“Fascination”
Written by Ira Steven Behr & James Crocker and Philip LaZebnik
Directed by Avery Brooks
Season 3, Episode 10
Production episode 40512-456
Original air date: November 28, 1994
Stardate: unknown
Station log: Jake is moping in his quarters rather than help Mardah put up decorations for the Bajoran Gratitude Festival, because Jake and Mardah are no longer a couple—not for any bad reason, but because Mardah’s been accepted to the Regulus III Science Academy. That’s great for her, but it’s 300 light-years away. Sisko, however, convinces Jake to go to the festival, anyhow, but he promises he won’t have any fun.
Elsewhere, Odo has decided to participate in the Gratitude Festival for the first time, though his plan to spend time during it with Kira (who’s the presider of the festival on the station) is marred by the fact that Bareil will be present as well. O’Brien, meanwhile, is nervous, as Keiko and Molly are coming back to the station for the first time in two months, and it’s only for a couple of days. Bashir is grateful, as he and O’Brien have played over 70 racquetball games, and his elbow’s giving out. Bareil, Keiko, and Molly all arrive on the same transport—as does Lwaxana Troi, who apparently gave Molly a little too much candy on the ride, as Molly proceeds to barf on her dad.
Odo leaves instructions for the Starfleet security guard who’ll be in charge during the festival (the Bajoran guards are all taking the festival off), only to be interrupted by Lwaxana, who’s worried about Odo after having learned what he went through in “The Search” two-parter.
Molly finally gets to sleep after she gets some medicine from Bashir, and then the O’Briens have a mild tiff over what to do, brought on by Keiko’s exhaustion (a shuttle trip with Lwaxana will have that effect on one), eventually crankily agreeing to go to the festival together.
Kira opens the festival (attended by Dax, the O’Briens, and Bashir in civvies; a mopey Jake; Bareil; Lwaxana; and Sisko and Odo both in uniform) by lighting a fire and placing the first renewal scroll within it. (You write all your problems on the scroll and toss it in the fire.)
Afterward, Lwaxana (for the second time) shows signs of a headache, but this time both Bareil and Jake show the same signs as Lwaxana walks past them. Jake buys Kira a jumja stick and asks her out on a date, to Kira’s abject shock. Meanwhile, Bareil goes to hit on Dax, and Odo’s enjoyment of a Bajoran band playing music is interrupted by Lwaxana trying to get him to dance. While Quark is hawking commemorative scroll-writing pens, the O’Briens sit at their table in his bar (O’Brien’s first time sitting there since she left, which Keiko finds sweet). Keiko reveals that the survey’s likely to go longer than six months, which leads to another argument, during which O’Brien acts like a tool, and eventually Keiko storms off, encouraged to do so by her husband.
Kira has told Sisko about Jake’s asking her out, and Sisko tries and fails to talk his son out of it, while Bareil is reluctant to make smoochy-faces with Kira because he needs to find Dax. Dax, though, is hiding from Bareil in the wardroom in order to hit on Sisko (the look of bafflement on Avery Brooks’s face in this scene is a wonder to behold). Sisko drags her to the infirmary, but Bashir finds nothing wrong, and Dax pretends it’s a practical joke until they’re out of Bashir’s earshot.
O’Brien comes home to see Molly playing with her stuffed targ, telling him that Mommy’s in her room, sad. O’Brien apologizes through the closed door, and announces that he’s put a resignation letter on Sisko’s desk, and he’ll move to Bajor if that’s what she wants. But she says she needs time to think.
Kira bumps into Odo, Lwaxana, and Bashir en route to the wardroom for Sisko’s dinner, but Kira’s not going because Bareil and Jake will be there. When Bashir mentions Dax’s odd behavior, they start to think something odd might be going on, so he goes off to the infirmary, joined by Kira. Lwaxana gets another of her headaches as those two leave, and as soon as they’re alone in the infirmary, they’re all over each other.
Sisko’s party is something of a disaster. Bareil’s chasing after Dax, who rebuffs him angrily, then goes over to goose Sisko, who’s dealing with a frustrated Jake who thought Kira was going to be there. Meanwhile, O’Brien’s sitting alone at a window. Finally, Sisko calls Bashir, but he’s too busy sucking face with Kira to respond. He sends Odo (accompanied, inevitably, by Lwaxana), who is shocked to see Bashir and Kira getting handsy and kissy.
Keiko shows up in the red dress that O’Brien always liked, thanking him for the gesture of the resignation, but saying he doesn’t have to.
