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

Synopsis: "Move Along Home"

Episode Number: 410
Air Date: 3/13/93

	Sisko is in his quarters, trying on his Starfleet dress
uniform. Jake comes in, and he and his father have a 
conversation about various things. During the course of the 
chat, Jake comments that he has been learning about girls 
from Nog; Sisko finds this alarming and promptly schedules 
a long talk with his son about girls for the following 
morning, over Jake's reluctance. Jake asks why Sisko is 
wearing his dress uniform, and is told that Sisko is 
preparing for a first-contact meeting with a new race from 
Gamma Quadrant, the Wadi. A call comes in from Kira in Ops, 
stating that the Wadi ship has just arrived, and Sisko 
heads down to the docks to rendezvous with the rest of his 
senior staff and meet the Wadi delegation.
	Down at the docking bay, Kira, Dax and Bashir are awaiting
Sisko's arrival, with Dax in Starfleet dress uniform. 
Bashir is in his regular outfit, and is fretting about how 
he has managed to somehow misplace his own dress uniform. 
Dax and Kira try to reassure him, but Sisko arrives at that 
point and immediately gives the dismayed doctor a stern 
lecture on his improper attire.
	The Wadi delegation enters the station. Their leader
introduces himself as Falow, and Sisko reciprocates with 
introductions of himself and his senior staff. His attempt 
at proper protocol is defeated, however, for Falow and his 
people are interested in only one thing: the games that 
they have been told are available at Quark's. They wish to 
proceed immediately to the playing area; Sisko is put off 
stride by this, but has Kira escort the Wadi where they 
wish to go. He comments to Dax: "First contact is not what 
it used to be."
	Down at Quark's, the Wadi are having a good time with the
Dabo game, while Sisko and the rest of the senior staff 
sit around trying to figure out how to interact with the 
single-minded aliens. Quark is only interested in their 
visitors' potential cash supply, and he and Sisko and Dax 
exchange words about their differing views on proper 
first-contact procedure. Quark heads over to the Dabo table 
and, after first sounding out Falow about the possibility 
of his opening a Dabo franchise in the Gamma Quadrant, 
attempts to establish some sort of common currency with the 
Wadi. He is offered several items the Wadi consider 
valuable, but is unimpressed with their goods until a bag 
of valuable gemstones is produced, at which point Quark 
becomes more than willing to let them continue to gamble.
	Many hours later, the Wadi are continuing to happily play
at Dabo, to Quark's displeasure, for they have been 
steadily winning all night. Sisko is tired and disgruntled 
that he has been unable to get the Wadi to interact with 
him in any sort of official capacity since they arrived on 
the station, as the only thing they seem to be interested 
in is playing Dabo. The commander decides to turn in for 
the night, leaving Quark with orders to keep the Wadi happy 
and notify him immediately if they show any sign of wanting 
to do anything but play games. As soon as Sisko has left, 
Quark tries to get the Wadi to leave by saying the Dabo 
girl is tired; undeterred, Falow suggests that she be 
replaced. Quark calls in a Ferengi assistant to man the 
wheel, and gives him a covert signal, at which the 
assistant's hand slips under the Dabo table in a suspicious 
fashion. Falow's next play loses, and the Wadi leader is 
displeased; he levels a thoughtful stare at Quark.
	Sisko returns to his quarters to find Jake still up; they
have another chat about Jake's association with Nog and 
the bad habits this seems to be instilling in Jake. Sisko 
orders his son to bed, stating again that they'll talk 
about this in the morning.
	Back down at Quark's, Falow loses another Dabo throw, but
catches Quark's assistant in the act of rigging the table. 
Quark reacts to this discovery with shock and surprise, and 
berates his assistant for cheating, but Falow and his 
people are not fooled by Quark's protestations. They close 
in on Quark, surrounding him in a menacing semi-circle. 
Quark starts to bluster, offering the Wadi several 
different enticements in an attempt to appease them, but 
the Wadi are unimpressed. Falow states that he will give 
Quark a chance to win many more of their gemstones, in an 
*honest* game; he opens a small box, and a large pyrimidal 
playing board materializes in a flash of light. Falow 
begins to set up playing pieces, telling Quark that the 
game is called "Chula", and that his tokens will start at 
"the second Shap".
	In Sisko's quarters, Sisko is sleeping peacefully. He rolls
over -- and awakens to discover that he is no longer in 
his room. Instead, he is lying on a bare floor covered with 
triangular designs. He is in uniform, and has a tricorder. 
Sisko stares around in befuddlement. There are many 
triangular doors leading out of the room, with strange 
symbols on them, but they are all closed. He first tries 
calling Ops and Security on his comm badge, but gets no 
answer. He then orders the computer to "End Program" and 
"Exit", but neither occurs. He starts trying the doors, and 
eventually finds one that opens, but it leads only to a 
bare corridor with more doors. Again, he starts trying them 
