5x13 For the Uniform

[7.0/10] Two of the things I think of when I think of Deep Space Nine are a certain groundedness and complexity. “For the Uniform” has neither. It’s not a bad episode, by any stretch. But it is an over-the-top, almost painfully signposted one. That is a disappointment for an outing founded on following up one of the all time most interesting defections in Star Trek history.

I’m speaking, of course, about Michael Eddington, who turned his back on Starfleet and conspired to aid the Maquis in “For the Cause” from last season. After Eddington said his taunting goodbyes, Sisko promised to hunt him down, and “For the Uniform” is the harvesting of those seeds. The Captain is determined to capture his former lieutenant and bring him to justice for the treason he committed right under Sisko’s nose.

That’s exciting! Before he departed, Eddington gave one of the all-time great critiques of the United Federation of Planets. The chance to understand more about what persuaded him to take up the Maquis cause is an intriguing one. At the same time, Eddington’s betrayal was a call coming from inside the house. Sisko reconciling his professional duty to fulfill Starfleet’s mission with his personal animosity toward Eddington given what happened is fertile territory to explore.

The problem is that “For the Uniform” writes it all on the screen, and does so emphatically. There is no nuance, no conflict to Eddington in his loyalty to the Maquis balanced against the Federation’s project. He’s just a Hannibal Lecter-esque taunter, appearing periodically to monologue at Sisko, without much added insight into his ideology beyond what we’ve heard from Maquis operatives five times before.

Likewise, there is no ambiguity or shades of gray to Captain Sisko having to balance a dispassionate approach to his Starfleet-given mission and his personal anger at Eddington to deceiving him. Instead, this is a snarling, thundering version of Sisko, who flies off the handle and all but announces that his personal feelings are getting in the way.

Charitably, I think the show wants us to feel like the Captain is a bit out of character given the way Eddington’s betrayal got to him. But he never feels like a real person here, just a caricature meant to convey the idea of a personal grudge clouding one’s judgment in a loud performance and blunt dialogue. The central cat and mouse concept, laden with personal issues, is good enough to carry the day, but the execution isn’t good enough to reach the idea’s full potential.

Oddly enough, the parts of this one I liked best were the smaller moments with side characters. This may be the closest we’ve come to seeing Odo preen outside of catching Quark in a lie. His little request that Sisko remind Starfleet command that they installed Eddington as security chief because they didn’t trust a Changeling is pointed and amusing. And the fact that he’s the one who decodes Eddington’s coded message is an extra feather in his cap. The constable’s gentle triumph over his erstwhile rival is a nice win for our resident Changeling.

Likewise, I enjoy how Dax recognizes that Sisko is too emotionally invested in this mission, and going off half-cocked with a half-functional Defiant to try to assuage his own frustrations, but rather than scolding Sisko for it, basically says, “Show some understanding the next time I pull this sort of stunt.” It’s a nice moment of mutual understanding and camaraderie between the old friends. And while it’s a small thing, Nog getting to go into a combat situation and blanching at the possibility the bridge might explode was a solid laugh.

That said, the technobabble involving Nog gets to the point of being insufferable. Agan, there’s an interesting idea at play here. Sisko takes the Defiant out despite the fact that it’s not quite ready after Eddington triggers a cascade virus in the ship. So our heroes have to make due with half-fixes and improvisations. But my goodness, a good portion of the episode is taken up with various crewmembers perfunctorily delivering spiritless technobabble at one another, often while talking over each other given the comms limitations. You get what they’re trying to do here -- show that this is the DS9 crew fighting off their back foot and having to be extra resourceful, but it goes on far beyond the stage where the audience gets the point.

In the same vein, the holographic communicator idea is just awkward. I’ll admit that maybe I’m biased since modern day fans griped about a similar concept in Star Trek: Discovery’s first season. I get wanting a technological excuse to put actors in a room together for key scenes, rather than just having them communicate via viewscreen. But it’s weird to have Sisko rotate his captain’s chair 180 degrees every time he wants to talk to someone, and oftentimes, it stops the momentum of a particular scene dead.

I’m also not crazy about the tortured Les Mis metaphor. I like Les Mis quite a bit! And if there were a simple jab that Benjamin is being a Javert with his single-minded focus on catching Eddington, I think it would be fine. But in an episode that’s already overly blunt about signaling that Sisko’s letting his personal vendetta overwhelm his professional judgment as an officer, hitting that point again and again and again in dialogue just makes you want to yell, “We get it!” at the screen.

Even then, there’s some interesting notions at play. I like the turn where Sisko uses his analysis of Les Mis to realize how Eddington sees himself and play off of that self-perception. Unfortunately, all his talk about playing the villain and melodramatic response to Eddington comes off too on the nose. Not to mention the fact that it leads Sisko to basically commit a war crime, making a Maquis settlement uninhabitable, something the show brushes off after the Maquis rebels use biological weapons to do the same that conveniently allow for a land swap between human and Cardassians settlers.

Generously, you could say that’s the point, with Sisko not just playing to Eddington’s expectations, but actually going beyond his usual moral principles because of how angry and vengeful he is after Eddington fooled him. But I doubt there’ll be any consequences for it, so the whole idea ends up being a paper tiger.

All of this makes me sound more negative on the episode than I really am. The cat and mouse game between Sisko and Eddington is cool and thrilling enough to keep the energy of the episode up. Eddington reiterating that the Maquis just want to be left alone and that Eddington has no personal beef with Sisko, he’s just following what he believes in, does give the episode’s antagonist an interesting angle. And there is some catharsis in Sisko managing to best Eddington by understanding him and his perspective, as a tonic to the Captain’s frustration at his own poor judgment is not seeing who Eddington really was. There’s still plenty to like here.

“For the Uniform” just lacks the extra layer of realism and subtlety that were at play in “For the Cause”, and so feels like a lesser light by comparison. Deep Space Nine has set a high standard for itself. It means viewers expect not just a certain quality, but a certain deftness and smoothness in the approach that goes away when you practically shout your themes in the audience’s face. This episode is, for the most part, perfectly good. But it left me frustrated when, given what it’s working with, I know it could have been great.