“The Assignment”
Written by Robert Lederman & David R. Long and Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Season 5, Episode 5
Production episode 40510-504
Original air date: October 28, 1996
Stardate: unknown
Station log: Rom goes for breakfast at his brother’s bar, but instead of his usual puree of beetle, he orders bacon, eggs, and corned-beef hash, as that’s O’Brien’s favorite breakfast. Quark doesn’t get why Rom is emulating the chief, considering that O’Brien has Rom on the night shift handling waste extraction. But Rom is sure that some day the chief will recognize his importance and promote him to more important work. Quark is, to say the least, skeptical.
Speaking of O’Brien, he’s angry with himself for accidentally killing Keiko’s bonsai trees while she’s been away on Bajor, exploring the fire caves. He tries to get Molly to go with him, but she absolutely refuses, and Bashir—who was caring for them along with O’Brien—weasels out of it as well. So O’Brien, conciliatory chocolates in hand, meets Keiko and throws Bashir under the bus.
However, Keiko isn’t really all that put out—because O’Brien isn’t talking to Keiko, he’s talking to a pah-wraith who possessed Keiko in the fire caves, and wants O’Brien to do exactly as she says, or she’ll kill his wife.
Of course, O’Brien thinks it’s all a joke until the pah-wraith gives Keiko a seizure and stops her heart for a few moments, but wakes up before he can call for help. All she wants is for him to reconfigure the communications and sensor arrays. She predicts pretty much everything O’Brien will attempt to do—stall for time, try to warn the crew, create a stasis field to hold her, pretty much all the story beats of the average Star Trek episode—but she promises that any attempt to deviate from her plan will result in a brain hemhorrage and instant death for Keiko.
Bashir drops by their quarters, and the pah-wraith plays perfect host, and also letting slip that Keiko was planning a surprise birthday party for O’Brien. The chief tries to get her to cancel it, but she says that will cause suspicion.
Rom has been sent to sub for a sick engineer on the swing shift, which thrills the crap out of him. O’Brien assigns them to busy work while he does the reconfigurations the pah-wraith wants. While he works, O’Brien queries the computer about the various methods of stunning Keiko, but all of them would take too long for cognitive functions to cease—even the fastest method would give the pah-wraith time to burst a blood vessel.
O’Brien goes home to find a whole buncha people there for his party. Everyone’s having a good time except O’Brien. Odo and Jake talk to Keiko about whether or not she saw any pah-wraiths in the fire caves, but Keiko says all she saw were fungi.
It turns out that the recalibrations O’Brien did were just a test. The real work begins the next day. After an awkward night in bed with his possessed wife, he goes, not to work, but to Sisko and Odo. Before he can reach the security office, Keiko falls off a Promenade catwalk by way of demonstrating how serious the situation is. Keiko’s all right, but badly injured, and O’Brien promises no more tricks. He insists he can’t do the work in less than 36 hours, but Keiko makes it clear that he has to do it in thirteen.
Rom startles him by saying he’s done with his work, very far ahead of schedule. It helps that he could focus on the work because nobody was particularly interested in talking to him. (He doesn’t mind, he’s used to being ignored.) Realizing he’s falling behind Keiko’s schedule, O’Brien enlists Rom to assist him, telling him it’s a classified mission that he can’t speak to anyone about.
They make several adjustments to the station’s systems. While in the middle of their work—at three in the morning—Dax interrupts to point out that they have a saboteur on the station. O’Brien looks vaguely nauseated, but he plays along with a meeting with Sisko, Dax, and Odo, trying to insist that it’s not much by way of sabotage, as it’s just a whole lot of fluctuations. But Sisko, Odo, and Dax are concerned that it’s the tip of a very big iceberg. In the middle of the meeting, Keiko calls O’Brien while menacingly brushing Molly’s hair to remind him of his deadline.
O’Brien then throws Rom under the bus, counting on the Ferengi’s ability to stay quiet. Sure enough, he denies everything to Odo, who takes him into custody, leaving O’Brien to keep working under the pretense of checking Rom’s damage.
Rom refuses to speak to anyone but O’Brien, and only alone. O’Brien took the precaution of disabling the security feeds, so they can talk in total privacy. The only reason Rom called him down is because he wants to know why they’re turning the station into a chroniton beam emitter, which will kill the wormhole aliens if activated. O’Brien had no idea that was what they were doing, and he didn’t realize that the wormhole aliens are vulnerable to chronitons.
According to Bajoran legend, which Rom learned from Leeta, the pah-wraiths were cast out of the Celestial Temple (the wormhole) and trapped in the fire caves. They would not be welcome in the wormhole again, but if the Prophets are killed, they would be. Rom figures out that this isn’t a classified mission, but he is willing to continue to play the idiot to give O’Brien more time. (“I’m Quark’s brother, I know the role.”)
However, Odo has figured it out as well, and confronts O’Brien. Luckily, Odo’s not a shapeshifter anymore, so he succumbs quickly to a punch to the head. O’Brien tells Keiko that he’s done and to meet her at a runabout—he knows that she needs him to pilot her to the wormhole. On the pretense of testing the runabout’s thrusters, he takes one out, and heads to the wormhole, then activating the chroniton generator that he and Rom created.
Keiko orders him to activate the chronitons, which he does—and fires them, not at the wormhole, but at the runabout. The pah-wraith is killed, and Keiko collapses to the deck. She was aware of everything that happened, but couldn’t do anything.
O’Brien and Keiko explain what happened to Sisko and a very sore Odo. Keiko is especially impressed with how hard O’Brien fought for her. As for Rom, he’s been promoted to the day shift.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Apparently the wormhole aliens are vulnerable to chronitons. Since chronitons were established as being related to temporal disturbances, it sorta kinda makes something like sense that the wormhole aliens, whose relationship to time is strange, could be vulnerable to them. I guess.
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Kira is visiting Shakaar, a trip written into the script because Nana Visitor went into labor sooner than expected.
