Timothy Lynch's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Episode Reviews

Season 1 - "Battle Lines"

Review Date: 4/24/93

WARNING:  This post, containing heavy spoiler information for DS9's "Battle 
Lines", is protected by an automatic defense system.

Well, *that* was very nice.  Good to see DS9 back on form.

"Battle Lines" is easily the best show we've had since "Dax", and possibly 
since well before that.  It worked on nearly every level.

I'll start with the thing that worked least:  the pacing.  Even it was quite 
nice overall; the only thing that I felt slowed the show down was a few of 
the Dax/O'Brien bits on the runabout during the search.  Their main problem 
was that they broke some of the tension -- even as serious as they were and 
as serious as we saw the situation was, having O'Brien and Dax trade 
technobabble in the runabout was jarringly set apart from Sisko et al. being 
trapped in a true hell-on-earth.  

This isn't to say that those scenes were worthless.  Some weren't -- for 
instance, O'Brien's babble about the "differential magnetomer" was priceless, 
and also very much in keeping with the presentation of O'Brien as an impulse 
thinker.  (Remember, he had the same stream-of-consciousness reaction in 
"Captive Pursuit" when talking to Quark.)  On the whole, though, the runabout 
sequences could have been excised without much being lost.

The meat of the story, however, all took place on the moon, and was all 
wonderful.  When I referred to the preview for "Battle Lines" last week, I 
said the moon was the Gorge of Eternal Peril.  I was wrong.  What it was was 
the Norse Valhalla -- but as a curse, not a reward.  (For those not familiar 
with it, Valhalla was where Norse warriors went upon death if they were 
worthy enough fighters.  There, they feasted and celebrated every day, then 
went out and hacked each other to bits every night fighting glorious battles. 
The next morning, it all began again.)

The idea really does strike me as a horrible punishment, and it's easy to see 
how the Ennis and the Nol-Ennis could become so obsessive and single-minded 
after a few decades of it.  The key points here wasn't the two factions 
themselves, but the regulars' reactions to it.

Sisko's reaction was the least pronounced, perhaps because he felt the need 
to hold the others together.  Given his own violently raging interior, 
however, it would be interesting to see a bit more of how he felt being 
there.  He certainly took to the one battle he was in well enough.

(Also, his reaction to Bashir's amused mention of a jailbreak seemed 
perfectly in character to me, and perfectly in line with the idea that he was 
trying to hold himself together so he could keep everyone else in line.  When 
things are that tense, the last thing you want is for some joker to remind 
you of a sore point.)

Bashir finally got some good reactions for Fadil to work with.  The 
idealistic doctor was in for the shock of his life when he met the Ennis, and 
was both written and played to near-perfection.  There was the usual cheerful 
patter to keep himself sane, such as his "jailbreak" point with Sisko and the 
"Nice work, Julian" after fixing the computer -- but it was really more of a 
front this time than usual.  Even Bashir seemed to realize the seriousness of 
the situation and to tone himself down.  And that final look of disgust when 
he realizes how the Ennis would pervert even death given the chance drove the 
point home even further.  Bashir got some much-needed time and material here; 
let's see more of it.

That leaves Kira (and Kai Opaka, but she was primarily there for Kira; and 
besides, I'll cover her shortly :-) ), who also was the beneficiary of some 
nice material.  (Given that Hilary Bader's only Trek credit before this was 
the aptly-named "The Loss", I have to marvel at the better work here.)  While 
some of Nana Visitor's performance in *showing* those reactions could have 
been a little bit better, we got to see a vulnerable, confused side of Kira 
that we haven't seen at all since "Past Prologue", and barely saw even then.  
Mike Shappe said in an early article he wrote on DS9 that Kira was "a 
character in need of an epiphany like the one Sisko had in the pilot", or 
words to that effect.  I agree, and I think this was it.  Kira's inner 
strength (not the fire, but the stability) was based on a delusion that she'd 
become a "grownup", and seeing herself reflected in the Ennis shattered that.
The reaction, to be truthful, reminded me of nothing so much as Scrooge's 
reaction to the visions shown by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, but that 
could perhaps be because I've seen Stewart's "A Christmas Carol" show five 
times.  :-)

