[DS9] Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Honor Among Thieves"
Timothy W. Lynch
WARNING: There may or may not be "Honor Among Thieves", but
there's enough honor among reviewers that I'll warn you about DS9
spoilers.
In brief: A fairly pedestrian story, but the two principal actors carried
it very well.
======
Written by: Rene Echevarria (teleplay); Philip Kim (story)
Directed by: Allan Eastman
Brief summary: O'Brien infiltrates the Orion Syndicate, only to find
that loyalty is not such an easy concept as he thought.
======
"Honor Among Thieves" is a little difficult to characterize. Looking at
it with one eye, I wonder exactly why it was made -- infiltration
stories aren't always easy to pull off even without the science-fiction
trappings, and this one certainly had some questionable moments or
obvious angles. Looking at it with the other eye, however, I can see
its substantial strengths, namely its cast.
To start with, though, there's the story. Since Trek rarely does
infiltration stories, and the last one (TNG's "Preemptive Strike") was
well done and well received, I can understand the idea behind trying to
do it. However, "Preemptive Strike" had two advantages this show
lacked. First, Lieutenant Ro had just come back from actual
*training* in espionage and infiltration missions and so had a reason
to be involved that O'Brien did not; second, "Preemptive Strike" could
get away with Ro actually turning, whereas "Honor Among Thieves"
could only do it halfway.
The "spy comes to sympathize with his/her target" is something of a
cliche in itself, too. Just as I'd like to see a Trek wedding for one that
didn't involve a last-minute cancellation, I'd like to see an intelligence
mission that didn't involve the hero having a change of heart. While I
can understand the change of heart on occasion, it's too easy to have it
happen every time. (Actually, I should amend that: there are *two*
possible cliches. The other one is for the hero to have to prove his/her
loyalty by killing someone; at least we didn't get both.)
There was also a lack of justification for two different aspects of the
show. While O'Brien's actual mission structure made sense (get close
enough to Bilby to find out how Starfleet operatives were being
compromised), there was absolutely no reason given for why O'Brien
was the choice. There was some reason for why it couldn't be done
by Starfleet Intelligence operatives, but why Miles in particular?
There have to be people more hardened and more suited to intelligence
work than he is. (The engineering talents are certainly a help, but
don't quite seem sufficient.) The other problem was the advice for
O'Brien to avoid "unnecessary risks": good advice, but isn't strolling
out every other day to meet your contact just such a risk? The fact that
the Orion Syndicate never actually had O'Brien followed, especially
early on, speaks very poorly of their security -- and their legitimacy as
an organization no one can crack.
If you accept those constraints as necessary, however, the story moved
along rather smoothly (if with few surprises). O'Brien's unexpected
honesty about Bilby's wife's cake served to cement Bilby's high
opinion of "Connolly" (an opinion born of desperation, we later find
out), and that opinion seemed pretty much irrevocable that opinion
seemed pretty much irrevocable once it seemed that Connolly had lied
to Bilby in order to provide Bilby with deniability. If you know your
target is a desperate man looking for someone to trust, those two
actions are both ones that might help -- so however little
justification there was for putting O'Brien in, he did seem to have a
good clue about how to operate. Further events, such as Bilby killing
the vendor who'd bilked him, made it clearer to the viewer how
dangerous he was; one wonders why O'Brien didn't take that into
account later, or why his contact didn't point that out. (The fact
that Bilby almost immediately thereafter "witnessed" for O'Brien,
almost literally putting his life in O'Brien's hands, may have
helped.)
The only real twist in the story was putting the Orion Syndicate in bed
with the Dominion. I fervently hope that this gets used for more than
simply a reason to keep O'Brien in place longer; it does have some
interesting implications for Alpha Quadrant politics, particularly if
news of their relationship is made public (which it should be almost
immediately). Given how generally disreputable the Syndicate is
considered by everyone except the criminal element, the Dominion's
"no, really, we're friendly!" veneer should be a bit damaged by that
revelation. Certainly the assassination plot they engineered here made
a great deal of sense and was classic Dominion strategy, but I'd like to
see this relationship explored more. (It was also nice, in a bit of
continuity, to see the same Vorta we saw last week, although his
situation seemed to have changed a bit.)