The slug in your belly: Dax loves birthdays because of course she does. She brings O’Brien a bottle of booze as a present, and also doesn’t give O’Brien clearance to take off in the runabout until he confirms that he had a good birthday. O’Brien can only say, with a glance at his possessed wife, that it was full of surprises.
There is no honor in being pummeled: Worf’s only scene (he isn’t at O’Brien’s party, which is a surprise) is to ask O’Brien how Keiko is doing. His concern feels genuine, and is a nice, subtle callback to Worf’s rather traumatic experience delivering Molly in TNG’s “Disaster.”
Rules of Acquisition: Quark is disgusted by Rom’s eating human breakfasts in order to fit in better with the engineering staff. (It’s particularly absurd because he’s part of the Bajoran Militia. Shouldn’t he be eating hasperat rather than pancakes and bacon?)
Preservation of mass and energy is for wimps: Odo discovers the hard way that he has a glass jaw.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet: The pah-wraith insists that O’Brien sleep with his wife like normal, even though she’s possessed. Just to remind us that the thing possessing Keiko is evil.
Also Rom and Leeta have been talking a lot. This will become important later…
Keep your ears open: “Culpable deniability. I understand. Don’t worry about me, Chief. My lips are sealed. Nobody will get anything out of me. Not even my name.”
“Rom, everybody on the station knows your name.”
“Right. But I won’t confirm it.”
Rom showing O’Brien that he can keep it under his hat.
Welcome aboard: It’s a showcase for recurring regulars Rosalind Chao as Keiko (and the pah-wraith possessing her) and Max Grodénchik as Rom, as well as Hana Hatae as Molly.
Trivial matters: The notion of the pah-wraiths goes back to the original screenplay for “The Nagus,” when reference is made to visiting the fire caverns, and a line about “watching out for pagh-wraiths” was cut. When Rene Echevarria was developing this pitch, which eventually got assigned to David Weddle & Bradley Thompson, Robert Hewitt Wolfe mentioned the “pagh-wraith” notion, which he had come up with and suggested to Ira Steven Behr for the first-season episode. Echevarria decided to use them here, since Keiko was visiting the fire caves in any case. The pah-wraiths and the fire caves will continue to recur for the rest of the show’s run.
The Koss’moran that Rom describes to O’Brien will henceforth be referred to as the Kosst Amojan, with the former consigned to the same seemed-cool-written-down-but-sounded-silly-spoken-aloud scrapheap as Vulcanian, Bajora, and Kling.
This was the first Trek teleplay for Weddle & Thompson, who will go on to become regular writers on the show. It’s also the first Trek directorial endeavor by Allan Kroeker, who will go onto become a prolific director for DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise.
This episode was produced after “Trials and Tribble-ations,” but aired first because the other episode had considerably more post-production work.
Just as the Enterprise crew sang “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” (in Klingon) for Worf’s birthday in “Parallels,” Keiko and the gang sing the same song (in English) for O’Brien, as that song is in the public domain, unlike “Happy Birthday,” which would require a licensing fee to use on TV.
Walk with the Prophets: “I can work slower if you want me to.” This episode will never be a favorite because it introduces the pah-wraiths, one of the most wrongheaded plot devices in DS9’s history. If it had been forgotten after this episode, it could be forgiven, but the pah-wraiths are used again and again to no good effect, all the way to the concluding arc of the series, where it drags down the storyline with a tiresome subplot that serves mostly to be awful and annoying.
The pah-wraiths are just so—so lazy. The wormhole aliens we were introduced to in “Emissary” were fascinating and complex and different, worthy of a good science fiction show. To give them evil counterparts is something out of a bad 70s adventure show. ”They’re just like the Prophets—but they’re evil!“ Yawn yawn yawn.
Having said that, the episode has some things going for it. For starters, it’s a fine vehicle for the character of Rom, who is still the goofball he always was, but also again proves his mettle. He’s the perfect aid to O’Brien in his quest to fulfill the pah-wraith request, as he’s brilliant, competent, and is used to following orders unquestioningly thanks to years of working for Quark. I especially love that he’s the one who figures out what it is O’Brien is doing, since the chief himself is so turned around by his wife being possessed.
In addition, this episode is one of the few opportunities Rosalind Chao has to really stretch. Keiko Isihikawa O’Brien is rarely allowed to actually be a character, because she’s mostly too busy being O’Brien’s wife. It’s telling that Chao’s most compelling performance to date was on TNG’s “Violations,” the only episode in which she doesn’t appear alongside Colm Meaney.
But here, Chao gets a chance to flex her acting muscles some, effortlessly moving back and forth between the Keiko we know to the pah-wraith. It’s some superb work.
Only a pity that it’s wasted on this paint-by-numbers script and on a dumb concept. No matter how much lipstick you put on this particular pig (and the performances of Grodénchik and Chao make for some damn fine lipstick, ’tis true), it’s still the stupid episode where Keiko gets possessed by the eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil Prophets. Bleah.
Warp factor rating: 3
Rewatcher’s note: Next week, in honor of reaching “Trials and Tribble-ations,” the celebration of Star Trek‘s 30th anniversary in 1996, and in tribute to “Tribbles Week” during the original Star Trek Rewatch, we’ll be doing “Tribbles Week Redux,” starting Monday with a rewatch of “The Trouble with Tribbles,” followed by “Trials” in its usual Tuesday spot, and then Voyager‘s 30th-anniversary special, “Flashback,” on Wednesday. The DS9 Rewatch will resume normal operations on Friday with “Let He Who is Without Sin…”
Keith R.A. DeCandido reminds everyone that his latest Star Trek book The Klingon Art of War is now on sale. You can get the book at your local bookstore or order it online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound, or directly from the publisher. He’s talked about the book on the podcasts Trek Radio, The G & T Show, SciFi Diner, and The Chronic Rift. He’ll be doing a signing for the book at the Enigma Bookstore (alongside fellow tie-in writers David Mack and Aaron Rosenberg) in Queens, New York this Saturday the 17th of May at 7pm.
