Copyright 1993, Jennifer A. Hawthorne. All rights reserved,
but I'm not stuffy about it as long as you don't go overboard.

Synopsis: "Dax"

Episode Number: 8
Air Date: 2/13/93

	The show opens with Sisko dictating his station log. He
comments that Chief O'Brien has gone on leave with Keiko, 
and the rest of the staff are trying to keep the station 
running without him. Their success at that appears to be 
only moderately good as the scene switches to the dining 
area, where Dax and Bashir are sharing a meal and Bashir is 
complaining about some malfunctioning machinery while Dax 
speculates on the origin of some of the Cardassian 
technology on the station. After some more small talk, 
Bashir makes his most blatant advance on Dax yet seen, 
which Dax simply pretends not to hear, leaving Bashir 
looking downcast (but not defeated.) Neither of them notice 
three strangers spying on the two diners from a shadowy 
side corridor. The lurkers identify Dax, and their 
intentions do not appear to be pleasant.
	The meal over, Bashir offers to escort Dax to her quarters;
she tells him it's not necessary and walks off alone. As 
she leaves, she is stalked by the three mysterious 
observers. Meanwhile, back at the table, Bashir decides 
that that wasn't *quite* a "No" he heard, and proceeds to 
head off after Dax anyway. As a result, he is a witness 
when the three strangers, having followed Dax to an 
unpopulated corridor, proceed to surround and assault the 
Trill, pinning her arms and gagging her. Bashir yells and 
charges the attackers, felling the closest one with an 
effective two-handed blow. Dax, seizing the opportunity of 
the distraction, also attacks one of the kidnappers. The 
third grapples with Bashir, who is acquitting himself well 
until he realizes he's fighting with a woman, and holds his 
punch. This proves to be a mistake, as she quickly and 
efficiently flattens him. The third kidnapper pulls off 
Dax's comm badge and then slams her to the floor, stunning 
her. The kidnappers then regroup and drag the groggy Dax 
off through the corridors of the station.
	Up in Ops, Sisko and Kira are having a problem tracking
down a malfunction in some sort of graviton device, when 
Bashir regains consciousness and calls in. He tells Sisko 
that Jadzia has been abducted by three people; the computer 
can't locate her since her comm badge was removed. Sisko 
calls for a full station security alert, and there is a 
flurry of activity in Ops from Kira, Sisko, and Odo as they 
try to use the station's security devices to locate and 
trap the kidnappers. However, the kidnappers are remarkably 
well versed on the station's security and have planned ways 
to get around every maneuver the staff tries. They succeed 
in getting Dax aboard their ship as the staff finally gets 
a lock on their location. Sisko realizes that the graviton 
malfunction he and Kira had been tracing is a deliberate 
sabotage of the station's tractor beam generator, obviously 
designed to keep them from stopping the ship's departure; 
he swiftly begins to try to get the tractor beam working 
again, and manages to do so just in time to keep the ship 
from leaving with Dax aboard.
	The kidnappers and their victim are met at the airlock by
Odo and a security team, with Sisko and Kira close by. The 
leader of the three approaches Sisko and presents a warrant 
for Dax's arrest; he says that under the terms of an 
extradition treaty between the Federation and his home 
planet of Klaestron Four, Sisko must release Dax to him. 
Sisko asks what the charges are; the man states that Dax is 
wanted for treason, and for the murder of the man's father, 
General Tandro. At that name, Dax reacts in recognition, 
and then her expression becomes intense and thoughtful, but 
she says nothing.
	The murder of which Dax is accused occurred thirty years
ago, during the time that Dax's previous incarnation, 
Curzon Dax, was acting as a Federation mediator in 
Klaestron Four's civil war. Sisko reminisces to Odo about 
Curzon Dax, stating that while Curzon wasn't a perfect 
person, he certainly wasn't a murderer. He also states that 
he is surprised that Curzon never mentioned Klaestron Four 
to him. Odo takes a more suspicious view of Dax; unlike 
Sisko, he does not immediately assume that Dax is innocent 
of the charges.
	Sisko goes to talk to Dax about these events. He tells her
that he is stalling for time by requesting a confirmation 
of the warrant, being unable to come up with a better 
delaying tactic. Sisko asks Dax to tell him what this is 
all about. She refuses to talk about it, thanks him for his 
offer to help, but appears to be resigned to her fate. 
Sisko is angered by Dax's refusal to talk to him, and 
presses her more strongly for an explanation, which she 
bluntly declines to give him. They have an emotional 
discussion about whether Sisko's friendship with Curzon Dax 
has carried over to Jadzia; Jadzia states that it has, but 
regardless, she will not give Sisko an explanation.
	In Sisko's office, Tandro again requests that he be allowed
to leave with Dax; Sisko questions him about his reasons 
for attempting to kidnap Dax rather than coming to Sisko 
with the warrant in the first place. Tandro attempts to 
handwave past those events, but Sisko has figured out 
Tandro's reasons and pins him down on them. The station is 
*not* officially a Federation outpost; it is a Bajoran one. 
And Klaestron Four has no extradition treaty with Bajor. 
This means that Tandro cannot execute his warrant without 
first getting the agreement of the Bajorans. Tandro objects 
to this interpretation, saying that the Bajorans have no 
interest in the matter at all. Kira corrects him sharply: 
"The Klaestrons are allies of the Cardassians; your 
knowledge of the station confirms that. They must have 
given you the layout, which not only compromises Bajoran 
security but which ...*annoys* us."
	With Sisko and Kira in agreement, they force Tandro to
consent to an extradition hearing to determine whether the 
Klaestrons will be allowed to take Dax away for trial on 
Klaestron Four.
	Odo goes to Quark's to request that Quark shut his
operations down for a while, as Quark's is the only place 
of sufficient size to conduct the extradition hearing. 
Quark is not feeling cooperative and refuses. Odo then begins to comment on how Quark's place will need significant 
remodeling in order to comply with the new building 
regulations the Bajoran provisional government has 
instituted, and how it's Odo's job to enforce those new 
regulations. Quark correctly identifies this as blackmail, 
but, seeing no alternative, gives in.
	Odo joins Sisko in the hall outside Quark's. Sisko comments
that they haven't yet found a location in which to hold 
the hearing. Odo tells Sisko that Quark has volunteered his 
place, which surprises Sisko and causes him to comment, 
"What a nice gesture." Odo replies: "*I* thought so."
	Sisko tells Odo that he hasn't been able to get Dax to talk
