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Resurrection Airdate: Week of
November 17th, 1997
Written by: Michael Taylor
Directed by: LeVar Burton
In short: Never deciding what it wants to do, in the end it is cliched and predictable
Brief Summary: The alternate universe's version of Bareil appears on the station. He woos Kira so he can get ahold of an orb of the Prophets. The Intendant arrives, and things go downhill from there...
Review:This will be probably be the shortest review I'll ever do. Not because I pressed for time, you see, but because I don't know if there is anything really to say. "Resurrection" was easily the worst DS9 since "Ferengi Love Songs," and that had the virtue of being funny. This episode actually had me looking at my watch during it. After all the excitement of the war arc, it really hurts to have DS9 hand you this waste of time. Even worse, it was a wasted opportunity, not only to further explore the relationship between Kira and Bareil, but to also use the Mirror Universe for what it should be used for - exploring the darker strands of our favorite characters.
But it didn't do that, and the result was a cliched and flat-out boring story. Everything was readable from the start. I knew Bareil's hostage taking would fail because of something tiny foul up. I knew Kira would fall for Bareil. I knew Bareil had other plans. I knew the Intendant would arrive. And I knew it would be a safe, easy resolution. Of course Bareil would side with our Kira, since we can't have our Kira die or have the orb stolen. But we could have used something better than having him just shoot the Intendant and say, "Oh well, she'll forgive me if I sleep with her!" The entire show was an exercise in futility.
It would have helped if some compelling issue was dealt with, but that wasn't to be found. I'm not sure if I really CARE what goes on in the mirror universe. This bizarre plan to steal an orb and use it to make Bareil a religious leader on Bajor made no sense. Where did they discover this orb? And why should just on change Bajor? The show would have been far more successful if it just had Bareil arrive to stay, and having him cope with being he double of a major religious figure. Instead, bizarre politics took over, to the detriment of everything.
Unfortunately that seems to be the direction of all mirror universe shows now. In the good ol' days we were shocked at how the Intendant could be so evil yet so like Kira. Now she is just an oversexed maniac. It is somewhat of a surprise that Bareil's character was given any depth in all this mess, but to the credit of Taylor it was there. He had a legitimate struggle, but with the outcome so obvious, that struggle was somewhat muted. Bareil's demons were the whole point of the show; with them rendered pointless, the show was rendered pointless too.
Higlights? Kira was not misused in this show. I'm glad in a sense that she slept with Bareil, because it showed she was not demonstrating any feelings of love toward Odo, at least not consciously, through her actions. She seemed to be past him in a sense, and that's good. It was also good to Kira relate more to Dax. Besides that, Visitor did what she could playing character given over to every cliche in the book. The Intendant remains as slimy as ever, the one good thing about her appearing her.
I was impressed by Quark's actions in the show, more so than in "Sacrifice," since it seemed more "Quark" and, besides, the galaxy was not at stake here. It was good to see the inside of the temple at last, but we could have fitted a formal ceremony into all of that, since, after all, we have no idea what the Bajorans actually believe. Had the Intendant been ignored and Bareil left to himself, this could have been explored. Oh, and it was good to hear of the transparent skulled captain again. And that's about it.
So, all in all, a major disappointment and a blown opportnity, even moreso than "Sons and Daughters." It was an hour of wasted time and an hour that has no long term impacts and affected Kira little at all. It was a stunt to get Vedek Bareil back, nothing more. On the bright side, perhaps the "Friends of Vedek Bareil," the organization that crusaded to have him return, will finally leave the writers of DS9 alone.
Some short takes:
So, what exactly was an orb doing on DS9, especially during a war?
Interesting to see Odo and Kira mentioned again. The writers are stalling one of us for *something,* though I'm not sure what yet.
I found Sisko's scene about Jennifer to be... off. Much like the whole show. It was good to see her mentioned though.
Why was a runabout docked at the upper pylon? I know, to reuse the footage from "Empok Nor."
Did those symbols on the cargo boxes look like the symbols from "The Gamesters of Triskelion" to anyone else?
Writing: Good concept gone bad, all thanks to the Intendant
Acting: Visitor was good, Anglim had his moments, but everyone else was off
Directing: Some nice touches, as in the scene where Bareil walked the Promenade with everyone staring at him, but little else.
Rating: 4.8 out of 10.0. Good ideas were in there somewhere.
Quote: "I suppose I'm a lot more like you than I'll ever be like Vedek Bareil ...
right now I don't like either one of us."
-Bareil giving the show's one good line
Next week: Bashir finds himself as babysitter to geniuses older than he is
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