‘DRAMATIS PERSONAE’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This ‘DS9’ episode is disturbing and compelling to sit through. Friction occurs between Starfleet and Bajoran personnel who exhibit strange behaviour. Odo is the only one that notices something’s wrong.
In the episode, a damaged Klingon ship arrives out of the wormhole. It explodes in space before the surviving Klingon crewmember beams aboard DS9. The final word before the Klingon dies is “Victory!”
After the Klingon dies, something strange happens to the DS9 crew. Commander Sisko and Major Kira start going at loggerheads with each other. This is out of character when they used to work fine before.
Before the Klingon ship came out of the wormhole, Kira was against a Valerian ship docking at the space station. She’s become really convinced the Valerians are smuggling weapons to the Cardassians.
Sisko meanwhile is against accusing the Valerians without evidence and refuses to acknowledge Kira’s request to search their ship. He also becomes gradually bored of things after the Klingon’s death here.
O’Brien also starts getting suspicious of Kira’s motives and is acting like the Bajorans are Starfleet’s enemies. Dax meanwhile has become dreamy and not herself when she is reminiscing about old times.
In the runabout to search for the Klingons’ mission recorder, O’Brien tries to coerce Dax into sharing her loyalties to Sisko and be against Kira. Dax is oblivious and complacent over O’Brien’s odd behaviour.
Odo seems the only one who’s sane among the group following the Klingon’s arrival and death. When he’s in Quark’s, Odo suffers a seizure and collapses. Quark calls for Dr. Bashir to help Odo unconscious.
Thankfully in the Infirmary, Odo recovers. But once he’s awake, Bashir shows signs of acting odd when he hints deviously over potential trouble between Kira and Sisko. Odo is surprised by Bashir’s manner.
During a briefing when the DS9 crew check out a Klingon’s log entry, Odo observes the oddness of everyone else. He sees Sisko is bored; Kira is aggressively against him and Dax reminiscent and dreamy.
At Quark’s, after Quark serves Dax a special kind of beverage, Kira tries to win her loyalty. Dax however does not seem to be paying attention to Kira’s intentions to go against Sisko. She just seems distracted.
Kira then spots Quark seemingly eavesdrops her conversation with Dax. Out of nowhere, Kira violently attacks him, throwing him across the bar. I’m so surprised nobody else reacted to that within the bar.
Quark enters Odo’s office, with a neck-support following being attacked by Kira. He lays his complaints to Odo. Odo becomes increasingly curious about what’s going on and he decides to see Sisko about it.
But when Odo goes to see Sisko in his office, he finds O’Brien behind the desk instead. Sisko is in his quarters being kept safe. O’Brien has also placed security guards outside Sisko’s quarters. It’s peculiar.
When Odo sees Sisko in his quarters, he lays his concerns about a possible mutiny that happened on the Klingon ship and believes it to be happening again on the station. Sisko does not seem so bothered.
In fact, Sisko is more interested in constructing a clock in his quarters rather than be concerned about the odd behaviour among his crew. I’m surprised his son Jake hasn’t shown concern over his dad here.
Odo eventually returns to his office to find Kira there waiting for him, behind his desk with her feet up. Kira tries to persuade Odo to side with her against Sisko aboard DS9, pretty much to Odo’s surprise.
Eventually, Odo works out what’s going on. It seems the Klingons discovered a collection of energy spheres with telepathic imprints of an ancient power that caused a power struggled aboard their ship.
Thankfully, Odo saves the DS9 crew when he plays along with both sides to get them trapped in a cargo bay. With Bashir’s help, Odo manages to remove the alien imprints off the DS9 crew by the end.
I like how the episode ends with Kira apologising to Sisko for the odd behaviour that happened between them. Most of the time, Kira and Sisko were loggerheads at each other. I’m happy all is forgiven.
‘Dramatis Personae’ is a tense, dramatic ‘DS9’ episode in the first season. I was anxious how friction gets caused and resolved in the tale and enjoyed how Odo managed to work it out being the sane one.
‘Dramatis Personae’ (DS9) rating – 8/10
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