Anyway... just like every time in a similar situation, I felt the need to answer with that my signature, i.e. Garak's line from "Second Skin". I felt a little irritated that Kira apologized to Tahna, alhough it makes sense for her character at the time. But it's just one of those moments when you can't help thinking "what are you apologizing for to that jerk?"
This was a strong episode, stronger than I remembered it. And it makes sense that it was decided it should air before "A Man Alone" - although that one was not bad, either. It is an important episode that does a lot to develop Kira, define her loyalties and her new role and her relationship with Sisko. (A minor observation - I never understood why some people had a problem with her hairstyle or her early look in general - I don't find her hair or look 'mannish' or whatever else some people said, at all. She looked great - as she did with different hairstyles she had later. But I always had a girlcrush on Kira and found her much more attractive than Dax.)
It's nice to see the important relationships established very early - the depth of Odo/Kira friendship is highlighted in both PP and AMA, although we'll have to wait till season 2 to get the explanation on its history. "Babel" is full of good Odo/Quark moments; Quark is really one of the characters that was established in the fastest and easiest way. Unlike, for instance, Bashir. He really was as annoying as I remembered him back then. Is he the character that changed the most during the course of the show? It was weird, however, to hear Jadzia smugly say that Trills are too mature to care about dating and sex, since it totally contradicts everything we would subsequentlylearn about the Trills, Curzon and Jadzia herself. It was also weird to hear Odo say that he knew Quark wa lying when he said Rom had repaired the replicator, because "Rom is an idiot". Well, Rom still seemed like an idiot a few seasons later, but he turned out ot be a super-talented engineer... Irony or what?
One thing that strikes me during this rewatch is that Sisko is actually very well established as a character from the start - from the way he smilingly blackmails Quark in the pilot, to the way he threatens Kira in 'Past Prologue", it's already clear that this guy is really not Picard (although he'll only say it a couple episodes later...) - and that Avery Brooks was much better than I remembered it. I was long in two minds about his acting, due to his strange, histrionic diction that he always has when he gets into big, dramatic speeches... but now that I have gotten used to it, I don't really have a problem with it, I see it as a part of Sisko's persona. Still, I think Brooks is better in his more restrained, low-key moments and I think he was actually already excellent in these early episodes.
As for Cardassians, well, I would argue that Gul Evec was portrayed in a rather balanced way, and that we got to see him at the of "Journey's End" as a sufficiently reasonable person, with a human (for the lack of better word) side (when he says he lost two sons in the war and doesn't want to lose the third as well). But on DS9, the Cardassians had up to this point only seemed like bullies and a constant background threat. What especially strikes me is that 2 out of 3 military guls we met in the first 2 episodes (Jasad in "Emissary" and Danar in "Past Prologue") came off as boorish, rude, in a constantly bad mood, and probably not too smart I'm sure I'd be missing Dukat at this point even if I was a first-time watcher. Then I remembered that even later, many of the Cardassian military characters seemed thuggish and a bit dim (Rusot, early Damar) an that Dukat's snakelike charm and panache is an exception rather than the rule. But - speaking of charming, flamboyant snakes - AMA fortunately introduces Garak, which more than makes up for gul Danar's boorishness. However, it is almost painful to think that he won't reappear till season 2, and that Cardassians will play a minor role in season 1 until 'Duet".
Come to think, how many Cardassians we've seen are actually slu and scheming? Other than Dukat, Garak and a couple of other Obsidian order people, most minor Cardies have either been of the thuggish variety described above, or they were nice and honest people like Tekeny Ghemor. Which is actually more realistic than if they made every Cardassian sly, witty and mysterious.
However, one thing that I found particularly interesting in those early episodes is that, while Cardassians seemed like classic villains at the time, the real main villains in each of the episodes were all Bajorans. You can see that the show enjoyed confounding expectations early on. After being introduced to Bajorans in "Emissary" as a spiritual people who have suffered terribly, and getting to know them only through a plucky, tough-as-nails heroine with a dark past (Kira) and an an angelic wise middle-aged religious woman (Kai Opaka), with "Past Prologue" and "A Man Alone" we had two episodes in a row with very different Bajoran villains: a nationalistic extremist and very dangerous terrorist (Tahna Los), an immoral and opportunistic ex-black marketeer and murderer (Ibudan), and a bloodthirsty mob out to lynch Odo not so much for being a former 'collaborator' or a suspect in a murder case, as much as simply being different. And although "Babel" does not have a villain, again it turns out, for the 3rd episode in a row, that it's the Bajorans who have caused the problem, rather than the Cardassians, and the closest thing to an antagonist is the late scientist's assistant, a selfish arsehole who does not give a damn about people on the station dying if there's a chance he'll get in trouble - and who does end up saving the day, but only after being abducted by Kira and forced to find an antidote in order to save his own skin.
This has got me thinking about all the other minor and not so minor Bajoran characters throughout DS9, and it's made me realize a couple of things. First off, Bajorans may be actually the race with the widest variety in characterization in Trek - possibly even more so than the Cardassians, and definitely more so than Trek Humans.
And second, I think I finally understand why some Trek fans hate Bajorans so much or call them "boring" - same reason why I love them and find them interesting. Out of all the races in Trek, they are most similar to humans - not the 'evolved' 24th century Trek humans, but the humans as we know them, real, unevolved, 20th century humans. But I'll elaborate more on this in a separate thread.
Great post, DevilEyes! The Cardassian reputation for cunning, sly, imaginative scheming combined with the distinctly unimaginative, thuggish ways encouraged in their career military officers is one of the great contrasts that helps make the Cardassians so interesting and complex.
I also think you're spot on with the Bajorans. Yes, I would have to agree- they are more human than the humans, and so therefore more interesting, at least to me. They also do match the Cardassians in complexity- a great pairing of cultures!
), but if there had been room to learn more about the Higa resistance movement, and why they went to such extreme lengths compared to, say, the Shakaar, without care for possible consequences even more harmful to Bajor than the occupation as it was, it would have been better. Maybe a sequel was needed?