Bareil gets fed up with Sisko getting between him and Dax (never mind that Dax put him there), and he finally punches Sisko. Sisko just defends himself, but Dax then decks Bareil. Quark, who’s serving desserts, walks by Lwaxana, and then starts hitting on Keiko, to O’Brien’s dismay.
Sisko figures it out: that it’s Lwaxana. Bashir examines her, and she’s got Zanthi Fever, a condition that some older Betazoids get that amplifies their empathic abilities so that they project their emotions on others. Her amorous feelings for Odo got projected on people she was standing near during an attack.
Lwaxana recovers from Bashir’s treatment, and tells Odo that his secret—his feelings for Kira—is safe with her. She pointedly tells him that she knows what it’s like to be attracted to someone who doesn’t return those feelings. She gives him a kiss before she departs. Elsewhere, Keiko and Molly head back to Bajor, and all is well in the O’Brien household after a night of serious nookie. After they depart, Bashir shows up with a racquet and a ball.
The Sisko is of Bajor: Sisko is probably relieved that his son is no longer dating a dabo girl, but that relief is short lived as Jake next sets his Lwaxana-induced sights on Kira….
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Kira is the presider of the Gratitude Festival, which is a great honor. She has four different men after her this week, Bareil (at least until he walks too close to Lwaxana), Jake (after he walks too close to Lwaxana), Bashir (after they both walk too close to Lwaxana), and Odo (known only to Lwaxana).
The slug in your belly: Dax spends the entire episode in an amazing hot purple dress, one which makes it clear that she was telling the truth when she told Deral in “Meridian” about how far down the spots go (not that we see all the way down, but we get a pretty strong indicator…).
Preservation of mass and energy is for wimps: Odo spends the entire episode with a Lwaxana on his arm. It’s to her credit that she, at least, sees what no one else does—he’d rather it was Kira. This is the first time he’s admitted to the attraction to anyone out loud. (Not that he admits it overtly, but he doesn’t deny Lwaxana’s assertion, either.)
Rules of Acquisition: For the duration of the festival, Quark hires out the bar to performers and also sells souvenirs and caters Sisko’s party—and also wears a Bajoran earring, which a) looks ridiculous on his oversize lobe and b) gives O’Brien something handy to pinch when Quark hits on his wife.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet: Where do I even begin….
Jake, having broken up with Mardah, hits on Kira, who is hit on (and hit on back) by Bashir and is no longer being hit on by Bareil, who’s hitting on Dax, who’s hitting on Sisko (leading to Bareil hitting Sisko). As an added bonus, Quark hits on Keiko. Given the red dress she’s wearing, I’d have hit on her too. And Lwaxana spends the entire episode hitting on Odo, to no avail, though she does get in a kiss at the end.
Keep your ears open: “Odo, don’t worry, I’m here to help you.”
“What kind of help do you mean?”
“Oh, well—a sympathetic ear, a shoulder to cry on, a lap to melt in?”
Lwaxana offering aid and comfort to Odo, complete with a callback to “The Forsaken.”
Welcome aboard: Majel Barrett shows up for her annual Trek appearance (after “Dark Page” on TNG the previous season) and second DS9 appearance (after “The Forsaken” in the first season) as Lwaxana; she’ll be back next season for the character’s final Trek appearance in “The Muse.” Meantime, we also get recurring regulars Rosalind Chao as Keiko, Hana Hatae as Molly, and Philip Anglim as Bareil.
Trivial matters: The Gratitude Festival was first mentioned back in “The Nagus,” but this is the first time we see it in action. The festival will come up again in “Rapture” and “Tears of the Prophets.”
This is Keiko’s first time back since going on the survey in “The House of Quark.” Given that it’s a Bajoran survey, it makes sense that she’d get a couple days off during a Bajoran holiday. We won’t see her again until “Accession” in the fourth season, when the survey finally ends.
Bareil mentions that Kai Winn has made him one of her advisors. This will become important in three episodes when Winn and Bareil both return in “Life Support.”
Quark’s commemorative pens include an etching of the station by a Bajoran artist named Ermat Zimm, a play on production designer Herman Zimmerman’s name.
This episode bears some resemblance to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to the point that the writing and production staff watched the 1935 film of the play with Ian Hunter, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, and Olivia de Havilland during the early stages of production.
