Day 70: DS9, Facets

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S3EP25, “Facets”

 Summary: While Nog takes a series of tests that will get him one step closer to joining Starfleet Academy, Dax is facing a different sort of test. Joined Trills have to go through a ritual called the Zhian’tara, where the past lives of the symbiont briefly take over a willing participant so the current host can interact with them and learn more about themselves. The crew is more than willing to participate in this, and everything goes relatively smoothly until they get to Curzon, who has taken over Odo’s body for the duration. That’s when they run into two snags. First, thanks to Odo’s changeling abilities, it’s as if Curzon and Odo have performed a symbiosis of their own, and they both kind of like it. And second, Dax is a little worried about talking with Curzon, because she’s been feeling like she doesn’t deserve to be a host and wants to know the true reason he initially rejected her as a host candidate, and why he didn’t object when she reapplied. You have to admit, it’s a novel way of having a character confront their insecurities.

Standalone Thoughts: For the most part, I like this episode. It’s a fun piece of fluff that gives the cast a chance to act differently, and most of them take full advantage of it. Special mention must be given to Nana Visitor, who changes both her voice and her posture, and Avery Brooks, who really manages to put some menace into the scene where Dax confronts Joran, aka the murderous host we learned about in “Equilibrium”. It was so effective that one of my family members was yelling “No, don’t do it!” at the screen the first time we watched it, which I think is a good sign that everyone involved in that scene was doing a good job.

That being said, I have some issues with the conflict of the episode, which is Dax wrestling with her doubts. In theory, it’s not a bad idea—characters confronting something and either getting closure or coming to terms with it can be very interesting material. The problem is that we’ve seen zero evidence of this kind of fear in Dax. She’s never come across as insecure about being a joined Trill, even in episodes where that sort of insecurity would have made sense, like “Playing God” or “Equilibrium”. One can argue that she’s been hiding it under her flirty, fun-loving personality, but while that can be a valid argument, I counter-argue that that can only go so far, especially in fiction. If you want to play fair with the audience, you have to show some hints that the characters have something going on underneath the surface. Changes in expression when none of the other characters are looking, brief moments of hesitation in certain situations, or subtle bits of body language can go a long way towards telling us that there’s more to this character than we first thought. We’ve gotten none of that with Dax. Sure, the backstory is there, but Dax’s insecurity only seems to have come up in this episode. I don’t think I can fully blame Terry Farrell for this, though; I think the writers (who have admitted that they were making up rules for the Trill as they went along) decided they wanted to explore this, and threw it into this episode without warning Farrell of their plans beforehand. The reason we didn’t see this insecurity before is that it didn’t exist prior to this episode. Perhaps, if they’d sat down with Farrell and told her they were going to do this, we’d have gotten more of those little hints I mentioned, and then this episode would feel less contrived.

To make matters worse, the resolution to the conflict gives us yet another item for the “Why Dax is a Mary-Sue” checklist. The original story we heard in “Playing God” worked fine; Jadzia was so focused on being joined that she didn’t have a life outside of that dream, and Curzon’s rejection of her from the program opened her eyes. When Jadzia asks Curzon/Odo about it, he could have said something like “I did it for your own good to unlock your potential. You needed some hardship and disappointment in your life to really grow as a person and thus be ready for the responsibilities of being joined.” That would have been a good message for the audience. But no, what we actually get is both cheesy and out of nowhere, but in order to properly rant about it, I’m marking the next paragraph as full of SPOILERS.

The reason Curzon rejected Dax from the program wasn’t because she needed more experience, but because he’d fallen in love with her and didn’t want to get too close to her. In other words, Dax is so awesome that not only was her being rejected not her fault, but she made a known womanizer develop feelings for her. Due to the nature of the Trill, I can understand them having some Mary-Sue tendencies, as they’ve had several lifetimes to get good at something, but this is going way too far. Who on Earth thought this was a good idea? And why couldn’t Dax feel Curzon’s feelings for her once she was joined and put all the pieces together herself? It’s drama for drama’s sake, and since it doesn’t really add anything to Dax’s character, it’s ultimately pointless.

END SPOILERS. While this does put a damper on the episode, it’s not enough to completely ruin it. Like I said, all the actors do a good job playing somebody else, the interactions are mostly fun, and the Joran scene has some great menace and tension in it. Furthermore, Nog’s subplot is great, continuing Nog’s character arc nicely and continuing to show that Rom is more than just Quark’s hapless lackey. If you have less of a problem with Dax’s development than I do, you’ll probably enjoy all of this episode. If you’re more like me, well, at least it’s mostly fun.

How it Relates to the Whole: While nothing really comes of the Dax storyline, the Nog aspect is going to have an impact, as it brings him one step closer to achieving his dream of being in Starfleet. I’m not sure when that really takes effect, but we’re definitely making progress.

Other: *While there does seem to be a retcon at play in this episode, I’ll give the writers credit for trying to address it. Dax chooses Leeta to be one of her hosts, because she considers her one of the people she (Dax) is closest too. Given that Leeta was just introduced three episodes ago, that seems a little out of left field. However, Odo points out that they’ve been spending a lot of time together recently, so at least they’re trying to have it make sense, even if the development is mostly offscreen.

*Speaking of Leeta, my memory of her behavior and personality is a little different to the one we see here. We’ll have to see if this was an example of everyone still figuring the character out, or if there were some subtleties I missed the first time around.

*There’s a small but clever touch in this episode. Quark expresses reservations at being temporarily possessed, but Dax talks him into it by using a sweet voice, preying on his feelings for her, and a little oomox. I bristled at it initially, since it seemed like Dax was lying to get her way. Then, later on in the episode, we learn that Curzon was manipulative but covered it up with his charisma. In other words, Jadzia picked that trait up from him. I still don’t like Dax’s actions, but it’s a good example of “show, don’t tell”, so I’m a little more forgiving of it.

Best Line/Exchange: I always come back to humor, don’t I? In an episode that has lines about accepting yourself and following your dreams, I wind up choosing this;

Bashir: Do you have any idea what Dax wants to talk to us about?

Odo: No.

Bashir: Apparently she asked Leeta to come as well.

Odo: Hmm. I’ve noticed they’ve been spending quite a bit of time together.

Bashir: (Glances at him) Do you keep tabs on everybody, Constable?
Odo: Not everyone. But really, Doctor, two Delvin Fluff Pastries for breakfast this morning? You of all people should know better than to start your day like that.

(Bashir laughs and the two continue down the hall)

It’s a bit of a callback to the Best Exchange I picked in “The Wire”, and also winds up being semi-relevant to the episode when Dax asks former host Torias (in Bashir’s body) to stop eating so much because Bashir’s watching his waistline. Mostly, though, I picked it because it’s a fun piece of banter, and there’s something pleasurable in watching two friends chat and tease each other. So while it’s not profound, it’s pleasurable, which counts for something too.

After the Fact Update: Not only does the DS9 Companion admit that Leeta was kind of haphazardly thrown in there (the original plan was for Keiko to do it, but the actress was unavailable), but it suggests that Dax’s insecurity came about because of her confrontation with Joran. That does make a certain amount of sense, but I think my points still stand. You normally don’t have fears like come about because one person says something; it’s generally been there all the time, but something brings it to the surface. Some setup, even if it only started in “Equilibrium”, would have gone a long way.