to him about the alleged crimes, and asks Odo to travel to 
Klaestron Four itself to look for answers. Odo is 
unconvinced that he will be able to get there and back in 
time, but agrees to go nonetheless.
	The elderly (but far from frail) Bajoran mediator arrives
for the hearing and quickly lays down the ground rules by 
which she wishes events to proceed. Sisko and Tandro take 
turns presenting preliminary information about why Jadzia 
Dax should or should not be extradited to Klaestron Four. 
Tandro restates his case, and the mediator asks why he has 
waited thirty years to pursue these charges. He states that 
the facts relevant to the case had been sealed in military 
files until they were recently opened. Sisko counters that 
the warrant specifies *Curzon* Dax, not *Jadzia* Dax; 
Curzon was a man, while Jadzia is female, and clearly a 
different person. Tandro angrily replies that there is 
continuity from Curzon Dax to Jadzia Dax through the 
symbiont, and that therefore Jadzia can be held legally 
responsible for acts committed by Curzon.
	The mediator expresses dissatisfaction with Sisko's having
raised the question of the identity of the individual 
involved, but, now that he has done so, and given that the 
crimes of which Dax has been accused carry the death 
sentence on Klaestron Four, she charges the two 
participants with the task of convincing her whether or not 
Curzon Dax and Jadzia Dax should in fact be considered the 
same person. Sisko smiles reassuringly at Dax, expecting 
her to be encouraged or relieved, but instead she merely 
levels a noncommital stare at him, then turns away. Sisko's 
smile fades.
	Sisko calls Kira and Bashir into his office, and orders
them to try to find evidence indicating that Jadzia Dax 
and Curzon Dax are two different people. He sets Bashir to 
working on it from the medical end and tells Kira to start 
going through Federation law looking for precedents on 
lawsuits involving Trills. He tells them earnestly that any 
evidence they find indicating that the two might in fact be 
regarded as the same person is to be considered *wrong*, 
and different evidence should be located.
	As he dismisses his two staffmembers, a call comes in from
Odo on Klaestron Four. Odo has uncovered two facts: one, 
the General's death in the war made the General a national 
hero to his people, and two, everyone who remembers the 
events of thirty years past says that the General and 
Curzon Dax were the closest of friends. Sisko says that 
sounds like the Curzon Dax he knew; Odo comments that 
treason and the murder of one's best friend sounds very 
nasty to him, and if Dax is in fact responsible then he, 
too, would like to see Dax pay the full price for those 
crimes. Odo states his intention to go and visit the 
General's widow in an attempt to gain more information.
	Odo speaks with the General's widow, Enina. Enina Tandro
absolutely rejects the idea that Curzon Dax might have 
been responsible for the General's death, and tells Odo 
that her son is obsessed with his father's murder, and that 
she tried to keep him from reopening the case, but failed. 
Odo is only mildly interested in her personal opinion, 
preferring to have facts instead. She says that the only 
facts she has are in her son's possession and are not 
favorable to Dax. Apparently, there was a transmission made 
from the General's headquarters to the enemy headquarters 
which revealed the General's planned travel route for the 
following day; the General was subsequently ambushed, 
kidnapped, and killed by his captors. Only five people, 
including the General, had known the route that was to be 
taken, and of the remaining four, three of them could 
account for their location at the time the message was 
sent. The only one of the four with no alibi was Curzon 
Dax. This is the basis for the younger Tandro's conviction 
that Dax was responsible.
	As the interview concludes, Enina asks Odo how Curzon Dax
is, and is told that he has been dead for two years and 
has been replaced by Jadzia Dax. The General's widow is 
shocked -- and then profoundly grieved -- by this news.
	Back at the extradition hearing, Tandro calls as an expert
witness another Trill, Selin Peers, who is to testify on 
the Trill nature. Selin Peers has been dispatched to DS9 by 
the Trillian government for this purpose. Peers establishes 
that the memories of the symbiont are continuous through 
all of its lives, and that the symbiont also carries the 
emotions to go with those memories -- emotions such as 
guilt. Tandro then suggests to the moderator that what 
Sisko is proposing is the perfect crime; commit the act in 
one host, then escape capture long enough to switch hosts 
and thus become unaccountable for the offense.
	Sisko then questions Peers about at what age a host is
joined to a symbiont, and is told not until their early to 
mid-twenties. This is to give the host time to develop its 
own personality fully, and to ensure that it is capable of 
making an informed decision about whether to join with a 
symbiont. Sisko asks if, in the joining process, the host 
personality is completely suppressed, and is told no, the 
two personalities merge. Sisko then tells the moderator 
that to him, this seems to indicate that the new 
host-symbiont pairing must be considered a completely new 
being. This assertion causes a shouting match to erupt 
between Sisko and Tandro, and the irritated mediator orders 
a two-hour recess.
	When the hearing resumes, the mediator rather drily states
that in her opinion, the perfect solution would be to 
split Jadzia Dax down the middle, let Tandro have the 
symbiont Dax, and let Jadzia remain on the station. Bashir 
is on the stand at that point, to give his medical opinion, 
and the mediator asks him if this is possible. He tells her 
that it's more complicated than that, to which she replies, 
in a perfect deadpan: "What a surprise." She then requests 
more of an explanation, which Bashir proceeds to give, 
stating that after ninety-three hours the two parts of the 
Trill become dependent on each other for survival. The 
mediator then questions Bashir about whether or not, in his 
opinion, Curzon Dax and Jadzia Dax are the same person; 
Bashir replies with a very firm negative, stating that by 
standard medical criteria, such as blood type, they aren't 
the same person at all. Tandro objects, claiming that this 
is irrelevant; Bashir overrides him with a comment that it 
*is* relevant that Curzon Dax and Jadzia Dax don't have the 
same brainwave patterns.
	Tandro then questions Bashir, beginning by praising
Bashir's work; Bashir does not appear swayed by the 
flattery. Tandro gets Bashir to state that there are two 
brains involved, that of the host and that of the symbiont, 
and he asks the doctor whether the two patterns can be 
separated, and if so, whether the patterns of the symbiont 
Dax are the same now as they were before when it was with 
Curzon. Bashir attempts to dodge the question, but in the 