one by one, and on the third try finds one that opens to 
reveal Falow standing on the other side, laughing. Falow 
says, "Shap Two! Move along! Move along home!". Sisko 
demands an explanation, but Falow repeats "Move along 
home!" and the door slides shut between them.
	As Sisko begins once more to explore the corridor, he hears
the sound of someone yelling coming from down the hall, 
and begins to run in that direction. He finds Dr. Bashir 
flat up against a wall with his eyes closed, yelling for no 
apparent reason. Sisko speaks to Bashir, startling him into 
opening his eyes; Bashir is astonished and relieved to see 
Sisko, and explains that he thought he was having a 
nightmare he couldn't manage to wake up from. Kira and Dax 
come running up, drawn by the sound of Bashir's howling. 
Sisko explains that he thinks that they have somehow been 
made guests of the Wadi, and tells them of his encounter with Falow. Bashir suggests that perhaps it's some sort of 
psychological experiment, with the four of them acting as 
laboratory rats; Kira finds this suggestion upsetting. Dax 
points out that there doesn't seem to be any immediate 
threat, but Kira is not reassured, and comments fiercely 
that while the Starfleet people might be used to dealing 
with this sort of situation, she's only a Bajoran 
administrator and did not sign up for this.
	Since their comm badges appear to be working between the
four of them, if not to the rest of the station, Sisko 
decides that it's safe enough for the four of them to split 
up in order to search for a way out. Each of the officers 
has a tricorder with them, which they will use to assist in 
the search. Sisko then comments to Bashir that if he gets 
lost, he can just start yelling again.
	Meanwhile, back on the station, Jake comes to see Odo to
try to find out where Sisko is; after making a big deal 
over meeting with his son in the morning, Sisko has missed 
their appointment, and is in fact not even on the station. 
Odo finds this puzzling, and after Jake leaves, the 
constable discovers that the computer has no record of 
Sisko either logging out of the station or boarding any 
ship. Odo heads up to Ops and is greeted by Lt. Primmin, 
who tells him that neither Kira nor any of the other senior 
staff has reported in yet. Odo is irritated by Primmin's 
failure to recognize this as odd, although Primmin has 
attributed it to the late hours that the Wadi party kept 
the previous night. Odo tells Primmin that Sisko has 
disappeared off the station completely, and orders him to 
sweep the station for the other three senior staff to see 
if they are also missing.
	In Quark's, Falow announces that the board is ready and
requests Quark's initial wager. Quark is confused, as he 
has not been told anything about the game at all, including 
the rules. Falow offers no explanation, but instead hands 
Quark a set of dice-like objects and orders him to roll. 
Quark throws the dice and Falow says that the result indicates 
that his pieces will meet "the Chandra". Quark asks if this 
is good or bad and is told "Neither. Or both." All of 
Quark's further questions meet with similar cryptic, 
uninformative replies from Falow. Falow seats himself at 
the gameboard's control panel and taps the display.
	Sisko is exploring a corridor in his inexplicable
surroundings when he hears a child chanting in a sing-song 
voice. He summons the rest of the staff, and they open a 
door to find a small Wadi girl playing a form of alien 
hopscotch while intoning, "Almiray, count to three. 
Almiray, then four more. Almiray, if you can see, Almiray, 
you'll follow me." The four officers step into the room and 
the door closes behind them, trapping them. They attempt to 
talk to the girl, but she does not react to their presence 
at all. Kira, losing patience, attempts to stride across 
the room to the far door but slams into a forcefield which 
throws her back, painfully, into Sisko's arms. The girl, 
however, can apparently pass through the field without 
difficulty.
	Bashir notices that there is a definite pattern to the
girl's jumping game; she is stepping on only certain floor 
panels, in a particular sequence. Believing that he has 
solved the puzzle, he follows the girl as she jumps, but, 
like Kira, is bounced back by the forcefield. Dax points 
out that while he followed the girl's steps, he failed to 
truly copy her actions -- he did not say the rhyme. Dax 
then goes and follows the child, copying her every move and 
word, and succeeds in passing safely through the barrier. 
The other staffmembers do likewise, and all pass through. 
The door on the other side of the room opens; after the 
group exits, the girl states "Almiray. Third Shap!", and 
the door closes.
	Back in Quark's, Falow hands Quark a handful of gems. Falow
then tells Quark to "Choose their path; short or long." 
Quark asks what the difference is, and is told "Short path 
-- double their peril. Double your winnings." Quark seems 
prepared to go for the double, but Falow points out that if 
none of his pieces make it home, he loses. Quark decides he 
likes this game, and attempts to engage Falow in a business 
discussion for the licensing of it in the Alpha Quadrant, 
but is interrupted by Odo striding angrily into the room.
	Odo attempts to question Quark about the last time he saw