The rest of the story -- O'Brien gradually grows more and more loyal
to Bilby, eventually warning him of a trap that he helped create -- was
fairly predictable, almost down to the individual lines of dialogue.
What carried the show through to its end was the same thing that has
sold many DS9 episodes over the years, namely Colm Meaney's
performance.
Meaney's performance is the one thing that makes selecting O'Brien
for this mission more feasible than it otherwise might be -- he gives
O'Brien a core of vulnerability that people like Bilby might well
mistake for absolute loyalty. In this case, pairing him with Nick Tate
(Bilby) worked even better, as Tate managed to show off that kind of
core as well. I'm not sure the story alone made the bond between
them believable, but the two actors certainly did: the final scene
between them, when O'Brien confesses he works for Starfleet and
Bilby realizes his only recourse is to die anyway, proved surprisingly
wrenching. (The later scene with O'Brien caring for Chester, Bilby's
cat, also struck a chord, but that may just be because I'm a cat
person.)
The direction struck me as something of a mixed bag. Many
sequences, particularly most of the ones in the bar, created a nice
sense of atmosphere in which the story played itself out -- but at the
same time, relying on old techniques like having lightning flash at
important moments felt like too much of a reach. (It didn't help that
many of the really long shots said "okay, now we're here in the matte
painting", either.)
Other notes:
-- I liked the continued use of the dataport by some syndicate members
(in this case, Krole); although "A Simple Investigation" last season
was fairly drab, the dataport was an intriguing tool and it's good to
see more of it.
-- The early scene on board DS9, with everyone complaining about
maintenance going to hell, was a waste of time. It let the actors show
up, but that's about all. (Dax's "seems like we've been having a lot of
system glitches" seemed to fall particularly flat, as if Farrell were
phoning in her lines.)
-- Bilby's continuing emphasis on family ("it's the most important
thing") was a good choice; it certainly made it plain why he wouldn't
accept prison at the end, as well as showing how easily he fell for
O'Brien's brotherly nature.
-- The final nail in Bilby's coffin, the realization that he wasn't even
important enough to be O'Brien's target, definitely stung.
It's difficult to describe the things I did like about "Honor Among
Thieves", mainly because so much of it was tied up in the major
performances. Without being able to show their facial expressions
and catch their tones of voice, any scene description would come off
as less impressive than many of the scenes were. Suffice it to say that
the show works pretty well if you let it just wash over you; individual
moments are generally strong enough to keep you from wondering
about some of the logic.
So, wrapping up:
Writing: More questionable logic than I'd like in the setup, but the
rest flowed well despite cliches.
Directing: Generally well-done atmospherics; a few glitches.
Acting: Meaney and Tate were marvelous; Michael Harney (O'Brien's
contact Chadwick) did nothing for me.
OVERALL: 7.5, I think -- a good emotional core as long as you don't
dwell on it much.
NEXT WEEK:
Worf must let Dax die, or compromise a mission.
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
tly...@alumni.caltech.edu <*>
"Starfleet Intelligence will warn them you're coming!"
"How do you know that? I suppose you work for them."
"What if I said I did?"
-- O'Brien finally coming clean
--
Copyright 1998, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
This article is explicitly prohibited from being used in any off-net
compilation without due attribution and *express written consent of the
author*. Walnut Creek and other CD-ROM distributors, take note.
Rain-man
I must say that i agree with you that it was a good episode, but you
mentioned something about why they choose O'Brian for the mission. If I
remember correctly, the Orion Syndicate was getting information on who the
Intelligence officers were in Starfleet, so putting an actually trained
officer in there might have jeopordized the mission, because they would
have known who he was. but that is only my opinion, I may have seen it
wrong.
