Robert Duncan McNeill and Garrett Wang discuss the eighth and ninth episodes of the first season of “Deep Space Nine” in their podcast “The Delta Flyers”, which appears weekly in English. Terry Farrell will be there to discuss “The Dax Case” and Armin Shimerman will be discussing “The Parasite” (The Passenger). Our editor Alex translates and summarizes the most important things.
Preface
The two episodes to be summarized this time are quite different, but each serves the character development of individual main characters and the structure of the characters among themselves. While – as the name subtly suggests – the episode “The Dax Case” tells us a lot about Jadzia and even more about Curzon Dax, “The Parasite” features Dr. Bashir and Odo (along with a security team that was in the dark for a while and potential competition in Starfleet uniforms) take center stage. At the same time, in the first case it is one of the popular courtroom episodes (most recently “Per Aspera ad astra” in “Strange New Worlds”), in the second case it is a mystery and obsession episode that has always been part of the narrative canon of “Star Trek”.
What happens in each episode
“The Dax Case”:
On Deep Space 9, a hearing is held before a Bajoran arbitrator to decide whether Jadzia Dax, the current Trill host of the Dax symbiote, will be extradited to the government of Klaestron IV. The Klaestronian Ilon Tandro accuses the former innkeeper of Dax, Curzon Dax, of being responsible for his father’s death through treachery. After a failed kidnapping attempt, he turns to Sisko and the Federation with an arrest warrant for Dax. However, Sisko manages to explain that the case lies within Bajor’s jurisdiction. However, since there is no extradition treaty between Bajor and Klaestron, Bajor must now decide how to proceed in this case. Dax has to face the trial, but remains silent about the allegations and does not defend himself. Sisko is her advocate. During the trial, Odo tries to find out the true events of the incident on Klaestron IV. The trial doesn’t go well for Jadzia. Numerous plausible arguments for each side are exchanged. Odo finally manages to get Ilon’s mother and widow of the man who was killed, Enina Tandro, who is revered as a hero in his homeland, to make a statement. She goes to the station and, to the horror of her unsuspecting son, reveals that she and Curzon were having an affair and that Ardelon Tandro, her husband, had himself sent the message to the enemy that led to his death, which also removed him from his pedestal as a traitor bumps. In a moving farewell scene, she says goodbye to Jadzia Dax, the new incarnation of her former lover, who had remained silent to preserve her honor and his friend’s memory.
“The Parasite”:
In this episode, Major Kira and Dr. Bashir rescues the aliens Ty Kajada and Rao Vantika from a badly damaged spaceship. Ty is a police officer tasked with guarding the serial murderer and ruthless scientist Vantika. When Vantika succumbs to his serious injuries at the beginning of the episode, Ty Kajada, unlike the “Deep Space Nine” crew, remains suspicious and warns: They have been hunting him for a long time and know that he is willing to do anything to prolong his life . However, their warnings initially go unheeded. But… actually: Although Vantika’s body is clearly dead, Vantika’s spirit lives on and wreaks havoc on the station. He takes over the body of Dr. Bashir and tries to escape with the help of allies. Using a technical process, it is possible to separate the alien consciousness from Bashir’s body. Ty Kajada can then finally defeat and stop Vantika.
What we learn from the hosts
The episode “The Dax Case” was well received by Robbie McNeill, Garrett Wang and Terry Farrell, with the hosts giving it between 7.6 and 7.8 points out of 10. It turns out that “let the slacks down” makes it into McNeill’s poetry summary limerick and is by no means always recommended. In any case, it would have saved Jadzia a lot. “Team Bashir” (RDM) also appreciates the contribution of the young doctor, who does not let Jadzia get rid of him and follows her to her quarters despite a clear “no”. What definitely has creep potential turns out to be Jadzia’s (temporary) salvation. In the best Kirk style with a double punch, he intervenes and thus prevents Jadzia’s kidnapping. “Touching,” says Terry Farrell, and it’s not quite baked yet. On the other hand, the stunt coordinator from “Deep Space Nine” was completely baked in this scene. Dennis “Danger” Madalone, who is immediately recognized by Garrett Wang as fighting Bashir despite the wig. Terry Farrell is also sure that her stand-in person fell to the ground here; you can always tell that quite well because the face cannot be seen in such camera angles. It wasn’t easy to find a stand-in for her, after all she was over six feet tall and petite, but she was a really great person who unfortunately had already died.
Unfortunately, the central guest star of the episode “The Dax Case” has also died. Gregory Itzin, who plays Klaestron IV’s accuser, Ilon Tandro. Dubbed the robot hand type by Robbie McNeill because of his remarkable gloves, Garrett Wang immediately recognizes him as the doctor Dr. Dysek from the “Voyager” episode “Critical Care”. The memory of the great contributions and incredibly talented people is something that made the podcast so valuable during the “Voyager” run. Unfortunately, it was only afterwards that we found out about so many people who had contributed valuable things and who had died early: guest stars, but also crew. It was agreed that Gregory had delivered a great episode, and he also appeared relaxed and relaxed on set.
