In the eighteenth episode of the third season of Deep Space Nine, this started off so well. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
I think the first half of this episode is fantastic. It’s bold, scary, and bewildering. I was convinced that we were going to get Deep Space Nine‘s version of a horror flick, and perhaps that’s my problem. I expected something from “Distant Voices,” and then I didn’t get it. That would be a fair thing to object to! But I’m willing to go on the journey that a story takes me on, and plenty of times, Star Trek episodes have veered into surprising or strange territory. I don’t have a problem with any episode shifting tone or direction.
My first issue with “Distant Voices” comes in the early reveal of what’s going on. At the time, I was thrilled. After all the creepy scenes aboard a largely abandoned station, I thought we’d get pretty standard fare for this type of an episode. Namely, I figured that the writers would reveal what was happening by the end of the second act or near the end of the story. Yet by putting that reveal so close to the start, it allows them to give Julian a whole bunch of cool scenes that help us understand his character more. And I don’t want to ignore those! This really was a significant episode for him, and knowing that he deliberately prevented himself from being valedictorian is SUCH A POWERFUL REVELATION.
The cast gets a lot of great, silly, and bizarre material to work with, though I would have loved to see more of Sisko as the doctor. Super paranoid Odo was a TREAT. Also, I’m pretty sure O’Brien was EXACTLY THE SAME, which I found hilarious. Altovar is pretty scary! Garak and Julian touch and bicker and IT’S SO WONDERFUL.
And then there’s Julian’s make-up.
Technically, I’m sure it’s done well. I can’t speak to any of the logistics here, and I don’t want my commentary to come off as if I know better than people who know 99.99999% more about this than I do. But once Julian reached his more advanced state of age in his mind, my attention was gone. I couldn’t imagine this happening to the doctor because visually, he looked like an old white man. That’s not to suggest that some people don’t experience a lightening of their skin as they get old, but he was utterly and completely unrecognizable to me. I could hear his voice, and Siddig’s acting otherwise was really good. But that face was some other man every time I looked at it.
I also love pretty much any scene with Garak and Julian in it together, yet I found myself confused by the logic of the whole Altovar!Garak character. If different parts of Julian’s brain manifested as members of the DS9 team, then why would Altovar be in there twice? He’s there as himself, then masquerades as Garak as well. What part of Julian’s mind is he? The knowledge that his telepathic attack is breaking down Julian’s psyche? Perhaps? Prior to this, I was fine with all these characters holding no weight at all because they contributed to the experience. I don’t need everyone to constantly grow and develop, and given how much Deep Space Nine there is, it’s perfectly fine when the entire cast takes a backseat for someone else.
Yet if Altovar is going to be the villain or the antagonist, I need them to have weight and significance. The truth is that Altovar was arrested and locked up within minutes of stealing from Julian and assaulting him. His character within Julian’s mind never feels substantial enough to care about, and I think this could have been stronger if we got a better sense of what Julian was struggling against. Altovar kept stealing away all the different parts of Julian’s mind before he could do much with them!
I don’t think this is an awful episode, and Siddig is tremendously talented. I also fully accept that someone could fully adore this episode, and I wouldn’t dream of trying to convince them otherwise. It just didn’t work for me.
The video for “Distant Voices” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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