Day 81: DS9, Homefront

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S4EP10, “Homefront”

 Summary: Following a terrorist attack on Earth, video footage reveals that there was a changeling in the room when the bomb went off. Sisko and Odo are immediately asked to come to Earth to help Starfleet figure out how to defend against the threat, since no one knows how many other changelings are on the planet. While this does allow Sisko to visit with his father, Joseph (Brock Peters), and for Jake and Nog to be reunited, tensions are running high. Working with his former commander, Admiral Leyton (Robert Foxworth), Sisko comes up with a few defensive measures, but other incidents seem to suggest that they’re not enough. More dramatic steps might need to be taken, though Sisko isn’t particularly thrilled with the prospect. Given the way things are going, the rest of Earth might not think so either…

Standalone Thoughts: Once again, we get an episode heavily drenched in paranoia, now mixed with a healthy dose of infringing on civil liberties for the sake of protection. This may be a turnoff for some people, but while it’s uncomfortable subject material at times, I don’t have a problem with it, either in theory or in practice. It would probably be too much if this was the atmosphere we got all the time, but in small doses, it works. Plus, given that the changelings really could be anything or anybody, it would have been more surprising if there wasn’t some paranoia involved. As for the infringing on civil liberties bit, it’s also not a surprise they went in that direction, since it’s a natural step to take. Not to mention it’s another moral grey area, because we get clear evidence that not everyone is completely on board with it, including Sisko himself. So I’m not opposed to them going this route, as long as they execute it well, which seems to be the case so far.

That being said, while it’s got good ideas and decent atmosphere, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a great episode. It’s got all the elements to make it good, but it’s lacking the extra something that gets me really invested, like “The Die is Cast”. Maybe it’s because we haven’t seen the payoff yet (DS9’s been pretty consistent about having the second part be stronger than the first), but it hasn’t fully clicked for me. It does, however, make it hard to figure out how to classify this episode. It’s definitely not bad, and I don’t think I’d call it okay or mediocre, but it’s really hard for me to make the jump to “good”. It may wind up getting stuck in the “interesting” grey area, which is a cop-out but at least accurately describes a large portion of the material.

How it Relates to the Whole: As this is at least a two-parter, it’s hard to say just yet what the ramifications of this episode will be, though it’s currently not leading up to anything good (from an in-universe perspective; as I said, it’s perfectly acceptable out-of-universe). That said, it’s definitely moving the changeling plot forward, so it’s obviously got some connection to later events. On smaller notes, we get the official introduction to Sisko’s father, continue Nog’s progression through Starfleet Academy, and get a brief reminder of Odo’s status among the other changelings (he’s now looked down upon thanks to the events of “The Adversary”). Also, we find out that O’Brien and Bashir are acting out the Battle of Britain in a holosuite, which may not be a recurring thing (though I don’t remember for sure) but may have paved the way for some later holosuite adventures. It certainly connects thematically…

Other: *I’ve sometimes wondered if my issues with Dax’s more jerkish behavior is mainly due to her mostly unleashing that behavior on Bashir, given that he’s my favorite. I got my answer today, when we find out that she likes to break into Odo’s quarters while he’s regenerating and shift all the furniture in his room to be off by a few centimeters, just to annoy him. Sure, it’s a harmless prank on one level, but when he’s clearly annoyed by it, that’s the time that you apologize and stop. But this sounds like it’s happened several times, and since it’s not presented as crossing a line, it just seems like a bit of business that unintentionally makes Dax look bad.

*For some reason, O’Brien is putting on a Cockney accent when he gets out of the Battle of Britain simulation. Maybe he was just immersed in the program and was unconsciously mimicking it after being surrounded by similar accents, but it kind of feels like he’s doing it on purpose. Since Wikipedia confirms that there were Irish pilots involved in the Battle of Britain, I don’t know why he felt compelled to do that. It’s more distracting than anything.

*Just to show that watching an episode every day doesn’t necessarily mean you understand everything…I’m kind of baffled as to what exactly is going on with Nog at this point. It’s obvious that he’s in Starfleet Academy, but back in “Facets”, it sounded like he was taking tests that would help him get into a summer program. Now it appears that he’s a full-fledged cadet. Maybe we’re supposed to assume that he took the program, passed, and that program meant he was now a cadet, but either I missed something, the writers changed their minds, or they didn’t make things very clear. To be fair, it could easily be a combination of all three.

*For those Trekkies in the audience who, like me, have seen most of the shows but don’t remember all the details, I’m here to check Memory Alpha on your behalf. The elite group of cadets known as Red Squad that Nog mentions is not the same thing as the flying group that Wesley was in in the TNG episode “The First Duty”. No, that was Nova Squadron. While it might have been an interesting bit of continuity, they’re two totally separate things. Obviously, though, it’s understandable if you get confused.

*Near the end of the episode, we get a tracking shot as Admiral Leyton speaks, which gradually zooms in on his face. But instead of stopping when it’s just his head in frame, the camera keeps going, to the point where I thought it wouldn’t stop until all we could see was his mouth. It doesn’t go that far, but it’s uncomfortably close, and I have no idea why the cinematographers decided to do that. Given that I generally don’t notice what the cameramen are up to, though, I figured this was worth mentioning.

Best Line/Exchange: I wanted to choose something a bit more serious this time, and I finally went with;

(Sisko’s father is refusing to take a blood test to prove he’s not a changeling)

Sisko: We’ve got civilian families living on starships and Starfleet installations all over the Federation. The only way we can secure those facilities is to test everyone there, whether they wear a uniform or not.

Joseph: I’m not living on a Starfleet installation.

Sisko: Dad, if we test the family members of one Starfleet officer, we must test them all!

Joseph: You may want to test everyone, but that doesn’t mean we all have to cooperate. I didn’t take an oath to Starfleet. Neither did Jake or your sister or anyone in your family. We have rights, Ben. Including the right to be as stubborn or thick-headed as we want.

The great thing about this exchange is that Joseph is absolutely right, but given everything we’ve been seeing in the episode up until now, it’s incredibly suspicious. Still, that’s more a matter of framing and delivery than the actual words. When you look at them in a vacuum, they still work, because they’re highlighting the moral dilemma the Federation is currently going through, and hinting at the idea of the slippery slope and the phrase “those who trade freedom for security will get neither”. Yet the whole thing feels appropriate for the situation and not like the writers are banging you over the head with a message, which is hard to pull off. And as a bonus, it offers up the perspective of the common man, which I suspect is going to be sorely needed in this situation. Though we’ll have to wait till tomorrow to be absolutely sure about that.

After the Fact Update: I went back and watched the relevant bits of “Facets” to try to clear up my confusion about Nog, and in my defense, the show doesn’t make it very clear. Nog was taking tests to get into “the Academy prepatory program”, which he felt was important for getting into the Academy “next year.” Jake responds “You think six weeks of summer classes will make the difference?” The problem is, it’s hard to tell if the six weeks Jake mentioned relate to the prepatory program or any practicing Nog has been doing offscreen. Later in the same episode, Jake mentions Nog taking “the Academy entrance exam” next year, which muddies the waters further. My best guess is that either we’re supposed to assume he did it all offscreen/during the break between Seasons Three and Four, or the writers forgot that Nog was being tested for the prepatory program and just assumed it was the entrance exam instead. It’s a minor plot point in the grand scheme of things, but I wish I could get a better sense of the timeline.