Day 147: DS9, The Sound of Her Voice

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S6EP25, “The Sound of Her Voice”

 Summary: On the way back from escorting a convoy, the Defiant picks up a distress call from Captain Lisa Cusak (Debra Wilson), whose ship crashed while they were investigating an energy field around a planet. Eventually, O’Brien manages to establish communications between them, after which they learn that the planet has a heavy concentration of carbon dioxide, and Cusak has a limited amount of medicine to counteract the effects. The Defiant immediately rushes to rescue her, while Sisko, Bashir, and O’Brien take turns talking to her, which turns out to be a comfort both to her and to them. Meanwhile on the station, Quark pushes Odo to celebrate his one month anniversary with Kira, though of course he has a personal, and therefore shady, reason for doing so. As often happens in a Quark vs. Odo battle, though, things don’t necessarily go as planned.

Standalone Thoughts: This episode baffles me in so many ways. In the first place, you’ve got a serious main plot rubbing shoulders with a humorous subplot, which the crew shied away from earlier in the season (“Change of Heart”) but apparently decided was ok here. Secondly, there are lots of little details that just don’t make sense or aren’t explained very well (see the “Other” section for most of those). And most importantly, the episode revolves around plot and character developments that don’t seem to have been properly established.

The thing is, I know what this episode was trying to do. It was trying to be another “In the Cards”, where the crew is wound up because of the Dominion War, but something comes along and helps them feel better. The problem is, “In the Cards” just had the characters feeling a general sense of gloom and doom. “The Sound of Her Voice” tries to give them specific problems, but those problems seem to come out of nowhere. Maybe it wasn’t as obvious back in 1998, when the episodes were airing weekly so you were likely to forget some details, but if you’re watching them in rapid succession, the fudging is a lot more glaring. For example, Sisko apparently is having trouble with Kasidy, and Cusak concludes it’s because he shouldn’t mix his professional life with his personal life. Not bad advice, to be sure, but since we don’t see Kasidy all that often (and we didn’t actually see them working together), this development is just being told, not shown, and it feels awkward. O’Brien feeling isolated from his friends because he’s afraid of losing them, I can at least buy, because he might be putting on a brave front and not letting people see how he feels, although we weren’t seeing much evidence of that in prior episodes. And as for Bashir…I know I’m biased and may inadvertently turn a blind eye to some of his flaws, but this episode seems to suggest that he’s been more focused on his work than having a good bedside manner lately, which just doesn’t feel like the case (“Statistical Probabilities” notwithstanding). As a result, while the idea’s a solid one, the execution probably would have been better if they’d been slightly less specific.

Now, the subplot is much better and succeeds at being both funny and sweet, but there’s one key factor that kind of colors the whole thing. While Quark is trying to distract Odo, Jake is passively observing the whole thing, because he wants to get a sense of realism for a crime novel he’s writing. In other words, the son of the station commander is well aware that Quark is doing something illegal, and has actually promised not to tell anyone about it, all for the sake of his writing. He doesn’t even know what the illegal activity is; for all he knows, Quark could be selling something that could be used to make weapons. The worst part is, Jake isn’t necessary to the plot—he’s just there so Quark can explain to the audience why he’s doing what he’s doing. Having him explain it to Rom, or another Ferengi, or maybe a middleman one-off character would get the job done just as well without throwing in some uncomfortable implications.

While the episode has its good points, I’d probably rank it as the second worst episode of the season (“Statistical Probabilities” is number one by a county mile), solely because it makes less and less sense the more you think about it. Plus, if you’re familiar with tropes (general or Star Trek specific), you may see where things are going pretty quickly, which doesn’t bring down the episode any further but doesn’t exactly help matters either. I do appreciate what they were going for (especially since tomorrow’s episode, the last of the season, is going to be another very serious one if memory serves), but I think it could have done with a bit more polishing.

How it Relates to the Whole: As far as I know, this episode has no direct connection to any future events. That being said, I can’t help but wonder if the last scene was meant to be a goodbye of sorts, given what’s going to happen in tomorrow’s episode…

Other: *Just a general question/observation from someone who’s not very science-oriented; should Cusak really be talking so much? I know it’s important to the plot, but if the problem is too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a limited supply of medicine to counteract the effects, would she be able to buy herself some more time if she mostly kept silent? She might not be using up quite as much oxygen that way. Like I said, though, I don’t know a lot about how this works, so the point may be moot.

*The episode opens with Odo apparently doing some sort of health and safety check of Quark’s bar, coming down hard on him for the lack of backs on his barstools. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, this scene sets the tone for the episode by bringing up a bunch of questions. Why is Odo, the Chief of Security, doing this, and doing it now? Why does it feel like he’s coming down on Quark harder than usual? And didn’t the barstools used to have backs? The answer to that last one, according to “Who Mourns for Morn?”, is yes, which brings up a new question; what happened to the old chairs? The first two questions can be glossed over, but surely the crew was familiar enough with Star Trek nerds and continuity hounds that they’d have tried to avoid messing with set details.

*When Sisko is talking to Cusak about his relationship with Kasidy, Cusak asks him if she’s his subordinate. Admittedly, this topic hasn’t come up very much in Star Trek, but I feel like the rules about fraternization/relationships with subordinates would probably still be in place in the 24^th century. Granted, I also seem to recall throwaway lines suggesting that Bashir (a lieutenant) has dated at least one Ensign, so maybe they’ve lessened restrictions somewhat. Even so, I’d think they’d still enforce the “Captains/Commodores/Admirals shouldn’t date lower-ranking officers or enlisted personnel to avoid a power imbalance” rule. Or maybe I’m just bringing too much of the real world into a fictional one again.

Best Line/Exchange: For the most part, nothing in the episode jumped out at me in a good way. So I went with the bit that made me smirk;

(O’Brien is literally talking about his problems to Captain Cusak)

O’Brien: Are you sure you’re a captain, and not a counselor?

Cusak: Oh, I’m sure. I’ll let you in on a little secret, Miles. I dislike the whole concept of a ship’s counselor.

O’Brien: Me too! I, mean, I-I like some of them personally, but…

Cusak: But sometimes they just get in the way.

Remember, O’Brien was a supporting character in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which included Deanna Troi as ship’s counselor. Furthermore, Troi has a reputation among the fans for being completely useless, despite having empathic abilities. So I have the very strong impression that the DS9 crew may have been mocking their predecessor again, but doing it in a slightly less obvious way than they did in “Bar Association”. And you kind of have to admire their simultaneous subtlety and brazenness.