end is forced to admit that such a distinction could be 
made, and that the symbiont's brainwave patterns remain 
unchanged.
	Sisko then puts himself on the stand as the only person in
the room who actually knew Curzon Dax, and has Kira act as 
questioner. He speaks of certain personality traits 
belonging to Curzon Dax that are patently not manifest in 
Jadzia Dax, such as drinking too much and chasing women. 
More is learned about the relationship that existed between 
Sisko and Curzon Dax, which goes to the time Sisko was an 
ensign. Sisko states that he doesn't consider Curzon Dax 
and Jadzia Dax to be the same person; Curzon Dax was an old 
friend of his, but Jadzia Dax is a new friend of his whom 
he is just beginning to get to know.
	Tandro then questions Sisko, again starting with flattery,
saying that he can see Sisko is an honorable man. He asks 
whether or not, as an honorable man, Sisko wants the crime 
to go unpunished. He attempts to get Sisko to agree that 
the symbiont part of Dax should be punished for what Curzon 
Dax did; Sisko points out that there is no evidence that, 
if there were any crimes committed, that is was the 
symbiont *Dax* that was responsible and not the host 
*Curzon*. If it had been *Curzon* who was the criminal 
element, then Dax the symbiont is completely innocent, at 
which point the prosecutor states that *both* Curzon and 
Dax would be guilty in such a circumstance. He points out 
that Bashir has already witnessed that the two minds 
function as one in the Trill, and uses an analogy of salt 
dissolving in water to illustrate his point.
	Sisko's eyes gleam as it becomes obvious that Tandro has
fallen into his own semantic trap. Sisko points out that 
if you took the salt water and boiled away the water, then 
took the salt and dissolved it in some other liquid 
entirely, the end result would be a completely different 
substance than what you began with. The moderator, losing 
patience with all the semantic games, calls for a one-hour 
recess, at which time she wants to hear from Jadzia Dax 
herself on the witness stand.
	Sisko confronts Dax and tells her that if she won't defend
herself, he won't let her testify. Kira points out that 
this is a hearing, not a trial, and therefore that Dax 
doesn't have that option. Dax gives Sisko an anguished 
look, and then leaves, still without saying a word.
	Odo reports in from Klaestron Four. He has gone through the
communications log from the time period in question and 
discovered that there were many calls logged from Curzon 
Dax's residence to the General's home when the General 
rather pointedly wasn't there. Odo states that this *could* 
be completely innocent -- but on the other hand, it could 
have been an affair, which would make a decent motive for 
the murder.
	Odo goes to confront the General's widow again, telling her
of the evidence he's uncovered, not only of the calls 
between her and Curzon Dax but of gifts given and weekends 
spent together in remote locations. She is very upset by 
his badgering. Odo points out that this evidence will 
seriously hurt Dax's case if he brings it to light, and the 
widow angrily tells Odo that the General's private image 
was very different from his public one, but that 
nonetheless she has protected his public image all these 
years and continues to do so. She has not stated the truth, 
she says, because no one wanted to hear it. Odo says that 
they may have to hear it now. After some soul-searching, 
Enina Tandro states that although she will continue to 
guard her husband's image, she may be willing to at last 
change her own.
	Back on DS9, Sisko is once again with Dax, trying to get
her to talk. He accuses her of hiding the truth through a 
desire to protect Enina Tandro's reputation, and says that 
there are worse things than an illicit love affair. He 
again tries to badger Dax into defending herself; Dax 
remains absolutely unresponsive and silent. This angers 
Sisko, who wonders aloud if Tandro is actually Curzon's 
son; Dax quietly tells him that he has an overactive 
imagination. Sisko becomes very angry at this, and Dax 
comments on his temper, reminiscing about past times, which 
causes Sisko to accuse her of trying to distract him from 
the subject at hand. She tells Sisko to stop trying to 
protect her, and he replies that it's his job to protect 
the people under his command, which she herself taught him. 
She corrects him -- it was Curzon Dax, not her. Sisko says 
he will stop trying to protect her the minute she tells him 
that Dax is in fact guilty; she again refuses to discuss 
it. One final time Sisko enjoins Dax to let him help her; 
once again, she refuses.
	At the hearing again, Sisko questions Dax, on the witness 
stand, about who she was before she became joined to a 
symbiont. Jadzia tells of wanting to be joined from an 
early age, and engaging in competitions and tests to prove 
her suitability, as apparently only a limited number of 
hosts actually become joined, and this is considered a 
great honor. Jadzia had gained degrees in four disparate 
fields -- Exobiology, Zoology, Astrophysics, and 
Exo-Archeology -- entirely on her own, before joining with 
Dax. Sisko speaks to the moderator about the injustice of 
this brilliant, independent young woman, Jadzia, being 
sentenced for a crime committed before she was even born.
	Tandro then asks Dax whether or not Jadzia understood the
responsibilities she was undertaking when she chose to be 
joined with Dax, and whether or not she willingly accepted 
those responsibilities when she decided to become a host. 
She replies that yes, she did. He then asks if that 
responsibility includes responsibility for criminal acts.
	Before she can answer, Odo and Enina Tandro walk into the
room. Enina approaches the mediator and announces that 
these proceedings are unnecessary, as Tandro's accusations 
are erroneous. She then provides Dax's alibi; at the time 
that the traitorous message was sent, she and Curzon Dax 
were together, in bed. She then turns to reach out to her 
son, who, shocked and appalled, draws back.
	The arbiter suggests sharply to Tandro that he should go
and reexamine his extradition request, and adjourns the 
hearing.
	In the final scene, Jadzia Dax and Enina Tandro are walking
along the second floor of the promenade, talking. Enina is 
touched by Jadzia's kindness in trying to protect her, 
since it was Curzon Dax who swore himself to silence about 
the events on Klaestron Four, not Jadzia. Jadzia, however, 
says she felt it was important to keep the promise, since 
the General's memory was so cherished by his people. Enina 
states that no one will ever know that the General 
attempted to betray his own side and was killed by the 
rebels for his efforts. Enina then asks Jadzia for one 
favor -- that she should live out a full and joyous life -- 
and touches Jadzia's face gently. Jadzia cups her hand to 
her cheek, and watches as the widow walks off.