Having Kira and Bashir succumb to Lwaxana’s fever is an amusing in-joke, given that Nana Visitor and Siddig el-Fadil were in a relationship during the run of the show, and Visitor’s pregnancy with her and el-Fadil’s child will be written into the show in the fourth season.
Walk with the Prophets: “Commander, you throw one hell of a party!” I was dreading watching this episode again, so I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it didn’t make me actually vomit. In fact, I found many parts of it rather amusing. Credit to Avery Brooks both as director (keeping a light touch) and actor (it’s a delightful performance as he tries to fend off Dax, talk sense into his son, and generally maintain order in a chaotic mess), and also to director of photography Jonathan West, who brightened the sets a bit and gave the whole thing a festive atmosphere, fitting both for plot reasons (the festival) and story reasons. Plus Rene Auberjonois does a wonderful job playing Odo as Margaret Dumont to Majel Barrett’s Groucho Marx, and seeing Kira and Bashir all over each other when the actors were dating in real life is a hilarious in-joke.
Having said all that, it’s still just an awful episode. We’ve seen this theme before with Lwaxana several times on TNG (with it only working in “Dark Page,” because that was actually about something instead of doing “let’s play the eccentric old lady for laughs” again), with the added not-a-bonus of lifting the plot of “Sarek.”
The B-plot with the O’Briens is another one that actually worked better for me this time ’round than expected. The argument that they have after Keiko disembarks from the shuttle is one I’ve had with SO’s in the past (with me both as Keiko and as O’Brien), and it’s what happens when nerves are frayed—O’Brien by his nervous energy in anticipating Keiko’s return, Keiko by spending four hours in a shuttle with Lwaxana shoving candy down her kid’s throat. That argument felt very real.
The one in Quark’s felt real too, but was a lot harder to watch because it’s difficult to see both sides of that one. There, O’Brien is being a total douchenozzle. It’s not the first time O’Brien’s pulled the jealous-of-a-colleague act on Keiko—we also saw it in TNG’s “Night Terrors,” though there were even more extenuating circumstances there—and it reflects really poorly on ol’ Miles. His selfish pouting over Keiko’s mission being extended is exactly as childish as Keiko says it is. Besides, the man’s an engineer on a station that he’s still trying to wrangle after two and a half years, and he’s surprised that an ecological survey’s going to go past its deadline?
Warp factor rating: 3
Keith R.A. DeCandido has autographed copies of many of the books and comics he’s written for sale. Information, including several new books dug up in the garage recently, can be found here.
Bleargh. Really, apart from moving the Odo-Kira thing a tiny bit forward, there’s just nothing here. And really, it’s the bastard child of “Manhunt” and “Sarek”. Even for a Lwaxana episode, this is low.
A business trip last week has me a little behind – I’m only halfway through the episode, but I thought there were some reveal that the O’Briens were being negatively impacted in the same way that everybody else was being positively affected.
Am I superimposing some other episode/tv show/movie/my poor imagination on the reality that they really were frazzled?
I hated this episode. If there was a 0 on the Warp Factor Scale, I’d say this episode deserves it.
It all felt like a soap opera to me. It takes them way too long to realize there’s a problem (slightly less time for Sisko to suspect there’s a problem, but then that goes nowhere), and then they instantaneously figure out what’s wrong. And it all boils down to the Betazoid version of menopause.
Ugh.
@2: They revealed at the end that O’Brien’s headache was just a headache, and he was not being affected by Lwaxana at all.
I really dislike this episode it’s another lets make Lwaxana be as embarrassing as possible story. I don’t find it funny just annoying the score of 3 works for me.
Sure, this is an insubstantial episode, but it’s fun. It’s nice to see the show be so light and airy, and everyone looks good, and the music is nice, and ohmygod Dax in that dress…
And it’s an example of how DS9 managed to be more like TOS than TNG usually was. TOS was a very risque and envelope-pushing show for its day in its portrayal of skin and sexuality. TNG dabbled in such things in the first season when Roddenberry was running the show — Data and Tasha in “The Naked Now,” the whole planet in “Justice,” that sort of thing — but after that it became a lot more stodgy and sedate most of the time. DS9 was more willing to cut loose and be sexy. Also, TOS often embraced comedy, something that DS9 did better and more consistently than TNG.
Got to admit I love this episode. It’s fun and carefree and just a cheery episode.
Perhaps not the best plot but the actors pull it off and so re watchable to me.
