Overview – Ensign Melora Pazlar, an Elaysian
science officer, has been assigned to Deep Space Nine for some research
missions in the Gamma Quadrant. Due to her physiology from coming from a world
with lower than normal gravity, she requires a motorized chair to move around
the station. The crew quickly learn that adapting to Ensign Melora entails more
than meeting her physical needs, but her emotional needs as well. Doctor
Bashir, in particular, finds himself drawn to her and a special bond between
the two of them develops as he discovers a way that she will be able to walk as
the others on the station can walk. The treatment, however, comes with a price.
Meanwhile, Quark is reunited with a former business associate who has come to
the station seeking retribution against the Ferengi bar owner. His price:
Quark’s life. The two stories connect and the crew must try to protect Melora,
Dax, and Quark from this violent criminal.
Score: 6/10 – I appreciate what this episode tries to
do in bringing the struggles of the physically handicapped to light. To have an
officer who is physically limited due to the natural conditions of her home
world being in conflict with most other places was a unique way of depicting
this issue, and is classic Star Trek. The story does a fair job, largely due to
one of the writers being confined to a wheel chair himself. Some of the parts
of the episode dip into the cliché well a bit (such as the handicapped person
getting into trouble trying to make it on their own, learning to accept help
from others), but not in ways that are too overbearing or take away from the
story. Where this episode suffers is in some of the acting and/or directorial
choices. First, there’s Fallit Kot. He is quite an interesting looking alien,
and has the look of a tough-as-nails ex-con. He has every reason to want to
kill Quark, and yet he comes across as…well, bored. There is little passion or
emotion in his lines that convinces me that he is a serious threat. Second,
when Fallit shoots Melora in the runabout, Bashir and the rest of the crew are
watching the events unfold. Bashir has just started a romantic relationship
with Melora, and his reaction to her being shot and presumably killed is
severely understated. I found it difficult to believe that he would have stayed
so calm. Not a good choice of action for the character. My final complaint with
the episode overall is that once the episode is done, that’s it. No follow up,
not even a hint that the episode happened. Maybe I missed it, but all the ramps
that O’Brien and his crews spent hours on installing are gone by the next
episode. This could have had a more lasting and inclusive impact, but once the
last scene was completed it was back to normal.
Relevance – 1 point. A point is scored for the
Klingon restaurant, which will be seen again in a later episode “Playing God”.
Sadly, these are the only two episodes that we will see the highly entertaining
Klingon chef, but the restaurant will be referenced in dialogue a few more
times. His argument with Melora (revealing not only her iron will but her
fluency in Klingon) is a lot of fun.
Continuity – 1 point. Universe continuity works here,
so a point is awarded for it. I am deducting points for character and story
continuity here, both for reasons I eluded to earlier. Bashir reactions to
Melora’s apparent death are just not what I came to expect from him. He is as
emotional as they come. He throws himself into his relationships with gusto and
zeal. I am not saying he should have curled up in a little ball of whimpering
under his console, but I really expected him to have been a bit more animated.
Story continuity is the fact that if the crew had spent all this time
installing ramps to have made the station a little more accessible to Melora,
and it didn’t appear that they would have hampered anyone else, why spend the
time and resources in removing the ramps. It just gave this episode a “one and
done” feeling.
Character Development – 2 points. This is definitely
a Bashir episode where he finally gets lucky in love. After pining for Jadzia
for a year it’s nice to see the good doctor get some success in this department.
We see how me uses his medical brilliance to help those he loves, but we also
see how idealistic he can be. When he offers her the treatment that will allow
Melora to walk in normal gravity as everyone else, he is almost oblivious to
the notion that she may not want to give up being who she is. We also get some
funny moments with Quark and Odo, with Quark needing Odo’s protection from Fallit
and Odo (albeit reluctantly) agreeing to do what he is allowed to do by law.
Sisko shows how he handles a character like Melora when he denies her request
to go on her mission unaccompanied. He balances compassion and understanding
with truly treating others like everyone else by telling her that in no
situation would he send a junior officer alone on a mission.
Social Commentary – 3 points. How do we own our
limitations? While there is the obvious nod towards those who have very visible
handicaps, it also applies to most, if not all, of us. We all have things that
can hold us back. It may be something that is mental, physical, emotional, or even
just as simple as our basic mortality. We have limits of one kind or another.
The true strength is in our ability to own those limits and allow us to define
them rather than it being the other way around. The character of Melora goes
through the standard path that many characters with physical handicaps do. She
fights for trust and then has to learn to trust others in return. She and
Bashir have some great conversations that anyone can glean inspiration from. I
particularly liked the exchange where Melora says she just wants others to know
they can count on her, and Bashir counters with asking if she knows that she
can count on them. Proving oneself doesn’t mean we won’t ever need someone else’s
help, but it does mean that we are capable of assisting others.
Cool Stuff – 2 points. Melora as a character is
pretty cool, and in the vein of characters such as Geordi La Forge, a character
being confined to a wheel chair is a good step for Trek, even if it was only
for a single episode. I also liked the scene of her and Bashir in the low
gravity environment and seeing her float with ease. That scores a point. The
second point is for the make-up of Fallit Kot, especially the nose piece that
connects to his chin. While I felt that the character was lacking in how he was
portrayed, I really liked the look.
Rank – Lieutenant (15
points). While
not necessarily a bad episode, there are a few let downs. I really think that
in spite of a well-intentioned and good effort, there were some missteps in
character direction that cost the overall show. Still, it gives us a good
message and has some good moments. So while you may be fine missing this
episode while going through the series I would suggest that you catch it at
least once. If nothing else, the Klingon chef gives us some soothing dinner
music.
If you would like to read other reviews from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, please click the following link.
If you would like to read an episode review from any of the Trek series, click the following link to get to the series catalog. If the episode you want reviewed has not been done yet, then feel free to request it in the comments and I will see what I can do.
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