Looking forward to “Tribbles Week Redux”!
I do agree that the pah-wraith’s use in the show was weak with them just twirling their moustaches all the time but i think its more a missed opportunity with the writing then it is the actual idea.
The pah wraiths are evil to the Prophets and to the majority of Bajorans but why?
I always liked the concept of a civil war happening in the Worm hole and the losers getting cast out.
But again it never went anywhere. The Pah wraiths are forever evil. There is no development, they just stay as evil caricatures.
Anyway, despite all that i do like this episode out of all the other Pah wraith ones.
I’ll third the Pah Wraiths being one of the show’s biggest missteps. Hated it years ago and still hate it to this day.
It kinda reminds me of issues I had (and still have) with the the Ori from Seasons 9-10 of Stargate SG-1. After 8 years of the Goa’uld’s ‘A God am I’ antics, I was disappointed that they essentially made the Ori ‘evil Ancients’.
James2: I’m willing to forgive the Ori simply because the Stargate producers thought SG1 was coming to an end, but the show was too darn popular, and they had to scramble to come up with a new threat.
Besides, the Ori were worth it for that amazing, devastating speech that Teal’c gave to Tomin in The Ark of Truth, which is one of the ten best Teal’c moments in the franchise’s history.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
“The pah-wraiths and the fire caves will continue to recur for the rest of the show’s run.”
That’s the biggest understatement of this column so far :)
@@.-@, Agreed. I hate TAOT because I was sick of SG-1’s reliance on deus ex machina solutions…but the Teal’c/Tomin scene is the best bit.
In fairness to the last two seasons, I liked the concept and was excited to see the Ancients’ origins explored and linked to Arthurian mythology.
My problem was in the Ori turning out to be essentially life-sucking vampires. It was like the Wraith again, albeit on a cosmic plane of existence. I wish they’d been more complex and had thought their understanding of the universe was greater than the ascended Ancients’ own knowledge.
And at the very least, it was a clever twist on the old SG-1 paradigm. They’d spent 8 years fighting false gods — only to now be fighting beings who, for all intents and purposes, WERE gods.
I don’t think there’s anybody who likes the pah-wraiths. Not only were they a weak concept, but they wound up being badly (over)used as well. In some ways, this was much more a TNG plot than DS9. The whole pah-wraith/possession storyline fits there much better, if for no other reason than they could fly away from that world at the end of the episode and never come back.
Another problem I have with this one is that it is another “the universe hates Miles O’Brien” story. Yes, Colm Meaney is an excellent actor who can carry an hour of television and, yes, his character is the closest the opening credits cast has to an everyman that viewers are supposedly most likely to bond with. But too much happens to him over the course of this series. He should be an absolute emotional and psychological wreck by this time.
But it does give some excellent character growth to Rom. We are reminded that he isn’t the moron that he seemed to be at the beginning, though perhaps a little too loyal to the point of error. We also get to see the O’Briens relatively happy, there at the end anyway. Although there is all that nonsense at the beginning with the bonsai, which normally would have led to another Keiko the shrew incident. But happy moments in this marriage are few and far between and about to get fewer and farther.
Wow, I was planning to post a rant about how awful an idea the pah-wraiths were, and then Keith comes along and pretty much does it for me.
I’ve previously lamented that the Prophets started out as something truly alien and imaginative — beings existing outside of time, having a fundamentally different existence and perception, so profoundly beyond our experience that the only way we could even perceive or communicate with them was through the analogies our brains could draw from our own memories — but got progressively dumbed down to garden-variety incorporeal superbeings and/or divinities. The pah-wraiths were the worst part of that process. Bad enough to reduce the Prophets to energy beings that could exist in our spacetime continuum and possess people like Redjac or the “Power Play” criminals or any of multiple other Trek aliens, stripping them of any distinctiveness. But they had to force them into a deeply conventional, Sunday-school framework complete with devils cast out from heaven. Not only are they no longer alien, they aren’t even non-Western enough to be interesting anymore. It was a horrible, horrible decision.
Plus — how the hell do you kill beings that exist in past, present, and future simultaneously? There is no point in time at which their existence ends, because if they exist at this moment, they also exist tomorrow and a billion years from now and ten quadrillion years from now. So the danger here doesn’t even make sense.
Weddle and Thompson have had a hand in both of my most hated additions to the DS9 mythos, the pah-wraiths and Section 31. I also feel they were the weakest writers in the staff of the final two seasons, and on the staffs of later shows like Battlestar Galactica. Not actively bad, but so much more pedestrian than their colleagues.
Still, Rom is as awesome as ever. I guess that’s the saving grace here.
CLB, out of curiosity, why do you hate Section 31?
@9: We’ll get to that when we reach “Inquisition.”
Gotcha.
I was just curious given their one of my favorite Trek antagonists — but I’ll also hold off on that until “Inqusition”.
@6. I find a bit ironic that both DS9 and Stargate SG-1 started off with primary antagonists that were aliens posing as gods, only to end with evil aliens that were pretty much gods in terms of abilities.
Anyway, I think the reason the Pah-Wraiths are such a stain on DS9’s legacy is because they were so prominent in the writers’ panic motivated “we’re going to show Dukat is evil” arc in late season 6 and 7. All that stuff just ruined a pretty nuanced character and gave us all sorts of stuff that we either didn’t want or didn’t care about. This episode and “Reckoning” were actually pretty good, but that doesn’t make up for all the dreck the writers came up with as the finale for that storyline.
Yeah, I feel the same way. “Waltz”, while a tour de force for Marc Alaimo, was the mistep that ruined Dukat.
The last time we should have seen him was at the end of “Sacrifice of Angels”. That was such a perfect end to his character…but I’ll hold off on more until we get to that part of the recap.
James2: Actually, I kind of like transforming Dukat into Marshall Applewhite in “Covenant,” but otherwise, I agree that “Waltz” took Dukat down the wrong road from which he never really came back.
But we’ll talk about that more in due course. :)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Agreed; he was wonderfully twisted in “Covenant”.
