In the fifth episode of the sixth season of Deep Space Nine, everything is a disaster. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
I can barely believe this episode is real. There is just so much packed into one forty-five minute episode, and yet this doesn’t come across as cluttered, unnecessary, or unbelievable. WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT.
The Mission
Now, I’ll defend serialized narratives until the end of time because THAT IS THE KIND OF PERSON I AM. However, I wanted to talk about how the writers’ decision to turn season six into such a highly serialized story was a great thing. This show has long been a proponent of serialization, more so than any other Star Trek entity. Yet it’s important to note that the show has been demonstrating the desperation of the Federation for a number of episodes now. When Jadzia angrily criticizes Sisko for low morale, we don’t have to imagine it. These episodes have been exhausting to watch (in the best way) because the Dominion is clearly winning this war.
Thus, we don’t need quite as much action to push the tension forward. The tension comes from what the audience and these characters want. The majority of the crew is on a starbase far from home, so we want them to get Deep Space Nine back. When Sisko suggests a plan to retake the station, it immediately injects the story with life. (Not that this season needed it, of course.) I wanted to see this happen so badly! Easier said than done, though, and the plotting of this battle was suspenseful enough (and gave us a sense of grandeur) before those on DS9 snuck a message out. Then, this episode becomes 100% unfair.
But before I get to the battle, I did want to address how, even in the midst of one of the most jam-packed episodes of the entire show, the writers still managed to give some character development to Benjamin Sisko. It’s a big deal that he’s decided to settle on Bajor once his career in Starfleet is over. I always expected him to return to Louisiana, but over the previous five seasons, he’s come to accept his role as the Emissary. He has a connection to Bajor that he can’t ignore anymore! It’s what helps motivate him in this specific situation, too. Not only is he looking out for the fate of the Alpha Quadrant as a whole, but he knows Bajor will fall if the Dominion pours through the wormhole. There’s just so much depth to this reveal, and I found it a fitting addition to “Favor the Bold.â€
Terok Nor
EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING AND IT’S ALL TERRIBLE. Like, where do I even start??? Rom has been convicted of sabotage and terrorism and is to be executed for his crimes; Odo is in the clutches of the Changeling; the minefield is being disabled; then there’s the dissolution of the relationship between Ziyal and Dukat; THEN THERE’S EVERYTHING BETWEEN WEYOUN AND EVERYONE ELSE; and I just can’t believe this all happened in one episode.
But it did. Terok Nor is inching ever closer to something truly horrible. This is not the whole “benevolent oppressors†dynamic anymore. These people are actively planning the destruction of multiple worlds, and as the Federation presses closer and closer to them, I worry about how they’ll lash out. So I suppose that means talking about the Founders is a good start here, especially we finally get a fantastic sense of why the Founders are who they are. I know that the Changeling leader criticizes Weyoun for suggesting that she’s been manipulating Odo, but you know what? I don’t buy it. Yes, she wants all Changelings to be part of the Great Link, and that’s certainly an important part of their culture. But she cannot possibly ignore what she’s doing!
In her conversations with Odo, she pushes him towards a specific viewpoint, one where the solids are all an inferior lifeform. It’s the most explicit indoctrination we’ve seen thus far, taking this beyond mere manipulation. She’s trying to turn Odo into someone who believes he is so superior to solid organisms that they deserve to have their freedoms taken away. The Changeling philosophy sticks everyone else below them, which helps to explain why the Vorta worship the founders as they do. (It puts the conversations Weyoun has with Kira and Dukat about Vorta physiology and godly mistakes into a new light, doesn’t it?) That is what she’s doing with Odo: trying to get him to believe in a system of supremacy.
And the frightening part is that it’s working. Odo has been so perpetually isolated and heartbroken that the Changeling way of life is an elixir to him, a way to make him feel wanted and validated, like he belongs. He doesn’t even see how badly he’s hurting all his friends, either! He thought that just apologizing to Kira would solve everything, but, as she points out, THIS SITUATION IS WAY PAST AN APOLOGY. Odo needs to act, not just say he’s sorry.
Hey, guess who else that could apply to? HI, GUL DUKAT, YOU CONTINUE TO BE THE WORST. It’s telling that he even views his own daughter as yet another political complication. Granted, the request she brings to him is political in nature. Freeing Rom would be out of the question for him! But it’s so incredible to see how Ziyal views this interaction as a chance for her father to prove to her that how she views him is real. She’s got such a positive view of her father despite all the evidence that he’s a miserable person. This is actually relevant to a conversation I had with a friend of mine about how people practice cognitive dissonance or compartmentalization way more frequently than they’d like to admit. If Ziyal had not been so defensive of Dukat – who has done nice, wonderful things for her! – she might have been able to believe all the awful things people told her about him.
Yet she couldn’t, at least not until he directly and explicitly showed her that he had not a merciful bone in his body. I am also thrilled with her rebellion against Dukat because it inadvertently gave me the most satisfying scene in all of Deep Space Nine: Kira Nerys beating the shit out of Damar. THERE ARE FEW THINGS I’VE WANTED MORE.
I know I’ve missed details. (Ensign Nog! Morn having multiple scenes! Jake finding a way to contact his dad!) I know this doesn’t even remotely cover everything that’s in “Favor the Bold.†But goddamn, y’all, this is some of the finest television Star Trek has ever produced, and I am TERRIFIED of the battle that’s coming in the next episode. How are they going to defeat a fleet twice their size???
The video for “Favor the Bold†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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