Yeah, I agree with pretty much everything, and yes, it is a stupid episode. However, I like it because it made me smile and laugh at a couple of moments. I really like dark and gritty and the themes that DS9 hit upon were fantastic and heartbreaking and dark, but it’s nice to see something that just lip up the screen. It doesn’t have to be all dark all the time and this is a good example of that. So, yes, it’s stupid (not “Run Along Home” stupid, but still…) but it’s fun. It’s like most superhero movies, really.
she’ll be back next season for the character’s final Trek appearance in “The Muse.”
Wonderful thing about that sentence: ‘final appearance.’
Terrible thing about that sentence: ‘The Muse.’
As for this episode, I have basically nothing to add. A few of the bits are a little bit funny. But on the whole it’s just awful. The initial interaction of Odo and Lwaxana had a certain degree of sweetness to it. This time around: just ugh.
I have never understood the writers’ fascination with this character and each new episode just seems to double down on the basic commitment to embarrasment.
I too was surprised at how much I ended up liking this one. I’m not a Lwaxana fan, but her intro in the teaser is pretty much perfect. From there, it’s like the DS9 crew wandered into a Futurama storyline.
What’s interesting about this one is how low the stakes are. If this were a typical Trek episode, the thing making everyone horny would also threaten to kill them, or they’d be too horny to notice an out-of-control ship about to crash, or some other element of danger. Instead, it’s just an hour of mismatching everyone’s relationships, just to see how everyone reacts.
Is there any truth the stories that makeup artists used to hide their initials in Dax’s spots?
@8: Well, the fact that Lwaxana was played by the wife of the creator of the franchise was probably part of the reason the producers liked to have her around. But I think Barrett was really very good as Lwaxana, displaying much better acting chops than she ever did in TOS. Either way, it was more about the actress than the character.
@9: I seem to recall reading that Michael Westmore always applied Terry Farrell’s spots personally. But yeah, I think he may have signed it each time.
Yeah, for me, this episode qualifies as, “So bad, it’s good.”
I LOVE seeing Sisko uncomfortably (but resolutely) pushing Terry Farrel away as she throws herself at him. I love that Lwaxana — although she’s not that interesting herself — is the one that can see through Odo’s feelings. (Well, I guess empathic senses might help.)
And after doing an excellent job of making me mad at O’Brien for being a jerk, I felt they did an even better job of getting me to forgive him for the flare his Irish temper had brought on. He displays admirable contrition, with a strong demonstration that he’s willing to do anything to preserve this marriage — even when his apologies are initially rebuffed by Keiko in a heart-rending way.
Whew. You know, again I am in total agreement with your review, krad. I didn’t really want to watch this one again either, but it didn’t make me cringe as much as I thought it would. By far what makes this one watchable is the O’Briens’ scenes. As a husband whose wife travels for work, I’ve been guilty of my share of douchnozzlery.
It is a nice light episode, true, but overall its just blech. Too bad after strong episodes like “The Forsaken” and TNG’s “Dark Page”, they decided to use Lwaxana as comic relief again. But I have to say Lwaxana’s DS9’s appearances aren’t as cringe-inducing as her TNG ones. She was slightly less over-the-top on DS9.
I have been following the re-watch since TNG, and this is the first episode that has prompted me to express an opinion. I can’t believe
just how bad this is (can we use negative numbers). It’s worse than a luke warm sex farce or overblown soap. The big problem (aside from all the smooching) is that none of the characters do anything the move the plot (?) forward. The only thing I liked was Kira’s dress.
Even Majel Barrett can’t inject any spark or humour into it !
It’s been a long time since I last saw this one, but I recall enjoying it quite a bit. I echo previous commenters’ opinions that DS9 was often pretty good at doing romps. (And I very much appreciated that they didn’t feel the need to add a life-threatening element. It’s fine for a fun episode to just be fun without the warp core melting down or whatever.)
-Andy
@9: I don’t know about signing it, but on one of the DS9 special features DVDs, Michael Westmore admitted to writing the number of times he’d applied the spots on Terry Farrell (and later started the count over with Nicole DeBoer) in Roman numerals, usually below the collar. He also specifically mentioned having to look up the correct Roman numerals once he got into the triple digits. Must’ve burned through a LOT of permanent markers for that makeup. (Seriously…after starting the series with using watercolor paint, he just used a Sharpie permanent marker after a few episodes.)
I feel guilty for not enjoying Majel Barrett’s contributions to TNG or DS9 very much. Maybe she intimidated the writers?
