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 DS9 FINALE EXCLUSIVE | ||
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What You Leave Behind By Steve Perry As a special scoop... TrekWeb has obtained and reviewed the finale episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This is the ONLY web site to have this exclusive feature, so discard all the rumors because HERE IT IS. DISCLAIMER: The following should not be taken as fact and should be regarded as a work of fan fiction. You should be warned that this review has SPOILERS upon SPOILERS concerning the final episode of DS9, What You Leave Behind. I've had the privilege to read the script to the final episode of DS9. Because of exams and general hectic-ness I've not been able to tell you my thoughts on it. Well I still have exams, but since this is the final episode after all... The writers may be mad that we got it, nonetheless that I'm now telling everyone about it. Unfortunately, 'tis the nature of our business. Scripts get out all the time. People want to know what happens. It should be a testament to the fact that so many people care that I'm bothering to do what I am doing right now. It certainly is not an attempt to undermine a show that in any regard is ending. At the end of the day what is written on the page speaks for itself, whether you know about it now or in the first week of June. So, without further adieu, my thoughts: This is a very typical big episode DS9 script. I say typical, because the usual features stand out: generally good, strong dialogue, with a couple of moments that make you say "Huh?" (Though this time, Martok only has one such line. He usually gets the great bulk of them.) Red contacts lens and what will likely be bad FX of a pagh-wraith possessing Dukat; and a space battle that is going to be epic, yet oddly drained of energy... once again, a lot of talking. The dialogue between Bashir and the Chief during the battle, for example, is mostly good. It's just the battle at large feels drained of excitement as you read the page. What is the Dominion weakness? Why, "the center," of course. For a show with this much money for FX, I'd like to see the final battle feel tense, like chess pieces moving toward that final checkmate. Best of Both Worlds, with its simple but dynamic struggle between the Enterprise and one Borg cub, was far more exciting. But I digress. You get a lot of tender moments. The last shot, a pull away that begins with Kira and Jake (more on why, later) and goes outward until DS9 is a star in the night sky, into the "cathedral of space," should be beautiful. Quark goes to Odo. Odo has nothing to say in his farewell. But he does tell Kira before he goes to tell Quark that he even misses him. Earlier with Vic, Quark is bemoaned by the war, not because it cost him business, but because it could cost him his friends. Morn comes *this* close to saying something and even Weyoun and the Founder have a good scene as the battle nears their room and it is clear they are in jeopardy. You suspect that maybe - just maybe - she cares for him, even reacting slightly when Garak guns down Weyoun in cold blood after being a little too pithy. You also get some powerful drama. Garak ends the episode on Cardassia, free from his exile, but his world is in ruins. The casualty total stands to be at least 800 million dead and is rising. His last scene is so good, it deserves an excerpt: Bashir: We both know the Cardassians are a strong people... they'll survive... Cardassia will survive. Garak: Doctor, please, spare me your insufferable Federation optimism. Of course it will survive... but not the Cardassia I knew. We had a rich and ancient culture - our music, literature, art were second to none. And now, so much of it is lost... So many of our best people... our most gifted minds... Bashir: I'm sorry Garak, I didn't mean... Garak: Quite all right, doctor. You've been a good friend. I'm going to miss our lunches together. As the Founder promised, Cardassia is dead, and Garak has nothing. Even his mother, Mila, is dead, tossed down the stairs to him by the Jem'Hadar. Martok gets a good scene from this as well, with the promised bloodwine enjoyed by himself, Sisko, and Ross. But Sisko and Ross cannot drink amid the destruction and pour it out. (Martok does not care). Cardassia got what it deserved for the occupation and for siding with the Dominion, he feels, so he finishes the rest of it, alone. I like the episode. I probably will cry at its end. One major, terrible flaw sticks out, however. That is the demise of Captain Sisko. Yes, he dies. He falls into a pit with Dukat. It is an ambiguous death for him and I suppose an ambiguous one for Dukat, too. After the victory over the Dominion, it almost feels tacked on. It does not work, for several reasons, and is part of a general problem with the episode's sense of finality. The first is that, after seven years, Sisko needed to be used better than this. It doesn't seem right that Sisko was moved to this place and this time simply to keep the Kosst Amojan from escaping by throwing the book back into the pit - very