Day 111: DS9, By Inferno's Light

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S5EP15, “By Inferno’s Light”

 Summary: Things are bad on both sides of the wormhole. In the Gamma Quadrant, Worf and Garak have discovered that Dr. Bashir was replaced by a changeling a month ago (they’ve also found the real General Martok), the Jem’Hadar are going to use Worf for battle practice, and the only hope of escape is going to involve very finicky engineering work. It’s even worse in the Alpha Quadrant, because not only has a Dominion invasion fleet come through the wormhole, it’s revealed that Cardassia (or rather, Gul Dukat) has signed a treaty with them, and is now aligning itself against the rest of the quadrant. About the only good thing to come out of this is the fact that the Klingons, facing enormous opposition, are willing to consider teaming up with the Federation to deal with this threat. But even that might not be enough…

Standalone Thoughts: The “Part Two is stronger” phenomenon strikes again; this episode is fantastic. There’s tension, great acting/character work, great plot twists (including one right at the very start of the episode), and even though there’s not as much action as you’d expect, it still feels immensely satisfying. Even if it wasn’t important to DS9 as a whole (see next section), I’d probably call this one a must see.

I do have a few complaints, though. Although the Dukat-Zyial conflict I mentioned in “In Purgatory’s Shadow” is somewhat justified here, it’s still not what I would consider essential to the story, and most of it would have been better served if it had been established in a prior episode. The way Worf and the others plan to rescue themselves is clever, but also a little too convenient when you think about it. Most importantly, while the real Bashir is in excellent (read; very attractive to me) form this episode, Siddig’s interpretation of the changeling Bashir isn’t quite as impressive. He basically just has his face go blank and talks in a more muted register, which works well enough as a sign that something is different, but also heavily relies on closeups and ominous music to really put the idea across. This is a small part of the whole, though, so it’s not a dealbreaker. Besides, I have a theory about this that I’ll be going into more detail about tomorrow, for reasons that will become immediately apparent then. For now, though, just focus on the fact that this episode is one of the greats, and enjoy all the richness it has to offer.

How it Relates to the Whole: While I still don’t think I can officially say DS9 has entered the point where most of its episodes are part of a larger story, this episode has brought us right up to the brink. Cardassia has joined with the Dominion, the Klingons are our allies again, Martok has officially become a member of the supporting cast, Garak got more development (although with the exception of his relationship with Zyial, I don’t know how much of it is ever going to be really essential), and the station is prepared for war. Needless to say, I’m waiting with even more eager anticipation for the moment when we cross the threshold. If only I could be certain when the moment is.

Other: *Today’s episode establishes that Garak suffers from claustrophobia, which puts his throwaway line that mentions claustrophobia in “Second Skin” into a very different perspective. As I said, I’m not sure if this will ever become a factor again, but it’s used to great effect here. It provides tension, makes you feel some of that claustrophobia by zooming in uncomfortably close on Garak’s face, and Garak’s angry argument with himself as he tries to convince himself to calm down and not freak out is something I think a lot of people with anxiety can relate to. Excellent handling all around, I’d say.

*Near the end of the episode, Dukat has a line that is so very close to a political slogan made famous in the last few years that I actually snorted. I’m not saying what it was so as to avoid things getting political in here, but it’s not that hard to figure out, especially since I’m not the first one who’s noticed it. Let the comparisons begin!

Best Line/Exchange: Again, there are quite a few good lines today, but I decided to bypass the humor (for once) and the speech that was a little too preachy and went for the meta;

Gowron: Think of it. Five years ago, no one had ever heard of Bajor or Deep Space Nine, and now…all our hopes rest here. Where the tides of fortune take us, no man can know.

Sisko: They’re tricky, those tides.

I like to see Gowron’s line as also applying to DS9 as a show. It’s not a perfect one-to-one correlation (after all, Voyager was in its third season at this point), but it still fits. And I like the “tides of fortune” bits because you can interpret that as the writers either saying “We’re not sure how this is going to play out either.” or “You guys have no idea what you’re going to be in for.” Even if I’m just making all this up, though, I’m happy to see where the tides choose to go…in part because I know where they’re going, but I’m interested in the patterns they’ll make along the way.

After the Fact Update: First off, part of the reason the claustrophobia scene works so well is because Andrew Robinson is not only slightly claustrophobic himself, but he was ill the day they shot it and therefore in just the right mindset to feel like he was falling apart. Secondly, Siddig says that he deliberately played changeling Bashir the way he did to try to imply the lack of humanity, but as I’ve stated, I’m not sure that entirely works. Finally, this entry and yesterday’s entry revealed that the writers just came up with the idea of Bashir being replaced by a changeling on the fly, which surprised Siddig when he got the script. This might just seem like a random detail now, but just wait until I get to tomorrow…