I guess her vulnerability in the elevator in The Forsaken was very real, and she added a lot of complexity to her and Deanna’s backstory in Dark Page… but really, whenever she comes on screen, I just prep to cringe and shift uncomfortably in my chair for 45 minutes.
Maybe that’s to her credit? The character got on everyone’s nerves, so maybe she was supposed to be unpleasant to watch? She was like the Vince Vaughan or Ricky Gervais of Star Trek.
Part of me still wishes she had a completely different character though, like a no nonsense admiral, or experienced veteran. But maybe she felt that a comic, self-deprecating role was the only one she could pull off, that anything else would have come off as too entitled, too imposing?
@16: I didn’t find Barrett’s performance as Lwaxana unpleasant at all. I thought she showed a great comic flair.
@16
Lwaxana didn’t bother me as-is, but it *would* have been great to see her play a new iteration of Number One from the original pilot.
This one didn’t bother me too much. It was definitely silly but it doesn’t have the embarrasing I can’t bear to watch factor that episodes like “Let He Who is Without Sin” have. For those of you thinking this one deserves a 0, just wait til that one comes around…
(And I can’t believe there was no comparision to The Naked Now, or did I just miss it?)
I was thinking about Naked Now a little too, although there are a lot of differences as well.
But overall, I have a soft spot for the Lawaxana episodes and agreed that it was pretty fun to watch a light hearted, low stakes episode for a change. And yes, that dress was amazing, and I really, really want one (purple is my favorite color :) ) although I probably wouldn’t look nearly as good in it. But I thought it was really sexy and feminine without really being that revealing. It just worked.
I have to travel for work occasionally (in fact, I’m just catching up on the rewatch after a business trip) and also have been working some longer hours than I’d like. I definitely feel like it can put a strain on things (my husband is nowhere near as pigheaded as O’Brien though!) so I also thought their arguments were very ‘real’. I can sympathize with O’Brien too, it’s horrible being separated from a spouse and child when you don’t want to be.
I know I’m nitpicking in a typically nerdy, trekkie way, but is anyone else a bit bothered by the way betazoids can’t read Ferengi (because they’ve got two extra brain lobes, IIRC) but have no trouble with what’s essentially an upright pillar of skinned-over protoplasm?
@16 That’s an awful insult. Nobody’s as unpleasant to watch as Ricky Gervais.
I honestly thought Lwaxana couldn’t read Odo and that was why she found him so fascinating. Am I making that up, or was that established in the other episode with her in it?
I just assumed her knowing about Kira was due to her being perceptive (and him being obvious), not necessarily the telepathy.
Lwaxana cannot, in fact, telepathically read Odo, but she can read him in the more traditional manner, aided by her own ability to recognize unrequited love when she sees it.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I could’ve done without the line that said the various infatuations were based on latent attraction.
Why doesn’t Eddington handle security while Odo’s enjoying the festival? Dax decking Bareil is as fun as Sisko decking Q. Is this when Keiko became pregnant with Kirayoshi? Is Jake attracted to older women? 22: “nobody’s as unpleasant to watch as Ricky Gervais”. Is right!
I must confess that while it’s not one of my favourite episodes – in fact I usually disregard Fascination in the overall continuity – it’s still a helluva lot of fun. It lets the established crew goof around a bit, including Philip Anglim, who otherwise was forced to give a very austere performance in his role as Bareil. And it proves that almost all of the crew have comedy chops – Nana Visitor and Alexander Siddig in particular when they get hit by the bug (the way Bashir’s face just drops in disappointment when Sisko “advises” him to leave visiting Kira for a couple of days is just solid gold and meme-worthy) as well as Sisko’s hilarious half-arsed attempts at pacifying a belligerent Bareil. Only Cirroc Lofton’s performance really falls flat.
It’s like the ‘B’ act in a concert really – hollow, but a nice diversion from the doom and gloom.
Lockdown Rewatch. A Lawaxana episode usually falls into two categories awful and not quite a awful as it could have been. ( Dark Page is the exception) This one for me is on the awful side, the best bits are easily Rene Auberjonois’ scenes but as for the rest of it… well…. The wooden Phillip Anglim tries (and fails) to do screwball comedy, the Jake stuff with Kira is just cringe, The Dax and Sisko scenes are at best mildly amusing and The O’Brien’s at this point were becoming dangerously close to tipping the irritating scale (fortunately the O’Brien Bashir bromance really takes off after this episode and rescues Miles’ character)
a 2 out of 10. At best.
