DS9 Spoiler: Lynch's Spoiler Review: "The Maquis, Part I"
Tim Lynch
WARNING: This article contains spoiler information for DS9's "The Maquis,
Part I" -- avoid at all costs unless you're comfortable being exposed to that
information.
In brief: Quite good, despite one or two big flaws.
I'll get to the flaws in due course, however, because for the most part this
show was quite engrossing.
To begin with, I'm quite sure this is a show that will provoke a lot of
discussion (or arguing, more likely) about who is taking the correct
position. Which *is* more important: stopping the war that seems about to
start, or protecting the colonists? Is peace worth "firing on your own
people", as both Kira and Bashir referred to it? Cal and Kira clearly
believe that the colonists come first, Dukat clearly (well, as clearly as he
ever makes anything known) thinks peace comes first, and Sisko is caught in
the middle, but seems to be leaning towards peace being more crucial.
I haven't figured out *where* I stand yet, though I'm leaning with Sisko; but
that's not the point. The point is that this is a question that, at least
from what we've seen, isn't going to have any easy answers. That's almost
always a sign of a meaty show that will be worth watching again for new
slants on things, and I can't support it strongly enough.
Let me get the flaws out of the way early, then. The first one is a plot
flaw, that occurs in the final thirty seconds or so of the show. Yet
*again*, Our Heroes act like morons in beaming down en masse into a situation
they know is likely to be hostile. People can talk all they like about
"dramatic necessity", but in a situation where people normally behave
intelligently (which everyone did up until that point), having everyone
suddenly say "hey, let's beam down and get captured!" is just plain dumb. Of
course, this could change if we find out next week that they rigged something
up with the computer to beam them back immediately with a single command or
something, but I have rather severe doubts that this will be the case.
The other flaw is in the Quark/Sakonna scenes -- or rather, it *is* the
Quark/Sakonna scenes. They are, quite simply, appallingly boring. I came
extremely close to getting up and taking a bathroom break during those scenes
-- and that's something I never, ever do. There was nothing in those scenes
that needed doing so far as I could see, except perhaps the point that
Sakonna was buying weapons; and we surely didn't need a sixth of the show
taken up with Quark slavering. Ick.
Apart from that, though, this first part of "The Maquis" was superb -- close
to the level of the opening two parts of this season's starting trilogy, in
fact. As with "The Homecoming" and "The Circle", I felt as if I was watching
events unfold that the characters were powerless to stop, as though they were
*experiencing* it rather than following a script. That takes some doing, and
I'm delighted to say they managed it.
What was truly refreshing to see, in addition, was a script in which every
major regular that got screen time (besides Quark) was used about as
intelligently as they could be for the show's needs. For instance:
-- O'Brien, while being extremely bright, is also *not* leaping to
conclusions, but insisting in the face of a lot of pressure that he needs
time to figure out what's going on. He's also quick to defend the
Federation from Odo's scoffing later, which is very appropriate for him.
-- Odo is fairly smart as far as security goes (except for the kidnapping,
perhaps, but we don't know yet how well-organized the Maquis is on the
station); but more to the point here, his annoyance over having his hands
"tied" by Fed rules of conduct is absolutely in line with his law-and-order
personality. With "say what you like -- it was *safer* then" [referring to
the Cardassian occupation], Odo summed up a lot of his passions, and gave me
a case of the jitters at the same time.
-- Kira doesn't get all that much to say, but argues her case about the
Cardassians vs. the colonists quite persuasively. Her perspective is both
more limited and more focused than Sisko's, for obvious reasons -- and I got
*both* of those quite clearly when she argued with him.
-- Dax, gods be praised, actually behaved like a crack science officer! Not
only was she professional as possible when the Bok'nor first had problems
(not even finishing a sentence before acting on her findings, for instance),
but she figured out quite quickly what the likely response was. Considering
the number of times that this alleged brilliant mind has been stuck saying
"what do you mean" to O'Brien or others as they come up with brilliant
points, it was amazingly refreshing to see this.
-- Bashir got so little time that it's not really possible to say whether he
was true to character or not, but he certainly didn't seem *false* to it.
Then, there's Sisko, for whom this was probably the best show since the
season opener. Sisko was every bit the commander caught in a bind here, but
was so expertly written and expertly acted that you'd think Avery Brooks was
stuck with the situation himself! In particular, his absolute
stone-facedness when confronted with Dukat stood in stark contrast to his
more relaxed attitude around, say, Hudson (at least early on). Sisko seems
about as torn as we've ever seen him -- you can tell that he doesn't want war
*or* to have to fire on the colonists. But it looks like he'll be stuck, and
it's going to be a gripping ride to see how he deals with it.
