Capsule Review: DS9 1.05 "Babel"
Mar. 1st, 2013 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ljwritesAre we on "Captive Pursuit" yet? One more to go? Well then...
On its own almost until the resolution, "Babel" is a by-the-numbers Trek episode: Crisis strikes the station, the crew work to solve it, and save the day with their ingenuity and- wait, no they don't. And that's where it's interesting.
It's in the setup of the episode and its resolution that "Babel" shows its uniquely DS9 flavor. The crisis wasn't brought on by a random alien but by a Bajoran terrorist (or resistance if you prefer, but tomatoes tomahtoes) trap built for Cardassians which Starfleet happened to spring. This happened not by malice but because the cell that planted the virus happened to have been taken down, the scientist who made the virus happened to die in prison, the trap happened to have been forgotten as a result, and Starfleet happened to take over the station, then triggered the virus by happenstance.
In the middle is a Trek episode gone south. Our intrepid space-traveling heroes valiantly attempt to save themselves from a problem that got dumped in their laps by a series of accidents. Tragically they fall prey to the deadly virus and die, an object lesson of what happens to do-gooders who get themselves caught in a local situation.
Or that would have been the ending if it weren't for the locals themselves. The crisis is solved not by Starfleet but by another former Bajoran terrrresistance fighter who resorts to kidnap and intentional infliction of a deadly virus on a civilian in order to crack the virus code. Said civilian, once a terrorist himself, takes up the work the Starfleet doctor had been doing before he succumbed and saves the station. Day saved, with the locals cleaning up their own damned mess.
"Babel," then, is not a clean-cut story of professionalism and teamwork but a messy one of chaos in the setup and desperation in the resolution. It is, in other words, a Bajoran story with a bunch of hapless outsiders caught in the middle. It works as more than Just Another Trek Episode because it shows what kind of situation Bajor is in after the Cardassian occupation, how confusing and chaotic things are in this time of transition and change.
The episode also shows the extraordinary lengths Bajorans have had to go to in order to survive their times. You can see this understanding between Kira and her kidnap victim, who goes from initially reluctant and then indignant to accepting the situation and becoming the reluctant and chequered hero of the day. He might have wanted to forget the past and settle down to a more comfortable present, but the past catches up to him anyway in the form of a station full of sick people and a wild-eyed woman who will not let him walk away. He could rage at her for dragging him into a situation that wasn't his doing--but what would that solve? He understands her desperation because he, too, has been desperate. He accepts the situation and deals with it as he has had to do with so much else, and though he may be no great hero because he was saving himself as much as anyone, he did what was necessary as they all did. It's enough.
Lavanyasix called DS9 the red-headed stepchild of the Trek franchise, and I think episodes like this encapsulate its status as being in the franchise yet not of it. The writers use the Trek tropes only to twist them and tell a story about the local situation, establishing what kind of place Bajor is. This kind of work laid the foundation for what was to come down the road, establishing DS9 as the odd one out in the franchise, sure, but a great odd one out.
On its own almost until the resolution, "Babel" is a by-the-numbers Trek episode: Crisis strikes the station, the crew work to solve it, and save the day with their ingenuity and- wait, no they don't. And that's where it's interesting.
It's in the setup of the episode and its resolution that "Babel" shows its uniquely DS9 flavor. The crisis wasn't brought on by a random alien but by a Bajoran terrorist (or resistance if you prefer, but tomatoes tomahtoes) trap built for Cardassians which Starfleet happened to spring. This happened not by malice but because the cell that planted the virus happened to have been taken down, the scientist who made the virus happened to die in prison, the trap happened to have been forgotten as a result, and Starfleet happened to take over the station, then triggered the virus by happenstance.
In the middle is a Trek episode gone south. Our intrepid space-traveling heroes valiantly attempt to save themselves from a problem that got dumped in their laps by a series of accidents. Tragically they fall prey to the deadly virus and die, an object lesson of what happens to do-gooders who get themselves caught in a local situation.
Or that would have been the ending if it weren't for the locals themselves. The crisis is solved not by Starfleet but by another former Bajoran terrrresistance fighter who resorts to kidnap and intentional infliction of a deadly virus on a civilian in order to crack the virus code. Said civilian, once a terrorist himself, takes up the work the Starfleet doctor had been doing before he succumbed and saves the station. Day saved, with the locals cleaning up their own damned mess.
"Babel," then, is not a clean-cut story of professionalism and teamwork but a messy one of chaos in the setup and desperation in the resolution. It is, in other words, a Bajoran story with a bunch of hapless outsiders caught in the middle. It works as more than Just Another Trek Episode because it shows what kind of situation Bajor is in after the Cardassian occupation, how confusing and chaotic things are in this time of transition and change.
The episode also shows the extraordinary lengths Bajorans have had to go to in order to survive their times. You can see this understanding between Kira and her kidnap victim, who goes from initially reluctant and then indignant to accepting the situation and becoming the reluctant and chequered hero of the day. He might have wanted to forget the past and settle down to a more comfortable present, but the past catches up to him anyway in the form of a station full of sick people and a wild-eyed woman who will not let him walk away. He could rage at her for dragging him into a situation that wasn't his doing--but what would that solve? He understands her desperation because he, too, has been desperate. He accepts the situation and deals with it as he has had to do with so much else, and though he may be no great hero because he was saving himself as much as anyone, he did what was necessary as they all did. It's enough.
Lavanyasix called DS9 the red-headed stepchild of the Trek franchise, and I think episodes like this encapsulate its status as being in the franchise yet not of it. The writers use the Trek tropes only to twist them and tell a story about the local situation, establishing what kind of place Bajor is. This kind of work laid the foundation for what was to come down the road, establishing DS9 as the odd one out in the franchise, sure, but a great odd one out.