Sisko, but Falow again says to Quark, "Choose their 
path!". Quark tries to get Odo to leave, but Odo tells him 
that Sisko and three other officers have disappeared from 
the station without explanation. Quark protests that he has 
no idea where they went -- but stops in midsentence as his 
eyes fall on his four playing pieces. As he stares at the 
tokens, aghast, Falow repeats, "Double their peril. Double 
your winnings." Quark looks again at the pieces, then at 
Odo; Odo follows Quark's gaze to the tokens, and horrified 
realization dawns. Falow repeats, "Choose their path," and 
Quark, no longer enjoying himself, chooses the safer route 
for the four officers, and is given the dice for another 
roll.
	Back in the gamespace, the crew are continuing their
explorations, and discussing the purpose behind the 
activities they have been forced to participate in. They 
come to the conclusion that given the Wadi's preoccupation 
with games, they have somehow become part of one. They pass 
through an open doorway, which closes behind them as a 
second door opens in front, revealing a room full of Wadi 
having some sort of party. They try to speak to the Wadi, 
but get only laughter in reply. As Kira angrily shouts at 
the mocking Wadi, an air vent, unnoticed, starts to pour a 
smoky gas into the room.
	Bashir helps himself to a glass of something off of one of
the waiter's trays, but Sisko stops him, saying it might 
be drugged or poisoned. Just then, the gas reaches the 
crew, who start to cough and choke helplessly. Falow enters 
the room by a side door, laughing, with a glass in his 
hand, and it becomes apparent that none of the party-goers 
are being affected by the gas. Sisko, choking, crosses the 
room to confront Falow, but Falow once again says only, 
"Move along home!" as Sisko is driven to his knees by the 
gas. As the other three officers, coughing and gagging, 
also start to collapse, Bashir grabs a glass from one of 
the Wadi and takes a gulp from it, then discovers that he 
can breathe again. He passes the glass to Kira and Dax, 
urging them to drink, and Sisko also grabs a glass and 
downs the contents. Kira asks Bashir, "How did you know?", 
and he replies, "Scientific method," but then admits, "It 
was a guess. I didn't think I had much to lose."
	Falow salutes Sisko in the Wadi manner, and says, "Shap
four!" and a door opens. The room in which the crew are 
standing becomes a empty gamespace. They pass through the 
open door, which closes behind them.
	In Quark's, Falow picks up the four playing pieces and
moves them to the next level down on the playing board. 
Odo, watching, looks extremely unhappy, and leaves.
	Up in Ops, Odo and Primmin attempt to scan the Wadi ship to
see if their missing officers are there, but have 
difficulty scanning through the unknown Wadi technology. 
Primmin finds an unusual energy emission coming from one 
part of the ship, something that looks a little like a 
transporter signal. Odo decides to go and check it out, but 
Primmin objects that they can't simply invade the Wadi ship 
without permission. Odo rather snottily asks if that's 
Starfleet policy, and when Primmin affirms that it is, 
states that he's not Starfleet, and orders Primmin to beam 
him to the Wadi ship. Primmin reluctantly does so.
	On the ship, Odo locates the source of the energy emission
behind a door. He opens it, and recoils from the bright 
light beaming out through the portal, then gathers himself 
and plunges through -- only to find himself back in 
Quark's. Falow smiles at Odo, then tells Quark, "Choose 
their path." Odo interrupts, declaring the game finished, 
but Falow says that the game is stopped, the players will 
be lost. Falow again exhorts Quark, "Choose their path. 
Double their peril, double your winnings," and once again 
Quark chooses the safer path, and is given the dice to 
roll. He blows on them, and throws. Falow examines the 
result with a somber expression, and says, "An unfortunate 
roll."
	Back in the gamespace, Bashir comments that if this is a
game, they need to figure out the winning conditions. Kira 
chides him for not taking their situation seriously enough, 
but he is undisturbed by her comments. Dax and Sisko hear a 
strange humming noise coming from up ahead, and Dax's 
tricorder picks up a source of magnetic flux heading their 
way. Sisko orders the crew to find cover, but there is 
little to be had; they flatten themselves up against the 
walls of the corridor as a glowing, floating, triangular 
geometrical construct appears in the corridor, trapping 
them.
	In Quark's, Falow reaches for one of the four pieces.
	In the gamespace, the construct begins to spin and its
glow intensifies. The light from the construct passes over 
Kira, then Sisko, then Bashir, then Dax -- and then returns 
to Bashir, who stares at it in alarm.
	In Quark's, Falow selects a blue, double-pronged token and
removes it from the playing board.
	In the gamespace, the construct flashes forward and
envelopes Bashir, who vanishes in a flash of light. Sisko 
furiously yells Falow's name, but gets no reply.
	Falow sets the blue piece down on another part of the
playing board, and tips it over, a grim expression on his 
face, and declares, "Next move." Odo anxiously asks what 
happened to the piece Falow removed, and demands to have it 
