Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine
Episode
Particulars: S3EP4, “Equilibrium”
Standalone
Thoughts: This one’s going to have to be another spoiler review, I’m afraid,
so those who want to see the show for themselves should skip down to the next
bold section. Short version; it’s an interesting idea that I don’t think is properly
explored.
*Three…two…one…*
This is the episode I’ve been obliquely referring to in every
Dax-centric episode, because we learn that Dax had a host (Joran Belar) that
even she didn’t know about, a musician with a violent temper who wound up
murdering someone. Furthermore, we learn at the end of the episode that at
least half the Trill population can bond with a symbiont, but if that fact were
publicly known, the Trill society would fall apart. Once you learn that, it
throws previous episodes into entirely different lights. It doesn’t make a huge
impact on “Invasive Procedures” or “Playing God”, but the events of “Dax”
become a lot more complex. Now that we know that there was a murderous aspect to Dax’s personality, it’s hard to look at
that episode in the same way, even if it turns out Dax had nothing to do with
the death Jadzia was on trial for.
As interesting as the reveal is, though, the episode
surrounding it isn’t quite as strong. In a larger sense, the episode makes no
mention of The Dominion (though the ship the group uses to travel to the Trill
homeworld is the Defiant), so there’s
a vague unease that the show is ignoring the grand threat it’s set up. But even
if this had been a Season Two episode, it would have had problems. The
hallucinations never come across as really frightening, so those scenes don’t
have the impact they probably should, there’s a lot of technobabble and medical
jargon that obfuscates the issue, and when the reveal finally does happen, there’s not a lot of
fanfare, and the whole thing is resolved quickly. Plus, most of the answer to
the “mystery” comes out in the last act, so the audience barely has time to
fully absorb it (though a lot of them have probably figured out what was going
on anyway). This might have been a better episode if they’d done it like “The
Wire”, where the crew found out what was wrong fairly quickly, and Jadzia had
to go through a period of integrating Joran’s personality into her, complete
with mood swings and health scares. Instead, we get an episode that’s not bad,
but mostly just blah.
Also, chalk up two new points for the “Dax is a Mary-Sue”
list; not only is Jadzia the only joined
Trill who ever was joined after being initially rejected from the program, but
the Trill only found out that half the population could be joined after the
incident with Joran. Couldn’t they at least have said something like “One of
the few who got a second chance” or “After Joran, and similar incidents”? It’s
still not great, but at least it would have been slightly less eyeroll worthy.
How it Relates to
the Whole: This won’t have any impact on the main storyline, but two later
Dax episodes will take what we learn here and incorporate it into their plots.
One of them is even essential to the story. Perhaps that’s why I’m lenient
towards this episode; because it leads to interesting material later down the
line.
It’s also worth noting that the teaser for this episode
contains material that will come into play later, too. This is where we first
really see Sisko with an interest in cooking, which again isn’t wholly relevant
but will become somewhat of a character trait. There’s also a brief interaction
between two characters that suggests to me that the writers were starting to
consider a romantic connection between the two of them.
Other: *Speaking
of the teaser, it’s also one of the more anticlimactic ones we’ve had on this
show. Dax starts playing the piano, and is good at it despite having said a few
seconds ago that none of her hosts were musically inclined. She’s confused by
this, and then the teaser ends. Not exactly a hook that really draws you in, is
it?
*Also from the teaser, I find it strange that Sisko and
Kira are out of uniform, but Bashir is still in his uniform. Perhaps like Dax,
he just got off duty, or he’s still technically “on call”. Then again, given
the few times we see him in normal clothes (that aren’t holosuite related),
perhaps this was a good thing.
*When looking over Dax for possible reasons for her
hallucinations, Bashir mentions that the only major trauma the Dax symbiote
ever suffered was around the time of its fifth host. It just made me wonder
what the events of “Invasive Procedures” would be classified as. Surely getting
removed and implanted twice in the course of twenty-four hours couldn’t have
been good for either it or Jadzia. But what do I know? I’m no expert on Trill
anatomy or psychology.
*We’re told that there are a group of Trill known as
Guardians who look after the symbionts and know a lot about them, despite not
being joined themselves. This seems like a job you volunteer for, and one that’s
probably the second highest honor in Trill society. So why is it that the one
guy we meet, Timor (Nicholas Cascone), seems like he hates his job and doesn’t
want to be there? And is there some reason he can’t occasionally go on
vacation?
*Bashir’s been on fire recently; first the conversation
with O’Brien in yesterday’s episode, and now today, he reaches out to comfort
Dax, his romantic feelings for her mostly left by the wayside. In fact, I think
it’s worth looking at in a little more detail…
Best
Line/Exchange: This comes at the very end of that aforementioned Bashir/Dax
scene;
Bashir: Now if
that little story didn’t put you to sleep (chuckles
faintly) I don’t know what will.
Dax (resting a
hand on his arm): You’re a very dear man, Julian.
Bashir (gets
up): Listen, Jadzia…you’re more than welcome to stay the night here if you
want. You can have the top bunk.
Dax (also gets
up, looking relieved): Are you sure you don’t mind?
Bashir: Absolutely
not. Up you go.
Dax: Ok, well…in
that case, if it’s not too much trouble, would you mind if I took the lower
bunk? Curzon fell out of a tree once and, uh…
Bashir (laughs
gently): Whatever you want.
Dax (smiles): Thank you.
(She gets into the
lower bunk. Bashir turns the light above her bunk off, then climbs into the top
bunk and resumes reading. After a moment…)
Bashir: Is this
light too bright for you? (When no
response comes) Dax? (Looks down to
see that Dax has fallen asleep instantly) Sweet dreams. (Returns to reading)
If you want to, you can interpret this as Bashir hoping
that this would lead to something romantic and being thwarted. But given that
he offered her a separate bunk, that she was the one to seek him out, and that
none of his lines are openly flirtatious, I like to think this is him looking
past his feelings for her to help her out as a friend and a doctor. Sure, maybe
it’s my bias talking, but I still think this scene is really sweet, and
probably the best moment in the whole episode. So it’s worth noting for that,
if nothing else.
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