Then there's Opaka.  I don't know why, exactly, but I really found myself 
liking her a lot.  So does everyone else, clearly -- Sisko and Kira were 
almost *competing* for her attentions on the runabout.  She's like Guinan in 
some ways -- her calm acceptance of nearly everything, for one.  While her 
main purpose was to bring out Kira's healing, she was interesting in her own 
right, and I'll miss seeing her in future episodes.

I do have to wonder, though, where all this is going to lead.  Opaka's loss 
is probably not going to be taken lightly by Bajor, and the combination of 
this plus the revelation about the orbs in "Emissary" may lead to a major 
spiritual crisis there.  I'll be intrigued to see where it goes.

Some particular moments that are worth watching for:

-- Kira's look of joy at taking Opaka aboard. She's downright *giggly*, at 
least by Bajoran standards.

-- Opaka's actions from her arrival to the crash.  She wasn't quite truthful 
when she said she knew she wouldn't be returning once she came through the 
wormhole, I'd say; she knew from the moment she came on DS9 that she wasn't 
going to come back.  Her calm anticipation of her own death is among the more 
striking elements of the episode.

-- Kira's reaction to Opaka's death.  Although her initial wail over the body 
is way overdone (do Nana Visitor and Marina Sirtis have the same acting 
coach?), the funeral rite for Opaka done through tears is very wrenching.

-- Opaka's return from the dead:  spectral to the core.

-- Kira's ranting about lack of proper attention to the war.  The lines 
themselves aren't important -- what *is* is to note that Opaka stops her with 
a few words when Sisko couldn't do it with an iron fist.  One wonders how 
easy to get along with Kira will be now.

-- The entire Kira/Opaka scene.  "Just what *impression* do you think I 
have?"

-- The second battle, especially Bashir's save.  He finally gets to be a hero 
for real, and while I can't put my finger on why, the hurried "I'm sorry, 
Commander, but I've discovered we can't afford to die here -- not even once" 
probably ranks as one of the best act-closing lines I've seen on DS9 so far.

-- As I'd previously mentioned, Bashir's reaction when Shel-La wants to use 
the offered reprogramming as a final weapon is beautiful.  

-- The final shot closed on *Opaka*.  Closing on something other than a 
regular character or the station is odd enough, but combining it with a rare 
fadeout to closing credits is even more different.  I happen to like it.

That should about cover it.  This review seems a bit short, but I've talked 
myself out with writing about "The Chase" this week.  "Battle Lines" was 
quite good, and I hope the rest of the season does as well.

So, the numbers:

Plot:  9.  A bit too much technobabble in the runabout bits, but all in all 
	a simple and well-done story.
Plot Handling:  9.  Again, the runabout bits were slow; the rest were good.
Characterization/Acting:  9.5.  Kira's first wail is the only thing 'tween 
	this and a 10.

TOTAL:  9.5, rounding up.  Nice job -- keep it up.

And yes, the .sig is a rerun from "Chain of Command, Part II".  It's so 
apropos that I couldn't resist.

NEXT WEEK:

Geez, give a guy a first name and a family and he thinks he's God or 
something...:-)

Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET:  tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET:  tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP:  ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.caltech.edu@hamlet.caltech.edu
"Do you know that in this century you can go into a shop and purchase a 
revolver or any firearm, it's perfectly legal, these people encourage--"
"STOP IT!"  [slap]
"It's catching, isn't it?  Violence."
		--David Warner and Malcolm McDowell, "Time After Time"
--
Copyright 1993, Timothy W. Lynch.  All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
This article is explicitly prohibited from being used in any off-net
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