returned to the playing board. Falow says that it might be 
arranged, if Odo wants to play the game when Quark is 
finished. Falow then again turns to Quark, and repeats as 
before: "Choose their path. Double their peril, double your 
winnings."
	Quark states that he intends to take the shortcut this
time, to Odo's alarm. Quark insists that he has a 
gambler's understanding of the odds, and that this is the 
right move to make at this time, because if they succeed 
they'll make it all the way home in just one move. Quark 
takes the dice, and asks Odo to blow on them for him, 
which, after hesitating, Odo does. Quark throws the dice.
	Falow stares at the result, and states that one piece must
be sacrificed so that two may live.
	Odo protests loudly, but Falow says that if Quark refuses
to sacrifice one, all three will be lost. Quark complains 
that he doesn't even know which piece is which, but Falow 
refuses to help him, repeating his demand that one be 
selected. Quark steels himself, and reaches for each of the 
pieces in turn, but draws back each time. His nerve breaks, 
and he cringes before Falow, groveling and pleading with 
Falow to withdraw his command. He apologizes profusely for 
cheating Falow and promises he'll never, ever cheat anyone 
again if Falow will not force him to choose a piece to 
sacrifice. Odo's expression hardens as he realizes that the 
whole situation is Quark's fault. Quark falls to his knees, 
and crawls under the table.
	Falow, a disgusted look on his face, relieves Quark of the
duty of choosing one of the pieces -- stating that 
instead, the game will select one randomly. He states, 
"Last move," and reseats himself at the game's controls.
	In the gamespace, the remaining three officers are
exploring again, when they hear Bashir's voice calling to 
them, saying he's found the way out. They begin to search 
for him, and Dax finds an open door leading to a rocky 
area. She steps inside, calling Julian's name, and starts 
to clamber over a pile of boulders as Kira and Sisko arrive 
at the doorway. A sudden tremor strikes, and Dax stumbles, 
her leg becoming caught in a crevice between the stones. 
Kira and Sisko advance to try and help her as Bashir's 
voice continues to call them toward the brightly glowing 
exit door. Sisko looks up at the shadowed figure in the 
doorway and calls to Bashir to come help them with the 
injured Dax, but there is no reply; he advances toward the 
door and sees that the shape is not Bashir, but Falow. 
"Move along home!", says Falow, and vanishes.
	As he vanishes, the rocky cavern starts to shake in
earnest. Kira announces that they are sitting directly on 
top of a fault line and need to move right away. Kira and 
Sisko each take one of Dax's arms and they help her along 
as the tremors continue, growing more severe each time. The 
path narrows to a ledge above a cliff, and they proceed 
awkwardly along it, helping Dax, until they come to a 
seemingly bottomless chasm separating them from the exit. 
Dax tells Kira and Sisko to leave her behind; without her, 
they can make it across the chasm and escape. "Seven lives 
is more than enough for a Trill, and you haven't even 
finished one." Sisko does not want to leave her, but Dax 
chides Sisko for letting sentiment get in the way of 
command decisions and states that if Sisko were the injured 
one, *she* would leave *him* behind. He says that he's glad 
he's not the one who's injured. Helping Dax to her feet, 
Sisko tells Kira to cross the chasm on her own while he and 
Dax look for another way around. Kira stares across the 
chasm at the exit for a moment, then turns to help Sisko 
with Dax. Sisko is angered: "I gave you a direct order!" 
Kira snaps back, "So court-martial me!", to which Sisko 
replies, "I can't. You're not in Starfleet," and Dax 
interjects, "If I were your superior officer, I'd 
court-martial you *both*!"
	The three of them maneuver with care along a narrow ledge
alongside another bottomless pit, as more tremors occur. 
Without warning, a particularly violent one sends Kira over 
the edge, hanging on only by her hands. Sisko and Dax try 
to drag her up, but an even more violent quake shakes the 
cavern, and all three officers are thrown into the pit.
	A second later, there is a bright flash of light in
Quark's, and all four officers reappear, shaken but 
unharmed. Quark shouts, "They made it! I won!" and starts 
to gather his winnings, but Falow stops him, saying, "All 
your players were *lost*." Kira stares at Falow, and says, 
"Then, we were never in any real danger?" Falow looks 
surprised, then amused, and says with a smile, "It was only 
a *game*!", and puts his gameboard away.
	Sisko is not amused at all, and confronts Falow about his 
actions. But Odo intervenes, telling Sisko that the one he 
should really be angry with is Quark. Sisko turns to Quark, 
who begins to protest his innocence, but Odo corrects him: 
"That's not what you said while you were groveling." Quark: 
"Oh, that's right. You were there for the groveling." As 
Quark continues to blather excuses and apologies, Falow 
salutes Sisko again and says to Quark, "Someday, perhaps -- 
a rematch." The Wadi leave.
	Quark looks thoughtfully around the room, and says, "This
game could work here..." and heads off after Falow and his 
people.

