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4.0 out of 5 stars
not all Trills are built the same..., October 30, 2004
This review is from: Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 24: Invasive Procedures [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Just like humans, it would seem that every species has it's bad apples and misguided souls. We know Jadzia Dax to be an accomplished woman with multiple degrees in science, as well as the experiences shared by her previous 8 hosts her symbiont has occupied. She is the only Trill to be accepted as a candidate for joining on her second attempt - those that fail on the first attempt simply do not try again, but she did. Neither her siblings nor her parents qualified and only 1 in 10 Trills ever does. Some Trills don't care to be joined - others seek it desperately and at least one named Verad (John Glover) doesn't take a disappointment like that very well.
The station is like a ghost town due to an unusual plasma storm orbiting Bajor that is keeping Chief O'Brien on his toes. Just a skeleton crew in Ops and Quark are the only occupants of the station. They are there to do repairs and bail out water, as it were, but have an escape plan if the Cardassian-built station buckles under the storm.
Odo joins the Chief to check on a pylon to make sure it hasn't crystalized from the latest pommel from the storm and find Quark in an airlock, apparently engaged in prayer to his money god. He claims that he is grieving over the departure of his brother Rom and Odo rolls his eyes and grunts as though it's simply not possible that this thieving troll would be in grief over his brother briefly going to Bajor to wait out the storm. The only reason Quark didn't leave is because his 600 bars of gold-press Latinum wouldn't fit in the last available runabout as the station was evacuated.
As Odo and O'Brien escort Quark from the airlock, the camera pans to an ominous device that is blinking. Since the audience doesn't know one electronic gizmo from another on this station, ominous music plays in the background. They could have handled this a little better, if you ask me.
Shortly thereafter a small freighter comes barrelling toward the station, asking for help, claiming that their ship is in peril due to the storms. Due to the plasma storms, O'Brien is unable to get good sensor readings or beam the occupants out, so they pull the ship to a docking port with the tractor beam - and here lies another plot hole - they just so happen to bring the ship into the same docking port that Quark was hiding in. Unlucky for them, and lucky for Quark - or so he thinks. His electronic gizmo was placed there to disable the weapons detection system in the airlock that would alarm Ops to weapons being carried by those disembarking from the small ship.
When the airlock opens, we see smoke on the ship from aparent damage and out pop to Klingon mercenaries for hire that have Odo and O'Brien at gunpoint (or rather, disruptor point). An alien woman and a Trill soon follow and the woman orders Odo to get into this tiny little box so they can contain him. It is clear that they have intimate knowledge of the crew compliment aboard the station and the only place they could have gotten such information is from Quark... that little troll!
Bashir is waiting in the infirmary for any casualties, and in walk O'Brien and his captors. They force Bashir to put the locked box containing Odo in a stasis chamber and then herd the two officers to Ops. After stating that they don't want to hurt anyone, the Trill, Verad, announces he has come for Dax. Not Jadzia - just the symbiont.
As a disgruntled reject from attempts to qualify for joining, Verad feels that he is doomed to be a mediocre man, empty and alone. Jadzia tells him that there are many reasons why some Trills are rejected - it could be for medical reasons or that the symbiont and host are simply not compatible, but it becomes evident that he was rejected because he is a whiny nutjob.
Removing the symbiont from Jadzia, who has had the symbiont attached to her nervous system for years, will kill her only hours after removal, but the Doctor's hand is forced when Verad shoots O'Brien with a phaser and threatens to kill his friends one at a time if he doesn't help remove Jadzia's symbiont and put it in Verad.
The procedure is disgusting - akin to a rape, where one woman is surgically violated to meet the desires of a selfish man who wants to feel complete at any cost. He awakens anew - feeling a rush of memories, knowledge and confidence.
In Ops. the crew is watched by the woman, Verad's girlfriend, and a Klingon. The other Klingon supervises the transfer of the symbiont. Sisko explains to Verad's girlfriend that the man she knows as Verad will be gone after the joining, and that she will not recognize the man. She blows him off and tells everyone to shut up as she contemplates being left alone by a man she is willing to kidnap and murder for.
Verad Dax enters Ops and he and Sisko smile and embrace each other. Even though Sisko would like to kill Verad, he is friends with worm sitting inside of him. As the two reminisce, Verad's girlfriend looks repulsed at the changes she sees in him.
Now that Verad shares all the memories of Jadzia and Curzon, he inherits a bit of a sense of honor and Sisko tries to talk him into reversing the procedure to save Jadzia. When Verad refuses, Sisko announces that their friendship has ended and the only thing keeping the band of bandits from leaving the station is the pounding of the plasma storm.
Quark let this unholy troupe take over the station because he thought he was going to be selling some illegal data coils to them and now is sick to death that they are killing the woman who makes his lobes tingle and decides to do something about it. Quark's clever ruse turns the tables on these captors and before the joining with Verad is complete, they get the symbiont back to Jadzia, who must now share all of Verad's memories in her head (or in her worm) forever.
The recurring dialogue between Sisko and the girlfriend of Verad gets extremely grating to watch and listen to over and over again, but despite this and a few plot holes, it's a great episode and a unique insight into the Trill psyche.
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