DS9 Spoiler: Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Blood Oath"
Tim Lynch
Oath". Those opposed to spoilers may have to swear eternal vengeance if they
read this article early, so be warned.
Ahhh. *Much* better. Not perfect, but a very nice way to spend an hour.
I suspect the nostalgia factor may end up skewing opinions a trifle higher
than "Blood Oath" really deserves, but nostalgia or not, the show was
entertaining and gripping, which is, after all, its primary mission.
Those clamoring for a spinoff series devoted entirely to Klingons had better
get ready for this, because it's as close as we're ever likely to get. While
Dax's position was far from incidental, the show was arguably *about* Kang,
Koloth and Kor, not her. This was a "Klingon view of the universe" show, and
at least some aspects of it really need to be considered on that basis.
While that aspect of it worked fine, I thought the casting choice for the
show (i.e. the nostalgic, "hey, it'd be neat to get all three of the main
original Klingons!" idea) was forced. In the Trek universe, the only common
thread we've ever really known about these people is that they all had events
occur where they strongly opposed the Federation, and Kirk & company in
particular. For "Blood Oath" to basically say "we just want to use three old
Klingons, but these three could be fun" without a real, strong *reason* to
get those three characters in particular together feels more like a marketing
ploy than a creative one, and that's not so pleasant.
However, taking the casting as a given, it's then imperative to make sure all
three of the Klingons are believable: both as themselves, and as the same
characters we saw a century ago in Trek time.
Kang definitely fit the bill. I'll admit that my memories of the TOS-era
Kang are well beyond sketchy (I doubt I've seen that particular episode in
at least five years), but both the writing and acting seemed very consistent
with what little I remember. And as for being convincing as a Klingon ... no
question in my mind. Ansara, despite his semi-betrayal, was probably the
most intensely noble of the three guest Klingons, and had an intensity that
came right through the screen to push me against the wall. Very, very
impressive.
Koloth (William Campbell) may have been the weak link. On the one hand, it
may make sense for him to be the least convincing Klingon of the three, as I
always felt he was the least convincing, most dandyish of the three TOS
Klingons *anyway* -- so he might get major "in character" points there. On
the other hand, he was at times really _not_ very convincing as a Klingon; he
seemed almost too precise, too meticulous. He was fairly good in the
strategy-planning meetings, and more or less fine in the bat'leth practice
when Dax convinces him she's worth bringing along, but even so I was
extremely conscious of the fact that I was watching an _actor_ there -- a
feeling I did not have with either of the other two (or with Dax, for that
matter).
Kor, on the other hand, was probably my favorite. Yes, he was somewhat
different in many ways from the Kor we saw a century ago, but he's also the
only one that *acknowledged* any sort of change from what he was. Kor struck
me as the one of the three with the least regard for traditions and the least
regard for ethics; he didn't care much for the forms of the oath or the exact
issues involved, he just wanted vengeance and was happy to take it in
whatever form presented itself. (That also might explain why, at the close,
there was neither a death-chant for Kang and Koloth nor the actual eating of
the albino's heart; the only Klingon left was Kor, and he wasn't particularly
interested with their mission accomplished.) The lack of regard for ethics
certainly sums up the original Kor to a T, and the rest is something I could
see coming with age. Kor worked beautifully.
Besides, I've been a John Colicos fan for a very long time (since his
"Battlestar Galactica" days if not longer), and this gave him the opportunity
to have a good deal of fun. The direction he got must have amounted to "open
mouth, insert scenery, chew vigorously", since that's certainly what he did
on several occasions. :-)
Enough of the guest stars, then; what about Dax? Well, this was definitely
"a good day to act" for Terry Farrell; she made Dax about as believable as
I've ever seen her. While Kang was right, that the Klingon phrases didn't
quite fit in Jadzia Dax's mouth, I got the strong, strong impression that
they fit in her *mind*, and that Dax was very frustrated that Jadzia didn't
sound as convincing as she should. That's a very tough image to project, and
I thought Farrell did an expert job. Kudos to her, and to Peter Allan Fields
for continuing to give the character something interesting to *do*, something
which, though improving, remains depressingly rare.