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: DS9, "Move Along Home"

One-line opinion summary: About as deep as a puddle...but
heck, I enjoyed it.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Before we get started here, an editorial aside. One of the
net.people I've been trading commentary with about my 
reviews (Hi, Kiran!) has suggested that my review title 
lacks pizzazz, and is also rather inappropriate since I 
don't actually write my reviews from my first impressions. 
Being neither in love with my review title, nor hating it, 
I figured I'd solicit opinions from anyone out there who 
reads this and feels like offering an opinion. Should I 
change the title of my review? Or have people gotten used 
to looking for this title and would be confused if I 
changed? If you think I should change it, feel free to 
suggest a new name as I haven't got one handy (though I've 
been thinking about calling them the Boston Baked Reviews, 
or Manic Monday Reviews, or something else like 
that...whaddaya think? Or maybe something related to DSN, 
since I'm not reviewing TNG?) If you give me a title I like 
a lot I'll use it and give you credit to boot (no money 
though, sorry, unless someone starts paying me for these, 
as which point we can discuss royalties :-)

Right, on with the review.

There are SPOILERS below! You have been warned.

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

"Winning isn't everything...but losing isn't *anything*."
-- Anon

"It's not whether you win or lose -- it's whether *I* win
or lose." -- Also Anon.

Okay, so it didn't have much of a theme. Okay, so the plot
was fairly standard. Okay, so the events that occurred 
were never fully explained.

All of these things are true. Nevertheless, I gave "Move
Along Home" a fairly high rating. Why? Well, because I had 
fun while watching it, that's why. The first priority of 
any television show is to be entertaining, and in that 
regard, I think "Move Along Home" succeeded. Not perfectly, 
to be sure, but the flaws were minor and not too 
distracting, so all in all, I think it was a solid effort.

The pacing of the show was, overall, pretty well done.
There were a couple of slow spots: the opening 
conversation between Jake and Sisko dragged a little, too 
much time was spent watching Sisko try to open doors when 
he first entered the gamespace, and we got to see entirely 
too many shots of Sisko, Kira, and Dax doing the three-step 
shuffle along styrofoam rock faces while jiggling up and 
down for the "tremor effect". Aside from that, however, 
things moved along at a good clip, and I never really felt 
my attention wandering. And given the unpredictable nature 
of the game, I was spared the feeling that I often get 
while watching television shows that I know exactly what's 
going to happen next, which was nice. A little of this was 
spoiled when Bashir got zapped, as from that point it was 
obvious that whatever was happening to the crew wasn't 
going to be permanent; I was not going to believe for a 
single moment that the producers were ready to start 
killing off their regulars so soon, so some of the tension, 
generated by wondering if any of what was happening to the 
staff was *real* in any sense, was lost.

It took me a little while to figure out if I liked the
ending or not, but after giving it due consideration I've 
decided that I do, in fact, like it reasonably well. For a 
while it looked like they were going to go for the "Odo 
finds and destroys the game-generating machinery, freeing 
the crew" ending, but that turned out not to be the case, 
though the false trail with Odo aboard the Wadi ship had me 
wondering. The ending, with the crew losing the game and 
returning to Quark's unharmed was, though not totally 
original, a lot better than they might have done. The Odo 
ending, for example, would have been much more cliche, as 
would have any sort of "Sisko breaks the game from inside 
and/or makes a stirring speech which convinces the Wadi to 
let them go" ending. I liked the fact that the crew were 
both technologically outgunned and socially outmaneuvered 
by the Wadi; it's refreshing to see a race that is superior 
to the Federation in a number of ways without having to be 
of godlike status. It was also good to see another example 
of how having the Universal Translator to guarantee that 
both parties speak the same language is no guarantee that 
the two parties will *understand* one another.

I noted with interest that the writers of this episode
chose not to explain to the viewers exactly what was going 
on with the game. Many questions were not answered, such 
as: Where exactly *were* the crew when they were in the 
gamespace? When they emerged from the gamespace, it looked 
like all their injuries (like Dax' leg) were healed -- does 
that mean that their physical bodies weren't actually in 
the game area, that it was all some sort of virtual reality 
simulation? When people get hurt on the holodeck, their 
injuries *remain* when they leave and they have to go to 
Sickbay, as we've seen numerous times on TNG, so either the 
gamespace was an entirely mental simulation, somehow (in 
which case, where were the crew's bodies?) or any damage 
done to them was repaired when they were returned to 
realspace. None of this is really plot relevant, of course, 
except that I rather appreciated the writers' willingness 
to leave a sense of mystery about the whole event. Others 
who prefer to have loose ends tied up may not be as pleased 
about this, I realize. But the other benefit in their lack 
of explanation was that the technobabble was kept to a bare 
minimum; all we had to cope with was one small set of lines 
while Odo and Primmin were scanning the Wadi ship. Also, 
the inability of Odo and Primmin to comprehend or defeat 
the Wadi's technology indicates that there are things the 
Federation could learn from the Wadi; I'll bring this up 
again later in the review.

And lest I forget to mention it: major points for having no
station-in-danger plot!

In terms of character development, the verdict is much the
same as with the plot: good, but not perfect. First of 
all, it was *very* enjoyable to see multiple interactions 
between the main characters; until now, the episodes have 
focussed on one or two characters and shown them 
interacting with one or two others, but this is the first 
time since "The Emissary" that I can recall where we've 
seen a largish group of the crew acting in concert, and the 
first time we've seen Sisko really commanding them as a 
unit. The interplay between the characters was fun to watch 
and revelatory of their personalities in a more subtle way 
than is possible when the focus is tightened on a single 
character. Granted, the dialogue wasn't always wonderful, 
and I have a few quibbles with some of the individual 
characterizations as they were shown (which I'll get to in 
a minute), but at least we got to see some of the crew 
acting as a team. I have a strong bias toward ensemble 
shows, and have been hungry for a good one for some time 
now; I can't say I was fully satisfied by "Move Along 
Home", but I did get a small taste of what I wanted.