Okay, this is odd. I started reading this a bit over an hour ago, and as I read it I started thinking “this must be a really bad episode, I don’t remember any of it.” And as I got further into it, I realised I literally didn’t remember any of it. So I decided to watch it, which I just have, and somehow, despite watching the series when it was first broadcast, and again rewatching the entire season last year, I am convinced I have never seen this episode before.
Anyway, while I agree about the Pah-Wraiths and their general awfulness, I actually think that if you take that element out of it, this isn’t a bad episode. It is a decent “paranoid thriller” plotline and cranks up the tension pretty well, and the performances by all three of those involved in the main plot are uniformly excellent. Also, the “Nog explains it all” moment was well handled where it could have been clunky exposition, and the solution was logical (if you are left wondering why a non-corporeal superbeing couldn’t have figured out that that is what O’Brien would do.)
Overall, then, I don’t think it is a bad episode, and I think you are being a little harsh on it because of what is to follow rather than for what happens in the episode itself.
@12, Yeah, that’s a fun parallel between DS9 and SG-1 that I’d never noticed before.
It’s also interesting to note the similarities in their storytelling. Both shows had arcs built into the foundations of their pilots, yet both were mainly episodic in the early years. Both shows started becoming more arc-driven and serialized as their runs got going.
So now I’m sitting here eagerly awaiting the announcement of an SG-1 Rewatch…
Heh.
My only issue with this and other episodes showing Rom to be smarter than he appears is that it weakens Odo’s observation (in “A Man Alone”) that “Rom is an idiot,” which was used as a necessary plot device in his investigation. That said, a possible explanation is that Rom always had potential but never made the effort until later, so as far all practical purposes he really did start out as an idiot.
Isn’t it stated at some point by Rom no less that he just lacked confidence and self-esteseem in the earlier years?
The Assignment worked for me as the annual pummel O’Brien episode, for the most part, and making good use of Keiko, for once.
I also remember it fondly for it being Allan Kroeker’s first time directing Star Trek! By far, the best director they’ve hired. An ace director, capable of extracting a higher level of intensity, keeping the action at a brisk pace, and bringing out the best in every department, especially the actors and the composer. At this point, TV Trek needed a shakeup on that end (not to ignore the efforts of talented people like Winrich Kolbe, Les Landau, Alex Singer or David Livingston, but they were settled by this point, going through the motions). Kroeker made every one of his episodes stand out, thanks to that extra effort. Sure enough, he became the go-to person for every season finale, not only on DS9, but all subsequent Trek shows.
As for the Pah’ Wraiths, well, I’m not as hard on the concept as other people, but they were definitely a step-down from the initial concept of the Prophets. Thankfully, they were ignored on Rapture. And despite the cheesiness of the plot, part of me truly enjoys Nana’s acting on The Reckoning.
As for Thompson and Weddle, they were definitely not the strongest writers on staff. Certainly not the best choice to replace someone as essential to the DS9 mythology as Robert Hewitt Wolfe.
And also, I recall reading a David Weddle interview a few years back, and he really came across as arrogant for me, especially when discussing other Trek shows such as Voyager. While he and Thompson did deliver a few good DS9 episodes, I don’t think their track record warrant such an attitude.
Throughout these rewatches I’m discovering that I’m a rather indiscriminate viewer. I won’t go through all the episodes I liked with low ratings, but this one’s rating really surprised me.
It was very intense and it was so refreshing to have a villain that was correctly anticipating our heroes through most of the story. I’m not as down on the Pah’Wraiths as most here, mainly because I always figured there had to be someone more deadly and more focused than the Founders to justify Sisko’s place in the Beijoran religion. I wish they had been more fleshed out even as I enjoyed seeing the characters deal with them.
@23: agreed. I haven’t rewatched but I remember this episode being extremely good on its own merits. Most O’Brien must suffer stories are pretty one-sided affairs with a lot of internal monologue … This one stands out for the strong Keiko performance to keep it out of that sub-genre for me.
Of course I strayed after season 6 and didn’t see season 7 until after I bought the DVDs years later. So the vitriol and bad memories some folks clearly have for the end of DS9 must be infecting the root here. I will always fondly remember the series for the extremely strong run between seasons 3-6 without much consideration for the conclusion, probably because I originally tapered off as a watcher as the apparent quality of the storyline did.
@23: “I always figured there had to be someone more deadly and more focused than the Founders to justify Sisko’s place in the Beijoran religion.”
I don’t follow your reasoning. Sisko’s place in the Bajoran religion is as the Emissary of the Prophets, i.e. their ambassador or envoy, someone sent to speak on their behalf — or, perhaps, to speak to them on behalf of the Bajoran people, as Sisko often did. His defined role is not as a warrior against evil, but as an intermediary between the Bajorans and the Prophets. (Which, ironically, is the actual meaning of “prophet” in Earth religions — one who speaks for the gods.)
Put me down as one of the few who liked the idea of the Pah-wraiths. As @2 said, the idea of them being the losing side of an alien civil war and getting exiled from their home as a result is pretty cool. I’ve always enjoyed stories about genuinely alien politics, and what is more alien than a civil war between factions of beings that exist outside of linear time?
The problem comes in the execution of the concept. They Pah-wraiths are just too conventionally evil. The Prophets started out as generally benevolent but detached from the reality we know, with a moral system that’s as alien to us as ours is to them. If the Pah-wraiths were evil by the Prophets’ standards, but not ours, that might actually open up some interesting storytelling opportunites. At the very least it would keep them feeling genuinely alien.
As it is I do like the cult of the Pah-wraiths. Not because of the Prophets or anything mystical, but because it works just like every other cult where the man at the top knows it’s a scam to win him power and adulation and the affections of beautiful (and sometimes married) women. If you were to change a few of the details, I could see that story arc working even without the events of “Waltz.”
I think another part of why I didn’t like the Pah Wraiths was that they hijacked the focus on Bajor during the last 2 years — especially during the Final Chapter. That left no room for fullfilling the original mission statement — and I know KRAD feels the samr way — which was to bring Bajor into the UFP.
