Day 100: DS9, Nor the Battle to the Strong

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S5EP4, “Nor the Battle to the Strong”

Note: So I’ve been at this for a hundred days now. I’m as faintly impressed as you are. Sadly, the episode numbers don’t directly line up—thanks to the fact that “Emissary” and “The Way of the Warrior” are technically two episodes spliced in one, the actual hundredth episode of the show was “The Ship”—but that doesn’t make this any less special.

 Summary: Jake has been asked to write a profile of Dr. Bashir, but since he can’t understand all the medical jargon, he’s not doing very well. Then what appears to be a golden opportunity presents itself; some Klingons are attacking Ajilon Prime, and they’re in desperate need of medical assistance. Once Bashir is convinced to go, Jake is suddenly confronted with the realities of war, and being a civilian, he doesn’t exactly take it well. It’s been said that adversity shows us who we really are, and that’s definitely true in this case. But what we also see is that sometimes when it comes to adversity, our responses can vary wildly from situation to situation.

Standalone Thoughts: When I first watched this episode, I considered it the sci-fi version of The Red Badge of Courage (though admittedly, I’ve only read an abridged comic book version of the story). Rewatching it, I still feel that way. It hits all the similar beats; a naïve young man going into a battle and realizing war isn’t what he expected, seeing death firsthand, panicking and then being ashamed of it. On that level, the episode is pretty effective, and both the carnage we see and Lofton’s performance sell the material.

That being said, two things keep me from saying this is a really good episode. One, while we’re clearly supposed to see this episode and think “war is hell”, there’s never really a sense of danger or tension, which undercuts the message and makes me feel like I’m being preached to, even if it’s way less blatant. And two, it’s kind of hard to forget that the entire reason Jake and Bashir are on the planet is because Jake convinced Bashir to go to a warzone just so he could get out of writing an article he found boring. There’s no question that Jake paid for that mistake, but at least in my case, it was hard to muster up a lot of sympathy for him (based in part, again, on the tone). Though maybe that says more about me than it does about the episode.

How it Relates to the Whole: While the episode’s content doesn’t really carry over into the future (though there will be a somewhat similar episode later on), I am ninety-nine percent certain that this episode has significance that will come to light later on this season, though I won’t be able to confirm it until we get to the relevant episode. It’s certainly going to skew the way I look at certain material until then.

Other: *As suspected, the brief scene between Kira and O’Brien that we see today shows no evidence of the romantic tension from yesterday’s episode. In fact, O’Brien’s more focused on the health of his child than on Kira’s wants (in this case, coffee). I don’t mind the implication that they got past the awkwardness, but maybe they could have saved it for at least one episode after establishing the tension, to at least try to suggest that more time had passed.

*I am less than thrilled with the fact that, after Sisko explains the situation with Jake and is clearly concerned about it, she tells him that he doesn’t have a lot of time to go through Jake’s things (presumably to make sure Jake’s not doing anything illicit). Even taking into account the fact that Dax apparently uses humor to break tension (as we learned in “The Ship”), that just seems cruel, especially given a discussion she and Sisko have later on. The fact that she continues not to be called out for this in-show makes me wonder if this is supposed to be a flaw with her or not.

Best Line/Exchange: There wasn’t a lot to work with today. A lot of the lines rang true, but felt natural rather than well-crafted, if you get the distinction. So I guess I’ll go with this;

(After performing medical duties all day, Bashir and Jake sit down for a meal)

Jake: I’m starved.

Bashir (picking up his utensils): Think I’ll start by making a lateral incision across the thigh joint.

(Jake’s face crumples and he presses his napkin to his mouth. Bashir immediately drops his utensils and gets to his feet)

Bashir: Uh-oh. Hang on. Out we go, come on!

(He helps Jake outside while another table nearby observes the scene)

Nurse (Lisa Lord): His first day?

Kirby (Andrew Kavovit): Yeah.

Bolian (Mark Holton): Pass the salt.

Yeah, this was partially chosen for the humor, but in this case, it was funny to me because I’ve heard that doctors very quickly develop gallows humor (and presumably, cast iron stomachs) to deal with their jobs, so this was an example of a scene that rang true. Also, this scene establishes that Jake’s an outsider and unprepared for this, plus it gets a callback later in the episode, so like my choice in “The Ship”, this also ties into the plot. Look, I know I’ve got a pattern when it comes to picking my best lines, but at least I’m trying to shake things up.

After the Fact Update: The DS9 Companion confirms that part of the inspiration for this episode was The Red Badge of Courage. It also, to my faint dismay, seems to be suggesting that my suspicions about that thing I can’t talk about are incorrect. So now I’m just going to be even more confused until we get to the episode in question.