1. It’s a Lwaxana episode
2. It’s an episode where everyone is a horny teenager.
That’s a recipe for disaster, and it is. The episode is a trainwreck that avoids being Season 3’s worst only because Meridian exists.
Although I will include the caveat that Lwaxana’s DS9 appearances make her a little less insufferable. She does have some good scenes with Odo.
I think you’re too harsh on this one. Sure, it was dopey, but it was dopey fun. I always enjoy Lwaxana episodes anyway. She’s a hell of a woman.
Personally I LOVE the Lwaxana character, and the only time I’ve cringed was the episode with Alexander when they pretended that awful floating face was amusing and wonderful. What I like most about her is that she doesn’t apologize for being herself, coupled with Barret’s ability to bring richness to an otherwise clichéd character. There are a number of real-life people I’ve met over the years who are like her, and I always enjoy being in their company. I am not at all flamboyant, and it’s great fun to be around people who live big, and wholesomely big. Bouyant, joyful, loud people make great entertainment and great friends. Maybe not so great if it’s your own mother, though…poor Deanna.
I’ve always been a fan of this one. It does delve into the absurd a little too far, but it’s mostly all in good fun. Also, I enjoyed how well done the Gratitude Festival was and it was nice to see it this time instead of only hearing about it.
The one thing that didn’t work for me was O’Brien’s tantrum. As has been pointed out already, he had a similar tantrum in “Night Terrors,” but those were extenuating circumstances. I don’t have a problem with the fight itself, only that it pushed too far past the boundaries of my perception of the character. He’s had his share of crankiness over the years, but this time I didn’t buy how absolutely horrible he was to Keiko. But of course that’s only my opinion.
Quoth Thierfhal: “Also, the Gratitude Festival was really well done and it was nice to actually see it after only hearing about it in an episode from one of the previous seasons. I can’t remember which one off hand.”
Gee, if only the very article you’re commenting on mentioned that in the first paragraph of the Trivial Matters section……………….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@33/krad:
No need to be snarky about it, but fixed
My snarkiness is not so much a need as a desire…. *chuckle*
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
This is an old thread to be putting a comment on, but I have to note that if you are ever at a party where Dax is wearing that dress, watch out. She’s going to deck someone, at least judging from the two times she wore it. Bareil this time, her future MIL next time. Make sure you keep her at least at arm’s length.
@36/JDM: Seems kind of redundant for Dax to deck people, though, given that she’s already a knockout just wearing that dress.
I absolutely love Odo grooving to the Bajoran music.
The substance of the O’Briens’ tension was quite realistic but, I felt, poorly delivered throughout most of the episode. What could’ve been the kinda/sorta amusing twist that they weren’t affected by Lwaxana was terribly disappointing because it came off as manufactured.
That scene of Odo and Lwaxana speaking to the security guard left on duty is just ridiculous for the fella clearly not being allowed to speak. I’d honestly prefer in those situations that if they can’t even spring for the lesser expense of showing an extra and then having dialogue ostensibly from that character piped in offscreen a moment later (via ADR) then, ugh, cut it down or bag it altogether.
I recall seeing Philip Anglim in The Elephant Man on television as a kid, at minimum the famous scene where he contorts his body as the narration of Merrick’s physical form progresses. His general veneer of placidity or serenity as Bareil always reminds me oddly of William Hurt.
There have definitely been greater outright duds than this episode for me. I could do without it but at least some of the farce is enjoyable and the costuming is nifty overall. Plus, I absolutely love Odo grooving to the Bajoran music.
I’d love to see a good Midsummer Night’s Dream episode of DS9. It’s a classic premise I am ready to love. But this was cringy and uninspired. Nobody seemed to be having any fun making it. Everyone acts in it like they’re 98% convinced and 2% not sure this is what they are supposed to be doing.
I wish they had realized something weird was going on right away, but each one affected still denied that it was affecting them. I wish they had hewn more closely to the Midsummer plot, though I’m not really sure how, I just love that play and think it must have elements that would have helped. Character motivations which get twisted up with magic.
I wish the crushes had motivated plot in some perfectly Rube-ian contraptionary manner, like because of all these interesting pairings, something overly complicated almost-fails-but-eventually-succeeds. And instead of hapless clumsy obsession, what if the characters had a more mature loving thing? What if it started in this farcical style, but then when some challenge surfaces, this translates into loving and defending each other? And that led to a stronger bond when it’s all over?
Oh well sorry I missed the meeting