This is something that thankfully was rectified with the DS9 Relaunch and I’m grateful to Marco Palmieri and the team of writers.
But I still hate the Pah Wraiths. :)
Pardon the double post.
Anyway, the Pah Wraiths are something that are common on every show. Every show has elements or takes storytelling risks that some people like and others don’t.
Going back to SG-1, one of the things I dislike about the Sy Fy years was, as I said earlier, the show’s increased reliance on deus ex machina solutions — or rather Ancient Ex Machina. It kept escalating from the Lost City to the Dakara Weapon to the Sangrall and finally, the Ark of Truth. I was sick of it by the end.
The basic idea of the Pah-Wraiths was neither brilliant nor terrible IMO. But sadly, their implementation never really came through well, so I can’t argue that the show would have been better off without them.
I did quite enjoy “Waltz,” though.
Anyway … I might have rated this episode a 4, but no higher. The whole possession arc, through no fault of Chao’s, just feels shoddy and “off,” like, “what happened to the show I was watching last week?” Rom is indeed the best part of the episode, but it’s still not one that I’ve ever really craved re-watching.
@29: I feel like SG-1’s constant use of deus ex machinas was a result of SciFi never telling them that they were renewed for another season until halfway through production of a season. By that time, they’d already plotted everything out to finish the story in that season (hence the deus ex machina, the fast and easy solution), only to find out that they had another season to make. And Ark of Truth had it the worst, because they had to tie up the whole Ori thing in two hours, so there wasn’t any other way to do it.
That said, it didn’t help that the SG-1 writers gave their antagonists such huge advantages in numbers and technology that a deus ex machina was literally the only way to solve the problem. DS9 arguably did something similar with the Dominion, where Starfleet and the Klingons were getting constantly smacked around by the Dominion and the only way to deal with the reinforcements coming through the wormhole was to get the Prophets to destroy them.
I don’t think it’s quite accurate to refer to Stargate‘s use of Ancient technology as deus ex machina. I mean, yeah, it’s kind of “machina ex deus,” solutions resulting from machines created by nigh-godlike aliens, so I can understand the temptation to describe it that way. But as a literary term, a deus ex machina is simply an arbitrary solution introduced out of nowhere to solve a problem, without any prior setup or justification. If a hyper-advanced device for defeating the enemy is seeded early on in the story and sought out by the characters and earned through their efforts, then it’s not really a deus ex machina. It would only be one if it hadn’t been set up beforehand, if it just showed up for the first time in the final act and the characters were just handed a solution.
Yeah, Machine Ex Machina is a better term. I just hated how SG-1 kept falling back on the hunt for Ancient Tech to solve their problems.
And I’ll save my thoughts on the Prophet Ex Machina until we get to next season.
I generally agree with the previous posts on disliking this episodes (especially in that it made poor use of Rosalind Chao), but I’ll add that I didn’t completely hate the idea of the Pah-Wraiths. I do wish that the writers had explored more of the moral ambiguity in the concept; what if (as Dukat will assert later on) the beings in the fiery caves (which fits too nicely with Western views of Hell for my taste) actually were the True Prophets? I was never convinced that the prophets (or even the Pah Wraiths) could be neatly classified into “good” or “evil”; as beings outside of time they are virtual gods to us and thus in many ways beyond our comprehension. It could have been an interesting way to explore issues of faith and belief. Nonetheless, (and I can’t recall which one of the DS9 staff said this), I do remember that part of the idea of the Pah Wraiths was to demonstrate why the Prophets needed “the Sisko”; to create a parallel War in Heaven , if you will, with the temporal Dominion War. This of course dovetails nicely with the revelations about Sisko we see later, but I do generally agree that the Pah Wraiths could have been done better.
(I also haven’t read many of the relaunch novels, though I plan to. Are any of the problems with the Pah Wraiths/Prophets rectified in the later continuity?)
(I just wanted to add that I also appreciated how [SPOILERS] the Pah-Wraiths allowed the creation of Dukat with a parallel destiny as the anti-Emissary)
I don’t know if all the downing on Weddle and Thompson is so justified, their work – especially with Starbuck on BSG – was certainly strong. But their episodes are a mix of some of the best of these two series, the good and the bad or dull, for sure. But they were strong still, when on form.
“Rules of Engagement”
“The Assignment”
“Business as Usual”
“Sons and Daughters”
“One Little Ship”
“Inquisition”
“The Reckoning”
“Time’s Orphan”
“Treachery, Faith, and the Great River”
“Prodigal Daughter”
‘Til Death Do Us Part”
“Extreme Measures”
“Act of Contrition”
“The Hand of God”
“Scattered”
“Valley of Darkness”
“Flight of the Phoenix”
“Scar”
“Downloaded”
“Exodus, Parts 1 and 2”
“Rapture”
“Maelstrom”
“He That Believeth in Me”
“Revelations”
“Sometimes a Great Notion”
“Someone to Watch Over Me“
@22, Yeah, I remember that interview because of how they slammed Berman’s stewardship of the franchise.
And while I’m not getting into ‘Teh Evil Berman’ arguement, I’ll at least acknowledge that they were certainly entitled to express their opinion given they were no longer with Paramount at that point.
I’m very intersted to read why you don’t like Section 31. I find them an essential element of why DS9 was so good. They personify the cutting of ethical corners and elitism Eddington and Bashir have noted repededly, and give the show an Xfiles feel that I think added positviely to the overall arc.
Can’t wait.
Did you mean me or CLB?
If you meant me, I love Section 31; I thought they were a great concept. “Inquisition” and “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges” are both on my Top 10 list for DS9.
“the performances of Grodénchik and Chao make for some damn fine lipstick, ’tis true”
Indeed it is. And while it’s true what they say about lipstick and pigs*, I don’t think it always applies to movies and TV. There’s times that a really stellar performance can make even a crappy story into something enjoyable. By that standard this episode did much better than a 3 in my book. Chao’s portrayal of evil gave me chills, and Meaney’s terror and helplessness was gut wrenching. Yes, the story is pretty lame, and I can see why people despise the pah-wraith elements in the series, but Chao and Meaney sold it. I could totally overlook the story itself and enjoy the show.
