[DS9] Lynch's Spoiler Review: "The Sword of Kahless"
Timothy W. Lynch
information for DS9's "The Sword of Kahless". Anyone not wishing
the glory of facing such spoilers head-on is advised to slink away at
this moment.
In brief: Quite nice. John Colicos is wonderful, as ever, and the
story pulled surprisingly few punches.
======
Written by: Hans Beimler (teleplay); Richard Danus (story)
Directed by: LeVar Burton
Brief summary: Kor, Worf, and Dax go on a quest to retrieve the
legendary Sword of Kahless, which has been missing for a
millennium, and which carries within it the potential to unify the
Klingon people.
======
I'll admit up front that this type of story tends to enthrall me if it's
done well. As Dax herself said, "[it's] hard to pass up a good quest."
Adventure, snappy dialogue, some hopefully epic themes flowing
through -- what's not to like? Although quest tales have certainly been
done badly on occasion (or simply been so derivative as to be silly),
when done right quest stories can be quite good -- and this one was.
One of the most ... effusive ... reasons why this episode came out as
well as it did can be summed up in two words: "John" and "Colicos".
I don't think I've ever seen him in a role that wasn't somehow
overblown and over-the-top, but that doesn't matter; Colicos is
generally superb in such roles, and gives any scene he's in a certain
manic energy as a result. It also made Kor a lovely counterpoint to
Worf here; Worf tends to keep to himself very much, whereas Kor is
so full of himself that he spills out onto everyone else in the room. It
strikes me as no accident that the show started with a close-up on Kor;
guest character though he was, he was impossible to ignore (in much
the same way Q was on TNG), and he was worth every moment spent
on him.
This isn't to disparage either Terry Farrell or Michael Dorn, however.
(I'm ignoring pretty much everyone else because the show did; most
of the other regulars had roughly a line or two apiece.) Neither of
them had the sort of scenery-chewing role that Colicos did (though
Dorn came close at times), but both had their own tensions and
concerns to convey, and they did. Dorn in particular ran a fairly full
spectrum, from his initial reticence and shame to his megalomaniac
streak, with a great deal of emotion in between. Farrell had to play the
even keel, the only one of the three not to lose herself in what might
be, and managed to do that admirably, I think. (Her confrontation
with Worf about the ledge came off particularly well.) On the acting
side, then, I've no real complaints.
I've also few complaints on the directing. LeVar Burton has really
come into his own as a director (at least of Trek material; I'm curious
about what he'd be like on something else now); between this and
"The Pegasus", he's shown a nice talent for getting into character's
heads without getting into the actors' faces. The only jarring closeups
were those *meant* to be so jarring, I think (such as the opening with
Kor and the jumps among all three questers as Dax settled down to a
rather guarded sleep). Beyond that, anyone who can take a show
which has characters walking through tunnels half the time and *not*
make it come off looking like a Roger Corman movie is definitely
praiseworthy. :-)
That brings us to the writing, which also shone through with only
very minor worries. While what <tech> there was was slightly
annoying, it was only *very* slightly so, and was also kept to about
half a dozen lines total, which suits me fine. (I found the concept of
Worf giving Dax technical advice a little surprising, though. I
suppose one could assume that she was about to think of it anyway;
he did speak to her pretty quickly.) Much more importantly, "The
Sword of Kahless" actually managed to get the characters involved in
some real conflict *without* resorting to claims that it wasn't really
them.
Stories like this often have a realization that the talisman the questers
find "isn't meant for them", and this one was no exception -- but often
it's because the talisman has some strange, magical effect on people
(the most obvious example being Tolkien's One Ring, but there are
certainly tons of others). Here, the Sword of Kahless certainly
brought out the worst in both Worf and Kor -- but the reason that
worked so well is that it simply did so by what it represented: power
and legends. There was no "psionic energy field" or some such
gobbledygook which caused the pair to act so viciously towards one
another (and Worf scheming to let Kor die in a cliff fall is pretty nasty,
even for him); it was just ambition, and a belief that each knew "what
was best". Worf's speech to Dax about how he realized that using the
Sword was his destiny was downright worrying, but not even that
surprising in retrospect; Worf's shown signs of religious fanaticism
back when Kahless was introduced in TNG's "Rightful Heir".