Copyright 1993, Jennifer A. Hawthorne. All rights reserved,
but I'm not stuffy about it as long as you don't go 
overboard.


First Impressions Reviews: "Dax"

One-line opinion summary: A nice, tight character and
courtroom drama. I liked it. A lot.

Rating: 9. Right up there. Maybe 9.5

There are SPOILERS below! You have been warned.

Ye who enter here, all hope abandon of remaining unspoiled.


There are three distinct levels on which this episode is to
be judged, in my opinion. The first is as a dramatic 
episode in terms of its entertainment value; the second as 
an examination of the title character and the characters 
she works with; and the third as a source of information on 
the Trill (an event the Net has been eagerly awaiting.) On 
the first level, I felt that "Dax" succeeded remarkably 
well, given the premise, which is a good portion of the 
reason I rated it so highly (entertainment being the first 
priority for a television show); on the second level, it 
also succeeded, though not perfectly; on the third level, 
it succeeded well for those issues it raised, but it failed 
to address many of the more intriguing questions about the 
Trill race. However, the failure of the episode to provide 
an in-depth examination of the Trill cannot really be held 
against it, as it is not appropriate to devalue an episode 
simply because it did not provide the viewer with complete 
answers; the writers, after all, need to be given some 
leeway for future development of the Trill concept.

It is possible that individuals with a dislike for
courtroom drama scenes will dislike this episode on that 
basis, as that is what occupies most of the episode; 
however, I happen to enjoy courtroom drama if it's 
well-done, and therefore I enjoyed "Dax". (Your mileage may 
vary.) The episode starts off with a serious bang, as a 
nicely professional kidnapping attempt is made on Dax, 
which is only thwarted by the DS9 staff being just slightly 
more capable than the kidnappers. I very much liked the 
fact that the episode was written so that the "action" 
scenes were at the beginning of the show, and not the end, 
as usually happens. First of all, the action snags the 
viewer into the show and makes us sit up and pay attention 
from the very beginning. Second, because it occurred at the 
beginning, the viewer could not be guaranteed that the the 
kidnapping attempt would fail, which lent some real tension 
to the scenes -- when this sort of thing happens at the end 
of the episode, the effect is often diluted by the viewer's 
knowledge that the show is almost out of time, and that 
therefore the attempt is unlikely to actually succeed. 
Third, it eliminates the annoying "twelve minutes/seconds 
before we're all doomed" cliche that occurs at the end of 
so many Trek episodes. Fourth, it means that all the scenes 
used in the promo came from early in the episode and 
therefore managed to avoid giving away the ending.

