‘MOVE ALONG HOME’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
People regard this ‘DS9’ episode as one of the worst ever made. Do I agree with this? Well…not really. I mean, it’s not great but it’s not bad either. There’s an intriguing concept featured in this one.
Let’s take a look. The DS9 team receive the visitation of a Gamma Quadrant species called the Wadi. They make first contact with these Wadi, who are led by Joel Brooks as Falow. The Wadi’s make-up…
…Um, yeah. It’s not special. It’s just human beings with tattoos on their heads. They also wear strange robe-like garments. I’m not certain how they would be taken seriously in a real-life situation.
Upon arrival to DS9 however, the Wadi show no interest in ‘first contact’ formalities. They want to play the games in Quark’s bar. Respecting their wishes, the DS9 team escort the Wadi to Quark’s bar.
There, they play the Dabo gambling game. Quark sees the Wadi being able to master Dabo and he’s concerned especially when it comes to gaining his profit. He has one of his waiters rigging the game.
But Quark gets caught out and is forced to play ‘an honest game’ called Chula by the Wadi. And this is where things start becoming very baffling and nonsensical in terms of the episode’s plot structure.
For you see, the Wadi chose four players to be in this game of Chula. The four players happen to be Commander Sisko, Dr. Bashir, Major Kira and Lt. Dax. The four find themselves in a dream-like place.
Now I like the idea of Sisko, Bashir, Kira and Dax being unwilling players in a game because of Quark’s cheating with the Wadi. This puts them in peril once certain decisions are made in the game.
But the issue I think people have with this episode is how Falow and the other Wadi don’t explain the rules to Quark about what the game is. It’s unfair on Quark and also unfair on us as an audience.
It would’ve been better if Quark had been given some rules to follow in order to appreciate the game. He could have been told how the game worked without realising the players were our heroes.
Instead, Falow is giving cryptic riddles for Quark to follow whilst he’s playing the game along with Odo who’s watching him. It also makes it confusing for us as audience to understand the game here.
There is one riddle that does make sense as Falow in the dream world Sisko, Kira, Dax and Bashir says “Move along, move along home!” There’s your title for the episode. Very neat title, isn’t it? 😀
In the dream world, Sisko, Kira, Dax and Bashir have to tackle several puzzles. One of these puzzles is a simple yet alien version of the human game Hopscotch played by young Clara Bryant as Chandra. 🙂
That has to be my favourite scene in the episode. I like how Sisko, Kira, Dax and Bashir solve the puzzle whilst the little girl Chandra is chanting the rhyme ‘Allamaraine, count to four…’ and so forth.
Bashir almost gets it half-right when doing the Hopscotch game, but doesn’t say the rhyme, hitting the force-field. Fortunately Dax solves it correctly and soon Sisko, Bashir and Kira join in after her. 😀
When I saw the ‘What We Left Behind’ documentary at the ‘Destination Star Trek Birmingham’ event in October 2018, they featured clips of that scene in the end credits. I did laugh seeing that. 😀
There’s also another good puzzle our four heroes solve when Sisko, Kira, Dax and Bashir suffocate in a room where people are drinking glasses of ale or something. The ale is the antidote for them here.
Sadly the episode is let down by the second half when the game gets confusing. Bashir gets removed from the game and Quark gets faced with a choice to sacrifice one of the players to take a short cut.
I enjoyed the grovelling scene where Quark begs the Wadi not to make him choose. Armin Shimmerman’s acting is very good here. It was both gut-wrenching and amusing to see Quark plead.
At the episode’s conclusion, Sisko, Kira, Dax and Bashir are back in Quark’s bar but it turns out Quark didn’t win the game. It also seems that our four heroes weren’t really in peril as it was ‘only a game’.
I can see why people don’t like this ‘DS9’ episode very much as it got very baffling towards the end. It’s not the greatest ‘DS9’ episode I’ve seen, but I do not mind it as it had some potential in concept.
The episode also features James Lashly as Lt. George Primmin, who previously appeared in ‘The Passenger’. He doesn’t contribute much to this episode with Odo and doesn’t return to ‘DS9’ again.
‘Move Along Home’ (DS9) rating – 7/10
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