Similarly, given what we've seen of Gowron, Kor's claim that "the
Empire could do far worse" than to follow him has some meat to it --
and Kor's ambitions merely grew out of a desire for changing the way
the High Council currently conducts Klingon affairs. While that sort
of "characters blinded by ambition" story may not be hugely complex
or difficult, it *is* in some ways a challenge to do that with the regular
characters and make it stick without resorting to a claim of "well, he
wasn't really himself"; and with Worf, that came off.
Beyond that, "The Sword of Kahless" really wasn't all that deep; there
were just a number of excellent little touches or snippets of dialogue
here and there that kept everything running on track. Here's a
sampling and some other notes:
-- O'Brien may have only had one line, but he made it count: "who
cares [if Kor's story is total bull]? He tells it well!" Spoken as one
who's told a few drunken tall tales himself, I'll bet.
-- It was interesting to note that neither Kor nor Worf *ever* referred
to the current emperor as Kahless; it was always "the Emperor".
Given Kor's low regard for Kahless's clone, that's not surprising; but
it's intriguing to see Worf do the same. One wonders if that's
widespread in the Empire.
-- More broadly, Kor's primary motive throughout the show seemed
to be to capture one last moment of glory for himself, not to serve the
Empire. That both made his later actions understandable and fit his
role as the aging warrior. Either way, it just felt very right.
-- I was initially skeptical about the use of Toral, as the Duras family
is a concept I've gotten a little sick of; but he was put to good use in
the end. He wasn't really there as a major villain, so much as a
catalyst to drive a wedge between Kor and Worf over the sparing of
Toral's life. In that respect, he worked fine.
-- Kor's mocking of Worf's stiff-necked ways got more and more
vicious as the episode went on, but I liked it quite a bit. From the
beginning, where he just liked to yank Worf's chain a little bit ("the
traitor! the pariah! the lowest of the low! ...Pleasure to meet you."),
to his dismissal of Worf's role in the quest ("...when they start
singing songs about this quest and come to your verse, it will be 'and
Worf came along'!"), to the final straw of his mockery of Worf
hearing "the spirit of Kahless", Kor's irreverent nature caused all
kinds of trouble. I like that in a character. :-)
-- Kor was ambassador to *Vulcan*? No wonder Sarek was driven
insane. :-)
-- On a more random note, I also like that we never found out who
ransacked the "Herk" antechamber where the Sword was kept.
("Herk"? I thought that was a different show, albeit also one full of
legends. :-) )
That about covers it. "The Sword of Kahless", as I said, wasn't
particularly deep, but it was effective, and extremely entertaining.
Works for me.
So, wrapping up:
Writing: a few lines of technobabble here and there, but some nice
character conflict wrapped into an age-old idea.
Directing: Solid. Everything kept moving.
Acting: Good from Farrell and Dorn, excellent from Colicos.
OVERALL: A 9.5, I think -- not quite riveting enough to be a 10, but
excellent.
NEXT WEEK:
A holodeck malfunction leaves Bashir shaken. Shaken, but not
stirred.
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
tly...@alumni.caltech.edu
"It was our destiny to *find* it. It just wasn't our destiny ... to
keep it."
-- Kor
--
Copyright 1995, 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.
Walter lee
>>In brief: Quite nice. John Colicos is wonderful, as ever, and the
story pulled surprisingly few punches.
======
Written by: Hans Beimler (teleplay); Richard Danus (story)
Directed by: LeVar Burton<<
It is better than just quite nice. The writing is better, the actors get to show their
stuffs, and not those clunky lines, the conflict is revealing and truly human.
(except for the Worf line: "try changing the polarities on the field..."
<mild grimace> you really want to see me change polarities on you car batteries??)
To be quite honest as a SF fan, DS9 this year (for the 3 eps I watched),
has been quite good.
Praise is due where and when it is due.
The next episode looks quite interesting too. Nice twist...Bashir as James Bond...
the angle is there. And I am not saying this lightly, I am B5 fan here!
This is what happens when you live, eat and *breath* your work. It gets better.
keep up the chemistry!
--------
What's the definition of a true fan?
The carrot and the stick.
^^^^^
Martin H Duke
First, a note: The continued success of DS9's Season 4 has reinspired me, and
as the term winds down I find I may have some time to start reviewing again.
So, I hope to make up the backlog over the next few months, at least for DS9,
and do Voyager as time allows.
"Starship Down" was yet another decent installment for this DS9 season.
While the basic dramatic device was borrowed from TNG's "Disaster", the fresh
characters and more interactive environment made it a better, and very
watchable, episode.