While Dax's scenes with the Klingons were supposed to be much of the meat of
the show, I actually thought the most powerful moment she had was in her
conversation with Kira early on. The "how many Cardassians did you kill?"
question Kira was asked last year by "Gul Darhe'el" came home to roost here,
to fairly devastating effect; that, combined with the interplay between Kira
and Dax, really delivered a blow, I thought. (Dax's "who, me" when asked if
she was thinking about killing someone was just perfect -- the sort of "who,
me" that can only be interpreted as "I *must* talk about this with
somebody...") [As a side point, the *lighting* during that Kira/Dax scene
really stood out as very powerful as well.]
The story itself was just involved enough to get us interested in the guest
stars, but not so involved that it distracted from watching them, which was
after all the point of this show in the first place. It worked, though, for
many reasons. One very important one was that the albino was *not*
particularly stupid: as soon as he found out weapons weren't working, he
realized very fast what must be happening. He didn't lose through stupidity,
he lost because everything happened a little too fast for him to compensate.
That suggests good tactics on the part of Dax and company, not idiocy to make
the plot work. Sound writing there.
Other than that, the story was fairly basic: Dax finds out about the
Klingons' presence (done extremely nicely, I might add), Dax fights to become
part of the team, then the vengeance mission itself. Straightforward stuff,
but it's all in the execution -- and this execution was magnificent.
One aspect that concerns me, however, turns on the Dax/Sisko scene and the
final scene where Dax comes back under everyone's watchful eye. While I
applaud both scenes as expertly done, I'm concerned that, like the Odo/Kira
confrontation at the close of "Necessary Evil", any ramifications of these
actions will vanish into the ether. Dax has now participated in an action
that Starfleet strongly condemns (at least, they did back when Worf killed
Duras three years ago); she needs some serious talking to now. Sisko needs
to talk to her both as Starfleet and as old friend, and Kira needs to talk to
her as one that's been there. We'd *better* see more of this. If not, the
show loses its power.
That about covers it. "Blood Oath" isn't perfect, as I said, but it's very
strong -- in fact, the strongest thing DS9 has done since "Whispers", I'd
argue. Nice way to take us into a few weeks of reruns.
So, a few short points:
-- One slight annoyance: everyone keeps getting referred to as a "Klingon
d'Har master" or something sounding like it. What the hell IS a Klingon
d'Har master?
-- Odo and Quark worked beautifully, as usual. "But he'll kill you." "No,
he said he'll kill *you*." Grin.
-- Based on the "eighty-one years ago" reference, that suggests that Dax met
Kang somewhere between ST5 and ST6. That seems to mostly make sense...
-- Where did the albino get the bat'leth he was using for the final fight
with Kang? He couldn't have gotten it from either of the wounded Klingons;
he'd have killed them with it in the bargain. I can't imagine he just keeps
one around...
-- For cast-watchers, an interesting thing to spot. Christopher Collins, who
played the albino's assistant, has shown up before several times (usually on
TNG, both as a Klingon and a Pakled) -- but more importantly, he's shown up
*in that makeup* before, as one of Quark's nefarious associates back in "The
Passenger". If that's meant to be the same character, that implies the
albino has at least some slight contact with information about the station.
Interesting thought...
That's about it, then. If you're a Klingon fan, you'll enjoy this. If
you're a TOS nostalgia fan, you'll enjoy this. You'll probably enjoy this
even if neither applies. So, to sum up:
Plot: Not particularly involved, but more than adequate for a piece this
character-driven. The involvement of those three particular
Klingons is a little much, though.
Plot Handling: Marvelous. Taut as a bowstring.
Characterization: Probably the best use of Dax *ever*, and everybody else
wasn't half bad either.
OVERALL: Call it a 9.5. Very nice piece of work.
NEXT WEEK: As I said, reruns -- starting with "Melora".
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"Kang thinks too much; Koloth doesn't feel enough."
-- Kor
--
Copyright 1994, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...