Timothy W. Lynch
"Chris Stone" <cstone-s...@matrix.ru> writes:
>Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumnae.caltech.edu> wrote in article
><6dafo6$3...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>...
>> To start with, though, there's the story. Since Trek rarely does
>> infiltration stories, and the last one (TNG's "Preemptive Strike") was
>> well done and well received...
>What was "Apocalypse Rising," then? ;)
Goofy and forgotten? :-)
Point taken, but that's not quite what I had in mind; I'm thinking
more of ones where the infiltration is to gain information, rather
than a necessary step to perform some other action. "Apocalypse
Rising" is definitely the latter, "Unification" is somewhere on the border.
Tim Lynch
Shawn Hill
Timothy W. Lynch (tly...@alumnae.caltech.edu) wrote:
: -- The early scene on board DS9, with everyone complaining about
: maintenance going to hell, was a waste of time. It let the actors show
: up, but that's about all. (Dax's "seems like we've been having a lot of
: system glitches" seemed to fall particularly flat, as if Farrell were
: phoning in her lines.)
As if she ever doesn't? The point of the scene was to show how much they miss
Miles when he's gone, which I rather liked.
: -- Bilby's continuing emphasis on family ("it's the most important
: thing") was a good choice; it certainly made it plain why he wouldn't
: accept prison at the end, as well as showing how easily he fell for
: O'Brien's brotherly nature.
It was corny; I agree it was nice seeing Space 1999's Nick Tate, but the script
was a cliche-ridden Donnie Brasco rehash from page one. Meaney and Tate made it
watchable, and I liked the overall noir moodiness of the planet, including the
gorgeous mattes (better than usual for Trek, and they always remind me of some of
the fun ones from TOS) and the constant lightening.
: -- The final nail in Bilby's coffin, the realization that he wasn't even
: important enough to be O'Brien's target, definitely stung.
I personally found it unlikely that he wouldn't have killed O'brien on the spot,
just out of anger.
: Writing: More questionable logic than I'd like in the setup, but the
: rest flowed well despite cliches.
I think they send O'brien on these missions because he's shown a talent for it.
His skills as a warrior/spy are respected among StarFleet brass, and his loyalty
is unquestionable.
: Directing: Generally well-done atmospherics; a few glitches.
I liked it, esp. the spiffed-up, suave criminal Connely.
: Acting: Meaney and Tate were marvelous; Michael Harney (O'Brien's
: contact Chadwick) did nothing for me.
But, I think that fit Chadwick's indifferent attitude perfectly.
: OVERALL: 7.5, I think -- a good emotional core as long as you don't
: dwell on it much.
I didn't go that high, but it was watchable, definitely not better than bad.
Shawn
*********************shawn hill********************************
Sidney: "She has this thing on her wrist."
Michael: "You mean a monitor?"
Sidney: "I don't know. I think she uses it to beam up to
the mother ship."
]***************************sh...@fas.harvard.edu***************
Al Hartman
Shawn Hill wrote in message <6der7j$muf$1...@news.fas.harvard.edu>...
><Clipped>
>
>It was corny; I agree it was nice seeing Space 1999's Nick Tate, but the
script
>was a cliche-ridden Donnie Brasco rehash from page one. Meaney and Tate
made it
>watchable, and I liked the overall noir moodiness of the planet, including
the
>gorgeous mattes (better than usual for Trek, and they always remind me of
some of
>the fun ones from TOS) and the constant lightening.
This is actually Nick Tate's second appearance in Star Trek as he appeared
on the Next Generation episode as an alien trader with whom Picard and
Ensign Crusher get stranded with.
Many of the mattes used in this episode have been used many times before in
TNG and DS9. They are not new to this episode. They may have been slightly
altered though..
>: Acting: Meaney and Tate were marvelous; Michael Harney (O'Brien's
>: contact Chadwick) did nothing for me.
I agree.
>I didn't go that high, but it was watchable, definitely not better than
bad.
I liked it enough as a cheap "filler" episode.
Regards,
Al Hartman