Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 14: The Storyteller [VHS]

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

 

 

ANYONE WHO REALLY KNOWS TREK WOULD NOT DOWNRATE THIS EPISODE. TREK IS AT ITS BEST HERE ONCE MORE. THIS IS THE EPISODE AND THE SHOW TO WATCH. DEEP SPACE NINE THE INNOVATIVE AND SOPHISTOCATED MARVEL OF ALL THINGS SCI FI.

Bashir and O'Brien, in their first real adventure together as the Mutt and Jeff of DS9, are sent to a Bajoran village to deal with a medical emergency. They discover that "the sirah," the village storyteller, is ill. Faren Kag, the magistrate warns that if the sirah dies, the village will be destroyed. That night, the Dal'Rok, a giant threatening cloud, forms over the village but shrinks as the sirah speaks of the unity of the village. However, before the Dal'Rok completely disappears, the sirah collapses. The Dal'Rok then begins blasting the village. The sirah's apprentice, Hovarth, wants to try and stop the Dal'Rok, but the sirah insists on making O'Brien the new sirah. After helping O'Brien dispatch the Dal'Rok, the sirah dies. However, the next time the Dal'Rok visits, O'Brien will be on his own.

One thing about those Bajorans, they do not seem to be particularly xenophobic. After all, Sisko is proclaimed the emissary (he's back on DS9 playing King Solomon for a land dispute between two clans) and O'Brien gets to become the sirah of this village. Of course, it is too bad that O'Brien cannot handle the job. "The Storyteller" is a below average DS9 offering that might remind some viewers of "Forbidden Planet" for reasons that will be clear by the end of the episode. As a general rule I tend not to like Star Trek "monster" stories, especially when they involve the prime directive (as in "would stopping that creature from killing us constitute 'interference'?"). The main value of this episode is to get Miles and Julian on their way to their eventual friendship.

THE STORYTELLER is an episode made up of two parts, which is not an unusual feature for modern-day Star Trek. However, in this case, I couldn't stomach either of the plots, making this a painful experience. Every time when what I was currently watching would get overwhelming, I'd pray for the episode to switch to its backup plot. Only then would I remember that the second plot wasn't any better.

The A plot involves Miles O'Brien being appointed the spiritual defender of a small town on Bajor. The old defender is an elderly man, and has spurned the original replacement, preferring O'Brien to take over the role. The story isn't terribly original, and neither is it terribly interesting.

The B plot is even sillier. Sisko has to mediate a land dispute, and one of the sides is represented by the daughter of a dead leader. The only problem is that she's a mere child. Which means that she spends her time hanging out with Jake Sisko and Nog. Naturally, the two boys attempt to impress the young woman and the results are not exactly entertaining to watch. (Okay, I'll admit that I was amused by Nog's line: "We know the best spot on the station for worm-hole watching!" However, I'm not sure if the writer expected me to smirk at that one.)

When there are two separate stories running through a Star Trek episode, sometimes the plots can play off of each other's strengths. Other times, one poor story will drag down an otherwise exciting episode. Here, the whole manages to be even less than the sum of its parts. The only thing I enjoyed was seeing O'Brien getting progressively more annoyed as the story continues. He starts off miffed at being stuck on a boring mission with Julian Bashir, and gets increasingly cranky as the villagers expect their defender to protect their village. Unfortunately, as entertaining an actor as Colm Meaney is, he can't save this one.

O'Brien and Bashir play out their love-to-hate storyline that ran throughout most of seasons one and two, until they both became best friends. In this mediocre episode O'Brien is asked to tell stories, the end. The plot isn't the best but the banter between Bashir and O'Brien lifts the episode and makes a refreshing change from the "every Starfleet officer adores every other Starfleet officer" scenario that we often gen on the trouble-free high-morale Enterprise.