The kidnapping attempt was, as I said up above, nicely
professional, by which I mean that the kidnappers appeared 
to be intelligent and to have planned ahead. Very often the 
villains in this sort of situation are stupid or clumsy or 
both, which makes the victory of the protagonists over them 
a foregone conclusion; Tandro and his cohorts were neither 
stupid nor clumsy nor unprepared, and as a result they 
almost succeeded, failing only at the last second due to 
underestimating Sisko's ability to get the sabotaged 
tractor beam back on-line in time. (And note that Kira, 
too, doubted this; at one point she clearly thought that 
the kidnappers had, in fact, succeeded.) It is much more 
enjoyable to watch the heroes triumph over antagonists who 
present some sort of real challenge to them. (As another 
example, it has often been stated that one of the reasons 
that the second Trek movie succeeded so well was because of 
the presence of a strong, effective villain; I believe 
there is a lot of validity to this statement.) And even 
after failing in his first gambit, Tandro continued to be 
an intelligent and thoughtful opponent to Sisko, made even 
more interesting in that he clearly believed himself to be 
in the right. While not totally arresting as the villain -- 
the actor, though good, was lacking in the sort of presence 
that makes for a truly captivating villain -- Tandro was 
smart and tenacious, a worthy adversary for the staff. He 
was believably motivated, too, by his obsession with his 
father's death. (A side note: come to think of it, perhaps 
this series would benefit by the addition of a really 
strong, nasty recurring villain as a foil for Sisko and the 
rest of the crew. It could be interesting.)

The fist-fight in the corridor was well done, too, I might
add; both Dax and Bashir fought capably but not with 
overwhelming success, which I thought was entirely 
appropriate for characters who have probably had basic 
unarmed combat training but don't specialize in it. It 
might have been smarter for Bashir to use his comm badge to 
call Ops *before* he charged Dax's attackers, but the 
headlong rush down the corridor to rescue her seemed much 
more in character for someone who wants to be a hero. 
Although, he's probably going to have to get over this 
business about not hitting women if he's going to do this 
sort of thing regularly; so far we've seen damn few women 
on DS9 who wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of such a 
lapse, as the Klaestron woman did. Still, the hesitation 
was a nice bit of characterization of Bashir. And I'll 
comment more on this kind of thing as it applies to Sisko 
later on.

I was also quite pleased with the performance of the staff
up in Ops once the crisis was made known to them; smooth 
and professional. If the kidnappers had been more poorly 
prepared, or stupider, I believe the staff would have 
caught them trivially. They even remembered those 
oh-so-convenient station forcefields I commented on in my 
review of "Captive Pursuit." I wondered vaguely if they 
could have tried to lock onto Dax and beam her away from 
her kidnappers even without her comm badge (after all, Kira 
managed to beam Surmak Ren aboard the runabout in "Babel" 
without requiring that he have a comm badge) but I can 
think of a half a dozen easy explanations for why they 
didn't, so it's a minor quibble, though it would have been 
nice to hear one of them. I'd really like some sort of 
explanation of what they can and can't do with the station 
transporters, and soon, please.

After the retrieval of Dax, the action slows down
considerably which is to be expected, but the tension is 
nicely maintained, thanks mostly to Brooks' portrayal of 
Sisko's growing desperation and angry frustration as he 
tries to save a friend and underling who apparently does 
not want to be saved, and is refusing to take action in her 
own defense. The courtroom scenes are saved from stagnation 
by a combination of effects: for one, they were never 
allowed to run on too long, and were frequently intercut 
with other scenes, and for two, the acting of the people 
involved, with one exception, was sufficiently intense to 
make the scenes interesting to watch. The one exception was 
the Trill expert witness, Selin Peers (played by Richard 
Lineback), who was a rather dull and uninteresting actor. 
At the other end of the scale, we had Anne Haney as Judge 
Renora, who shows quite clearly that Bajoran women do not 
mellow with age. Her no-nonsense attitude and crisp, sharp 
delivery of her lines were a joy to behold, and the way 
that she nearly made both Sisko and Tandro cower before her 
authority was endlessly amusing. She was helped by the 
scriptwriter, who gave her some lovely sarcastic lines. 
Also way up there in my estimation was El Fadil's 
performance on the witness stand; I enjoyed the way that 
Bashir seemed to be sneering at Tandro without ever 
actually doing so (especially that "Thank you"), and the 
way the doctor's initial confidence, and yes, slight air of 
arrogance, gave way to uncertainty and anxiety as Tandro 
began to pin him down into giving unfavorable testimony on 
Dax. The unhappy looks he kept giving her during that part 
of the hearing worked well, too, as did his *not* looking 
at her at the end as he left the stand. Also deserving of 
positive mention were Brooks and Gregory Itzin (Tandro), 
whose cross-examinations were livened up by their shouting 
matches and visible enmity. A particularly nice comment on 
Tandro was his attempted flattery of the DS9 personnel 
before he questioned them.

