334. The Search, Part IFORMULA: Brothers + Balance of Terror + The Passenger
WHY WE LIKE IT: The Defiant's gonzo phasers.
WHY WE DON'T: Dax's hairstyle (thankfully only for this story).
REVIEW: A new season begins with the threat of the Dominion looming, so another direction for Deep Space 9. The most important new addition is the Defiant, a ship with a familiar name, but an unfamiliar design. A squat warship designed to fight the Borg, it fits nicely with Sisko's time working at Utopia Planitia and by being overpowered and prototypical, it's totally in DS9's "fixer-upper" mold. The cloaking device is interesting, and gives DS9's ship a more covert, submarine like feel that again, is appropriate to the series. I couldn't wait to see it in battle, and once I did, I wasn't disappointed. Those crazy phasers alone are worth the price of admission, and the cramped interiors make for much more dynamic battle, both in space and hand to hand. That open-ended battle with the Jem'Hadar is the high point of the episode.
Another addition is Eddington, the genial security officer forced on Sisko by Starfleet. Odo immediately gets defensive and even overreacts. It's stuff we've seen with George Primmin in Season 1, so the retread feels a lot like a reason for Odo to skip town to meet his people. T'Rul looks like an addition to the cast, but she won't be seen after Part II. I don't find her particularly appealing, so I don't much mind, but it'll be a bit strange that the Romulans let Starfleet use a cloak on good faith. Other changes are cosmetic, like Odo's belt and collar and Dax's hair.
But about that plot... It's really all a set-up, and as soon as Odo starts getting race memory impulses, you have to guess his people will turn out to be the Founders. They'll try to hide it, but not very well, in Part II. We'll pick up this discussion then. The commercial arm of the Dominion, the Karemma, make their appearance, and frequent guest actor John Fleck gives a fun, haughty performance. The Karemma also give Quark a reason to participate in the season opener, though I don't much care for Sisko making him kiss the Nagus' staff. It's a little much. Hopefully Part II can deliver on all these promises.
LESSON: You don't want to be near Odo when he has to go to the bucket.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: The Defiant is HAWT and the action scenes HAWTER, but there is a sense of deja vu about the Odo conflict.
Comments
Sorry Odo.
Still a good episode that introduces some good elements.
Over time, I didn't hate it so much, realizing it made sense in the wake of future encounters with the Dominion. I even got a little sniffly when it was destroyed by the Breen in Season 7.
For sure, whatever its initially perceived fuggliness, I quite remember my delight at seeing it on the big screen in First Contact.
I think a love of the show leads to a love of the ship. The Enterprise-D was this top-heavy, deformed monstrosity, and yet, you eventually totally accept it as THE Enterprise.
At the time Babylon 5 was also introducing the White Star to get the cast get off the station, and I remember thinking how perfectly the two designs reflected the different production styles of their parent shows.
This is also the episode where they changed the comm badge design. That, for me, also signaled the end of the "TNG" era. The new comm badges were the first step towards the darker DS9-driven Alpha Quadrant.
(It's interesting that both the new badges and the season 5 uniforms were designed for their respective TNG movies first, but the badges were given to the DS9 crew for their initial airing but they had to wait for the new uniforms.)
(Well, I think it's interesting.
Also, the show started to be shot with different lenses at this point. It changed the look of the show, bringing the backgrounds more in to focus. Also, this is the introduction of the Wardroom. Between that and the Defiant I wonder if DS9 was allocated some extra studio space this year.