"We'll Haggle Over Price Later" (DS9 1-5, "Babel")

(Synopsis on Memory Alpha)

Dammit, who's going to unstop the toilet if O'Brien dies?

January 24, 1993

With three character focused introductory episodes in the can, Deep Space Nine opted for an ensemble episode for episode four. It's the first episode of the series that isn't really about any one character so much as it is about a plot event. In this case, the plot is a classic of science fiction, the Big Disease.

The Big Disease has a storied history in Star Trek. "The Naked Time," an episode of the original Star Trek series is considered a classic. The idea of a disease that unleashes the parts of ourselves that we keep hidden or under control was a good one, plus you got to see Sulu chase people around with a sword, and who doesn't like that? "The Naked Now," The Next Generation's version of the same idea was somewhat less successful, but showed us a few new things about the characters. What it showed about the female characters in particular is why the episode was less successful, but never mind that.

Both Naked episodes showed up early in their respective series runs, as the fourth episode aired for Star Trek and the third for The Next Generation. Similarly, "Babel" is the fourth episode of Deep Space Nine. That's understandable because one of the nice things about the Big Disease plot is that it lets you put the characters under stress in a way that they aren't accustomed to. This is particularly notable at the end of the episode where, "Ten Little Indians" style, Odo and Quark are the only ones left functioning in Ops after everyone else has either left or succumbed to the disease.

What "Babel" doesn't do, however, is recycle the Psi 2000 inhibitions destroying disease. Instead, the DS9 crew is infected by an aphasia virus that interferes with the victim's ability to use language. What's more, it wasn't just a random plague, but a Bajoran created bio-weapon designed to take out the Cardassians. The plan of the Bajoran terrorists seems pretty ill-conceived, though. If you're going to make a bio-weapon that, as we see, can affect Bajorans as easily as it does the Cardassians it's meant to kill, why are you planting it on a space station in orbit around Bajor? Surely there must be better places to release the bug, like Cardassia Prime for example.

The twist to the episode is that unlike Doctors McCoy and Crusher, DS9's Doctor Bashir doesn't get to find the cure to the disease. Major Kira does that by kidnapping the assistant to the scientist who'd created the weapon in the first place. You'd think that kidnapping a prominent doctor and risking his life by exposing him to a deadly disease would merit some kind of censure, but no, we're informed by the closing voiceover that "things are returning to normal."

"A Man Alone" ended much the same way, with Sisko making a log entry about how things are back to normal. It's an unsatisfying way to end an episode, in that it basically says that events in this episode have no greater significance. Considering that Odo was nearly lynched last episode and Kira kidnapped a guy in this one, you'd think that there ought to be more long term effects. That there isn't is a disappointment but not a surprise. Episodic television has almost always been a one and done state of affairs. Excepting the two parts of "The Menagerie" and the fact that the Romulans were introduced in "Balance of Terror" so you should probably watch that one before you watch "The Enterprise Incident" which has Romulans in it, pretty much any episode of Star Trek can be watched in any order you like. There are few recurring characters and even fewer direct references to previous events. Likewise, while The Next Generation dabbled in continuity, with such continuing stories as the Borg threat to the Federation or Worf, his family history, and the Klingon Empire, it was dabbling only. For the most part, as long as you ignore Riker's beard and the changes in uniform from season to season, The Next Generation can be watched is pretty much any order just like the original Star Trek.

Deep Space Nine breaks from tradition by having long running storylines throughout much of the length of the show. The first two seasons deal pretty heavily with Bajoran politics and religion, with a side of Federation and Cardassian politics. Then in the season two finale we're introduced to the Dominion, and the rest of the series tosses Bajor into the dustbin of history and focuses instead on the growing Dominion threat and the slide to a cataclysmic war. There's a reason for the sudden shift in tone, and his name is Ira Behr, but that's a while off yet. Suffice it to say that Deep Space Nine seems for its first two seasons to be a show about Bajor, the Federation, and the Cardassians, and becomes something else entirely for its last five years.

Which is an odd observation to make when writing about an episode that has no continuity implications what so ever. Neither the disease, the men who created it, the Bajoran terrorists who planted it, or even the panicked freighter captain who nearly blows up the station are ever heard from again. This is a purely stand alone episode. But sometimes you can see something best by comparing it to its opposite. So this is what we mean when we're talking about stand-alone episodes. It's an episode that, excepting certain signs that time has passed like changes to the opening credits, Sisko's hair, and Cirroc Lofton's height, could be seen in the beginning of season one or the end of season seven without changing at all.

As with many things, the gang at Babylon 5 felt less constrained by tradition than the Deep Space Nine crew. Of course, for the B5 team there was much less tradition to be constrained by. Rather than two previous television series and a handful of movies, Babylon 5 only had to worry about the basic rules of episodic television, narrowed down to science fiction television.

They mostly spent their time breaking those rules with a sledgehammer.

For instance, while Babylon 5 had several stand-alone episodes, especially in the first two and a half seasons, they also had one lone story arc that ran throughout the length of the show. Indeed, that was one of the main selling points of the show, that it was, in effect, a five year long novel. As Straczynski put it, three days before "Babel" aired, both in his comparison of his show to DS9 and about the ongoing story:

"Those who have seen the two shows have no problem telling them apart. And future B5 stuff will continue to remain separate and fresh for the same reason that the pilot is different and fresh: because it proceeds from another voice. Just as Clarke's stories have always been different from Asimov's has been different from Ellison's have been different from Bova's have been different from...well, you get the idea."

"No comparison of quality implied there, only as examples of voice. (One final note: B5 has always been conceived as, fundamentally, a five year story, a novel for television, which makes it very different as well.)"

And if there was one thing that sets the two shows apart, it's that. Deep Space Nine was a traditional television show that dabbled in longer story arcs. Babylon 5 was trying to tell one long story over five years. In 2013, that concept is widely accepted. Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and 24 all had either season long or series long stories. There is no such thing as a stand-alone episode of Game of Thrones, where every episode flows from one to the other like chapters of a novel, which is exactly what it is.

But in 1993, this was a very big deal indeed. It hadn't been done before quite that way, at least in American live-action television. Unless you counted soap operas, that is. Or the old serials of the 1950's and '60s. Or...

So perhaps it is more accurate to say that while the idea wasn't new, the implementation was. Certainly it broke the mold of what was expected in science fiction television. Fans of the idea, and the show, said that telling one story all the way through gave the B5 universe more depth and gave you more reason to care about the characters. Detractors said that if you missed the beginning or more than one or two episodes along the way you were screwed because you'd be lost and have no way to catch up. Both sides were right, after a fashion, and we'll get into that more when Babylon 5 finally catches up.

We should also say that when Babylon 5 gets to do the Big Disease show, they break the mold even more than "Babel" does here.

Sworn enemies working together.  We should do this more often.

What else do we have to say about "Babel?" It does seem odd to me that if Quark's Ferrengi immune system is so good that he can be unaffected by the virus, why weren't the rest of Quark's crew helping him out in Ops? I'll forgive the conceit, though, since the Quark and Odo scenes are very good in this episode. Indeed, if there was a B-Plot in this episode it was Quark and Odo, though like the better B-Plots, this one merged with the main plot by the end of the episode.

Thus we find that "Babel" is a reasonable if unexceptional episode of Deep Space Nine and move on to the next episode, "Captive Pursuits," where Chief Miles O'Brien finally gets his time in the spotlight. I'll see you there.