DS9 Spoiler: Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Cardassians"
Tim Lynch
Review by Tim Lynch <tly...@juliet.caltech.edu>
===============================================
WARNING: This article contains large amounts of spoilers for "Cardassians,"
this week's DS9 episode. Those not wishing to be left spoilt by this
information should avoid the article.
In brief: Not quite perfect, but powerful, quiet, and good. I definitely
liked it.
After the three-part opener, we needed a more quiet, down-to-earth
continuation of it. "Invasive Procedures" provided an interlude (barely),
but "Cardassians" began to get back into the meat of Bajoran society, and did
so quite nicely.
Not only the issue of the war orphans, but even the _timing_ of the issue was
brought up. After all, the orphan "situation" has been around for quite some
time, and it does seem awfully convenient to have the whole thing blow up on
Sisko's watch. Had the coincidence itself not been mentioned and dealt with,
I might have been a bit cynical about it -- but as it is, I have to
congratulate the writers, like the Cardassians, for their attention to
detail.
Gul Dukat is rapidly shaping up as *the* villain for DS9 -- yes, the
Cardassians as a whole are bad guys, but we've already seen lots of evidence
that there are decent Cardassians here and there (Marritza in "Duet" and
Pa'Dar here, for instance). Not so with Dukat -- he's slippery, corrupt,
scheming at every turn, and always ready with a new gambit. In that respect,
he reminds me a bit of Baron Harkonnen from Frank Herbert's _Dune_ (the book,
that is, not the film) -- and that's a comparison I don't mind one bit. Marc
Alaimo is doing a nice job of making Dukat just convincing enough to make you
doubt your convictions that he's up to something, while not quite so
convincing that you believe him hands down. That's not an easy tightrope,
and he's managing it quite well most of the time.
The highlight of the whole thing, absolutely hands down, was the Bashir/Garak
interaction. Forget Kira/Dax, or even Odo/Quark -- if Garak were a regular
character, Bashir/Garak might well be *the* pair to beat for snappy dialogue.
I hope Andrew Robinson (Garak) has a fairly empty schedule ahead of him,
because I want to see a lot more of him. On the one hand, we got a lot of
hints that Garak has far more of a history than being a "plain, simple" spy
-- and on the other, we got to watch him play Bashir like a fiddle. Loads of
fun, no question.
For that matter, I think this may be one of the best Bashir stories to date.
While Bashir was a bit more enthusiastic here than he'd been in the last
half-dozen or so stories, it was appealing to his adventurous roots. Beyond
the big-ticket items, though, even the little touches seemed to show off how
involved Bashir was with the whole affair: the way he hopped off the lift to
Ops before it even stopped several times, the way he finished Garak's
sentences for him several times early on (before Garak started leaving him in
the dust, that is :-) ), even his forwardness in accosting Dukat early on.
All added together to give me the feeling that Bashir (not just el Fadil) was
really interested in and by the orphans issue, and it certainly made me pay
more attention. Nice job.
About the only weak link, acting-wise, was by Terrence Evans, the fellow
playing Rugal's Bajoran father. While he was hardly atrocious the way some
guest stars have been from time to time, he felt flat to me. He felt more
like a plot point than a character -- the fact that he more or less *was* is
no excuse for him to come off that way. Nothing particularly bad there, but
he certainly didn't live up to the rest of the guest cast (or the regulars,
all of whom were very on-key this time).
On the other hand, Robert Mandan was wonderful to see as Kotan Pa'Dar,
Rugal's real father. I have to admit to a certain surprise on that score,
because the only thing I've seen Mandan in before was the "Soap" series about
15 years ago. While he generally did a good job there, "Soap" was first and
foremost a comedy show and not a drama -- and I had difficulty seeing him
put in this role. I needn't have worried -- he's one of the most "real"
Cardassians I can recall seeing. The scene between him and Rugal really
_felt_ like a father/son scene to me, and even through the makeup it was
wrenching to see Pa'Dar's reaction to Rugal's rejection. Very, very nice
job.
(As an aside, the casting of the businessman was fairly smart thinking, too.
Dion Anderson sounds and moves enough like Robert Mandan that I thought the
businessman *was* Pa'Dar for bits of the show. While that turned out to be
me adding one level too many to the plotting of the Cardassians, it served
quite well to keep me off the track. Cute.)
Wrapping up the guest cast, Vidal Peterson managed to hold his own as Rugal.
He didn't steal the show, but he wasn't meant to; as was pointed out several
times, he was an innocent victim of the whole mess, not an integral player.
Regardless, he had some good scenes as well -- the aforementioned scene with
Pa'Dar was definitely one of them, but the dinner scene with O'Brien was up
there, too. It's not often in Trek that you see two characters bond from a
common _dislike_ rather than a common love.
Plotwise, things aren't quite as strong as the acting generally was, but it
was good. In particular, the methodical figuring-out of just what *was*
going on, by whom, and for what reason, was excellent. While on TNG we'd see
someone (probably Picard) play detective to the hilt and figure everything
out himself, here we saw Bashir basically get guided to the answer by someone
with his own motives: a very interesting difference. I think that Bashir's
general attitude had to be summed up by Sisko's statement:
"So, you deduced that Garak thinks Dukat is lying about something you're not
sure of, and you proceeded to interrupt _my_ conversation to confront him
about whatever that might be."
Sounds about right from this end. ;-)
I originally had objections about the fact that the war orphans issue wasn't
really dealt with, but I realized that that would be fairly inconsistent of
me. The issue was raised due to a specific child, and the issue of _that_
child has been covered: Rugal's going to Cardassia (a move about which I
have fairly mixed feelings, but I digress). On a larger scale, probably
about all this incident could hope to accomplish was to raise awareness of
the issue on Bajor and (especially) on Cardassia, and there are suggestions
here and there that it might. On the whole, the more I think about the
open-endedness here, the more I like it.
So, some shorter takes:
-- For familiar-face watchers: Vidal Peterson, who played Rugal, also played
D'Tan in "Unification II".
-- One loose end that bugs me a bit: how *did* Garak find Jomat's name? Or
rather, how did he know that she was the one who handled Rugal's case? I can
think of several plausible ways, but I'd like to see at least a bit more
explanation than I got.
-- As is becoming more and more par for the course, the dialogue was really
crackling in spots. Besides the Sisko/Bashir conversation I already
mentioned and the Bashir/Garak scenes, I rather enjoyed the exchange when
Bashir wants a runabout: "I'm waiting," indeed. :-)
-- I rather strongly liked the ambiguity about the orphan girl's question.
When she asked "Are you here to take us back to Cardassia?", what did she
want the answer to BE? It wasn't at all clear, which I think is excellent.
-- I also liked the evidence that the Bajoran near-coup is having an impact
on Cardassia (the upcoming hearings). Now if we can see more of its effect
on _Bajor_, I'll be happier still.
In short, what we saw in "Cardassians" was more political infighting and its
effect on the characters. As I said back over the summer, that's the sort of
thing I think DS9 is uniquely qualified to address among all the various Trek
settings, and I was glad to see it done so well here.
So, to sum up:
Plot: A loose end or two, but in general just the sort of thing I like to
see.
Plot Handling: Nice. A particular plus was cutting to Sisko and Bashir's
discomfort when Rugal's father went in to get him.
Characterization: Excellent all around.
OVERALL: Call it a 9. Good job.
NEXT WEEK:
Wheelchairs, zero-gravity lust, and the Gamma Quadrant.
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"I am no more a spy than you are --"
"-- a doctor."
-- Garak and Bashir
--
Copyright 1993, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...