Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 5: Babel [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great episode!! Babel is one of the best! The crew is "looking window car green sea" See what I mean! DS:9 is infected with a virus that affects everyone except Odo and Quark who take command of the Station. Its up to Kira to locate the cure of the virus before people starts dying.

In this early 1st season episode, Quark's makeup is more refined than in the first episode and looks more like how we're used to seeing him in later seasons - Odo's face is still a bit too chiseled and it will take a few more episodes before they make him look more like the Odo we get used to over time. In these early episodes, Quark, Nog & Rom are still reknowned thieves and Rom is thought to be an inept idiot, although his true genius is added to his character in the last 2 seasons. Kira has the aggressive "I hate men, especially men in power" hair cut and shoulder pads and it's interesting to see these characters slowly evolve into the characters we grow to love over the years.

Before the Cardassians left Deep Space Nine, they trashed the place (ala Clinton leaving the White House) and stole what they could remove and vandalized fixed structures. Chief O'Brien hasn't slept winks in days as he runs all over the ship fixing things that the Cardies broke. Captain Sisko displays some poor leadership qualities as he belittles the Chief for not fixing the replicators, instead of patting him on the back for all the amazing repairs he had done in such a short amount of time and throws a little hissy fit because his coffee doesn't taste good.

O'Brien grumbles and goes to a junction that controls the replicators on the command level, crawling along on what looks to be extremely uncomfortable flooring. After he completes repairs, he closes the hood (so to speak) and orders coffee, hot, double-sweet - just like he likes it. The replicator fizzles and reacts by spitting out arcs of electricity. O'Brien runs some diagnostics, orders his coffee again, and drinks it happily. The camera then pans back inside the junction on a hidden device attached to the replicators and ominous music is played - thank goodness this series evolved beyond these grade-school plots!

Quark's replicators aren't working yet and his bar is so empty, you can hear tumbleweeds blowing in the wind, so he improvises by accessing unused crew quarters on the command level to fill his drink orders.

All food on the station is replicated, so you wonder how everyone else is able to eat, considering there is no formal mess hall on DS9. O'Brien first complains about the heat, mumbling about the environmental controls and next he's speaking in gibberish. All the words are clearly English, but they make no sense - just word salads. After Dr. Bashir (with bigger hair) examines him, he is befuddled. O'Brien is exhibiting all the symptoms of Aphasia, synaptic problems caused by trauma to the head - but there is no evidence that anything is even neurologically wrong with him or that he has had any head injury.

When Jadzia starts to exhibit the same symptoms, they realize they have a much worse problem on their hands - this isn't true aphasia - it's a virus that mimics aphasia. Not only do these aphasia victims talk and hear gibberish, they write and read in gibberish as well, so they can only communicate by pointing and via facial expressions.

Bashir announces that the virus had to be ingested, so they search every nook and cranny of the replicators. Once the ominous device is discovered, it is too late. Thanks to Quark, everyone on the station has been exposed to this virus, which is now mutated to the point of being airborne, and it's only a matter of time before everyone is affected... except for Quark and Odo. Quark appears to be immune and since Odo technically doesn't have a brain or nervous system as we know it, the virus does nothing to him - but all other species aboard have been infected and as the incubation of each host continues, it's only a matter of time before Odo must run the whole station by himself and reluctantly receive help from his Nemisis, Quark. Quark's "good side" is being developed in this episode as well as Kira's ingenuity and determination. It becomes obvious that this resourceful woman was a formidable ally in Bajor's underground movement to unseat the Cardassian invaders. They must determine who made the virus so they can cure it - if that is even possible. Their first guess was that this was another booby-trap left by the Cardies - but when O'Brien exhibits a high fever and goes into a coma, the virus is no longer a comical threat - but instead has turned deadly and they race against time to save everyone aboard.

The virus' concept - how it works and how it was implemented are fascinating concepts in the world of sci-fi and the episode helps to further develop the station's characters as they react to a common crisis.

If you know your Bible history, then you may be famailar with the Tower of Babel and how all who worked on the project were suddenly strucken with the inability to communicate and understand one another - thus the project was never completed as seen fit by God (I think I got it correct). Anyways, it's not quite like that in this episode of DS9 titled "Babel", but a similar experience occurs where crewmembers begin suffering from a virus that keeps them from communicating among one another.