And how did the crew work together as a team? About as
could be expected -- not smoothly, but with reasonable 
effectiveness. It is clear that these people need to get to 
know the strengths and weaknesses of their coworkers before 
they'll really be able to mesh, and given the personalities 
involved they probably won't ever mesh perfectly (or at 
least I hope they won't; it's much more interesting with 
that element of conflict left in). Still, I got kick out of 
watching them take their first awkward steps toward 
functioning as a team, and seeing how their various styles 
conflicted with or complemented each other; I'm looking 
forward to seeing how their teamwork progresses in the 
seasons to come, as the characters come to learn what they 
can expect from each other, and the writers come to learn 
this as well.

Now, how about those individual characterizations? Well,
let's start with Sisko. The scenes between him and Jake 
worked well for me, though for some reason Brooks still 
sounds faintly awkward at spots, especially in the opener. 
We learn that Sisko is rather unsure about the 
first-contact duties that go with his post on DS9, and with 
reason, as it seems from this episode, especially when 
combined with "Captive Pursuit", that he's just not very 
good at them. (I will deal with this fact and the 
implications of it later in the review.) While this is not 
an unreasonable piece of characterization, nor was it 
poorly handled, I very much wonder at the wisdom of it. If 
Sisko can't handle the very delicate and important job of 
dealing with the new races on the other side of the 
wormhole, Starfleet should be quick to replace him (or at 
the very least to assign a diplomatic special Ambassador to 
the station, talented and trained in first-contact 
scenarios.) Of course, they won't do this because Sisko is 
the star of the show, but if he's not suited for his 
position, they *should* and their failure to do so would be 
damaging to my suspension of disbelief. So I would very 
much like to see an episode very soon now where Sisko 
proves that he is in fact the right man for the job by 
handling a first-contact scenario with grace and aplomb. 
(Although I suppose you could argue that he did this in the 
season opener; but where did that flexible and adaptable 
mindset vanish to so quickly?)

An additional important point about Sisko's character that
shouldn't be overlooked is the matter of his command 
decision in the cavern. The reason it shouldn't be 
overlooked is that he was pure-d *wrong*, although for 
understandable reasons. Had the game been a real situation, 
or turned out to have real consequences, he would have 
gotten all three of them killed instead of just one. In 
TOS, whenever Kirk stuck his neck out for one of his 
crewmembers, he always (by virtue of being the star) 
managed to make it pay off; here, we see Sisko doing 
something very Kirk-like, but failing to bring it off. I 
found that refreshing. I do, in fact, *approve* of Sisko's 
characterization as a man who will try to bring all of his 
people out alive even at the risk of losing more than would 
originally have been lost, but it was distinctly unusual to 
see the results of that sort of action played out to the 
logical conclusion.

Oh, and a nice bit of character continuity: just after they
get out of the Wadi party scene, you can see Sisko doing 
his aggravated fist-slam gesture if you look for it. (The 
Sisko Maneuver?)

Kira got some decent screentime while in the cavern with
Dax and Sisko; in particular, her decision to stay with 
the two of them rather than escape on her own was a further 
extension of the shift in loyalties that we saw beginning 
in "Past Prologue". Her exchange with Sisko on the topic of 
her disobedience was fitting as well; she is being shown to 
be as strong willed as he is when she has need to be. I'll 
repeat what I said in an earlier review: if Sisko and Kira 
can get their management styles to mesh, they could be a 
formidable team. Although it also became apparent in this 
episode that the two of them are more alike than they are 
different, which is mildly unfortunate in terms of the crew 
dynamics of DS9; in many ways they share the same virtues 
and faults, so they could tend to reinforce each other's 
bad and good points instead of balancing out and 
complementing each other the way that Picard and Riker do, 
or that Kirk and Spock did. It could lead to a distinctly 
different crew dynamic on DS9 than was apparent on TNG or 
TOS, which is probably a good thing for the show's 
individual identity, although in "reality" it could be bad 
for the station. I think the writers will need to take some 
care to differentiate between Sisko and Kira, or, 
alternatively, to make Dax (the cool, dignified, controlled 
personality) a stronger and more involved character so that 
she can help balance the personality mix.

That having been said, I was *less* than pleased with some
of Kira's ranting while in the gamespace. Her first 
complaint -- about being an administrator and not having 
signed up for this -- was, first of all, inappropriate to 
that place and time; none of the people present were 
responsible for the situation, and to start yelling and 
griping about it was just plain counterproductive. She came 
across as a whiny you-know-what (it rhymes with "rich".) 
She was even worse in the Wadi party; given that they had 
no real idea if those people were real or not, and that 
they were in the middle of a first-contact situation, and 
that they might very well be prisoners of these people, it 
was no place to be throwing a temper tantrum. In order for 
a woman to be *strong*, it is not required that she be a 
harridan, and someone should tell the writers so in no 
uncertain terms.

Next, we have Dax. Dax was lucky; she didn't get too much
development, but all of what I saw was positive. 
Especially strong were the sequences in the cavern; Dax the 
300-year-old worm was much in evidence for a change, and 
Farrell was convincingly biting when speaking as the voice 
of rationality and experience. Other than that, Dax was 
mostly restricted to running around taking tricorder 
readings. As I said above, I could stand to see this 
character's role expanded and brought forward as a balance 
to Sisko and Kira. In the past I would not have been 
convinced of Farrell's ability to support a meatier role 
for Dax, but I think she's been growing into her character 
as the season has progressed and I now feel she could 
probably pull it off, if given a chance.

