DS9 Spoiler: CRITICAL COMMENTS: "Invasive Procedures"
Jose Gonzalez
Review by Jose Gonzalez <wom...@eng.umd.edu>
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***Spoilers***
DS9 delivers *another* solid episode.
After the pulse-pounding, nail-baiting trilogy that Deep Space
Nine began the season with, it's only natural to do a small,
quiet episode next, just to let everyone catch their breath. The
important thing is to make it a good one, and "Invasive
Procedures" is *very* good, though it does has a few flaws.
Comments:
Getting a few of the bad bits out of the way first, one has
to wonder about the contrivances regarding the set-up of this
episode. First, I can readily accept that the station would have
to be evacuated for DS9's version of a nasty thunder storm.
*But*, why in the world couldn't they have just have altered the
end of "The Siege" a bit so that the station would *still* be
evacuated from that episode? A minor point, but irksome
nonetheless. The other one is not so minor. No one is going to
convince me that there was a good reason for Quark's action at
the beginning of the episode. If Quark wanted to sell something,
why in the world would he have to go through some elaborate
scheme to get the buyers on board when they could just dock at
the station anytime they wanted after the storm? It makes no
sense, and there's never any kind of explanation offered for it.
*And*, I'm not one to complain when the main characters always go
on all the dangerous missions, but it was a bit ridiculous here.
Again, I can buy that most everyone would be evacuated, but whose
brilliant idea was it to leave the entire *command* crew on the
station by themselves? A couple of them, yes, with a few non-
regular officers. But *just* the command crew? Come on.
Now, with that out of the way, on to the good stuff. The
takeover of the station was more or less believable. The only
quibble is that, considering that a ship of unknowns was coming
aboard, O'Brien should have had a phaser with him. Besides that,
I bought it. It was a *very* smart idea to contain Odo the way
the Klingons did. And though it defies the laws of physics for
the moment, at least they're staying consistent with Odo's
weight. The bigger he is, the heavier, and vice-versa. I can
accept that as long as they don't go changing it on us every
other episode. (And the special effects of Odo slinking into the
box were superb as usual, along with the exterior shots of the
station in the storm.)
The acting was generally strong, with Avery Brooks and John
Glover doing a particularly dynamite job. Brooks continues to
impress here. He no longer sounds wooden in *any* scenes, and
I'm starting to see a lot more going on when I look into Sisko's
eyes. The writers have him doing a lot of intelligent things
with regards to Mareel. His semi-reasoning with, semi-manipulation of
her is masterfully done.
John Glover was good as plain-simple Verad, but he was
better as Verad Dax. (His speech about being pronounced
"unsuitable" really struck a chord with me, though.) Verad Dax
is a more interesting character, and Glover contrasts the two
extremely well. He maintains something of the Verad we saw
earlier, but adds confidence and self-assuredness to Dax.
Watching Glover's Dax interact with Sisko with so much life and
familiarity, it got me thinking that I wouldn't be terribly upset
if Jadzia didn't survive the episode.
Speaking of Jadzia, Terry Farrell slips back into her form
from last season. She's *extremely* mediocre here. Part of her
problem is that whenever she thinks she has to do some "real"
acting, she half-whispers all her lines. It gets grating *real*
fast. She's fine when she speaks in a normal voice, so I don't
understand why she chooses that tact so often. There *is* one
scene where Farrell surprises me, however. Just after she wakes
up and realizes that part of her is gone, your can *taste* her
fear and loss. This is the best scene she's had on the series.
Period. If only her entire performances could be that
good.......
It was fascinating to watch Sisko interact with Verad Dax.
One interesting note is that I got the distinct impression that
Benjamin had an easier time talking to Verad about old times when
he was Curzon because he was *male*. I'm not sure if that was
intended or not, but it'd be interesting to see Jadzia bring it
up sometime. One other thing that could account for the
difference is the give-and-take that Glover gives Brooks. I got
the definite feeling that these two *had* known each other
before, something Brooks and Farrell have never really shown me.
Terry Farrell just isn't in Glover's league, at least not yet.
I'm still hopeful. If Marina Sirtis could do it, Farrell
certainly can. (-:
Siddig El Fadil gets to shine a bit as Bashir. His exchange
with the Klingon, demanding that he help him with Dax, shows just
how much Julian's grown over a year. There's no sign of fear or
uncertainty there, and it *doesn't* seem like false bravado.
There is a bit of that with him in Ops, but its understandable,
given the situation he was forced in to. The character needs an
episode to focus on him. Not one has yet. The upcoming "Melora"
looks to have, at the least, a sizeable role for him. That's
good news. Bashir, along with Odo, has the most room to grow on
the show. Let's hope we see some of it happening.
The climax between Sisko and Verad is well played-out. (But
they *have* to get new promo makers. They gave away the ending,
*again*. It may be time to stop watching them.) We see Sisko
make a tough choice. He could have very easily killed Verad
*and* Dax by trying to save Jadzia. Very slowly we're starting
to get inside the head of Sisko, see how he thinks. We haven't
gotten a whole lot of that since "Emissary," and we need even
more.
The suggestion that Jadzia Dax is now going to have to live
with at least of part of Verad Dax is interesting. (At least in
the writing aspect of it. Farrell was once again off in her
performance here, leaving me cold.) I'm curious if we'll see any
changes in Dax as a result of this episode. But thinking about
it, considering just how little the writers and Farrell have done
with her, how would we tell? She needs to be well-defined first,
and she isn't right now. (Though "The Siege" started to, but
there wasn't much here building on that definition.)
Despite my complaints, I still thoroughly enjoyed this, in
large part due to great performances by Brooks and Glover. A
nice, small character story. DS9 has definitely stepped it up a
notch.
Grade: 8.50
Season 2 so far:
"The Homecoming" 9.50
"The Circle" 10.00
"The Siege" 10.00
"Invasive Procedures" 8.50
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Average: 9.50
Next Week
The Cardassians are back in the creatively titled "Cardassians."
Will the show live up to its title? (-: We'll see.........
--
Jose Gonzalez