*At least I assume it’s true. I’ve never tested this, and God willing I never will.
@25 While the title Emissary certainly implies his main duty would be communicating back and forth between the two, it doesn’t make much sense from a story-telling perspective. There never is much dialogue between the two and the prophets are very rarely interested in giving warnings about the future, and could (and did) do that through the Orb of Prophecy anyway. They also communicated through the other orbs.
For the audience to feel like Sisco was really special in the Bajoran religion, he had to accomplish something more than being a stand-in for the orbs. It wouldn’t be conversion because the religion is already universal for all intents and purposes on Bajor and the prophets never seemed interested in expanding. To me that suggested he would have some foe to fight on behalf of the prophets. Hollywood logic I know, but generally a good bet for any religious figure on TV.
@41: Sisko’s importance was made clear in “Emissary.” He was the one who discovered the Celestial Temple, i.e. the wormhole, and thereby transformed life on Bajor very much for the better by making it an economic hub and a world of great importance to the Federation, as well as by giving the Bajoran people a spiritual sign of the Prophets’ presence and favor at a time when they needed it to encourage their rebuilding after the Occupation. True, later episodes kept on accreting other roles for the Emissary to play, like “opening the Temple gates” in “Destiny” and discovering B’hala. But it wouldn’t make sense to call him “Emissary” if his role had been as a warrior. That’s just not what the word means. An emissary is a representative, an ambassador, an intermediary, not a combatant or champion.
And when I say Sisko was an intermediary between the Bajorans and the Prophets, I don’t mean that he was just a walking Orb. Orbs are passive, basically just a telephone line between the two. Sisko was a mediator between the two, someone who could speak persuasively to one side on the other’s behalf and thereby bring about change. As I said, he was more an emissary from the Bajorans and other corporeal life to the Prophets — convincing them to understand linear time, convincing them to get involved when they were needed and to butt out when they intervened too much, etc. An Orb couldn’t do that, because an Orb is an instrument of the Prophets. Sisko was an advocate for the other side, our side. He enabled a more balanced relationship to exist, and ultimately a closer one.
Hmm, so apparently the pah-wraiths become a Thing, but not a very well used one…
I’ll just say that, on its own, I quite enjoyed the episode, as I like these kind of psychological thrillers (I think the chilliest scene was when pah!Keiko was brushing Molly’s hair and oh so subtly snagged her hair to make her cry out in pain – you know that was on purpose, and for Miles’s benefit). And agreed that it seems like it COULD be an interesting concept, so too bad that it didn’t come out that way.
@42
I disagree with very little you said, but once again from a story-telling perspective most of his “Emissary” duties were complete in the first episode and that’s not how I expected TV to work. I just always figured there would be something more.
The only place I really disagree is that it makes perfect sense to call him Emissary even as a warrior because being an emissary is how he was identified. I don’t know if you’ve read it but the Heralds of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey had a similar transition where one of the first people to be chosen as a magical guardian was the King’s herald, so herald came to basically mean guardian later on.
@44: I’m sorry, that doesn’t make sense to me at all, because the title Emissary was grounded in prophecy. The whole reason they’re called the Prophets is because they already know the future and revealed it to the Bajoran people. So the title he was given in prophecy would reflect what he was actually going to do.
Besides, why assume that the only “important” role someone can play in a religion is a violent one? I think that’s a horrible way of looking at things. Sisko’s importance didn’t come from what he was against, but from what he was for. He was for the Bajoran people. He came to them as an outsider and became one of them, grew to love their world, and devoted his life to serving its good. Take away the whole stupid Pah-wraith concept and Sisko would still have been of great importance to Bajor because of what he did on its behalf.
@45 Because the Emissary duties are the ones that are put down so that the Bajoran people can recognize him. They don’t need to give a blow-by-blow of every purpose he serves. What’s important is that the people recognize who he is when he arrives. Therefore that’s the bit they include.
As for the second paragraph, I didn’t say the only important role would be a violent one. I said given my knowledge of how TV works, an important (especially prophesied) religious figure in a show is there to convert people or face an advesary. Given this is scifi I was and the reasons I cited before, I was confident there would be an advesary, I wasn’t at all sure if the confrontation would be violent.
Of course Sisko would have been important without the Pah-wraiths, but his religious contributions as opposed to his socio-political contributions would have been largely over after the first episode. And that was never going to be allowed to happen.
@46: I’ve already pointed out that Sisko had an ongoing role to play as Emissary beyond the first episode, because of all he did for the Bajoran people over the years, and particularly because of the things he did in episodes like “Destiny” and “Rapture.” The show did plenty to define his role as Emissary beyond the whole Pah-wraith thing.
I agree with commenters that this episode was a well-done thriller. One minor nit: they should have written Molly out of the episode, like have her staying at a friend’s or visiting Major Kira or something. Because once the pah-wraith started threatning the daughter, the most in-character course of action would be for O’Brien to try to kill it immediately, even at the risk of killing Keiko (on the grounds that even Keiko would be fine with risking her life to keep Molly out of danger).
The pah’wraith thing being a bit silly, but if you take that out, it’s actually a decent episode. The tension is built up very well, and some of the scenes with Keiko keeping O’Brien on schedule are chilling — especially the one where she’s brushing Molly’s hair. Max Grodénchik did a fantastic job too. Between the two of them, I somehow didn’t even notice (until I read this post) that Kira, usually my favorite character, was completely absent from this episode.
“Alien taking over my body” episodes are always so goofy. They remind me of the cheesier plots of TOS.
I also wonder about these episodes where the characters can commit sabotage or whatever and there are never any consequences because it’s for the greater good or something. Maybe they forgave him because he stopped this particular alien from killing the prophets. But letting Keiko die would have stopped its plan as well, as hard as that would have been. After all, he couldn’t know for sure his plan would work. I guess it’s just hard to be too mad at a guy like Miles.