Also – rightly – celebrated for their guest appearance are the two female guest stars: Anne Haney as Els Renora, the 100-year-old judge of Bajor who presides over the hearing in the Dax case and Fionnula Flanagan as Enina Tandro (also known as Juliana Tainer in ” TNG”, the wife of Data creator Soong). Speaking of Els Renora, her Gavel would have been something Garrett Wang would definitely have purchased at the Christie auction at the end of DS9.
Jadzia was not only lucky with Bashir, but also with the other ensemble members. Sisko, who makes it his mission to get his old friend out of the situation and who manages to place the matter under Bajoran jurisdiction, but also Odo, who initially shows little enthusiasm to stand up for the young Trill officer, but in the end Investigates and convinces the crucial witness to break her silence.
Our hosts think the story is exciting and both lawyers – Sisko and Ilon Tandro – put forward good arguments. No wonder that in the end you can be happy that the question raised at the beginning can remain open, namely whether a Trill has to answer for the actions of a previous host. The question arises as to what your readers think. Feel free to write it in the comments.
Cinematically, the episode marks the return of pilot director David Carson. Robbie McNeill praised the (one-sided) conversation between Dax and Sisko in Dax’s quarters as particularly successful, in which, figuratively speaking, there is something standing between them, namely the room divider there. A successful translation of a story element into the visual language of the film.
The farewell scene between Enina Tandro and Dax deserves a special mention. Full of tenderness to the old bond and the last service that Enina Tandro does for her lover, who lives on in Jadzia. If the scene were filmed today, he would give a goodbye kiss, something that was preferred to be avoided back then.
Armin Shimerman is present at the review of “The Parasite”. An episode that some people skip when rewatching the first season, but there is still a lot to discuss. It’s a vampire story to a certain extent, says Robbie McNeill, with Vantika in the role of the vampire and Ty Kajada as Dr. Helsing. From the beginning, she warned not to underestimate Vantika; he had cheated and escaped death all too often. But…no one listens to them, something that Armin Shimerman also notices. A general lesson from the episode is: “Listen to the experts” and don’t always think you know everything better, like Odo and the new Starfleet Lieutenant Primin. Speaking of Primin…as a new character he seems to be competing with Odo and yet they pull together after Sisko makes appropriate announcements. But even together, they initially don’t see the danger posed by Vantika coming. An interesting element, as the hosts think. The Primin actor’s accent is noted in English. He sounds like a southerner from a western, chilled but to be taken seriously. The German-speaking viewer, who, like the editor, is more familiar with “Voyager” than with “DS9”, can hardly stand the fact that Primin uses Chakotay’s voice (namely that of Frank Otto Schenk) speaks, although historically Primin was there earlier.
A meeting scene with the crew around a round table is presented to Robbie McNeill as director for assessment and questioning. Armin Shimerman says he knows that such scenes are difficult to film and asks if Robbie McNeill can explain why. He can do that and the listener learns from it. The difficulty lies in the numerous camera angles when several cameras film the different speakers and listeners. This has to be planned one hire at a time. What is important is the so-called “eyeline”, i.e. the direction and height of the view, which must give the impression as if the actors are looking at each other, even though they are actually looking at a camera. Paul Lynch, the director of the episode, did a good job here.
Armin Shimerman took a critical look at his own role as Quark. As a result, he does really reprehensible business and ends up getting away with it unscathed. That’s not okay. But as the series progresses, that stops. Quark remains cunning and cunning, but not unscrupulous. This is due to the writers’ uncertainty with the character in the first season.
Another Quark detail: the teeth. During the episode you can sometimes still hear that speaking is difficult and leads to hissing or something similar. His teeth were also sharp and he had punctured his mouth more than once. Or they fell out. Over time he got better and better at it and Fix-o-dent contributed to the rest.
An episode that performed rather mediocre, according to the hosts, and didn’t quite reach the level of the rest of the season.
Outside of the Delta Flyers in great makeup, Armin Shimerman and Terry Farrell are at the Vanguard Awars, where they hosted an awards ceremony for “Star Trek” makeup chief Michael Westmore, who also did the look and feel of Quark and Dax were responsible.
We are so happy for Mike Westmore and the Vanguard Award he received from the Make&Hair artists’ union. It was a splendid night. Congrats Mike! pic.twitter.com/ewU15u2py8
— Armin Shimerman (@ShimermanArmin) February 20, 2024
You will soon be able to read the reviews of the next episodes of the first season in the usual place. This much can be said: “First contacts are no longer what they used to be.”
Die Delta Flyers are an English-language podcast by Robert Duncan McNeill and Garrett Wang (Tom and Harry from “Voyager”). Since December 2023 they have been discussing the series “Deep Space Nine” together with Terry Farrell (Dax) and Armin Shimerman (Quark). TrekZone editor Alexander Schäfer listens and summarizes the best anecdotes in German.
You can listen to the episodes here (in English):
2024-02-26 12:27:23
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