4x07 Starship Down

[6.9/10] This is a weird outing for Deep Space Nine. The first third of it is a submarine episode, which Star Trek does sometimes for whatever reason. “Yeah, we’re a big fancy futuristic ship with sensors and advanced weapons, but what if we were in a strange part of space and/or our vessel were disabled in a way that made us have to act like we were on a submarine?” Maybe the writers liked pulling from Gene Roddenberry’s naval days, or had just watched the Hunt for Red October or something, but it’s a pretty familiar trope in the franchise despite its “final frontier” setting.

DS9 does fine with it. Poking around in a Gamma Quadrant planet’s atmosphere, trying to rescue an ally ship, while two Jem’Hadar are skulking about trying to take you both out is a decent setup. Much of the problem-solving feels mechanical rather than personal, full of technobabble and convenient solutions. But the Defiant having to ping a signal that locates their attackers but exposes them as well is an interesting device, and the prospect of finding creative uses for torpedoes when the ship’s usual weapons systems are down shows some ingenuity.

Here’s the weird thing though -- roughly a third of the way into the runtime, “Starship Down” turns into one of those “Strand various characters in pairs and force them to come to terms with something” episodes. I don’t have an issue with the idea. The Next Generation did it well in season 5’s “Disaster” (and with Worf no less). The problems are two-fold: (a.) with four main stories to cover in a structure that already limits how much depth you can get into, only starting those pairings after fifteen minutes have already elapsed really hamstrings each mini-plot; and (b.) those mini-plots themselves are a real mixed bag, in terms of the ideas at play and the execution.

The weakest for me is Dax and Dr. Bashir trapped in a sideroom waiting to be rescued. God help me, I’d really hoped that Julian’s romantic pursuit of Jadzia would be something left in the dust pile of “things we tried out in the early seasons that didn’t really work.” Both of the characters have improved by leaps and bounds since then, so I can see wanting to revisit that element now that they’ve evolved and measure how things have changed. Except, the dialogue is awkward, and it feels like the duo revert more to their season 1 form for this subplot, which is to no one’s benefit.

We just got a fantastic Dax romance episode with “Rejoined” and, without giving anything away, there’s more interesting developments in her love life to come. So this feels like a needless cul de sac. Charitably, maybe this is meant to put a period on that old flirtation to show that the two can be friendly and even cozy without it meaning anything, but unfortunately it feels like the opposite -- the DS9 attempting to rev up that nonsense again.

The strongest for me is the ongoing negotiation between Quark and Hanok, a representative of the Karemma who realize that DS9’s resident Ferengi has been cheating him in his role as the middleman between the friendlier (or at least more commercially-minded) Gamma Quadrant species and the Federation. Part of it is that you simply have two pros playing off one another. Armin Shimerman is one of the elements of the series that clicked from the jump, and Star Trek vet James Cromwell more than holds his own as a performer, as the two have an easy on-screen rapport that pays off in spades.

But the writing rises to meet the actors as well. There’s a strong central idea that furnishes the performances: Hanok is a staid businessman from a conservative people, and Quark is a risk-taker who’s not above a little swindling, which he considers part of the game. Much of their interactions are founded on tracing the lines of their differences, to great effect. But a warhead bursting into the mess hall where they’re holed up not only adds tension to their shared experience but helps Hanok see the thrill of Quark’s methods, convincing him to give the Ferengi another chance. I particularly like the tag, where Quark seems to have convinced his new business partner in the benefits of a few “gambles”, but also quickly realizes he may have created a monster.

Somewhere in the middle is the Worf/O’Brien storyline. It’s fairly simple, but that fits the confines of this sort of vignette-heavy episode, especially one with a compressed timespan in which to unspool the stories. Worf is used to working with seasoned bridge officer, and is too demanding and dictatorial when in command of the Defiant. O’Brien helps him see the need to ease up and give his subordinates, engineers in particular, room to use their discretion and ingenuity to solve the problem du jour, because he’ll get better results and better morale.

At base, this is another “Worf needs to adjust to the fact that life is different here than on the Enterprise” story, but an effective one. O’Brien’s made that transition, so he’s a good guide, and has the rank and history with Worf to be able to raise the issue. Worf bending a little bit thanks to good advice, and seeing favorable results, demonstrates growth in him as a commander. And O’Brien pulling the old “Get it done in half your quoted time!” commander trick pulls the curtain back behind a franchise cliche, or at least helps justify it, which is a fun choice. This is a basic subplot, but one that accomplishes what it sets out to do.

The most frustrating of the four vignettes though is the one between Sisko and Kira, not because it’s bad, but because I wanted more from it. As with the Quark/Hanok story, there’s a strong core to this one -- Benjamin and Narys having a great working relationship, but not much of a personal one, due to the awkwardness of Sisko being a revered figure in Kira’s religion. It’s an idea worth exploring, particularly since we haven't had a chance to explore the Bajoran reaction to Cardassia’s change in government and the arrival of the Klingons.

What we get isn’t bad. Sisko suffering a bad concussion, forcing Kira to talk to him to keep him awake and open up a little bit is a premise with merit. Her choosing to pray over him has a certain power, and Benjamin inviting her to a baseball game after it’s all over with is heartwarming stuff. But the dialogue in their scenes comes off a bit tin-eared, and it inevitably feels like the depth of the exploration of these ideas is lacking when half of the pairing is medically unresponsive for most of the conversation.

I still admire Deep Space Nine for trying something like this. “Starship Down” may not be the most successful rendition of the form, but breaking from the A-story/B-story formula, or one big plot approach, to do bite-sized morsels is a nice monotony-breaker. I just wish they’d spent more time on the pairings than on the pseudo-submarine material, and tweaked the tales they told to tell in that more compressed space.