As crewmemebrs begin to suffer one by one, you are left wondering who exactly is going to save the day and get the antidote. On top of it, some lunatic alien tries to flee the station in fear while the locking clamps are still attached to his ship. In addition to the virus, there is also the soon to be threat of a large explosion unless someone releases his ship manually. So, there is some excitement, but not much for the most part. Most of the episode is spent trying to figure out where the virus originated and then where an antidote can be found. It was kind of boring throughout, and there wasn't really any secondary story like many DS9 episodes have.

Possibly the best thing about this episode is that the Quark character finally begins to take shape. His seriousness from Emissary is now being replaced with humor and a louder, whinier voice. His makeup has also begin to change into a more comfortable, smooth look. My favorite scene is near the end when Odo is on the transporter pad and he is seriously asking Quark if he even knows how to operate a transporter system, and Quark interrupts him quickly, laughing "Energizing!"

Bable is just not a memorable episode for the most part, and one of the many reason season one was probably the most boring of all the DS9 seasons. Hand it to Quark to save the episode from complete misery.

Acting - 3.5
Action - 1.5
Characters - 3.5
Story - 3
Overall - 2.5

When Deep Space Nine first came on the scene, it was billed as a darker and grittier version of the Star Trek brand that we all knew. The first few episodes definitely set a more realistic tone than that which had come before. The characters didn't like each other. There were political battles. Not everything on the space station worked properly. We weren't quite sure where everyone's allegiances lay.

So, my guess is that, to reassure fans that things wouldn't be going too far into the realm of ultra-violence, the powers that be decided to throw a rather goofy episode into the mix fairly early on. The plot of BABEL revolves around a virus that has been released into the space station. But not just any old virus; this one has the power to make people completely unintelligible. The virus attacks the portions of the mind dealing with language, causing people to say or write random words and gibberish sentences when trying to convey concepts.

Now, I'll bet there isn't anyone who could read that description and not suddenly think of what that scenario would be like if it took place on the original Enterprise. Is there a man, woman, or child alive today who wouldn't thrill at the opportunity to see William Shatner reciting random gibberish with such conviction, to see him putting pauses of variable length in between words of varying meaning? I think not.

For what it is, I found this episode to be quite entertaining. Most of it is played for laughs, from the absurdity of the virus' manifestation, to the fact that Odo and Quark must become uneasy, bickering, and squabbling allies. There are a few serious moments to remind us of what show we're watching, the most effective being a scene towards the end where Kira becomes delightfully vicious with a bio-weapons scientist. Other than that, this is just a fun hour of television. It gave the feeling of the Original Trek without actually rehashing anything; this was much more successful than The Next Generation's similar early attempt at levity.

A virus infects the station, quick analysis reveals it was genetically engineered nearly two decades ago and the creator may be long dead. So Dax and Bashir begin working on a cure as Kira, the only person not suffering from the effects, searches for the man who made the tummy-bug that everyone has come down with. Ultimately people infected babel, too bad, the plot is slow and straight off of a B-movie you'd expect to see as a Japanese cartoon with [bad] animation. To try to put some excitement into this terrible episode the writers added an angry transport-ship owner who wants to get away from DS9 before he is infected, something Kira won't allow because he may spread the epidemic, so he decides to try and leave by threatening to blow up his ship. A half-hearted plan to "eject the ship into space" begins that turns into one of those 'manage to save the day one second before the station was about to blow up' plots. Do NOT buy this - you will be utterly disappointed. Captive Pursuit and the season Pilot make for better first season classics!

I really enjoyed this episode and felt that it was a good outing for season one of DS9. In fact, the reason why I give this episode only 3 stars is because there are so many truly outstanding episodes later in the series that I have to compare it to!

In this episode, a virus that causes everyone to start speaking in gibberish slowly overtakes the station and the crew must figure out the antidote before people start dying. Ultimately, almost everyone but Odo and Quark succumbs to the illness...but not before Kira saves the day!

The ensemble cast feel of DS9 is at it's best in this episode, because all the main characters get a good part in the action. Exemplary performances by Alexander Siddig and Nana Visitor make this one a little-known gem.