Nice to see Rosalind Chao have an episode she can have some fun with rather than just playing the borderline shrewish wifey as is typical for that character. The O’Briens’ relationship is interesting to me. On the one hand, I think they’re terribly mismatched, and even in the happiest of moments that we see them experiencing, I always sense an undercurrent of awkwardness from both, and a “walking on eggshells” vibe from Miles that makes me feel for him, since I was in a marriage like that once. :) On the other hand, I’m rooting for them because they’ve been through so much together and have had to endure both typical (her job keeps her away for long periods) and atypical (unexpected surrogate mom, and he lived 20 “virtual” years in a prison. etc etc etc) challenges, yet they continue to make it work somehow.
Those things are way the O’Briens are my favorite Trek couple.
If nothing else, The Assignment is a welcome diversion from the O’Brien’s pregnancy, and Rosalind Chao looks ecstatic to be playing someone other than Keiko for a change. I wonder why Molly didn’t sense something was off about Keiko; shouldn’t a child that young know who her mother is? I know what O’Brien must have felt when looking at Keiko while making his birthday wish. 16: Rom explains it all. 20: Odo called Rom an idiot in Babel. 21: Yes, in Little Green Men. 38: Section 31 gave DS9 an X-Files vibe; what about Dulmer and Lucsly in Trials and Tribble-ations? 51: Keiko is kept out of the show for long periods because the writers were stumped with what to do with her. By series end, Keiko is little more than a background detail.
@53/David Sim: Despite the anagrammed names, there was really nothing X-Files-like about Lucsly and Dulmur; if anything, they were more like Joe Friday and Bill Gannon from Dragnet. Bill Leisner’s DTI short story “Gods, Fate, and Fractals” in the Strange New Worlds II anthology was a Dragnet pastiche that captured this excellently, and it was a major influence on my own DTI novels and e-novellas.
I’m surprised this episode got such a low rating, since it’s a tightly-written thriller that gives everyone something to do. This is my favorite Rosalind Chao episode. Chao gets a bigger role beyond “O’Brian’s wife” and is incredibly creepy in how calm and direct the villain is: no big speeches, no idle boasting. Just a mix of carrot (do what I say and I’ll leave you and the station alone) and stick (watch me give Keiko a seizure). And every so often, her mask of civility drops and she’ll twist the knife. I think it also avoids most of the problems of the “I have your wife” plot because the same actress plays both hostage and hostage-taker. The subplot with Rom and O’Brian is also great- Quark is absolutely right that no one in Maintenance respects Rom. But instead of abusing Rom like Quark did, they simply ignore him and give him the crap assignments, literally. It’s a nice continuation of DS9’s theme of how societies may change but people don’t, and no one likes the silly little man even though he’s friendly, intelligent, and a model employee.
I hate the later Pah-Wraiths as much as anyone, but that’s part of how much I hate the late-season Prophets and their silly mystical trappings. It was insulting both when I believed and didn’t believe, and it wasn’t even interesting. But this episode is different, because the Pah-Wraith isn’t just “like the Prophets, but eeeevil.” She’s not like the Prophets at all. For one thing, she’s linear. She sees time how humans see it, or else she would have known about O’Brian’s trap. She understands enough about the chronitons and station technology to direct O’Brian, and enough about people to host a party. Second, unlike the later Pah-Wraiths and their red earrings and Prophet-like visions, the wraith is direct and down-to-earth. There’s no moustache-twirling- Garak does more of that when he’s having lunch with Bashir. There are no light shows on the promenade or calling up the Prophets to let them know they’re about to die. She never once mentions the Bajoran religion or prophecies, and there’s nothing mentioned in Bajoran religion about that time Bajor!Satan hijacked DS9 to shoot techno-babble at God.
And that’s the most interesting part, especially in light of how the Pah-Wraiths are used in later seasons. The Prophets may buy into their roles as gods, but the Pah-Wraith here has no interest in playing the devil. I’m surprised that this episode and later episodes share the same authors, because the Pah-Wraiths are so different. It’s a pity they were so focused on writing about GOOD and EVIL, and forgot all about good and evil. Imagine a Pah-Wraith like this one showing up at DS9, wearing Dukat’s body, offering to save the Federation in exchange for a few favors and their souls. That would be much different from the Hollywood Satanism we got.
I kind of liked this episode (did he say Jehova?). It gave Rosalind Chao the chance to play something different than the “nagging/concerned wife” for once and she does a good job at it. It’s also an episode that develops the character of Rom further, which is good, too.
The story itself… Well, it felt like a “monster of the week” episode, so I didn’t pay too much attention to the evil prophets, heh.
Update: the Happy Birthday song was ruled to be in the public domain in 2016!
Lockdown Rewatch. And it’s the Pah-wraiths… I don’t mind the use of them so much in this episode but as was said in the main review why did anyone think it was a good idea to keep going back to the damm things? I was especially annoyed when they ruin the great Gul Dukat character in the Finale arc story. In This episode they serve a plot device and I think this is an okay episode, it has plenty of Rom being brilliant which is always watchable and they remembered they had a fine actress available in Rosalind Chao and finally gave her something to do. I would give this a 5.
This is my first go-round with DS9, so apologies if these points are addressed later (I’m up to the end of season 5 I think, though, and they haven’t been). So, O’Brien killed a demon/devil, right? And if he hadn’t, then the gods of Bajor would have been killed? How is O’Brien not suddenly made into a messianic figure on the planet, or, if Sisko hushed it up, why do we never see Kira comment on this? And now that they know this possession is possible, are the fire caves made off limits and sealed up? Do they fire chronotons in there to wipe out the demons?
People are complaining that it sucks that the pah-wraiths one back, but it seems like there are so many unanswered questions here for such a big event. As one commentor pointed out, since it’s not TNG and they can’t fly away, this incredible threat is always there
I think the show proves out that the pah-wraiths were a good idea, and the worst thing that was ever done with them was to give them too little time and attention in the series finale and the episodes leading up to it.