PLOT AND CHARACTERIZATION:
I thought the dramatic "hook" for this episode -- trade with the Karama,
Jem'Hadar recriminations, etc. was credible and a particularly good use of the
Defiant. It didn't seem as forced as your average Star Trek situation (when
I write my review for "The Way of the Warrior", you'll see what I mean.)
The beginning battle sequence was fairly well done, although the Defiant
doesn't seem to be firing as much as it should be, and although being trapped
in the gas giant's atmosphere is very convenient and quite precarious, the
novelty of being in a non-class-M planet, for once, is well worth it. The
tension was built much more effectively than in "Disaster", largely because of
the continuing threat from the Jem'Hadar, and the producers' continued
insistence on treating the Defiant like a submarine.
As I'm sure everyone's noticed, this episode is similar to "Disaster" in that
the ship gets banged up, and certain odd groups of characters stuck together,
cut off from the rest of the ship. The combinations here are certainly more
compelling (Crusher and Geordi?!?), and it seems like TPTB have something to
say, so we get some interesting character insights. So, on to the individual
combinations:
Sisko/Kira: The whole issue of Sisko being an uncomfortable religious hero to
Kira was built up for a long time, and this conversation needed to happen.
Some of the lines were cute, but Sisko's (necessary) lifelessness and Kira's
inability to get a grip on herself hurt the execution. Although the issue
needs to be discussed, it was difficult to go anywhere once they'd stated the
problem. Sisko's invitation to a baseball game was a decent conclusion, and if
we see more of it, I'll like it. Unfortunately, as I see it this is the only
change in the status quo in an episode with a *lot* of potential for change.
O'Brien/Worf: This one was kind of limp for me. Did Worf get any leadership
experience on the Enterprise? Did he do it this way? Did it work?
Conflicting command styles is a genuine issue, but in this one Worf is treated
much as Wesley was in "Pen Pals." It seems as if he *doesn't know* that there
is more than one approach to command, which makes me wonder what they teach you
at the Academy. Nevertheless, from a technical/tactical aspect this segment
was excellent, as the steps they take to beat the Jem'Hadar are interesting.
Quark/Hanoch: At first I saw their quibbling as a waste of time in an episode
that could better use it exploring interactions between *regular* characters.
The made-up taxes and surcharges were amusing but nothing new. When they must
defuse the dud warhead and Hanoch is revealed to be just as much a swindler as
Quark is, things pick up. Again, though, it seems like Hanoch doesn't like
gambling because he hasn't been exposed to it, just as Worf can't be nice
because he hasn't had any training in different leadership styles, and I find
that implication to be insulting and a dramatic cop-out.
Dax/Bashir: Here's where I thought there could be a real alteration in the
holy status quo. I've heard about how Siddig and Farrell want the two
characters to get together, and this seemed like one of those things. Yeah,
I'm rooting for the guy to get the girl eventually, and this seemed like as
good a time as any, even if the whole rescue sequence didn't make sense (why'd
they close the far door if there was a near one as well?). Oh well.
There was one other thing that could've happen: I'd heard rumors that they
were going to destroy the Defiant in this episode, and that was reinforced by
the criticism the ship gets on r.a.s.reviews, the presence of a Karama ship
which could rescue the crew, and the fact that they trashed the set pretty well
in the battle. I can't blame for not wanting to take such a big step[, but I
thought it was a possibility.
FINE POINTS:
- I was very impressed with the aformentioned set-trashing a la Star Trek II,
especially compared to the cheesy bridge fires in TNG (see "Yesterday's
Enterprise").
- Any bets on which game Sisko took Kira to see? The consensus is that if it
was played before 1996, it'd be the 1975 World Series, Game 6, the Carlton Fisk
homer game. Then again, I am in New England. :-)
- Hanoch's laughter about refunding the price of the torpedo was especially
funny for some reason, although I can't place it.
- Kudos to the writers for not including Odo until the end because he wasn't
needed. Gratuitous write-ins are the bane of Star Trek.
To sum up, "Starship Down" was a decently conceived episode that flirts with
being daring and has some interesting moments, but never really takes off. The
ostensible plot is much better than your average character episode.
My score: 7.0.
-Martin Duke
(c) 1995 by Martin H. Duke. All rights reserved. Direct all requests to
pat...@mit.edu.
"Now I realize it's just a *really* stupid thing to do."