SFTV Re-Views: _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_, 1.3

1.3: "Past Prologue"

Continuing my binge-watching of _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ (having watched the pilot[A] about five months ago), "Past Prologue" introduces plain, simple Garak in the opening scene and he recruits a singularly befuddled Dr. Bashir to be his liaison. This comes in handy as the Klingon ne'er-do-wells, Lursa and Betor, are on the station and up to no good, not coincidentally when a Bajoran terrorist has escaped the Cardassians and is planning his own evil deeds. This puts Major Kira in a major bind.

She's sporting a nice new haircut after the pilot. Her conversation with the terrorist, Los, paints her backstory as a resistance fighter in fascinatingly gray tones of complex shapes. The ideas of dependence and independence, picking your battles, loyalty (to whom and why?) are raised in thought-provoking, if heavy-handed ways. An even better conversation starts to build the Kira-Odo relationship as well as furthering the elements raised by the first talk. All the character elements and moral conflicts are intriguing and one of the reasons I prefer _DS9_ to all other Star Treks. That said, this episode resonates better after you've become more familiar with the characters and their arcs (especially Garak's--though why he's a "clothier" in a world of replicators is never made convincing) and the action-adventure plotting is not the strongest. To be such a tough fighter, Kira sure can't fight and as little as she does isn't well-choreographed to be dignified and the episode ends not with the promised bang but a whimper.

_DS9_ hadn't fully hit its stride here, but this was an interesting and not-bad follow-up to a pilot in the similar ballpark.

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Page created: 2018-03-21
Last changed: 2018-03-21