Day 109: DS9, For the Uniform

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S5EP13, “For the Uniform”

 Summary: As the episode opens, Sisko has once again failed to catch former Commander Eddington, who was revealed to be working for the Maquis in “For the Cause”. He and the Defiant give chase, only for Eddington to activate a virus he planted in the ship before he turned traitor and completely wipe out the Defiant’s memory core. Shortly afterwards, Sisko is taken off the Eddington case, both because he’s not getting results and because Starfleet thinks he’s getting too personally invested. But when Eddington starts using biological weapons against Cardassian settlements, the Defiant winds up being the closest ship, so Sisko sets out again, willing to work with whatever O’Brien’s managed to restore. Thus begins a game of cat-and-mouse, involving bioweapons, taunting, and oddly enough, references to the original Les Misérables.

Standalone Thoughts: I really do like a lot of this episode. Having the Defiant be crippled and the crew finding workarounds is interesting, and continues the trend of finding good ways to use Nog to boot. The confrontations between Eddington and Sisko are great, because while we’re on Sisko’s side and agree Eddington is in the wrong, Eddington brings up some good points that allow the situation to be a little less clear cut (I’m particularly fond of the moment where Eddington asks how Sisko would feel if someone took his father’s home away, and Sisko never actually answers the question). Above all, Avery Brooks gives a great performance, showing Sisko’s anger over being betrayed/fooled but never letting it get too overblown. The only time he does come close to that is in a scene where he’s ranting about the situation while taking it out on a punching bag, but it’s at a point in the plot where that sort of reaction is understandable, so it doesn’t feel like scenery-chewing. In fact, most of the time I would describe Sisko’s mood as a very cold, rational anger, which I think is why the last act really works. So overall, “For the Uniform” would probably rank fairly high if I was ranking each season’s episodes.

And yet (you knew that was coming), there’s something slightly off about it. The overlapping conversations as the Defiant’s crew has to manually adjust course/target weapons/etc. is a neat detail at first, but becomes a little hard to follow as it goes on. And the pacing is just a little too fast, which I think is due to the content. We spend a lot of time seeing the planning of the various missions, but not a lot of time on the execution of them. That, plus the use of Captain’s Logs to skip over segments of time, means that when things start heating up, it doesn’t feel like it was wholly earned. Don’t get me wrong, it’s entertaining to watch, but I think to have been wholly effective, the writers either needed to find a better balance between planning and action, or have two episodes (though not necessarily a two-parter) dedicated to the subject. Even so, the pros outweigh the cons, so I’ll happily take what we’ve got.

How it Relates to the Whole: While there won’t be any followup to this, the episode does deal with the Eddington issue in a fairly satisfying manner, and therefore ties up a loose end so they can gear up for the big plot coming up. The episode also introduces holo-communicators (a projection of a person on another ship is beamed onto the bridge of “our” ship), although I’m not sure if they’ll be sticking around. One could also argue that this episode may have led in some way to the creation of one of DS9’s more famous episodes later down the line, but that one’s less clear. I’ll certainly choose to see it that way until the DS9 Companion proves otherwise, though.

Other: *I do have to give kudos for whoever came up with the title to this one. It’s a great way to allude to the prior Eddington episode “For the Cause”, and remind us that there are two sides to this situation. Well done.

*Something about the opening scene is really disorienting to me. I’m not sure if it’s the flickering lights, the camerawork (I think it might be handheld) or the way Sisko’s walking, but it just feels like the screen is shaking, and while it didn’t make me nauseous, I was glad when things finally settled down. Just something to watch out for if you see it for yourself.

*When Sisko decides to go after Eddington despite his orders not to, he suspects Dax disapproves and tries to head her off at the pass by saying what he thinks she’s thinking. She counters that she wasn’t thinking that at all; what she was thinking was that Sisko was getting more and more like Curzon every day, and that she hoped Sisko would keep this little adventure in mind the next time she went off half-cocked. Sorry, Dax, but he’s at least got a good reason for doing what he’s doing (there are no other ships close by). You very rarely have such an excuse.

Best Line/Exchange: I managed to narrow down my options to two this time around. Sisko’s angry rant was good, but a lot of it’s in the delivery, and I wasn’t exactly sure where to cut it off. So that left;

Odo: Sir…have you ever reminded Starfleet Command that they stationed Eddington here because they didn’t trust me?
Sisko: No.

Odo: Please do. (walks out)

You can tell Odo’s smug about the fact that Starfleet’s decision blew up in their faces, but he doesn’t belabor the point, nor does he actually sound all that smug. Still, there’s something fun about seeing people’s arrogant assumptions being pointedly disproven (see also my pick for Best Exchange in “Bar Association”), and so I’m happy to represent it here again.

After the Fact Update: The DS9 Companion informed me that I was wrong; Eddington is going to make one last appearance. We’ll see if it’s as satisfying as this one was. The Companion also drew a thin connection between this episode and the one I was thinking of, so I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that one led to the other.