Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 75: Hippocratic Oath [VHS]

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

 

 

Bashir and O'Brien are heading back to DS9 when they're Runabout is shot down and crash lands on a planet, a quick peep outside reveals this particular planet has a party of Jem'hadar soldiers marooned there. The leader, seemingly an evil officer, forces Bashir to run some tests on him and his crew. It transpires that this 'evil' Jem'hadar is not longer addicted to Ketracel White, the substance the Founder's use to ensure Jem'hadar loyalty, in fact he is not evil. He is cultured, civil and rational. Bashir believes that if he can find the 'cure' for the Ketracel White addiction then Starfleet will be able to free the Dominion's warrior-race. O'Brien believes the Jem'hadar are bad and always will be. So as Bashir concentrates on a cure, O'Brien plans their escape. When the plan is set in motion Bashir will not leave!

Bashir and O'Brien are heading back to the station aboard a runabout when they encounter problems and crash on a planet. There, they are taken prisoner by the Jem'Hadar and learn that the leader of the soldiers has been living without Ketracel-white, the drug needed by his species to survive. The leader learns that Bashir is a doctor and tells him that he and O'Brien will be spared if Julian can find a cure for his men's addiction to the drug. He feels that since he has survived on the planet without the drug, the cure must be there. The compassionate Bashir agrees to help and tries desperately to find a cure. Meanwhile, O'Brien escapes while out with one of the Jem'Hadar and tells Julian to come with him to the runabout so they can leave the planet. Julian refuses to leave as he is very close to the cure. O'Brien forces the issue and the two are confronted by the Jem'Hadar leader. The Ketracel-white is almost gone and without the drug, even the leader will not be able to control his men. It is a tense moment between all three men with an ending that will, I think, surprise you.

My favorite character on DS9 was Dr. Julian Bashir so I had to buy "Hippocratic Oath." During the seven years DS9 was on, Miles O'Brien and Julian Bashir developed a close bond. I always liked episodes that featured these two characters but this was a rather unique episode because their friendship is tested.

I loved this episode! In that fine old Trek tradition, it raises interesting ethical issues regarding the drug addiction of the Jem'hadar, while including some nice character moments for the always-watchable pair of Bashir and O'Brien.

Episode title: Hippocratic Oath

Teleplay by: Lisa Klink

Story by: Nicholas Corea and Lisa Klink

Directed by: René Auberjoins

The Jem'Hadar have been included in a few DS9 episodes before "Hippocratic Oath", but before this particular episode, they've only been portrayed as honorless killing machines without free will or capability to individual thought. The third season episode "The Abandoned" was a perfect example of an episode that did everything it could to make the Jem'Hadar as hard to relate to as possible, making killing them in cold blood less questionable.

"Hippocratic Oath", however, shows us a totally new side of this engineered race by telling a tale about a group of Jem'Hadar who want to brake free of their slavery.

Their leader is Goran'Agar, a Jem'Hadar individual who had crashlanded on a planet a few years before, with not enoug Ketracell White, a combound the Jem'Hadar need to sustain the chemical balance of their cells. This drug is a way to ensure the genetically engineered soldiers of the Dominion don't misbehave. After going through serious physical symptoms, Goran'Agar recovered however, realizing he didn't need the White anymore.

Bashir and O'Brien are on their way to DS9 after a mission in the Gamma Quadrant, when they crashland on that same planet, where Goran'Agar is in charge of a group of Jem'Hadar, wishing to brake their need for the Ketracell White.

Goran'Agar orderes Bashir to help to find the answer to his peculiar recovery, so that he can save the rest of his men who are still unchanged and are quickly running out of The White. Meanwhile, O'Brien plannes the two Starfleet officers' escape.

The basic story of the story is challenging and thought provoking, but it doesn't really come alive.

Wether it's Lisa Klink's writing or René Auberjoins's directing, "Hippocratic Oath" is left a bit raw and hollow.

The dialoque is filled with clichés, and even the better than usual acting performances from Colm Meaney as O'Brien and especially the surpringly beliavable interpretation by the usually less than convincing, although developing Alexander Siddig aka Siddig El Fadij don't save the story from falling back from being a truly original story to being a traditional adventure.

Sure, the issues the episodes deals with are there to be seen, and effort has been made to turn "Hippocratic Oath" into something mature, but insufficient writing has made it nothing really remarcable.

The episode has also a sub-plot about Worf's adaptation to the life on the space station as a non-security officer, a story that had to be told at some point, the sooner the better.

It isn't a total failure, but not a particularly succesful piece of writing eather.

"Hippocratic Oath" does a good job of making the Jem'Hadar a bit deeper, even if the execution of that attempt lacks considerably.

An okay episode. Bashir and O'Brien are captured by the Jem Hadar. Bashir tries to break their addiction to a drug while O'Brien tries to escape. A watchable episode but not the best.