Watching DS9: 1x03 "A Man Alone"

[Jonz]

This concludes the first DVD of watching Deep Space Nine. My plan is to continue with the next DVD during next week: Monday, wednesday, friday and sunday. Do you think that is moving too fast?

Well here goes:

1x03 "A Man Alone"
Story by: Michael Piller & Gerald Sanford
Teleplay by: Michael Piller
Directed by: Paul Lynch

Synopsis:
Odo, the shape-shifting security chief, has his character questioned when a visitor found slaughtered in one of Quark’s holosuites turns out to be Ibudan, a Bajoran Odo once arrested for murder.

Review:
This episode marks a sort of follow-up from “Emissary” in that we delve deeper into the relationships of a lot of the secondary characters while others such as Rom and Keiko are introduced. The episode’s teaser is fairly entertaining as we are treated to Dr. Bashir’s attempt to woo Jadzia. As I mentioned in my review of the pilot I actually liked this slightly annoying and self-important version of Bashir a great deal.

One drawback of the episode for me is that it seems to present the viewer with a lot of secondary plotlines with not enough follow through. We are introduced to a potential triangle between Jadzia, Bashir and Sisko. We see some of Jake’s struggles with finding a friend and something to do on the station, and a plotline concerning Keiko O’brien troubles settling in are introduced.

Even though I feel that this episode seems to have too many things going on at the same time, one must admit that these plotlines do serve a purpose of developing the show’s large palette of characters. Something I have always felt was one of Deep Space Nine’s strong points.

The A-plot concerning Ibudan’s murder is largely passable, but not great. The differences between Odo’s sense of justice and way of doing things and the ‘starfleet way’ presents an interesting problem. But the murder-mystery and its eventual resolution feels somewhat average. We as viewers know from the start that Odo of course did not commit the murder, and the sequence involving him being a suspect culminates in a scene which I really hate: The mob scene on the promenade.

The mob scene seems very artificial and staged and I have almost found it unintentional funny, when the angry mob stands around and resorts to shouting ‘Shape-shifter!” and “Shifter”. It is extremely heavy handed and weird. Not sure if this is the fault of the writing or the direction or perhaps a combination of the two.

The murder plot does present us with equally great scenes though. First, I really like the scene when Odo and Kira discusses the attempt to frame him in ops. One senses that Kira has a very close bond and a deep affection towards Odo when he asks her to have the federation doctor make a sweep of Ibudan’s ship. Another standout scene is when Sisko temporarily relieves Odo of command. I like the way that Odo asks how Sisko can be so sure Odo didn’t do it – they don’t know each other at all! That is very true and somewhat unexpected. One last great scene I want to mention is when Quark confronts Odo just after Odo has been relieved. These two characters (and actors) have a great chemistry, and that scene really leaves you wanting more.

Lastly I want to mention Keiko. I readily admit that her reaction and problems to being stationed on Deep Space Nine might be very realistic, but her character has always annoyed me slightly. I think her actions in this episode forms the basis of that bias against her. O’Brien has always been one of my favourites and having her attitude here rubs me the wrong way. I admit that it is not fair since portraying a realistic marriage must contain stuff like the scenes in this episode.

Some notes:

- Even Morn does not want to drink with Odo after Odo has become a suspect and Morn even joins the mob outside Odo’s office. Bad Morn!

- Perhaps my favourite moment in the episode comes when Sisko asks Dax to join him for lunch and Bashir quickly accepts and Dax declines. The look on Sisko’s face when he realizes what he has just done is priceless.

Summary:
Does a decent job setting up secondary characters and plotlines and the episode contains some very good moments, but the murder-plot is so-so. 2.5/4

 

[Darth_Pazuzu]

Let's be honest, people! Is there anyone out there who, after Odo unmasks the real Ibudan at the very end, didn't yell at the screen: "And I would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for that meddling shapeshifter!"?

Or is it just me??

 

[toughlittleship]

It's not the first time Auberjonois was involved in a Scooby-Doo moment - his character West in Trek VI was unmasked in a similar way to Ibudan.

 

[Yassim]

This episode touches on something that came back with "Things Past", but still never really washed for me...