One of the guiding themes of Deep Space Nine, from the very beginning with “Emissary”, is “as above, so below.” It’s exactly the reason why the show was able, as every part of the franchise has attempted but only Deep Space Nine has managed, to tackle the hard questions of religion and belief. The show’s soft sci-fi and galactic politics were portrayed as temporal, short-term parallels to the ancient, and even atemporal, concepts within religious belief (and note that you don’t have to believe in God at all to understand those concepts!)
The pah-wraiths, and the splitting of the Prophets into temporal forces of good and evil, were necessary for that success. Why? Because starting with “Emissary” and going all the way to “What You Leave Behind”, it was much the point of Sisko as the Emissary that he was, atemporally, as responsible for the Prophets as they were responsible for the Emissary. The war in heaven was precipitated, as everything was within the Temple, because of the introduction of cause and effect, but in defiance of its limits forward or backward in time. Sisko “infected” the Prophets with “temporality”, an understanding of not only cause and effect, but of the worth and moral value of temporal existence, of the meaningful difference of life and death, and the importance of choosing life.
The full stretch from “Emissary” to “Sacrifice of Angels” to “What You Leave Behind” makes this abundantly clear without ever breaching it in text, which is no small feat, considering that none of this was planned out from the beginning. Whatever you think of the late decision to revise Sisko’s origins (I don’t think it was necessary myself) it’s nevertheless coherent with the stories written before that decision. In effect, Sisko caused his own creation, because “cause” was not something that existed for the Prophets until Sisko arrived, and when he did, they were not bound as we are to keep from causing that from happening to themselves.
(This also, as it happens, addresses the idea that “Sacrifice of Angels” was a “deus ex machina” in the sense of a plot cheat, an idea that can only exist by ignoring the theme I’m describing throughout not just the five episodes leading up to “Sacrifice…” as the sixth part of one arc, but much of the previous two seasons, episodes such as “Accession”, “To the Death”, “Broken Link”, “Rapture”, “Call to Arms”… and, yes, “The Assignment”.)
So, yes, the Prophets do go from non-linear, mind-expanding, atemporal, amoral beings to a temporal struggle between good and evil. And that’s much the point, though, of course, it wasn’t planned out at all (something I find at least as admirable as JMS’s “big plan” for Babylon 5.) But there is a strong assertion in Deep Space Nine that, for all the franchise’s investment in cultural relativism, there is most definitely good and evil in the universe, and that struggle cannot be denied or avoided through retreat. “Emissary” is where Sisko first shows that to the Prophets, and in the end, because that’s the truth of the fictional world in which they all exist, the Prophets, too, must join the fight.
As above, so below. The Prophets and the Founders, the Prophets and Sisko, the pah-wraiths and Dukat. I only wish they’d spent more time on it, since so many fans seemed to need that.
I do understand, though, the regret some feel, especially the writers among us, for the departure from the wilder, more cosmic idea of the Prophets—”cosmic” in the sense of fiction where parts of the cosmos, in their staggering entirety, are presented as unknowable to humanity at large, as beyond our grasp except for fleeting moments of insight and apotheosis that necessarily transcend “what you leave behind.” I have a great love of concepts like that in fiction and for stories that attempt them. I applaud writers and others who succeed at telling those stories.
But like “hard” science fiction that demands extrapolated rigor from fictional technology, I’m just not sure that this sort of “cosmic” is ever a great fit for the core TV series of Star Trek, at least not as a foundational theme. Those series have always presented humanity as on its way toward full understanding of the universe, in the current moment as well as the fictional future of the characters. In that world, the Prophets coming “down” to our level, joining the mundane struggle of the plot, is not really their “fall” at all as a fictional concept, but an acknowledgment that humanity (and the metaphorical humanity of the Cardassians, the Bajorans, the Jem’Hadar, etc.) is already more than it seems to be. As above, so below.
So, with that last glimpse of the atemporal realm and Sisko’s smiling reminder that he might show up again before he left, “What You Leave Behind” probably should be the end of Deep Space Nine‘s story, and it’s something of a blessing that, in the end, it was.
One thing that just occurred to me (which I’m surprised I didn’t consider decades ago) is that, if it’s possible to kill the Wormhole Aliens with chroniton radiation, why didn’t the Dominion try that at any point during the year and a half that they were prevented from using the wormhole? Would the wormhole have collapsed without the prophets? None of the dialogue in this episode seems to imply it.
The wormhole was closed, how could they have bombed it?
The wormhole was only closed for a few months after Dukat released Kosst Amojan into it. The rest of the time it was there, but the Prophets just weren’t letting any Jem’Hadar ships into the Alpha Quadrant.
So, they couldn’t get into the wormhole?
Just because the Prophets live in the wormhole doesn’t mean that they are needed to keep it going. If you kill a person, their house doesn’t then collapse….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@65/krad: “If you kill a person, their house doesn’t then collapse….”
Unless they’re a supervillain. Then it’s obligatory.
Saw this for the first time, and it’s fantastic. A different villain than any we’ve seen, nasty in a new kind of way that creates tension.
I have to admit until I started reading these posts and the comments I didn’t realise the Pah Wraiths were quite so despised. I remember first time watching I tended to enjoy the Pah Wraith stuff particularly Kai Winn and Dukat’s arc in it all. To be clear I’m not saying they were my favourite element but I definitely found it entertaining. Perhaps tellingly I also have little issue with the writers work on BSG and some of my favourite episodes are the ones that are considered more controversial. I’m also of the opinion that Season 1 is my least favourite after Season 3. This all probably means I have terrible taste :-D
Joining the first-timers who say this episode was pretty good! I know nothing of the pah-wraiths and on the basis of this, they’re okay. I thought the pacing, suspense, performances, and sweaty twists were sufficiently novel and engaging; I had a good time watching it. It also did that tightrope walk of having strong stakes and humor.