DS9 Season 1 episode reviews- Captive Pursuit and Q-Less

Captive Pursuit

A bad name for a great episode.

The cold open is really something: a dabo girl comes to Sisko complaining that her contract states that she is expected to frick Quark. Sisko says that "he's sure" that the clause is unenforceable but the girl acts like she blames herself for not reading the fine print and Sisko kinda shrugs as if to say "yeah, you really should get used to sticking your tongue into giant ears". The ninties was a wild time.

Then the first visitor from the Gamma Quadrant comes through the wormhole and Quark's Weinsteining is never mentioned again. The visitor refers to himself as 'Tosk' which is both a description of who and what he is. His ship is badly damaged and he refuses any help until O'Brien gives him a clear explanation of what the station can offer. On Dax's advice, Sisko sensibly foregoes the usual First Contact protocols and sends O'Brien to the docking bay to render assistance directly. This is not the last act of competence by the station's crew this episode. Tosk continues to be elusive although he and O'Brien strike up a friendship.

However, Tosk sets about secretly boning-up on DS9's layout and weapons- his quarters' computer just tells him where the armory is!- until he gets caught mucking around with a power conduit in a corridor by Odo. Odo, btw, has had a make-over in this episode and his make-up is much improved. I love this scene because the changeling is hyper-competent in arresting Tosk- something he manages to do without violence. In modern shows the characters behave so irrationally because it's the way that the writers produce tension and drama. IDK, maybe if DS9 had the budget and time for a knock-down action scene here, then we would have seen Odo frick up so that we could have seen a Tosk vs. Shapechanger battle. They needed that budget for whst comes later. Maybe the only reason old shows were smart was because they couldn't afford to be dumb.

In his cell, Tosk will still not explain himself simply saying he wishes to be released so he might "die with honor". Then the people chasing him arrive. These pursuers come through the wormhole, knock out DS9's shields, beam onto the promenade, refuse to elaborate and proceed to blow open the door to the security office where Tosk is being held, all while under fire from station security.

It would be metal AF if they didn't dress like this:

When the lead Hunter finds Tosk trapped in his cell he announces that the hunt is over and acts all disappointed. Turns out that the entire Tosk race are created to act as prey- a purpose they train all their lives for- and are held in great esteem... unless they get caught alive. Now Tosk has been caught he will be taken back in chains and live out his days being mocked and having shit thrown at him by children. O'Brien tries to persuade Tosk to claim asylum but the green fella wil mot betray who he is- to escspe his fate by hiding behind the Federation would be an even greater shame than to go back home in chains. After a funny interlude with Quark (everybody's still not mentioning the dabo girl) where O'Brien keeps calling him "barkeep" because that's apparently what Burgers think Irish people call bartenders (they actually call them "fecken-stragget-who-can't-pour-a-pint-proper-like") Obrien decides to overload the weapons sensor in the airlock to knock out the Hunter boss so Tosk can escape. This sensor is only ever seen in the story but was established when O'Brien first brought Tosk aboard because this is another example of this episode being well written. Remember how I said they needed the budget for later? Yeah- now Tosk really fricks some shit up.

The amount of sparks and smoke from that weapon blast kind of imply that those Hunters are not getting up again. Sparks coming off a weapon hit in Star Trek are usually a sign someone has been un-alived.

So where is security to stop this shit? Well Sisko told Odo to take his time getting down to the docking ring. Here is how Odo takes his time going down to the docking ring:

So Starfleet's first (known) contact with a civilisation from the Gamna Quadrant ends in two big firefights on a Federation-operated station and a bunch of deep-fried alien corpses to get rid of. Sisko half-heartedly sounds out Obrien for ignoring the Prime Directive but I'd argue that the PD was breached when Starfleet didn't understand what Tosk meant when he ssid "I am Tosk" and just got out of his way. We must always respect other people's cultures.

Tosk and the Hunters are, of course, huge harbingers of things to come. When this episode was written that wasn't known but, later in the series, the production team would incorporate both aspects of Tosk's make-up and the concept of a species with a natural ability to cloak itself into the creation of the Dominion's soldiers, the Jem'Hadar. Indeed Scott MacDonald, who is great as Tosk in this episode, would later play a Jem'Hadar in the very good season 3 episode 'Hippocratic Oath'

He's played a bunch of other roles in Star Trek including a Romulan and a Xindi. He was also in Space Above and Beyond which I did an earlier effortpost on.

That the Jem'Hadar and Tosk are both genetically engineered makes it impossible to not conclude that the Hunters, the first Gamma Quadrant alien civilisation encountered, are members of the Dominion. This is oblique and never directly referenced on-screen but it makes a lot of sense and nothing in the episode contradicts it: the theory adds an extra layer of significance to an already very good story. Of course this is a retcon; the Dominion weren't thought of until season 2 when it was realised that the Gamma Quadrant could not just be another final frontier so the crew could occasionally have occasional adventures in cosmos incognita... DS9 should follow it's own path- an inspiration being Kira's line in Emissary where she tells Bashir that his far flung frontier is her home. Similarly, the Gamma Quadrant is home to somebody, and maybe that somebody doesn't appreciate interlopers.

Anyway, this is a smart, exciting episode with a good script and good action scenes. Best so far and DS9 is flying high...

What could go wrong?

Q-Less

Q's whimsical bullshit doesn't work in DS9. Personally, I never cared for the character in TNG either but John de Lancie seemed to be having fun and apparently he and Patrick Stewart didn't like each other IRL which actually made their performances stronger. When Q tries all that cosmic trickster shit with Sisko this happens:

I mean, what did he expect from a BIPoC? When you've got a foil who just punches you when you get annoying, it kinda kills the moment.

The plot also makes no sense- apparently Q, a transdimensional superbeing with near-godlike powers has become foid-addled by Vash, Picard's cast off from TNG's 'Captain's Holiday'. Vash is an absolute slut: remember that dabo girl who didn't want to get nasty with Quark last episode? Here's how Vash negotiates a good price from the bartending Space Hebrew:

Dives straight for the ears... nasty skank.

I don't have anything else to say, this episode isn't awful but it isn't worth watching either, really.

I'm going to skip a few episodes next time- there's nothing wrong with Dax and The Passenger but they're a bit dull. Move Along Home is fricking wretched and I can't face watching that again.