The Sisko/Dukat scenes were far and away the grandest scenes of the entire
show. I'm beginning to think that I'd watch a show with no one but those two
characters in it -- the second act had only them, after all, and was
absolutely spectacular. Dukat was, at least in theory, coming in good faith
-- but his willingness to simply show up in Sisko's quarters without any word
was a little eerie, and Sisko was more than justified in wondering where Jake
was. Brr. The trade of philosophies (sort of) and of tirades in the
runabout was marvelous, as was the bantering about how much Dukat did or
didn't know about the runabout's controls. (Cardassians have photographic
memories; hmm. That might help explain some of Garak's more peculiar
miracles...) Dukat was, as always, extremely difficult to figure out -- even
now, I'm sure he has *something* up his sleeve beyond stopping the Maquis,
but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what. He's a snake, but he's a snake who
can come across as the wronged party while simultaneously sinking his fangs
into your throat -- and that makes him DS9's best villain, by a landslide.
Beyond that, it was interesting to see the cross-series continuity being
built. TNG's "Journey's End" had left me with the impression that it was
*only* the colony on that episode that had refused to leave, but in
retrospect it's entirely possible that their settlement set off a wave of
outcry all across the demilitarized zone which forced both sides to allow
other colonies to stay. Gul Evek seemed a very consistent character -- not
particularly trustworthy, but at least in theory not particularly warlike
either. As for the first mention of the Badlands towards the close, I
definitely smell "Voyager" setup ... which is fine as long as it's done
tastefully.
Then, there's Cal Hudson. Although I liked a great deal of what he had to
say and do (I'm not sure how much I *agreed* with, but that's a different
issue), sometimes Bernie Casey didn't quite pull off the role. He was
magnificent early on, particularly in his first conversations with Sisko --
but later, after Samuels' body is brought back, he seemed a little bit, well,
*scripted*. His rejoinders to Sisko were good (such as "well, that'll help a
LOT" when Sisko refers to high-level complaints), but his broader points
sounded like someone reciting rather than someone arguing from the heart.
That made it a little difficult to get into the scene, though Sisko was
forceful enough to carry all those scenes through. I've liked a lot of
Casey's past work, and I think he can still work here -- but somehow the
delivery just seemed a little stilted at times.
It's tough to completely evaluate "The Maquis, Part I", since it is, after
all, only half a story -- but I'd place bets that very few people who saw
this half will miss the second. It was gripping, it was timely (since the
"if one side cheats, do we?" question is virtually ageless in diplomacy), and
it was damned good.
So, a few short takes and then the wrapup:
-- The Sisko/Dukat scenes had so much good dialogue that quote-getters may
have just doubled their inventory. I particularly liked "Education is power;
joy is vulnerability." myself as Dukat's motto, along with his swearing on
the lives of his children. (Of course, we don't *know* he actually has any
children...)
-- After the conversation Sisko and Hudson had about their days in New
Berlin, I am absolutely *dying* to see a picture of Sisko in Liederhosen.
:-) :-)
-- It seemed a bit odd that the two highest ranking officers along the
Cardassian border were two *Commanders*, at least to me.
-- Kira's and Dax's conversation at the start was excellent, but I've noticed
that when the two are talking together they're usually talking about men.
That seems a little off-kilter; do any two men on the series always talk
about women to each other? The scene was great in itself; it just seems a
trifle odd in context, that's all.
-- Unlike Gul Toran in "Profit and Loss", it *does* make sense that Dukat
could get around the station unseen; as he says, he was in charge of it for
years. Here, I don't have a problem.
That should about cover it. "The Maquis, Part I" may not have been an
absolutely top-notch episode, but it was more than watchable. Definitely
worth seeing.
So, wrapping up:
Plot: Terrific. Except for the use of the Stupid Ray (to quote Dave Barry)
on the characters at the very end, downright wonderful.
Plot Handling: Cut out the Quark/Sakonna scenes and it's almost perfect;
those scenes, however, were glacial.
Characterization: Ehhh on Quark, unclear on Hudson, and top-notch on every-
one else, especially Dukat.
OVERALL: Call it a 9. Nice job.
NEXT WEEK:
Friend, foe, or friend? Tough to tell these days...
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"You two aren't, I mean..."
[laughter] "Oh, no. She may not be Curzon, but she *is* Dax."
"Yes ... that would be extremely ... *strange*."
-- Hudson and Sisko
--
Copyright 1994, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...