this is important” to “do it because I say so”. It just feels like an actual conversation a parent and child would have, and that’s why I like it. Plus, while I’ve generally found Sisko to be a decent character but not much of a standout compared to Kira or Odo, his interactions with Jake are overall really good, and so it seemed like a good time to highlight that.

After the Fact Update: Bafflingly, the DS9 Companion gives no indication that there were major changes over the course of the story’s development, so I have no idea how to account for the inconsistencies I mentioned above. On a lighter note, though, both Alien and Forbidden Planet are mentioned, so clearly we were all thinking along the same lines.