Bashir was in much the same situation as Kira in terms of 
characterization; there were some plusses here, but some 
minuses as well. The dress-uniform blunder was basically a 
plus, as it seemed the sort of detail that Bashir would be 
likely to forget (although I wondered why he couldn't fire 
up a replicator and get a new one) and it gave us a chance 
to see Sisko being stern with his jumpy junior officer 
(though maybe he came down a little harder on Bashir than 
was necessary, but that fits in well with the picture of 
Sisko being nervous over this first-contact mission and 
wanting everything to be just right.) The "nightmare" 
business was a minus, however, both in that it was fairly 
silly (why was he just making random howling noises? Why 
not yelling something sensible like "I want to wake up 
now!"? -- although I admit that the howling sounded pretty 
effectively eerie when it was first heard) and that it 
wasn't consistent with Bashir's character as it's been seen 
previously and as it was seen later on in this episode. 
Bashir is supposed to be overconfident, even downright 
*cocky*, and to be thirsting after adventure; I would have 
expected his reaction to being thrown into the gamespace to 
be one of eager exploring to the point of getting in 
trouble through carelessness, not one of cringing terror. 
And in fact he *is* as I would have expected later in the 
episode -- looking around in curiosity, being in a hurry to 
show off with the hopscotch puzzle and getting nailed 
through not being careful enough, being impulsive and 
quick-witted at the party scene, all appropriate behavior 
-- so why the panic at the start? It just didn't seem to 
fit (although again, the opportunity it gave for 
interaction between Sisko and Bashir was used to good 
effect.)

Odo's characterization held steady, with maybe a minor
backslip during his scenes with Primmin, which did not gel 
here the way they did in "The Passenger." Odo's interaction 
with Primmin came off as exceedingly snotty, and instead of 
complaining about real issues like jurisdiction and 
authority, he takes personal potshots at Primmin, which 
didn't seem right somehow. It doesn't seem like Odo to take 
cheap shots at individuals, with the exception of Quark, of 
course. Instead of being curt and dryly witty, he sounded 
both petulant and petty. And since when has he objected to 
being called "Constable"? And as for Primmin, he seems to 
have lost about fifty IQ points since the last time we saw 
him, for some reason, which spoils the interaction between 
him and Odo, IMHO; the conflict works much better when both 
individuals are competent, but with different styles of 
doing things. If they are going to keep Primmin around as a 
pseudo-O'Brien when Colm Meany is busy with other 
engagements, they should give him his original brain back, 
please.

And as for Quark...well, more of the same, really. His
huckstering was well done, as usual, although I question 
that he was ever allowed to get into a position to cause 
the damage he did (see below). The one thing that I had a 
bit of a problem with was his anguish when he was forced to 
choose one of the three pieces to sacrifice, and his 
apparent concern in general over the fate of the officers. 
Now, perhaps it was just enlightened self-interest on 
Quark's part -- the fear that if anything permanent 
happened to any of the officers, his head would roll for it 
-- but that wasn't the impression I got. It seemed more 
like the writers wanted to show that Quark didn't really 
want to get anyone hurt with his schemes, that he wasn't 
such a bad guy after all...and I don't know that I like 
that change. Quark has been portrayed as being extremely 
self-interested, and not really caring what harm might come 
to others through his schemes, and as such he's both a good 
foil and a good contrast with the rest of the cast. But 
here he seems to be degenerating toward the "goodhearted 
rogue" stereotype, which just doesn't fit with the Quark we 
saw in "The Passenger", who really was a villain. I am not 
convinced that softening up Quark is something that will 
benefit the show in the long run.

Jake Sisko got some nice little scenes; I was very 
impressed with Cirroc Lofton's portrayal of the character. 
Jake seems like a basically nice, normal kid, the likes of 
which we have never seen on Star Trek before, and have 
rarely seen elsewhere on the primetime television screen. 
He was eminently *believable* in this episode, unlike 
similar characters we've seen before. And if the show goes 
on for two or three more years (which seems likely), both 
the actor and the character are likely to start changing 
rapidly, which will be interesting to watch if it's handled 
well.

Entertainment and characterization issues aside, there are
a couple of broader issues presented in this episode that 
I think are worth commenting on. I'm not saying that these 
inferences I'm going to draw were put into the show by 
intention; in fact they probably weren't. I'd guess that 
the show wasn't intended to be analyzed this deeply -- but 
that's never stopped me before.

Please note that none of what I'm saying below really has
anything to do with how much I liked the episode; these 
are just thoughts that came to mind when I sat down to 
ponder the show. So, although I may sound critical, it's 
not the episode itself I'm coming down hard on, but some of 
the issues it raised for me. Okay? Okay.