My one complaint about the courtroom drama was that the
entrance of Odo and the General's widow at the end was too 
perfectly timed. For one thing, I would have liked to hear 
Jadzia's answer to Tandro's final question. For another, it 
might have been dramatically better had Tandro actually 
been given custody of Dax before the widow showed up with 
the alibi; but on the other hand, this has been done enough 
to be a cliche, too. In fact I don't see too many ways to 
end with this sort of scene that wouldn't be a cliche of 
some sort, so perhaps I shouldn't be complaining.

Having dealt with my reaction to the plot, I'll now start
delving into the characterization depicted on this show. 
For the most part, I liked it. Oddly enough, although Dax 
was ostensibly the center of the show and we did get to see 
more of her than ever before, most of the real 
characterization appeared to be of Sisko in this episode. 
Part of this was because Dax was being a clam for most of 
the episode, so we didn't get much of a view of her 
reactions to this situation; what little we got we had to 
infer from her non-verbal reactions, and to give Farrell 
credit she did a pretty good job. Better than I expected, 
actually; this is the one character (and actor) on DS9 I've 
had the most trouble warming up to. There were several 
things about Dax's behavior in this situation that I would 
have liked to have clarified, which weren't, however. For 
one thing, although she knew that Curzon Dax hadn't 
committed the murder, if he *had* done so, would or would 
not she have considered herself to be responsible for that 
act? This is the reason I would have liked to hear her 
answer Tandro's final question. What *are* the legal 
precedents for Trills in a case like this? I don't believe 
that it has never come up before. They had a Trill expert 
on the stand, and they didn't even ask him how the Trills 
themselves deal with such a situation -- why not? I would 
have the the answer would have been of a great deal of 
interest to the parties involved.

For another thing, if the General was in fact a traitor, I
question Curzon Dax's choice of friends. Granted, this 
might be overly harsh given that we don't know much about 
the situation, but the widow's opinion of her husband 
seemed negative enough that I wondered. For a third thing, 
I'm vaguely surprised that Dax was unwilling to even tell 
Sisko flatly that no, Curzon Dax didn't kill the general. 
She could have told him that and refused to tell him the 
details, and she would at least have let him know what the 
truth of the situation was. That can be a great help in 
planning a defense. Why precisely was she so willing, 
almost eager, to be dragged off to Klaestron Four for the 
trial? Out of delayed guilt for Curzon's affair? (More on 
this in a minute.) It seems a bit of an over-reaction (even 
with the line about how a Trill's errors are preserved 
indefinitely.) Given the restraint and emotional control 
Jadzia Dax has been portrayed as showing, this strong, 
somewhat illogical sense of guilt seems out of character. 
What did she think would happen when she got taken to 
Klaestron Four? Did she think that the General's widow 
would let her be executed and not come forward in her 
defense? Wouldn't it be far worse for the General's widow 
to have to confess her indiscretion before her entire 
planet to save Dax than to simply have to tell her son in 
order to get him to drop the case?

The explanation of why Dax would choose to keep silent made
sense, but in the long run it seemed likely to just make 
the situation worse. Given that, I wonder what exactly it 
is that we're supposed to infer about Jadzia Dax's character 
from all of this. She is still very much the mystery that 
she was before this show aired.

One intriguing potential insight into the character was
gained, however. It looks as if a lot of Jadzia's 
attitudes toward playing romantic games (with Bashir or 
anyone else) may stem from Dax's disapproval or discomfort 
with Curzon's adventuring, and the shame associated with 
events such as the affair with the General's widow (it was 
heavily implied that this was not the only such time that 
Curzon's appetites got him into some embarrassing 
situations.) Add to this lingering sense of guilt a certain 
sense of disapproval on Jadzia's part toward Curzon (A sort 
of feeling of "He was honored with this distinguished 
symbiont and then he ran around and did disgraceful things, 
without any self control") and I can begin to see why 
Jadzia might spend so much time professing to be 
uninterested in such things. And if she was studious enough 
to have earned four degrees with high honors by her age, 
she probably didn't have time to socialize much. I wonder 
if the widow's final request of Jadzia -- that she live a 
full and young life -- was the widow's way of telling 
Jadzia that she shouldn't feel like she has to make up for 
Curzon's indiscretions by repressing or inhibiting her own 
feelings. That was the interpretation I made, whether it 
was what was intended or not, and I liked it muchly. It was 
a far more subtle character point than is generally made on 
Trek.

Sisko's character benefited quite a bit from this episode.
Although not all of his scenes alone with Dax rang 
precisely true, they were certainly light years better than 
the strained "Steamed Azna" lunch scene in "A Man Alone". 
There were a lot of nice little things that helped define 
Sisko better, too. For example, his efficient use of his 
team to pursue Dax's defense, his willingness to define 
what the "right" answer is and then go look for it (not 
necessarily always a *good* trait, mind you, but certainly 
an interesting and consistent one for Sisko), his bad temper, 
and his impassioned pleas to Dax to let him help her all 
worked well for me. I'm beginning to genuinely like Sisko 
(before I was sort of lukewarm on him), as much for his 
flaws as for his strengths. He is in fact being 
successfully defined, in my opinion, as his own character, 
very distinct from either Kirk or Picard. However, I'm a 
bit bothered by the fact that so far we've only seen him 
get physical (or threaten to get physical) with the women 
on his staff. First grabbing Kira in "Past Prologue" and 
now slamming his fist into his hand and telling Dax he 
wishes she were still male...well, I'm not saying they 
weren't appropriate actions for the character and the 
situation, but I would like to see this applied to the men 
sometime soon or I'm going to be a bit put off. (Let's see 
him give O'Brien or Bashir a good shaking sometime.)