anticlimactic. We needed something a little bolder, a little more dangerous. I wish I could help there... the only thing I can think of is that the pagh-wraiths ARE released and begin an attack on the wormhole. Sisko must do something to stop it. It just seems to be a better ending than having Sisko die in the cave set... I think part of the problem is the jerky nature in which the Prophet plot has been treated. We never knew where it was going... even an ambiguous prophecy to give us an idea would help give us a feel for it. I can't help but shrug at the end. Also, the role of Kai Winn in this episode concerns me. Her death is, well, cheesy. In essence, she does what she wants to do to Dukat, by killing him, in what should be a chilling scene. Dukat is then brought back to life. Winn realizes what she has done and tries to stop the pagh-wraiths when Sisko gets there, even calling him Emissary, but she is pulled into the pit by a tendril. It doesn't quite work. I was hoping, for example, that to win legitimacy for her new cause, she brings Dukat before the Bajoran people, and has him killed, and then releases the pagh-wraiths from the sealed book. The Kai uses Dukat in this episode, but not effectively enough, both dramatically and message-wise. This would play nicely into whether the Bajorans still hate the Cardassians... if they accept Dukat's death with open arms, they get what they deserve by having the pagh-wraiths attack. It also would make the Bajorans question their own religion if their leader does such an evil thing. Unless Kroeker does an amazing job directing, the milieu of the fire caves just doesn't work for him. I think the Kai and Dukat both need public deaths because of the obsession with the Bajoran people that they shared. Dukat also is made back into a Cardassian by the pagh-wraiths. I don't like this either. He even mentions in the episode how he did not want to remain a Bajoran... I think Behr and Beimler missed great subtle irony by using a magic wand to return him to a Cardassian. The bottom line is that in the final arc and the series at large, Bajor has been completely detached from the rest of the show. The events there detract from the main action, and in this episode they feel a little tiresome. Sisko runs off, wins a war, then runs back and saves Bajor. Why not link the two? The Cardassians are already linked to the war. Had it not been for the occupation and a Gul named Dukat, the war would have never happened. Why not bring the pagh-wraiths into play? This might have required some conniving on the part of the Dominion and the wraiths, but this could have begun in Tears of the Prophets. Kill the Prophets so the Jem'Hadar can come through. This would have given the episode a wonderful tension. The entire fleet has poured into Cardassia, leaving everything behind them exposed. What if 10,000 Jem'Hadar vessels poured through? Then the station would have truly faced an Alamo scenario, which incidentally while mentioned (along with Thermopylae) does not play out here. It would have been intriguing for this backwater planet with its odd religion to become so important in interstellar affairs. It would have given the battle between the Prophets and the pagh-wraiths a relevance beyond mere curiosity, and it would make Sisko's ultimate demise more important than simply dying to bail out some non-corporeal beings. The war would technically be over, but like at the Battle of New Orleans, those out of communication with those in charge wouldn't know it, risking galactic destruction because no one got the message out. This really has possibilities... as I write this, I like it more and more. For example, let's look at how Odo ends up. Odo's final scenes with Kira are very poignant. He puts on a tux for her, because that's how he wants her to remember him. He's returning to the Great Link since the Female Changeling, in exchange for standing trial, wanted him to return, leaving the fate of their people in the hands of the Federation's non-aggressive objectives. He feels he has to return to teach the changelings about why solids aren't so bad, by using the cure Bashir got hold of. However, it has the feeling of moving a person off the stage because it is the final episode. I think a much better way to do it would have been what was foreshadowed in Treachery, Faith, and the Great River, which suggested Odo might wind up leading his people. As part of the Dominion coordinating with the pagh-wraiths, they have a massive fleet on the other side of the wormhole. When the pagh-wraiths distract the Prophets, they pour through. They're mad as Hell because a lot of Founders are dead, and they're acting irrationally. Odo talks with the Female Changeling. He and Julian, to represent a Federation trying to shed its hypocrisy, convince the fleet to stop. Odo says he will lead the Link now, and the Female Changeling, knowing how decimated her people are and showing a touch of belief in the Federation thanks to Julian, agrees. The Jem'Hadar of course have no choice but to obey, and the Alamo is averted. This is more of a conscious choice by Odo to save BOTH the