Watching DS9: 1x04 "Babel"

[Jonz]

Note: Feel free to criticize my reviews. I do not have much experience writing reviews but somethings i have always wante to try. Futhermore, english is not my native language and language might no be too good.

1x04 "Babel"
Story by: Sally Caves & Ira Steven Behr
Teleplay by: Michael McGreevey & Naren Shankar
Directed by: Paul Lynch

Synopsis
An alien virus turns the language of DS9’s inhabitants to gibberish, rendering communication impossible. Kira revives her underground connections in an attempt to find an antidote before the virus spreads beyond the station.

Review:
”Babel” is the kind of episode that I am usually not very fond of. If an episode deals with the typical setting of having all the regulars being in danger the writers needs to find some clever way to present the issue.

From a dramatic standpoint the viewer knows from the very beginning that everybody will survive and therefore much of the tension are lost.

This episode suffers a great deal from this issue. We are treated to an episode and that feels routine and the plot surrounding the virus is mostly boring. In the end the reset button is neatly pressed and everything is back to normal. It is even pressed extremely quickly as Surmak Ren finds the antidote off-screen and the last minute action packed sequence does not involve the virus, but rather Quark and Odo dealing with an spaceship about to explode.

There are some redeeming points in the episode though, as we are treated to nice characterization on Quark. Armin Shimmerman delivers some standout moments here, and my favourite is especially when he comes to ops late in the episode to help Odo out. You get a sense of his glee as he struts in and even manages to bother Odo when transporting him to Jarheel’s burning ship.

I also find Kira’s methods dealing with the Bajoran doctor Surmak Ren compelling, and I like the look on the doctor’s face when he unexpectedly is beamed off Bajor and exposed to the virus. Way to go Kira!

Even though the virus does not hold my interest some of the scenes involving it are ok. We get a nice little scene between Jake and Sisko in which one senses the strong bond between the two characters and Sisko’s deep affection for his son. It does detract from the scene that no real tension is present. We know Jake will be all right.

Another scene involves O’Brien catching the virus. I think that particular this is very well handled. Having character talk gibberish might have come off as cheesy and unintentionally funny, but it turns out to be very eerie and unsettling. I think this is in part due to Colm Meany’s acting, but also due to good direction and use of music.

Some notes:

- Odo lets the bully feed Quark one extra spoonful of Kohlanese Stew before stopping. I imagine he did that on purpose.

- The teaser strikes a chord. Haven’t we all had *those* kind of days?

- When Sisko catches the disease I think he overplays the scene a bit. It is weird and overly dramatic.

Summary:
I do not like the plot surrounding the virus one bit. But the episode is somewhat redeemed by good characterization on Quark and some nice moments when Kira kidnaps Surmak Ren. But that is not enough to save the episode. 1.5/4

 

[DS9Continuing]

Jonz said:
Note: Feel free to criticize my reviews. I do not have much experience writing reviews but somethings i have always wante to try. Futhermore, english is not my native language and language might no be too good.

Very few native English speakers ever bother even trying to learn another language, and plenty of people who are supposed "native spealers" don't write it half as well as you, so don't worry about it. You should be proud of your English.

There are some redeeming points in the episode though, as we are treated to nice characterization on Quark. Armin Shimmerman delivers some standout moments here, and my favourite is especially when he comes to ops late in the episode to help Odo out. You get a sense of his glee as he struts in and even manages to bother Odo when transporting him to Jarheel’s burning ship.

Oh yes, the Quark Odo scenes are absolutely the highlight. The chemistry those two had is evident right from the start.

Another scene involves O’Brien catching the virus. I think that particular this is very well handled. Having character talk gibberish might have come off as cheesy and unintentionally funny, but it turns out to be very eerie and unsettling. I think this is in part due to Colm Meany’s acting, but also due to good direction and use of music.

I always took the gibberish as a sly twist on the use of technobabble, especially when a tech character like O'Brien was using it. It was taking the piss out of the way TNG tended to present and solve all of its problems in terms of channeling tetryon particles through the dorsal emitter to create a coherent bollocks beam, an approach that DS9 put a lot of effort into avoiding.

It was also a way of demonstrating the overall situation in microcosm - people of all races and philosophies, disagreeing and clashing and working at crossed purposes (ie. talking gibberish to each other) forced to work together through common trials. It's like that [/i]Buffy[/i] episode "Hush," where the only way people could honestly communicate was when they couldn't talk at all.

 

[toughlittleship]

Best part of the episode is between Quark and Odo. Shimerman has said this is where he really got into the role.

 

[AOQ]

Generally agreed. A few people loved the character interactions when this first aired, but basically, it's a virus-infecting-the-station show. People stand around worrying about it and acting helpless while it spreads, everything gets fixed at the end. Reasonably well done as far as such things go, to be sure, better than I remembered. The extra danger plots like the exploding ship seem tacked-on. There are some character highlights, which others have mentioned (Quark's enjoyment towards the end, the Sisko/Jake stuff [Lofton's good with the non-verbal for such a young actor. The creators have joked that they'd never have cast him if they'd known how tall he'd get within a few years...]). But still, it's a virus-infecting-the-station show. Enough said.

I like this episode a little better than Jonz (and perhaps a little better than "A Man Alone," actually). I'd rate it Decent. My rating system means I don't have to occupy any neurons with trying to decide whether to give it a 2/4 or 2.5/4.

Best line, from memory: "Should've transferred to a cargo drone. No people, no complaints." - O'Brien, expressing his love for the humanoid race

 

[intrinsical]

This episode was trying to show how DS9 is different from TNG. What better way than to use a run-of-the-mill TNG plot, but solved in a DS9 manner? You would never find the TNG gang kidnapping people or the crew totally disabled by a disease or have a bartender save the Enterprise.

 

[DS9Continuing]

"All right. You can cross barrels. All job appalled."
"What was that?"
"Bread... the arrive... seen earlier!"
"Oh, I see."

- Sisko and Odo

That just perfectly encapsulates early Odo's attitude about these silly Starfleet things right there.

 

[defconprime]

I kind of liked this episode. Sure, there wasn't any tension because we knew everybody would get through it, but really, it was well acted, and I thought well written. I love that we have several threats to the station at once. I've found in episodes when there is just one thing for the crew (whatever crew) to deal with, the overall impact of the episode usually suffers.

For me, this is a 3/4.

But maybe I should stop giving these early episodes such high grades, since if I remember correctly, it gets a lot better in later seasons. I'd hate to just give straight 4/4s on everything later on.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I wonder how they wrote all the wacked up dialog. Did they make it up or use some random word generator?

 

[Jamee999]

They might've let them improvise it.

 

[ClericWill]

This is one of the few season 1 episodes that I enjoyed.

It was a little silly, but not over the top like "If Wishes Were Horses".

 

[Jonz]

ClericWill said:
This is one of the few season 1 episodes that I enjoyed.

It was a little silly, but not over the top like "If Wishes Were Horses".

Heh, that is actually funny. For me it has always been the other way around. I remember liking "If Wishes Were Horses" a little better. And you are right that those two episodes are similar in concept.