It was also nice to see Sisko trying hard to come to terms
with the fact that Jadzia Dax both is and is not his old 
friend Curzon Dax, and not being entirely successful at it. 
Up to this point he's been treating her pretty much as if 
she were still the same person who was a mentor to him; 
here she makes it clear to him that although she shares 
feelings and memories with Curzon Dax that center around 
Sisko, she is *not* his old friend. That would be difficult 
for anyone to deal with and I think Brooks did a good job 
of portraying Sisko's struggle to do so.

Odo also got some fairly good limited character definition.
In particular, it struck me that for a man (a being?) 
falsely accused of murder only a few short weeks ago, he is 
cutting Dax absolutely *no* slack in this matter. Granted, 
it's his job to be suspicious (particularly with Sisko 
going all out to keep Jadzia Dax from being held 
accountable for a crime that may or may not have been 
committed by Curzon, and recruiting the rest of the staff 
to help him), but it's beginning to seriously look as if 
Odo's personal creed is "guilty until proven innocent". 
Again, not necessarily a *good* trait, but an interesting 
and consistent one. He is also not above doing questionable 
things to get the job done to his satisfaction -- such as 
using (well, abusing, really) his authority to get Quark to 
let them use his place for the hearing. Maybe we'll get a 
good episode further down the pipe where Odo takes this a 
bit too far one day. That could be very interesting. Also, 
we see that Odo really has little patience or concern for 
the feelings of the humanoids he works with; his badgering 
of the widow in order to get to the truth of the matter was 
close to callous. Of course, it got the job done. Which is 
Odo's primary concern, we are seeing. He appears to be 
rather a fanatic about it, actually. Fanaticism is a 
character trait so far not seen in a Trek regular, that I 
can recall.

Bashir also got some nice screen time here, most of which
I've already covered earlier. I'm glad to see the 
character recover some of the ground he lost in Q-less. I 
was a bit put off by his very blatant advance on Dax at the 
beginning (the "I can think of better ways to keep you up 
all night" line) as it treads perilously close to the 
border of what I see as harassment, but it was almost worth 
it for the expression on his face when she completely 
ignored the line as if he hadn't even said it. Given that 
Dax seems to be quite capable of dealing with Bashir's 
come-ons without being bothered by them, I'm willing to 
forgive it...for the moment. But I hope that the writers 
are careful not to go over the line here. (Between Bashir's 
lines and Sisko's physicality with the women on his staff, 
I get a somewhat uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, 
and I could stand to be reassured that this is not a 
trend.)

But on the positive side, his reaction to the threat to Dax
was nice and totally in character, and he actually handled 
himself pretty well in the fight, which I was pleased to 
see, as I think it would have been easy for the writers to 
make him hopelessly bad at that sort of thing as a source 
of cheap laughs, a temptation they have thankfully avoided. 
And as I said above, I can find no faults with either the 
character or the portrayal during the hearing scenes.

Kira didn't get much screen time (again) but she got one
beauty of a scene and a very good line when facing down 
Tandro about the Bajorans' interest in the matter of Dax. 
"[The Cardassians] must have given you the layout, which 
not only compromises Bajoran security, but which..*annoys* 
us." Yeah, I'll bet it does :-) It was also very nice to 
see Sisko actively supporting her and depending on her for 
assistance, and to see the two of them working *together* 
instead of at odds for a change. I think that the 
Sisko/Kira team could be a very formidable one if they can 
manage to successfully mesh their management styles and 
personalities.

Quark got only one scene, and it struck me as a rather
superfluous one, to boot. As usual, the interaction 
between him and Odo was entertaining and revealing of both 
characters, but I find it hard to believe that on the whole 
station they cannot find one conference room large enough 
to hold the hearing in. There weren't *that* many people 
involved in it, after all. The necessity of using Quark's 
place very much felt like something thrown in strictly for 
the purpose of having a Quark/Odo scene.

Still no sign of O'Brien, Keiko, Molly, Jake, or Nog. Aside
from O'Brien, they're not missed by this reviewer; I'd 
prefer to see screen time devoted to explorations of the 
main characters for the first season.

Now, how did this episode serve as a vehicle for
information about the Trill race? Well, it did a fairly 
good job of stating unequivocally that the joining is 
voluntary on the part of the host, and that the two 
personalities merge, rather than the symbiont's "taking 
control". It also established that the hosts have lives 
before they are joined, sometimes very full, successful 
lives. It was nice, and somewhat unexpected, to learn that 
Jadzia's posting as science officer was almost certainly 
earned entirely through her efforts as Jadzia, with no help 
from Dax, and that she certainly must have graduated from 
Starfleet Academy as Jadzia, before she was joined with Dax 
(since that took place only two years ago.) Although not 
explicitly stated, it seems that the Federation must assign 
rank and position based entirely on the *host's* 
achievements and not the symbiont's, as Curzon Dax seemed 
to have had both a higher rank and position than Jadzia 
does, which did not pass to Jadzia when the symbiont did. 
It is also interesting to note that it looked like Curzon 
Dax's field was diplomacy/mediations, and not scientific at 
all, from what we could tell. The choice of career seems to 
belong entirely or almost entirely to the host.