Dominion and the Federation. I think it's more important than "I have a lot of work to do" and leaving Kira behind. I can understand how it is scripted... I just think this is more epic. I also think it is more Trek-like. Odo goes back, but nothing feels resolved. It is an uneasy peace caused because the Shapeshifter is beaten but hasn't necessarily learned anything. Maybe that is realistic, but it doesn't have much of a message of hope. On a related note, Kasidy really had *nothing* to do with the story's conclusion. I was hoping that members of the pagh-wraith cult would kidnap her and bring her to Dukat, thus drawing Sisko to the final battle through means other than "I sense a great disturbance in the force." The fact is, because of Kasidy, Sisko did *not* know nothing but sorrow. It looks like with or without Kasidy he would die, making the bruhaha about the marriage seem pointless. Involving the cult would have been a nice addition, I would think. The episode has some nice connections to the first episode. It opens with Bashir waking up next to Ezri... he finally has won the Dax he was tripping over at the start of the series. Kira is leading a win to save Cardassia, of all places. She has come to almost fully forgiving them. But it's almost as if the writers ran out of gas. All of this is set up in episodes *before* the finale. Nothing within the episode itself is a twist... it is a conclusion only; not a climax. We needed more ironies within the episode itself, we needed a stronger plot concerning the battle and the end of the war, instead of simply moving to end the war because it's the last episode. For example, Damar dies rather abruptly. He goes once more unto the breach and is killed. Everyone shrugs and moves on. I wish that he had run the other direction, distracting the Jem'Hadar and letting the others make it through. It would have been a noble sacrifice, a death with meaning, instead of a random one. Or is it the last episode? One thing very clear is that Sisko "WILL be back." He appears to Kasidy and tells her so. He has so much to learn from the Prophets (like what?), but when he is through he will return. To be quite frank, I don't see many movie options... but everything about this episode suggests that. And there are not any big, dangling questions, aside from what Captain Boday looks like. I dare say that, despite what happened to Cardassia, this episode did not have enough death and destruction. So I have mixed feelings about the episode. It will be exciting, but could have been more so. It is dramatic and tragic, but could have been more so. Sisko's death is a good idea, but needed much ironing out within the episode and in the events before it. Odo's departure makes sense but could have been better done. I think most everyone will like this episode and many will love it. Random Thoughts: -The Breen have little to do. The Female Shapeshifter is clearly manipulating them, and even makes fun of their static in this episode. We also have a new Thot, Thot Pran. -Kasidy by the way is pregnant, and morning sickness is one of the episode's funnier moments. -Mr. J. Michael Straczynski, in all tastelessness, is claiming without knowing what is going on that this is a rip-off of the final episode of B5. It's not. Sheridan somehow won the favor of the First Ones so they granted him eternal life, never to return to home. Sisko in this episode was forced to complete his ultimate mission, and in gratitude for helping them the Prophets preserved his life, to return. To me, they're entirely different things. B5's was an attempt to mythologize its main hero, unsuccessfully I might add, while Sisko's ends deals with a more personal relationship to the Prophets. I don't like a lot of how it finishes, but it's better, because it actually brings things to a conclusion, instead of dragging us through a maudlin denouement that leaves too many questions unanswered. So there, JMS. Take your Hugo and be happy. -Another irritating part of the episode is that Cardassians *twice* turn on the Dominion to bail the good guys out. Once, sure. But not twice! -With that said, how the good guys made it into Dominion HQ was nice... the Jemmies were dragging Cardassians out to be bayoneted and the good guys snuck in. -No Vic complaints, please. His scene with Quark was funny and he sings to the crew "The Way You Look Tonight" in what should be a tender scene. -Yes, there is a montage. The script only specifies scenes from "Holosuite" and "Badda-bing." I'll reserve judgment until it airs. -Two new Cardassians, Ekoor, a rebel, and Broca, a Dominion stooge, are in the episode as well. -Admiral Ross, to end the war, quotes General MacArthur. That's it. I may add more to this review later as thoughts strike me. However, I have a test in Chinese History I need to study for... latah. Review by Steve Perry Text Copyright 1999 by Steve Perry because he says so. Star Trek and all its related trademarks are exclusive copyright 1999 by Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom Inc. http://www.trekweb.com EXCLUSIVE | |
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