Day 51: DS9, The Abandoned

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S3EP6, “The Abandoned”

 Summary: Quark gets his hand on the remains of a ship from the Gamma Quadrant, only to discover that there’s a baby among the wreckage. The child is growing at an accelerated rate, so Bashir keeps an eye on him in the infirmary. Sisko monitors the situation, but is slightly distracted by the prospect of meeting Mardah (Jill Sayre), a Dabo girl Jake’s been dating. Of course, the child situation gets his full attention when said child turns out to be a Jem’Hadar (Bumper Robinson), who starts to run amok on the Promenade before being stopped in his tracks by the sight of Odo. Bashir quickly concludes that the Founders have done something to the Jem’Hadar to make them both loyal to all changelings and dependent on a drug to ensure extra compliance. Reminded somewhat of his own upbringing, Odo hopes to use his connection to the Jem’Hadar to perhaps convince the young man to find other ways of looking at the world rather than jumping immediately to the violent option. Based on their first meeting, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

Standalone Thoughts: This episode has a good concept, continues to develop the Dominion, and I appreciate the direction they went with it (no spoilers, but needless to say there’s grey morality on display), but I think it could stand to have been expanded on more. Something about the episode feels a little rushed, like they crammed too much into the second half. The point of the plot still got across, but I think we needed some extra time for it to truly sink in.

The biggest problem, I think, is that they threw in the subplot about Sisko disapproving of Mardah, which subsequently took time away from the Jem’Hadar plot. Maybe those extra minutes could have been used for another scene to continue to drive the point home. Certainly the subplot could have been dropped into practically any episode, because it never directly ties into this episode. It probably would have been better suited for a fluff episode about family relations.

Another, more minor problem is that I think the episode comes to the conclusion that the Jem’Hadar are programmed to be violent without ever giving us concrete evidence. Yes, we’ve got evidence of genetic engineering, and there’s the whole thing with the drugs, but there comes a point in the episode where the species being programmed for violence is just taken as fact. There’s not even some technobabble about the violent parts of the brain being stimulated or altered to be larger. It may be accurate, but the lack of an explanation for that conclusion might subtly throw people off. Well, at least in this case it’s supported by other things, instead of just coming out of nowhere.

How it Relates to the Whole: We start to learn a little more about how the Jem’Hadar work, including the drug they’re addicted to to keep them compliant. We don’t learn its name just yet, but the drug is going to come into play in at least one episode. Then there’s Odo getting his own room, another hint of a burgeoning relationship, and the first suggestion of what Jake really wants to do with his life. As for Jake’s relationship with Mardah, I’m not sure how much more it’s ever going to come up—it’s probably only a minor spoiler to say that there’s no sign of their relationship by the end of the show. Still, I think we can all agree that we get a lot this time around.

POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT. Unfortunately, I don’t believe the Jem’Hadar from this episode ever returns, which I think was a missed opportunity. Odo having to confront him from the opposite side of the battlefield and be visibly reminded of his failure would have been a nice, albeit dark, grace note. Then again, maybe the writers considered it, but couldn’t figure out how to make it work. I’ll just have to read the DS9 Companion and see.

END SPOILERS.

Other: *We get some nice continuity nods today. Jake’s relationship with a Dabo girl had come up a few times before, and the idea of having her over for dinner came up in “Playing God”. Plus, the alien who sells Quark the ship salvage and kicks the whole plot off is the alien who kicked the plot off in “The Homecoming” at the start of Season Two. If she shows up again, I might have to start calling her “The Plot Fairy”.

*I think the writers might have gone a little overboard with the alien leering at Mardah in the teaser. Not only is he overweight and almost certainly designed to be unattractive, his name (Okalar), is pronounced a lot like the word “ogle”. Can we try not to go down the “unobtainium” route, guys? It’ll be better for everyone in the long run.

*The development of the Jem’Hadar doesn’t make a great deal of sense. How does this…

 

…grow into this?

I feel like he probably should have had more reptilian qualities from the start, or at least more indication that those spikes would grow out of his face.

*The scene where Odo shows Kira around his new quarters and explains what he’s going to use it for is sweet, and very reminiscent of their scenes together in “The Chase, Part 2”, but…why did Odo get new quarters at all? This has never been brought up, so it comes as a surprising development to us. While it’s not a big deal in the long run, some sort of set up for this would have been nice. My two best guesses are that this has something to do with the increase of Starfleet security mentioned in “The Chase”, or that Odo requested it so he could have more room to play with his shapeshifting abilities. I just wish I could get some confirmation one way or the other.

*The camera has two scenes where it appears to be trying to film things from the Jem’Hadar’s point of view. It’s a valid technique, but in this case, it’s more distracting than anything, especially the way they do it the second time. I appreciate them trying new things, but in this case, it was a failed experiment.

Best Line/Exchange: Not much to work with today. All I’ve got is this;

(Immediately after discovering the child is a Jem’Hadar)

Sisko: I’ve just spoken with Starfleet Command. They want to make sure he’s healthy enough to travel, and then send him to Starbase 201, where he’ll be handed over to a team of specialists.

(Odo whips around at the word “specialists”)

Kira: Sounds good to me. The sooner the better.

Odo: What sort of specialists are we talking about, Commander?

Sisko: There will be a complete team of xenobiologists and exopsychologists waiting for him.

Odo: So they’re going to study him like a laboratory specimen.

Sisko: Well, he’ll be very well-treated.

Odo: So he’ll be a well-treated specimen.

While I mostly chose this for Odo’s sarcastic line at the end, it’s a good bit of character building. After all, Odo’s been in the Jem’Hadar’s position, and it’s understandable that he’d be a little touchy about the subject. This is demonstrated later on in the scene, but the fact that Odo responds strongly to it from the start allows for a little extra acting to sell it. It’s not much, but like I said, it’s all that jumped out today.

After the Fact Update: Or rather, a lack of update; there’s no explanation given for why Odo got new quarters, and it seems to confirm what I suspected in the spoiler section. Too bad; the reasoning behind it could have been interesting.