The first thing that hit me when I began mulling over this
episode in the larger context of the universe was exactly 
how *BAD* this crew seems to be at coping with 
first-contact situations, as shown both here and in 
"Captive Pursuit". In both of these episodes, Sisko came 
across as intolerant and judgemental of the new cultures he 
encountered; first decrying what he saw as the Hunters' 
barbaric behavior toward Tosk, and now making comments 
about how the Wadi spend all their time playing "childish 
games". Where is the flexibility and imagination he showed 
when dealing with the wormhole aliens in "Emissary"? It is 
a very bad idea for the Federation's ranking representative 
on the scene to get into the habit of judging alien 
cultures by the standards of his own. Kira is no better; 
she is even more upset by the Wadi's game and reacts to it 
with shouting and violence. And although Bashir doesn't 
seem inclined to either intolerance or temper tantrums, 
he's completely inexperienced. The only member of the 
senior staff who seems to have a clue about the proper 
behavior when dealing with an unknown culture is Dax, and 
she's been given little opportunity to function in that 
capacity.

About the time that Sisko was starting to bawl out the Wadi
leader for dragging him and his crew into their game, I 
started to wonder vaguely if Sisko really was the right man 
for this job. For one thing, he didn't bother to ascertain 
the facts of the matter before starting to yell at Falow. 
And for another, regardless of what he and his crew had 
just been put through, he had a responsibility to the 
Federation to continue to try and establish working 
relations with the Wadi. Clearly the Wadi race has 
technology that the Federation does not, some of it quite 
advanced; and they are also a sociologically complex race. 
Sisko had a duty to put his personal grievances aside and 
to continue to try to come to some sort of understanding 
with this new race, and he failed to do so. If this sort of 
thing continues, Starfleet would be within its rights to 
pull Sisko out of there and put someone else in. If would 
be a *very* good thing if, as part of the background 
conversation for another episode, we hear a passing 
reference to Sisko having done a good job at establishing 
relations with a different new race from the Gamma 
Quadrant. We wouldn't want them to show it, necessarily, as 
it would be dull, but it would be good to *hear* about it 
-- just so we can continue to believe that Sisko can handle 
this important aspect of his job.

It seemed to me that the Sisko dismissed the Wadi's
fascination with their games far too lightly. It is 
possible to learn a great deal about a culture from the 
games it plays, and even easier to learn something about 
the people you play games with; I can think of worse ways 
for two cultures to get a feel for each other than for them 
to sit down and play each other's games. It seemed to me 
that the Wadi were probably using their games as a way of 
checking out the Federation people to see what they were 
like -- and given how they behaved, they probably came to 
the conclusion that they were decent people (except for 
Quark) but that they were really kind of short in the 
imagination department. That was the impression I got when 
Falow took his crew off -- kind of an attitude of "Hey, 
you're okay people, but really, you need to grow up some 
before we want to deal with you on a regular basis." The 
Chula game was not only a device for teaching Quark a 
lesson, but also a chance to learn about the rest of the 
crew (who did not bother to join the Wadi at the gaming 
table, as they probably should have, but instead sat around 
and waited for the Wadi to approach them on *their* terms 
rather than trying to approach the new culture on its own 
terms.)

Granted, dragging the crew into their game with no
explanation and causing them mental and physical pain 
wasn't exactly a nice thing to do, but then, Sisko was the 
one who put Quark in charge of entertaining the Wadi, and 
then Quark tried to cheat them. It's not very surprising 
that the Wadi might have been upset by this, and held the 
senior staff responsible. It wasn't very wise at all for 
Sisko to leave the Wadi alone with only Quark as a 
representative of the Federation -- is it any wonder the 
Wadi got a bad impression of the residents of the Alpha 
Quadrant?

And speaking of Quark...there's the other thing I wonder
about. This is twice that Quark has contributed directly 
to events that were harmful to the station's crew -- first 
in "The Passenger", when he didn't tell anyone about 
Vantika taking over Bashir, and now in "Move Along Home" 
where his dishonesty gets all four senior staff into a 
mess. (I'm leaving out Babel, because Quark didn't do 
anything *directly* harmful.) How much more of this is 
Sisko going to put up with before he deports Quark? Surely 
they don't need him to be a "community leader" anymore now 
that the wormhole is there to attract trade. The point I'm 
trying to make is that the writers are going to need to be 
a little more careful with Quark; he's going to have to 
start being more subtle with his nastiness or it's going to 
become unbelievable that Sisko would allow him to remain on 
the station.

Short Takes

-- Am I the only one that thinks that Dax's dress uniform
looked really awful on her?

-- So, where can I get a Chula set? That looked like it
would be a lot of fun if you knew it was a game to begin 
with...

-- Since when do the DS9 uniforms have pockets for the
tricorders?? Kira's always had her belt, but those pockets 
are new.

-- Since I neglected to mention it before, I should say
that Joel Brooks did a good job as Falow; he was 
appropriate enigmatic and menacing by turns.

-- First Shap? or would that be First *Shappe*, as in our
very own Mike? (that's what *I* thought of, at any rate. A 
coincidence? You decide.)

-- They used the transporter to go from Ops to the Wadi
ship. Well, at least they remembered it this time. Now if 
they could just manage a little consistency about when they 
do and don't use the darn thing. (A simple line to the 
effect of the transporters being down again when they are 
inconvenient for the plot would do it...c'mon, guys.)

-- Quark to Odo: "Blow on them!" A nice bit.


Next week: It's "Don Quark", as DS9 meets "The Godfather".

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