Happy New Year everyone! I am back with...
"The Ship"
This episode raises even more questions about what the Federation's doing in the Gamma Quadrant. I was under the impression that the Dominion was able to send ships pretty much anywhere they wanted on that side of the wormhole, so I've been wondering why the Federation is still sending out survey expeditions there, much less looking to set up colonies. Now it turns out that the wormhole is "three weeks" away from Dominion space. which means I guess that there's no reason why the Federation shouldn't be expanding there.
Anyway, they're exploring a planet that they might use for mining carbonite...caramel candies...cormaline. And then a ship crashes, but not before there's some good-natured banter between O'Brien and Muniz about O'Brien walking up a mountain but coming down a hill. Or vice versa.
The ship is upside down and everyone on it is dead. Sisko decides to keep the ship, which means they've got to get it operational. A dead ship that no one's familiar with that killed its last crew, without any special engineering tools...should be a snap.
Then another Jem'Hadar ship shows up, blows up the runabout (with the crew of three on board), and beams soldiers down to the planet where they kill one blueshirt and wound Muniz. Then the Vorta in charge, Kilana, wants to work things out diplomatically. They've certainly gotten off on the right foot, haven't they?
Kilana is awesome. She's very, very convincing as the earnestly evil saleswoman/marketing rep/customer service agent. Brilliant. And the actress also played Fake Janeway in "Live Fast and Prosper." Great stuff.
Muniz is, unfortunately, doomed. And just as we get to learn about him. O'Brien even has a nickname for him, Quique. Though I don't think I've seen a phaser cut someone before...
Sisko goes out to talk to Kilana, who's all sweetness and light. She's very eager to reach an understanding. Which is why she sent a Jem'Hadar to infiltrate the ship and try to kill everyone on it. Sisko finds out and goes back. Quique's getting worse. Then he goes back out to talk to Kilana, which ends in failure again, Quique gets even worse, and they start bombing the ship.
Which is when things get good. Everyone starts getting snippy. O'Brien and Worf have a particularly good run-in. Sisko starts yelling a lot. I don't think that's the best tactic. I mean, which would you respond better to? Someone quietly but firmly saying, "If you want to live, we've got to work together," or "STOP SHOUTING! CALM DOWN GODDAMN IT! CALM DOWN!"? Sisko really goes Hackman there for a while.
There's an obligatory scene on the station with everyone (except Jake) who's not in the A-story, but it doesn't really go anywhere. The Defiant warps into a crisis without its chief medical officer because he's got to catch up on paperwork. McCoy would never stand for that.
Quique dies.
Turns out there's a Founder on board, and he's not doing well at all. He dies and turns into black ash.
Well this expedition could have gone better.
And by a total coincidence I've just rewatched "The Galileo Seven" and there are certain parallels. Sisko keeps doing the right thing, and people keep dying.
Once the Founder dies, the Jem'Hadar kill themselves. While that's touching, isn't it a military vulnerability? If you know that the Jem'Hadar self-destruct if a Founder dies, you can just concentrate on killing the Founder--if they've got one hanging around. Still, it does inspire loyalty.
And the Big Point of the episode is, if we just could have trusted each other, things would have worked out better.
Not really. The Dominion attacked first, killing four people, before Kilana tried to talk to Sisko. Sisko had absolutely no reason to trust Kilana, who kept trying to trick/sneak attack him. So if anyone needs a lesson in trust and listening well, it's not Sisko, it's Kilana. Now maybe if the runabout had attacked the Jem'Hadar first, we'd have something to argue about, but it seems pretty clear-cut to me.
And that's the whole point of the episode. In the end, Sisko gets his ship and a medal, but at the cost of five lives. But since he was never shown as a guy who's hungry for medals, it doesn't really mean that much to me.
I think the final scene should have been Jake talking to Sisko, not Dax.
So this episode, even though parts of it were good, is kind of a mess, philosophically. Why should you trust people who are trying to kill you and negotiate in bad faith?
Well, it is greatly benefited by the two greatest recurring actors Trek has ever had.
