In the fifteenth episode of the sixth season of Deep Space Nine, O’Brien is recruited for dangerous undercover mission. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
What a strange episode of this show. At times, that is to its favor. This is a glimpse of a side of the galaxy that Star Trek has long avoided. The world of Starfleet and the Federation is one without poverty, drug use, racism, and the sort of generational desperation on display here. In that sense, “Honor Among Thieves” is a success, since it’s a chance for Deep Space Nine to further their sense of realism into the Star Trek universe. At the same time, it’s a bit of an overestimation because of Bilby. Are we really supposed to feel sorry for him?
I’ll explain. I love a good noir story of a spy flick, and you can see elements of both these genres within “Honor Among Thieves.” O’Brien’s double agent status is interesting, in so much as the writers are able to exploit a ton of irony – much of it tragic – out of the situation. It’s ironic that out of everyone, Bilby comes to trust O’Brien the most, despite that O’Brien lies to him the entire time. The link to the show’s greater mythology is also brilliant: the Orion Syndicate has sidled up to the Dominion! Here, Bilby and his men have been tasked with assassinating a Klingon ambassador, all in the hopes of sowing civil war in the Klingons and pulling them away from their alliance with the Federation. It was a great way to elevate the stakes, you know? This mission that O’Brien was on morphed into something new; no longer was it about undercover intelligence agents being murdered, but the fate of the whole Dominion War.
It’s in this that I think the writers may have bitten off more than they could chew. Again, the backdrop of this episode was fascinating because it was so markedly different than what I was used to for Star Trek. The opening scene displays casual drug use; every main character is a thief; there’s a bank robbery that unfolds in an almost joyous euphoria; Bilby orders a sex worker for O’Brien to help celebrate their friendship. These things are sort of shocking, but they’re often folded into the story in ways to build a world, so they work. But if that’s the case, then we have to accept that Bilby has been murdering people for a long, long time. He expresses absolutely no reluctance when asked to assassinate the Klingon ambassador. It’s like he’s been sent on a few errands about town for Raimus and nothing more. Thus, it’s easy to assume that this is nothing special for him. He’s done it plenty of times before.
Yes, there’s a tragedy in his friendship with O’Brien, but I could never quite muster up the care for someone who is so ruthlessly awful. Sure, I felt bad about what O’Brien was complicit in, but that is what I wanted more of, not scenes meant to have us feel sympathy towards Bilby. The whole bit about him having a family felt so forced. Like… the dude has assassinated so many people. Maybe think about that before whining about your family?
I don’t know, that part didn’t work for me. This was an entertaining episode, one that gave O’Brien a fine chance to shine, but it didn’t inspire in me the emotions I felt it wanted me to have.
The video for “Honor Among Thieves” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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