Day 77: DS9, Starship Down

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S4EP6, “Starship Down”

 Summary: The Defiant has come to the Gamma Quadrant to discuss trade deals with the Karemma, a race that has been using the Ferengi as middlemen. Just as Hanok (James Cromwell) realizes that Quark has been cheating him to boost his own profits, two Jem’Hadar ships attack, and the Karemma ship lures them into the atmosphere of a gas giant to try to deter them. The Defiant pursues, but winds up getting ambushed and badly damaged. Sisko winds up with a concussion and Kira has to try to talk to him to keep him awake, Bashir and Dax are trapped in a small area with limited oxygen, Quark and Hanok are stuck in the mess hall with nothing to do but argue with each other, and while Worf and O’Brien have more freedom in engineering, that just means it’s up to them to figure out how to get them out of this situation, including dealing with the Jem’Hadar. There should be a lot of drama and tension at the very least, but there just…isn’t.

Standalone Thoughts: I didn’t have any memories of what happened in this episode going into it, and upon rewatching it, I can sort of understand why. There’s nothing really wrong with it, but it also doesn’t have anything really memorable. It’s a variation of a trope we’ve seen countless times, where something goes horribly wrong and a small group of people have to work together to solve their problems (and depending on the show, work out their differences). Heck, TNG had already done a plot like this with an episode titled “Disaster”. So while the dynamics and specific problems are obviously different, you can’t help but feel like you’ve seen it all before.

Because of all the things I mentioned above, the episode lives and dies on the character dynamics, and for me, it’s not particularly successful. Kira is good, because she’s confronting her relationship with Sisko, but Sisko himself spends most of it barely conscious, Worf is still in the “adjusting to his new role” phase with O’Brien acting as his advisor, Bashir and Dax just address Bashir’s crush on her, and while Quark has his moments with Hanok, it’s all pretty much what you’d expect from him. Furthermore, nobody (again with the exception of Kira) really seems like they’re concerned about the situation. They’re stuck in a dangerous spot, with a lot of broken systems and the Jem’Hadar trying to hunt them down, but they’re all pretty much conversing normally. Yeah, their voices are a little more subdued, but you don’t really feel a sense of stakes, which isn’t helped by the fact that everything magically gets resolved in a montage at the end. So while I want to support the character work they’re doing here, in practice, it’s just bland all around. Which is never a good thing in an episode that revolves around fighting to get out of a bad situation.

How it Relates to the Whole: While the episode is clearly trying to set up some shifting dynamics between the characters, it’s hard to say how many of them will actually stick. Other than that, I don’t think this has much of any impact. Ah well, better luck next time.

Other: *One of the things that sometimes gets complained about when it comes to Star Trek (and a lot of space based sci-fi, I’d imagine) is that the writers tend to treat space battles like naval battles and forget that space has three dimensions. Is a spaceship surrounded on all sides? Just fly up or down. But the writers never seem to think of that. In this case, though, they did think of that, mentioning that ships are above or below the Defiant. Granted, some of this could be because in this case, they were clearly aping submarine warfare instead of ship warfare (the use of sonar makes that abundantly clear), but credit where credit is due.

*O’Brien advises Worf to go a little easier on the men because they’re engineers instead of officers, and that what they do best is coming up with solutions to a problem you give them. When Worf tries this out, telling the engineers that he needs “a weapon”, the interaction between them as they come up with an idea and excitedly try to figure out how to make it work is a lot of fun. There’s something charming about seeing people get really enthusiastic about something, and given the situation they’re in, that makes it all the more lovely to see.

Best Line/Exchange: There weren’t a lot of standout moments, but Quark can generally be relied on to help me out;

(Quark and Hanok are arguing about their styles of economics)

Hanok: The Karemma believe that merchandise has a set value, determined by the raw materials and the labor involved in creating it. Factor in transportation costs and a reasonable profit margin, and you arrive at a fair price.

Quark: You make it sound so antiseptic. Where’s the bargaining, where’s the scheming? Where’s the greed?

What I like about this is that Hanok’s line basically perfectly sums up how pricing works; it’s basically “Baby’s First Economic Lesson”. Then Quark comes in and not only sums up his character in a few sentences, he also kind of sheds a light on the reality of how business works. It’s amusing, somewhat informative, and making a point all at once, and that’s always an impressive trick to pull off.