How could the Bajorans accept Odo as the Cardassian security chief *and* the Starfleet chief?

In Necessary Evil, he tells Kira that, if she's guilty, he'll hand her over to Cardassina justice. He doesn't, but only because she's not guilty of the crime he's investigating. So either the Cardassians didn't mind that Odo never found a guilty Bajoran (for how long? two years?) or Odo sent a few Bajorans to a Cardassian execution. And that was supposed to sit well?

I think this episode might have worked better if Odo's connection to the Cardassians was less official, more grey. But even so, this episode has a clunky plot, the ending is more or less "magical" (which is death for a mystery episode - you're supposed to see it coming) and it's doing a lot of little things instead of one big, good thing.

Like Past Prologue, it's workmanlike, but not very interesting.

 

[AOQ]

Jonz said:
This concludes the first DVD of watching Deep Space Nine. My plan is to continue with the next DVD during next week: Monday, wednesday, friday and sunday. Do you think that is moving too fast?

Seems a little fast for me, but I can probably adapt.

"A Man Alone" was apparently filmed second, but aired third. It feels more like a second episode, with a lot of time spent getting to know the crew (a consequence of which is that the main plot takes forever to get started, and we see very little of the actual investigation). Some characters and relationships fall into place right away (Kira's unquestioning support of Odo is interesting, as is his relationship with Quark - despite the protestations that they were origianlly supposed to hate each other, the working relationship and quasi-friendship is there right from the start). Other characters the writers were still trying to figure out (check out the early take on Dax as an aloof type).

"Past Prologue" is not only (IMHO) a much stronger show than AMA, but it speaks more to DS9's position at the crossroads of major events, so it was probably a better choice for the first "regular" episode to show viewers.

DS9 developed a kind of consistency during S1 in which episodes were competent and character interactions made sense, but aroused very little real excitement. "A Man Alone" as a whole and the B-story with the school are good examples.

The mob scene seems very artificial and staged and I have almost found it unintentional funny, when the angry mob stands around and resorts to shouting ‘Shape-shifter!” and “Shifter”. It is extremely heavy handed and weird. Not sure if this is the fault of the writing or the direction or perhaps a combination of the two.

Sisko's speech in response and the reaction to that are also less than convincing. Trek mobs and cults tend to get whipped into an oddly-restrained frenzy and calm down entirely in response to the cues in the script. (See also: "Covenant")

I rate AMA Decent (2/4; right in the middle).

Trivia: Aaron Eisenberg becomes DS9's first recurring guest star. Keep an eye on the guest cast; they're a big part of the show's appeal, and I soon learned to get excited upon seeing certain names.

Best line: "Really. Now how can that be true? You don't know me." - Odo, on Sisko's claim that he doesn't personally suspect him

 

[defconprime]

I gotta be honest: this clone thing was too ridiculous for me to let go. He grew a clone specifically to frame Odo for murder? And he grew it like it was a Sea Monkey?

The character movement is pretty decent, but I just feel as though the plot of this one is really flimsy.

I might have to jump in late on the next set of dvds. I don't think the next one will come in the mail for me until the middle of next week. But I'll still jump in late.

Oh, for me, this one gets a 2/4.

 

[Jonz]

^^I agree with you guys. Perhaps it is a good idea to slow it down a little. 2 or 3 episodes a week. I know i will have trouble keeping up myself at some point later on.

So let us grab the next one wednesday or so, and do two this week.

AOQ: I very much agree. I always felt that the show really started to pick up the pace by the third season. But i guess we will cross that bridge when we get there

 

[AOQ]

Once again, forgot to mention something: Trek makes a big deal out of hiring science consultants (despite the science not often being the point of the story) and prides itself on accuracy, and then you still get stuff like "proteins breaking down into DNA" here. It's kinda funny.

 

[CorporalClegg]

One thing is AMA certainly set (or perhaps solidified) the tone of the show. “Emissary,” “Past Prologue,” and “A Man Alone” are all significantly darker than any Trek that had come before and each episode is gradually darker than the last. So, while the first two episodes may have been indicators, this was definitely the compass pointing the direction the show was to follow.