Story: Shadows and Symbols
Written By: Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Year: 1998
The second part of the opener to season 7 is pretty much just a continuation of the previous episode. I would say maybe it is slightly better because it is less build up and more pay…even then it can be just as dull as “Image in the Sand”.
It follows three main stories; the first involves the Siskos and the new Dax searching for the Orb of the Emissary. This serves as our real introduction to the new character of Ezri Dax. Apparently when the Dax symbiont was on its way back to the Trill homeworld, it took a turn for the worse…its only chance of survival was to be joined with another Trill and fast…Ezri Tigan, a promising young Trill counselor who never wished to be joined happened to be the only Trill on board. Now she is this ill-prepared host for a symbiont she never wanted. I know what the writers wanted to do with her, and I respect that: but the execution is piss-poor. She is annoying, I know it’s intentional, but it isn’t like endearing the way it is made out to be in the show.
The actual story of Sisko looking for the orb is decent, if not slow-going. He finds the orb and then has a vision that he is Benny Russell in a mental ward writing his stories on the wall. Dr. Wykoff (played by Casey Biggs/Damar) tries to convince him not to continue writing, and to even paint over the story, he almost does paint over it, as Ben attempts to bury the orb and refuses to open it…but then Russell drops the paint brush, and Sisko opens the Orb…and the wormhole returns.
Worf joins Martok on a mission to make sure Jadzia gets into Sto-vo-kor, along to make sure she gets in are Bashir and O’Brien…and Quark. Quark joins last minute, but Worf is sort of annoyed with all of them joining in…because he was jealous of their friendships with Jadzia. It isn’t that interesting really but they do destroy some shipyards of Dominion. Jadzia gets in.
The third storyline involves a standoff between Kira and a small Bajoran blockade and approaching Romulan Warbirds attempting to deliver supplies to the Romulan hospital on the Bajoran moon. Kira will not allow them to deliver anymore weapons there. It kinda just fills time, the tension is never really there and eventually the Romulans leave when Ross finally decides that the Federation will take action on the Romulans if they don’t back off…Romulans don’t want to get conquered by the Dominion. Like I said it is just filler.
The Sisko storyline continues once the wormhole is returned, and he is once again with the Prophets. This time just one: Sarah Sisko. What he learns is that Sarah Sisko was a human being that was inhabited by this Prophet in order to ensure that Ben was born. Once he was born, the task was completed and the Prophet left Sarah, thus her leaving Joseph…she wasn’t the same person anymore. It is an interesting concept…the reason Sisko is the Emissary is that he is in fact part-prophet. Weird. But having restored the wormhole, and resolved some issues in his head about Jadzia’s death through Ezri (I guess just her presence as he doesn’t really deal with his issues with her death on screen)…he returns to the station finally. With Ezri…which seems to puzzle people a bit and annoy Worf.
Woo…like I said about “Image in the Sand”…I can’t deny that LOTS of things are going on, but man does it not capture your interest to much while watching. In hindsight so much happened, but when your watching it is about as interesting as watching paint dry at times. Our characters don’t have their usual wit, and the story doesn’t have the dramatic pull you want. Unfortunately the introduction of Ezri continues to cause some issues until we really get into that final ten-part arc.
NEXT TIME: Getting to Know Ezri
Written By: Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Year: 1998
The second part of the opener to season 7 is pretty much just a continuation of the previous episode. I would say maybe it is slightly better because it is less build up and more pay…even then it can be just as dull as “Image in the Sand”.
The actual story of Sisko looking for the orb is decent, if not slow-going. He finds the orb and then has a vision that he is Benny Russell in a mental ward writing his stories on the wall. Dr. Wykoff (played by Casey Biggs/Damar) tries to convince him not to continue writing, and to even paint over the story, he almost does paint over it, as Ben attempts to bury the orb and refuses to open it…but then Russell drops the paint brush, and Sisko opens the Orb…and the wormhole returns.
Worf joins Martok on a mission to make sure Jadzia gets into Sto-vo-kor, along to make sure she gets in are Bashir and O’Brien…and Quark. Quark joins last minute, but Worf is sort of annoyed with all of them joining in…because he was jealous of their friendships with Jadzia. It isn’t that interesting really but they do destroy some shipyards of Dominion. Jadzia gets in.
The third storyline involves a standoff between Kira and a small Bajoran blockade and approaching Romulan Warbirds attempting to deliver supplies to the Romulan hospital on the Bajoran moon. Kira will not allow them to deliver anymore weapons there. It kinda just fills time, the tension is never really there and eventually the Romulans leave when Ross finally decides that the Federation will take action on the Romulans if they don’t back off…Romulans don’t want to get conquered by the Dominion. Like I said it is just filler.
The Sisko storyline continues once the wormhole is returned, and he is once again with the Prophets. This time just one: Sarah Sisko. What he learns is that Sarah Sisko was a human being that was inhabited by this Prophet in order to ensure that Ben was born. Once he was born, the task was completed and the Prophet left Sarah, thus her leaving Joseph…she wasn’t the same person anymore. It is an interesting concept…the reason Sisko is the Emissary is that he is in fact part-prophet. Weird. But having restored the wormhole, and resolved some issues in his head about Jadzia’s death through Ezri (I guess just her presence as he doesn’t really deal with his issues with her death on screen)…he returns to the station finally. With Ezri…which seems to puzzle people a bit and annoy Worf.
Woo…like I said about “Image in the Sand”…I can’t deny that LOTS of things are going on, but man does it not capture your interest to much while watching. In hindsight so much happened, but when your watching it is about as interesting as watching paint dry at times. Our characters don’t have their usual wit, and the story doesn’t have the dramatic pull you want. Unfortunately the introduction of Ezri continues to cause some issues until we really get into that final ten-part arc.
NEXT TIME: Getting to Know Ezri