 |
| Station, wormhole, runabout. This is Season One. |
(Season One Summary on Memory Alpha)
On the eve of Babylon 5's debut, we should pause here and see what we've learned about Deep Space Nine so far. Normally, we'll be doing these interludes at the end of the season, and we will still have one for Season One in a few weeks time. However, this is a natural break point, not only because we're going to be having our first close look at Babylon 5 in the next installment, but because this was the first real break for the series itself.
In American network TV one rarely gets an entire season of a show in one uninterrupted string of episodes. Instead, a show's episodes are strung out over much of the year, with frequent breaks with the show putting on repeats of earlier episodes. Furthermore, the way shows get paid in the USA relates to the Nielsen Company ratings system. How much a network can charge its advertisers in any given quarter is based on how well a show does in each 'Sweeps' period. Naturally, a show has incentive to put its best foot forward during Sweeps, so new episodes inevitably appear during those periods. When are Sweeps? Well the exact dates vary from year to year, but in general they correspond to the months of May, July, November, and February. What a surprise, then, that here at the end of February as Sweeps in '93 ended, Deep Space Nine would take its first break. Further, when it comes back in March it will only be for two episodes before going on break again until the middle of April. Then there's a continual stream of episodes until the end of May, catching the May Sweeps, with first season concluding in in June.
So the string of episodes we've just talked about was the first chance that viewers had to evaluate Deep Space Nine and decide whether to continue with it. After all, while watching a new show every week can be habit forming, you have to really enjoy it to get back into that habit after a few weeks away. So let's make our own examination of the first batch of episodes ourselves, shall we?
From an overall impact perspective it's fascinating how little there is through out the first half of the season. Events in "The Emissary" are mission critical, of course. And there are a few references to the Kohn Ma and Kira's history as a terrorist from "Past Prologue" to be had throughout the series, especially while the Cardassians are the main villains in the first couple of seasons prior to their displacement from that role by the Dominion. Garak, of course, would be a major addition to the show who came out of "Past Prologue" as well.
But beyond those first couple of episodes, it is amazing how disposable the rest of the season is. Q and Vash never return to DS9, thogh Q does go back to his natural foil on the Enterprise. Neither does the race whose civil war Dax meddled with, or the people that Kajada and Vantika are from. Indeed, the idea that it is possible through technology to pass your mind into someone else's body is also never mentioned again. For that matter, the first race we meet from the other side of the wormhole, the Hunters and Tosk, are never heard from again either. There were some plans to include the Hunters as part of the Dominion, but they were dropped, and the Tosk shrouding ability was given to the Jem'Hadar instead.
So these episodes are mostly dispoable one-shots except for the way they introduce us to the characters. So how did that work out?
Structurally, the first half of the season was mostly single character focused with one group piece, "Babel", and one poorly conceived guest episode, "Q-Less". Every actor who's listed in the opening credits got his or her own episode to play with, except Armin Shimmerman's Quark who gets his in two episode's time with "The Nagus" and Cirric Lofton's Jake who doesn't really get his own episode at all this season.
Indeed, Jake is more or less a forgotten character through much of the series. When he does get the spotlight, such as the fifth season episodes "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" and "In the Cards" and especially the fourth season "The Visitor", they're able to do some quality work. But for the most part Jake only appears to add a layer of complication to Sisko's life rather than as a major player in his own right, despite his being in the opening credits.
What then have we learned about the characters to date?
Commander Benjamin Sisko is treading new ground as a Starfleet captain. He's not as diplomatic or rules bound as his immediate predecessor, Jean-Luc Picard, but neither is he a frontier renegade like James T. Kirk. What Sisko is, however, is more devious than his counterparts. That was most notable in the season premiere before he heads into the wormhole when he blackmails Quark into staying on the station, or when he commanded Odo to look the other way to let Tosk escape in "Captive Pursuit". Most recently, he faked out Vantika by sneaking the reversion beam in the with the tractor beam in "The Passenger". Granted that last was just a variation of the trick Kirk played on Khan in The Wrath of Khan, but even so, it was nicely handled. Still, the point remains. Until later in the series, Ben Sisko hasn't got much in the way of military force available to him. As such, he has to out think his opponents, and so far they've been pretty consistent about portraying him that way.
Dax and Kira, alas, haven't had as much luck. Both are pretty distinct in their own episodes, but outside of "Dax" and "Past Prologue" respectively, they pretty much just act like regular button pushers, pilots, and sensor scanners. There hasn't been as much opportunity for them to distinguish themselves from the rest of the cast as yet. O'Brien on the other hand, is pretty well characterized, though of course Colm Meany had years to work things out for O'Brien on The Next Generation first. Bashir, like Sisko, also plays counter to type by avoiding the humble and wise Starfleet doctor trope as exemplified by Doctors McCoy, Crusher, and Pulaski. He's mostly been pretty annoying, but that will eventually change.
One pair of characters that works brilliantly is, of course, Odo and Quark. Like Londo and G'Kar on Babylon 5, there's an instant chemistry between a pair of veteran actors playing antagonists who become almost friends by the end. The downside to that, however, is the temptation to keep those two together as often as possible, to the detriment of their interactions with other characters in the series. The solution to that quandary is a mixed bag. For Odo it eventually leads to a relationship with Kira and the Changeling episodes. For Quark the often dire Ferrengi episodes, the first of which is our next DS9 episode, "The Nagus".
In conclusion, the character work is a nice beginning but still mostly incomplete, while the episodes themselves are mostly forgettable. It's a mixed bag, to be sure, but not actively bad in most cases. Much of DS9's audience felt the same way and most returned after the first break.
But before we do so, we have to get 1993's only Babylon 5 entry. So "The Gathering" is on deck. I'll see you there.
No comments:
Post a Comment