Day 44: DS9, Tribunal

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S2EP25, “Tribunal”

 Summary: As O’Brien and Keiko head off on their first vacation in five years, they’re intercepted by a Cardassian ship, where O’Brien is promptly arrested. No one will tell him what his charges are, and as we learned from Gul Dukat in “The Maquis”, he’s already been found guilty and will be having a show trial according to Cardassian law, presided over by Archon Makbar (Caroline Lagerfelt). The DS9 crew, meanwhile, manage to figure out that the trial has to do with some photon weapons stolen from the station, no doubt to be given to the Maquis. While they conduct investigations of their own, Odo comes to Cardassia to serve as O’Brien’s nestor (defense lawyer), “assisting” the bloviating Conservator Kovat (Fritz Weaver). Given Cardassian rules, there’s not much Odo can do, but if nothing else, he can drag the trial out for as long as possible to buy enough time for the Federation to try to sort things out. Admittedly, that’s quite the legal tactic.

Standalone Thoughts: If I was ranking episodes by season, this one would probably be somewhere in the middle. It’s got some interesting aspects to it (especially if you’re a fan of Cardassians like I am, though I should clarify that I like them in that I find them interesting, not that I support their actions), but while the execution is competent, there’s nothing that really makes it rise above “ok”. There’s good lighting and atmosphere, and the investigation by the DS9 crew is well-handled (including a return of authoritative Bashir, my favorite version of him), but very little about it really jumps out. Unlike a lot of “trial” plots, thanks to the Cardassian method of declaring a verdict before the trial, there’s not a lot of tension, made doubly so because we know that O’Brien will be ok and because we have a strong suspicion of who’s really behind all this, because the episode set things up in the teaser. Meany and Auberjonois do their best to provide some drama, but it’s not enough. About the only thing that does make an impact is Kovat, and that’s because Weaver is such a gigantic ham that it becomes distracting and feels more like Weaver’s acting style than a natural part of Kovat’s character. Basically, it’s an interesting idea in theory, but could have used a little tweaking to really make it work.

How it Relates to the Whole: We get a little more of a glimpse into Cardassian life, we’re reminded that the Maquis are, in fact, still around, and while I don’t believe it’s directly related, this episode does somewhat foreshadow a later episode involving O’Brien and the Cardassian justice system. In other words, nothing major, but at least we’ve got a little development going on.

Other: *Just one today, but it’s a doozy. As O’Brien is being thrown around to be processed, he’s forced into a chair, punches one of the Cardassians in the face, and tries to escape. A second later, he’s forced back into the chair. How he got from point A to point B isn’t explained, not even with an offscreen sound effect of a punch. We can deduce what happened, but it’s a very distracting cut.

Best Line/Exchange: I don’t have a lot to work with again. So I guess I’ll go with;

Odo: Gul Evek has tied the Maquis to this plot by quoting reliable sources. I think we deserve to know who these reliable sources are.

Makbar (turning to Evek): Can you provide any details, Gul Evek?

Evek: I’m afraid that information cannot be revealed without risk to national security, Madame Archon.

Makbar (turning away): That’s an acceptable answer.

Odo: Might we know how Gul Evek learned the warheads were in the runabout?

Evek: Yes, of course. We learned about them from reliable sources.

Talk about using weaselly tactics to get your way. In the right hands, it’s funny (I can imagine seeing something like this in Dilbert), but it can also be infuriating when it’s wielded by the bad guys. This one is somewhere in-between.