It also seems clear that Trills have been active in
Federation affairs since well before the TNG episode "The 
Host", which presents some odd continuity questions, such 
as: was Jadzia the first to go through Starfleet Academy? 
Obviously no joined Trill had gone through Starfleet 
Academy before "The Host" or the Trills' secret would have 
been found out through routine medical examinations. It 
seems very strange that Trills could have been intimately 
involved in Federation affairs for as long as thirty years 
and still not have had their dual nature discovered until 
the time of "The Host". Also, it's clear that through most 
of his friendship with Curzon Dax, Sisko must have been 
completely unaware of Curzon's double nature. When exactly 
did he find out that his friend and mentor was a Trill? I'd 
like to know.

Several interesting questions about Trills went unanswered,
such as: exactly how do the symbionts reproduce? And the 
Trills must have a divided society, as some of them have 
symbionts and some of them don't (if they have competitions 
to gain host status, there must not be enough symbionts to 
go around.) Is the status of a joined Trill higher than 
that of an unjoined host? Who makes the decision of which 
symbiont goes with which host? Do the hosts and symbionts 
get to meet and approve of each other first? What if they 
are joined and the two personalities turn out to be 
incompatible?? Are there symbionts that live without hosts? 
Also, it cannot be precisely true as Bashir stated that the 
host and the symbiont cannot be separated after joining, as 
the symbiont has to be able to survive on its own long 
enough to make it to the new host, and we saw in "The Host" 
that it can actually live without a host for a while if it 
has to, though it does eventually die. (I should add, I 
liked the "ninety-three hour" period of time -- it was 
nicely random, not a standard multiple of an Terran day.)

So some our questions about the nature of Trills are
answered, but many more are not. I would have liked more 
information, but I'm not going to mark down the episode for 
simply failing to be informative enough, as that is not its 
main purpose.

Short Takes

-- Odo doesn't like phasers, but he lets his deputies carry
them around. Hm.

-- We get to see the quarters of one of the staff for the
first time that I can recall. Not too bad. I liked all the 
science-themed knick-knacks in Jadzia's room.

-- No station in danger plot this time!! Cheers!

-- Nice matte paintings of Klaestron Four, and nice to see
at least one of the principals get down to a planet. Aside 
from Sisko going to Bajor in the premier, I can't recall 
any other time the staff have gotten to go planetside. I'd 
like to see them land on planets in the Gamma Quadrant to 
check them out, or at least have some episodes set on 
Bajor, so we can see the Federation people actively working 
to help rebuild the planet. (I suppose for the first season 
they have to make use of their standard sets as much as 
possible. Sigh.)

-- Sisko now has two staff members on his list for
misbehavior (Kira and O'Brien) and two who have been 
accused of murder (Odo and Dax.) What a zoo crew! No more 
murder accusations, please, or DS9 is going to start to get 
an even odder reputation in the Federation than it already 
has...

-- Not counting the premier, this is the third episode in
six that opens with Bashir hanging out in the dining area 
("Past Prologue" and "QLess" being the other two.) That's 
half. Is this a theme?

-- Who was the guy in the reddish shirt who identified Dax
for the three Klaestrons at the beginning? It wasn't one 
of their group, they were all wearing grey. Selin Peers, 
the Trill expert, was wearing a reddish tunic --was this 
supposed to be him? If so, then he obviously came with the 
Klaestrons and was working with them from the beginning, 
which should have eliminated him as a neutral witness, I'd 
have thought. Of course, his association with the 
Klaestrons might not have been known, but it should have 
been trivial to check which ship he arrived on, shouldn't 
it?

-- The graphics of the outside of the station (where you
could see portals with people walking past) that were on 
the screens in Odo's officer were neat. I like attention to 
detail.

-- I had a lot of questions right after the kidnapping
about what looked to be plot holes, but I was impressed by 
the fact that all of the "holes" got filled in by the time 
the episode was done (things like why the kidnappers tried 
kidnapping instead of just presenting their warrant, and 
why they waited thirty years, and so on.)

-- Sisko referred to Kira as his First Officer. Is this an
appropriate title for her, given that this isn't a ship? 
What is the second in command of a naval base called, does 
anyone know? (That would seem to be the analogous 
position.)

-- Could Sisko have delayed the departure of the Klaestrons
with Dax by holding them on charges of attempted 
kidnapping and assault and battery? They *did* beat up on 
two of his senior staff, after all. That struck me as a 
useful delaying tactic he might have used that he didn't.

-- The "let's split her down the middle" line by the Judge
was amusing. Shades of Solomon!

-- While I liked the "salt in water" analogy, I feel
compelled to point out that it's not entirely accurate, as 
the symbiont is permanently changed by its bonding with a 
host whereas the salt is not chemically changed by being 
dissolved in water. Okay, okay, I'm being nitpicky...

Next week: "There's someone in my head, and it's not me."
Hopefully they'll turn El Fadil loose and let him chew 
some scenery.

Copyright 1993, Jennifer A. Hawthorne. All rights reserved,
but I'm not stuffy about it as long as you don't go overboard.
