Product Details

• Actors: Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton
• Directors: David Livingston
• Writers: Gene Roddenberry, Jim Trombetta, Michael Piller, Rick Berman
• Producers: David Livingston, Ira Steven Behr, James Crocker
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: July 7, 1998
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 6304949855
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #597,721 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

One of the most intriguing characters of the DS9 series was Dax, a symbiotic creature that was several hundred years old and survived by choosing new host bodies when the old ones wore out. For much of DS9, its host was Jadzia (Terry Farrell), a change of pace from its past choices of male warriors. In this episode, Jadzia must interview an applicant to be a host for the next generation. But this initiate, Arjin (Geoffrey Blake), is intimidated both by Dax's reputation for being a tough cookie and by his father's ambition for him to be a host. The show's subplot involves a strange mass that attaches itself to Dax's training ship--which turns out to be a burgeoning universe that threatens to expand and destroy the space station. For good measure, intergalactic vermin also pose a threat to DS9 because they keep eating into power cables. "Playing God" is interesting for the light it sheds on the world of hosts, symbiotes, and initiates--but it builds to an anticlimactic finish, and Blake is kind of a limp fish to share the screen with the dynamic Dax. --Marshall Fine

From the Back Cover

Dax (Terry Farrell) welcomes Arjin (Geoffrey Blake), a young Trill initiate trying to qualify as a symbiont host candidate, to the station. Initially he worries about impressing the infamous Curzon Dax, but quickly learns that Jadzia is a formidable mentor in her own right.

While on a training mission in the Gamma Quadrant, the two encounter an unidentifiable mass that gets caught on their Runabout. Back on the station, the mass is placed in a containment chamber, but it is accidentally released. When it begins to grow, Dax learns that it is actually a rapidly expanding proto-universe, and it is exhibiting signs of life. As it threatens to engulf the station, Sisko must make a divine decision-destroy it or watch it destroy the station.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scotty, one Universe to transport..., November 11, 2004

By 

Shelley Gammon "Geek" (Kaufman, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 37: Playing God [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ok, not Scotty, but what a concept - transporting an entire universe. If you read "The Physics of Star Trek" and really start thinking about transporter technology, you realize how impossible it would be to transport a single human hair completely intact and undamaged at the cellular level, much less an entire person.

Jadzia Dax is the field docent for a new Trill initiate. Arjin, a brilliant young man in his mid 20s, has been acing all the tests and passing all the courses in school to get to this point. He can't believe his awful luck to have a Dax as his field docent. The Dax'es of the past, particularly Curzon, have been notoriously brutal in "breaking" initiates and recommending only a small handful for joining. Each year, several thousand qualify on paper, but only 300 or so symbionts are available for joining, so selection is very anal.

Arjin's dying father's wish was that he would be joined. He had disowned his own daughter for qualifying for joining, then backing-out last minute to get married. Yeah - nice, huh? "No grandchildren! Just get a worm put inside your belly or else you can suck on a rock, cuz I'm cutting you off!"

During their first mission together, Jadzia tries to calm Arjin down. She tells him that she still feels a bit like an initiate herself and that she most definitely is not Curzon. While travelling through the Gamma quadrant, they pick up what Jadzia refers to as "space seaweed" on their starboard nacelle and hobble back to DS9 on minimal power. They put the specimen in a lab for analysis and the unknown "seaweed" continues to expand at a specific rate, and doesn't conform to the laws of nature and physics as is currently understood.

Arjin tries the sad-puppy look with Jadzia, trying to milk her for "tips" on how to get recommended. Jadzia becomes worried that she will have to reject Arjin, and she desperately wants to prove to herself that she is not Curzon and that she will not do to anyone else what he did to her when she was an initiate. Still, recommending a Trill for joining is not a task to be taken lightly. A Trill's personality has to be strong enough to prevent the symbiont from taking over completely. Arjin doesn't seem to get it. He doesn't even know what he plans to do with his life once he's joined. When Jadzia plays the tough-love card, Arjin lashes out in frustration, yells at Jadzia and tries to drown himself in libations at Quark's, knowing he just blew his whole life out an airlock.

Meanwhile, the "seaweed" expands so much, it destroys half the lab and they're still not sure what it is that they're dealing with. Dax studies it for hours and finally discovers that the rate of expansion mirrors that of a developing Universe... in this case, they've got a small (but growing fast) proto-Unvierse in their lab. They can destroy it while it's still small, but they need to make up their minds, because unchecked, it will envelope (and destroy) the station in about 2 days and in weeks, take over their own universe. Pulllease! I don't know how they kept a straight face on that one.

Dax discovers what she believes to be signs of life in the proto-universe, which throws the whole equation out the window. Kira explains that Dr. Bashir uses hyposprays to destroy "life" all the time when kililng micro-organisms, but Dax & Sisko are concerned that there could be sentient life in the wee universe. Sisko remembers the Borg and the hatred and contempt he had for them as they indescriminately killed billions without a thought, and here he was, contemplating doing the same thing.

Dax and Arjin beam the proto-universe aboard the Ganges runabout and head back through the wormhole. They have created a special forcefield that shields the proto-universe from the wormhole's vertiron particles and they take the other world with them to the Gamma quadrant. The Gamma quadrant is just one of 4 quadrants in their galaxy - but somehow, they believe that dropping the proto-universe in someone else's backyard will not result in any ill effects down the road. There are holes-a-plenty in this set-up, but it's so fascinating, you really don't realize it until later.

The dynamics going on between Arjin and Jadzia - and between Jadzia the woman and Dax the symbiont are the real main story. The DS9 crew must "play God" with a whole Universe, but Dax must "play God" with one man's future after he has spent his entire life to reach a goal he may not be prepared for. Great episode.