Okay, so here’s my essay. It’s pretty damn long, so I apologize in advance.
I’ve found myself fascinated with the intricacy of the plotting in the DS9 season 9 arc. Reading through it for the umpteenth time, I find themes and motifs popping up all over the place. I don’t know if half of it was even intentional, but if not then it’s a brilliant example of synchronicity.
I’ve found three main themes popping up over and over again, and a ton of foreshadowing far beyond the obvious plot-based stuff. It reminds me of the complexity of the plotting in NuWho, by which I have been equally impressed.
For the purposes of this, I’ve been thinking about the stories in terms of “season 9,” as I say – 24 episodes that incorporate some of the non-core DS9 stories too to flesh it out.
Theme A – the mistakes of the past coming back to haunt you in the present.
Theme B – related, and similar: how things might have gone differently.
Theme C – being alone is not good for you.
Obviously, this post will contain spoilers for all the DS9-R books.
901 / 902 – “Unjoined,” parts 1 & 2
- Theme A – The Trill’s people’s secrets regarding the parasites and their role in creating them come back to create havoc and death on a massive scale. The past relationships of both Dax and Bashir come back to create tension in their current relationship.
903 – “Waiting for the Mist to Clear”
- Rena struggles to balance what her family wants her to do, and what her soul tells her to do. She finally chooses her art, and finds all the happiness she needs. It plays forward to “Fearful Symmetry,” where Iliana faces a similar choice – do what her family wants (state service) or what she wants (work on her art). She chooses the opposite of Rena – service – and it leads to a life of heartbreak and madness.
904 – “The Officers’ Club”
- On her acceptance into the Officers’ Club, there’s a moment where Kira has her body made over – teeth fixed, skin polished, hair cut. She stands and looks at her new body in a mirror. This reflects forward to when Iliana does the same thing, after her plastic surgery, and she inspects her new body – Kira’s body – in a mirror in the same way.
- And of course, this episode reminds us of the complex, convoluted plots of which Cardassians are capable, as we will see as Iliana’s plot develops.
905 / 906 – “The Lotus Flower” / “Miracles”
- Theme A – all the past history of Cardassia comes into play. The Oralians, the military domination, the deal with the Dominion, even Garak’s past as an OO agent.
- More specifically, there’s more convoluted Cardassian plots. There’s also a moment where Garak – an ex Obsidian Order agent – interrogates someone in silhouette, the light almost hiding their identity. Which reminded me of the moment where Iliana – also an ex Obsidian Order agent – does the same thing in “Fragments and Omens.”
- There’s also the very simple motif of somebody grabbing someone else by the throat to threaten them, which seems to pop up oddly frequently. Here is O’Brien and Jartek.
907 – “Saturn’s Children”
- Theme A – Bashir’s past habits as a torturer come back on him. Ro’s past bad relationship with Kira comes back on her.
- Theme B – the whole alternate universe concept is the quintessential “what might have been” idea. Keiko also casually mentions the many-universes concept, which handily sets us up for Iliana’s plan later.
- Kira-but-not-Kira begins this tale by being raped by Martok. In “Fearful Symmetry,” another Kira-but-not-Kira begins her new life by being raped by Dukat. Ro reminds us that even alt-Dukat had a thing for alt-Meru and alt-Nerys, something which will become very important later.
- Intendant Kira slits Zek’s throat, just as she will have her throat slit by Iliana later.
- There’s no Vaughn in the MU that we’ve seen, which I’m convinced will become a major plot point in “The Soul Key” and “Ha’mara.”
908 / 909 – “No Place Like Home” / “Paradigm”
- Theme A – all of Shar and Vretha’s past decisions come home to roost.
- Theme C – Matthias notes how being alone has not been good for Shar, and his relationship with Prynn helped him.
- Some have complained – me included – that the WoDS9 stories get a little repetitive. Too many of them are political upheavals, involving progressive versus conservative forces in government. Then it occurred to me that it’s the embodiment of Theme A – do we let the past dictate the future, or do we create our own future how we want it to be?
- There’s another throat grab – Shar and Thia.
