“SONS AND DAUGHTERS”
“What do you mean you don’t recognise me?! Just because I’ve aged about ten years in the past three and look and sound like a completely different person! Worst father EVER!”
*Whispers to Martok* “I STILL have no idea who he is...”
Well, colour me disappointed. DS9 remains my favourite Star Trek series (along with TOS), but consistency wasn’t always its strong point, so it was perhaps only inevitable the writers would drop the ball somewhere in this seven episode arc. I really don’t know what they were thinking here. Yes, it was inevitable the Alexander issue would have to be addressed at some point (unfortunate as that is given how grating the character could be). Alas, why they thought
THIS was the time for some insipid soap opera, right bang in the middle of a gripping multi-episode storyline, I have no idea. While the B-plot is stronger, “Sons and Daughters” still manages to grind the arc’s momentum to a halt.
In all honesty, I find the Worf/Alexander plot tedious to sit through and, uncommonly for DS9, it features some particularly bad writing (I think this was the moment I realised that Bradley Thompson and David Weddle were the weak links in the writing staff). Alexander’s arc in this episode is an incoherent mess that blatantly disregards just about everything we knew about the character from TNG. In fact, TNG’s “Firstborn” was one of the better efforts in the show’s final season and provided some effective closure for the character, giving us a glimpse into his future, in which he grows up to be James Sloyan (and, frankly, who could hope for more?). Given that one of the DS9’s own writing staff actually wrote that episode (step forward Rene Echevarria) you’d think there would have been a greater sense of consistency and coherence here.
But, no. The character’s motivations are never explored. What in the name of Kahless is he doing on the Rotarran? It surely must be sheer
chance because there’s no way a lowly grunt could request which ship he is posted to. Alexander never had ANY interest in becoming a warrior—in fact, quite the contrary, it was made explicitly clear on TNG that he didn’t want to embrace his Klingon heritage. Worf actually made peace with that, with the two coming to fairly good terms. So, what gives? Is Alexander trying to prove something to Worf, or trying to get back at him? Who knows! All he basically does is spurt some crappy, petulant lines like, “well if I get killed by the Jem’Hadar I’ll be dead and you will be happy. Now leave me alone!”
The resolution is frustrating because things just somehow fizzle out. Alexander gets locked in engineering and then, all of a sudden, he seems to have forgiven his father and ends up being initiated into the House of Martok in a truly tedious closing scene. How does that actually resolve anything, and what will become of him? Alexander isn’t even treated as a character here; he’s just a plot device whose decisions and behaviour seem hazy and irrational. We get the basic idea: Worf has been a terrible father and Alexander is pissed about it. But it’s handled so weakly, I truly didn’t care.
The episode suffers poor writing, unimpressive directing (even the action scenes fell flat this week) and while Michael Dorn acquits himself reasonably well given the substandard material, Marc Worden doesn’t do a particularly good job as Alexander Mark III. If you’re going to recast a character, there should at least be
some attempt to make it seem like we’re watching the same character. Worden’s voice and mannerisms were completely different to Brian Bonsall’s and he never once conveyed the sense it was the same character. Furthermore, his rapid ageing stretches credulity to breaking point. Here he seems as though he’s about twenty years old, but in chronological terms, Alexander couldn’t be more than ten years old at MOST. Yeah, maybe Klingons age faster than humans, but this needed to be addressed at some point instead of just hoping the audience wouldn’t notice.
The best I can say is that J.G. Hertzler is, as always, a joy to watch and he shines even when delivering some stupid lines (such as the classic “when a father and son do not speak it means there is trouble between them.” You THINK, General Obvious?). Oh, and this episode would have benefited by keeping some of the Rotarran crew we got to meet in “Soldiers of the Empire”. Alas, we’re back to generic cookie-cutter Klingon characters. Speaking of cliches, another Klingon episode means another fight in the mess hall! It’s a wonder these guys ever manage to eat anything at all. They all must suffer chronic indigestion.
The station plot is much more engaging, even though I do have some issues with it, too. Nana Visitor and Marc Alaimo are on top form as always, although I do somehow feel this should maybe have come before Kira’s watershed moment in the previous episode. Seeing her almost semi-charmed by Dukat and, for a brief moment, considering accepting a dress he sent her seemed like a step backward for the character. Why would she let her guard down around this narcissist creep when she’d already resolved to lead the resistance against him? I can buy her friendship with Ziyal and the resultant conflict, but I just don’t see Kira letting herself get on even
slightly friendly terms with Dukat. That ship should have long sailed. Speaking of which, Ziyal’s naïveté in this episode is off the scale, but I shouldn’t criticise her given that in my early twenties I was probably just as naive, optimistic and idealistic. She seemed altogether too quick to forgive Dukat for ditching her and leaving her to die with everyone else in “By Inferno’s Light”. But, yeah...it’s really no surprise she has daddy issues given who her daddy IS. It really is a toxic relationship, and although Dukat does seem to have some genuine affection for her, I couldn’t help but wonder if he had deliberately patched up their relationship simply to get closer to Kira.
Overall, this is a disappointingly weak entry. It’s rather painful when this show lurches from a bona fide masterpiece to bland soap opera in the space of a single episode. Fortunately, things will quickly pick up again.
Rating: 5
