3x26 The Adversary

[7.7/10] When I saw the episode “Cathexis” from Star Trek: Voyager, I wrote it off as an unavailing attempt to meld Star Trek with The Thing. Well, the joke’s on me! First, because it turns out the writers of Voyager were aping Agatha Christie much more than the John Carpenter classic. Second, because a little more than a month later, Deep Space Nine would do an actual homage to The Thing. And third, because it turns out the series’ riff on Carpenter’s 1982 landmark in horror cinema would be pretty damn good!

In “The Adversary”, the references are far more direct. Not one but two “testing to see who the monster is” sequences follow the rhythms of an iconic scene from The Thing. The lurking menace aboard the Defiant is a shape-shifter with ill intent, much like the one who lurked within an Antarctic research station. And the paranoid air and form of interpersonal suspicion are much more in line with this episode’s cinematic precursor.

That's not what makes “The Adversary” superior effort to Voyager’s take on a similar idea, though. The fact that the characters make rational, smart choices to try to combat this threat, and still find themselves coming up short given the inscrutability of their enemy, creates a much more compelling story here. When you do everything (or almost everything right) and still find yourself losing, the heroes seem more competent, the villains seem more fearsome, and the story seems more apt to play fair with its threat and solutions.

So it’s a good thing that Sisko enacts strict protocols to minimize the villainous Founder’s attempt take over the Defiant and start a war, like confining nonessential crew to quarters and instituting a buddy system to ensure no one gets replaced. Sharp choices, like a particle test to see who’s been messing with the ship’s systems and a blood test to see who might be a changeling make the feints and surprises feel earned. Even the self-destruct sequence, a classic “Like you’d really do it” move in Star Trek, has force because it’s a genuinely smart and committed tactic for Sisko to resort to rather than let his ship be used as a tool to throw the Federation into a war it doesn’t want or need.

Therein lies the other big benefit to “The Adversary” -- it has genuine stakes. Finding out who the culprit is matters not just because he’s taking over the ship, but because if they don’t stop him, Starfleet’s ability to defend against a Dominion attack would be all but kaput given the resources another unexpected war would take. The Founder who told Odo that the Dominion had neutralized the Romulans and the Cardassians with their ploy in “The Die Is Cast” that the same would soon be true for the Federation and the Klingons would see his ominous warning come to fruition.

My only beef is that this whole thing depends on a conflict the audience has never heard of. “The Adversary” is the first mention of the Tzenkethi, the purportedly saber-rattling civilization the Federation has, apparently, previously gone to war with before and might end up having to fight again if the Dominion has its way. And they’re barely ever mentioned again. Why the writers didn’t choose the Cardassians or the Romulans or anyone else who might have more history that would instantly give the peril of war more instant credibility is beyond me. I guess it’d be less plausible for Ambassador Krajensky to baited the DS9 crew with a diplomatic incident he just made up?

Still, the conceit is easy to forgive because “The Adversary” does such a great job at steadily ratcheting up the tension and the intensity as the threat escalates. First O’Brien merely hears some unsettling noises around the Defiant. Then the ship’s commandeered from within, raising the stakes. Only then, does the changeling expose himself, and the game changes into a hunt for an enemy that could be anyone and anywhere. From there, the mutual suspicions of the crew, the ability for their foe to keep them guessing, and the possibility that this whole thing ends in flames all raise higher and higher.

Along the way, the writers pull out plenty of good tricks. I love the twin Odos each trying to convince Miles they’re real, providing details only the real constable would know, in what feels like a conscious callback to a similar scene with Kirk, Spock, and a shapeshifter in “Whom Gods Destroy” from The Original Series. I love the fact that the blood test is thwarted by the changeling posing as Dr. Bashir, able to use his abilities to frame Eddington. And I love how the show tees up Eddington as a red herring -- an outsider to the main cast who’s betrayed Sisko once before -- but who isn’t the culprit today. For all that “The Adversary” is clearly pulling from other sources, the writers put plenty of their own touches in play as well.

What truly puts this season finale over the top though isn’t the neatly-plotted mystery, or unique threat, or consistently escalating tension. It’s that there’s a character throughline here which makes the choices made personally meaningful. As Odo tells Eddington, in all his time as a humanoid, he’s never had to use a phaser or take a life. There’s a nobility, a sense of honor, to Odo, that's central to who the character is.

So when he violates his people’s sacred precept that “No changeling has ever harmed another” to save these “solids” and avert war, it means he’s giving away a piece of himself, breaking a hallowed code from a society he doesn’t understand but yearns to return to nonetheless, in order to protect the people who’ve become his family in their absence. The T.V. CGI is not sterling, but the performances from Rene Auberjonois and his counterpart sell the magnitude of his choice to kill the antagonistic changeling and side with Starfleet. His pained expression, his regret that it had to come to this, are palpable. Sisko and company may be able to avoid any casualties, let alone being led into a casus belli, but it comes at a cost -- a personal one, which, as Captain Picard might say, makes all of this mean something.

And yet, even as the villain is defeated, he leaves Odo, Sisko, and the audience with one terrifying but tantalizing warning. This changeling impersonating a Federation Ambassador is not a lone wolf. The Founders have already infiltrated the Alpha Quadrant, and there’s no way to know who they are or where they might strike next. It makes good on the sort of overarching threat The Next Generation tried to establish with a crop of parasitic creatures at the end of its first season, but never followed up on in a meaningful way. The tease allows “The Adversary” to remain a strong standalone episode, while also providing one hell of a hook for season 4.
All of these things boost “The Adversary” as the superior product over Voyager’s “Cathexis”. Despite some commonalities in the paranoid thriller and hidden identity elements, the two episodes could hardly be more different in execution. Voyager was a show in its first season still struggling to find its sea legs, and Deep Space Nine was a now confident series firmly hitting its stride.

Season 4 is the point at which many fans believe that DS9 really begins. There’s signifiers of a dividing line, like Sisko finally attaining the long-deserved rank of captain in a lovely ceremony, the heightening of the Dominion threat, and new arrivals who bring with them some major changes to the balance and focus of the series.

And yet, while the show becomes darker and bolder in some ways, I’d mark Deep Space Nine’s third season as the point where the series firmly and finally arrives. Sure, Sisko still has his hair, and the show’s approach and ambitions would continue to evolve. But the complexity, creativity, camaraderie, and other hallmarks of the series’ ability to turn in quality Star Trek, and quality television bar none, on a weekly basis came to the fore in the third year of Sisko’s mission. There is more, maybe even better, to come. But with this crop of episodes, DS9 set its ascent into a classic in its own right, as worthy of tributes and appreciation as the venerated films the show would pay homage to in episodes like this one.