910 – “Fragments and Omens”
- This is the most plot-intensive set-up of the season, as opposed to theme-intensive. But it still introduces us to the idea of Vaughn worried about becoming too old and obsolete, which informs his actions in “Warpath” and “Fearful Symmetry,” and which again I think will become important in “The Soul Key.” It also reminds us of the Ascendants, who return in “Olympus Descending” and “Warpath.”
- One tiny line by Sisko – “...and those others...,” sets up the revelation at the beginning of “Fearful Symmetry” that all Siskos are the Emissary, across the multi-verse.
911 / 912 – “Sale of the Century” / “Satisfaction Is Not Guaranteed”
- Perhaps the most disconnected from the arc, although it does feature Theme A (Rom’s past marriage causing problems for his current marriage). It also features Ro as an investigator – something that also happens in “Fragments” and “Malefictorum,” and will become more important in “Symmetry.”
- And there’s a throat grab – Leck and Krax.
913 – “Malefictorum”
I rewrote this entire story to use the DS9 characters instead of the SCE characters (for which I apologize to the original writer). But in doing so, I found many of the familiar motifs popping up, and lots of interesting developments.
- For one, there’s Theme A – Luaran wants revenge for the Dominion War. I even suggested that the fact that a Founder helped kill the previous Luaran might have cuased this one to go crazy.
- Theme C – Luaran went crazy, trapped alone on that station with her mission of revenge. Not just that, but Taran’atar – alone on the station – is getting more and more agitated and unhappy.
- In tracking down the culprit, there’s a throat grab – Ro and Tellow. At the conclusion, Taran’atar brutally kills Luaran, a Vorta, which foreshadows him doing the same to Kira in “Olympus Descending.”
914 – “Lost Time”
- The events of “Cold Fusion” directly cause the events of this episode, as do the past histories of Soloman and Gomez – Theme A.
- The multi-verse pops up again – an alternate universe but not THE alternate universe – as an example of Theme B.
- Theme C – it’s not been healthy for Soloman to be without 111. Or for Gomez to be without Duffy.
- In my added B-plot, I dramatized Taran’atar’s discovery of his need for sleep – an example of Theme A in that it’s a result of stopping to take the white. Or is it? <dun dun duuunnnnn!>
915 – “Wounds”
- Theme A – Bashir’s past affects Lense’s present.
- Theme B – alternate reality.
- Theme C – Lense didn’t like being stuck alone in Starfleet prison being investigated.
916 / 917 – “Olympus Descending,” parts 1 & 2
- Theme A – The Founder’s past actions with the Hundred lead directly to the plot of these episodes.
- Theme C – the Hundred being out there alone without the Link wasn’t good for them.
- There are a lot of discussions about religion versus science – arguments that came up in “Paradigm” and are repeated here. And I can’t help but wonder if Iliana having two minds in her brain – the religious Bajoran and the secular Cardassian – contributed to her insanity.
- An entire prison facility built to house just one person. Here it’s for the Female Founder – in “Symmetry” Dukat does the same thing for Iliana.
- A multiplicity of throat grabs during Taran’atar’s “escape” from Ananke Alpha.
918 / 919 / 920 – “Renegade,” “Warpath,” & “Slave”
921 / 922 – “Fearful Symmetry,” parts 1 & 2
923 / 924 – “The Soul Key” / “Ha’mara”
Quite aside from the fact that we don’t even have all the story yet, this is the point in the story where it’s all plot, barrelling towards the end of the season. So foreshadowing and set-up have been done – it’s all pay-off now.
- Although I will say that the trip into the Mirror Universe, as set-up at the end of “Symmetry,” is the ultimate pay-off of the whole “Worlds of DS9” concept – we visited and explored six different homeworlds, now we’re taking it one step further, and exploring a whole different parallel universe. The MU is as much a “world of DS9” as any other.
- And the final throat grab appears, paying it off once and for all – Taran’atar grabbing the Intendant’s throat, just before Iliana kills her.
I’m sure there’s probably more that I’ve forgotten but that will come to me later.
Please, you guys, discuss – don’t make me feel like I went through all this for nothing.
