1.9 — “The Passenger”
Plot: Doctor Bashir and Major Kira respond to a distress call in a roundabout to discover a ship containing a marshal escorting a prisoner. The prisoner has started a fire on the ship in an effort to escape. The prisoner, Rao Vantika, dies in the blaze. Despite this, the marshal is convinced that Vantika will rise from the grave to strike and to hijack a shipment of deuridium which is due to arrive at the station.
Thoughts: I find that I am a fan of this show. I’m afraid that all these reviews will devolve into me saying, “Wasn’t that fun? I like these characters. I can’t wait to see what happens next week!”
It’s fair to say this episode isn’t very ambitious, and fails to take advantage of the rich potential for political tension embodied in Deep Space Nine’s backstory. To that end, I declare that it’s high time we had another episode featuring Kira. But for all that, “The Passenger” advances some continuing plot lines and is fun to boot.
Odo’s feeling of insecurity at the arrival of a Starfleet security officer leads Sisko to clarify his feelings about Odo’s position on the team, and should deepen the trust between the two characters. It also provides a good acting opportunity for Avery Brooks. The actor Rene Auberjonois (Odo) is the same age as Patrick Stewart, which makes him the oldest regular cast member of any Star Trek series at the time of his first casting (52 years old, compared to Diana Muldaur at 49, Stewart at 47, and Deforest Kelley at 46). His acting style is less flashy than Stewart’s Royal Shakespeare inflected persona, but I’m not sure he isn’t just as good.
The opening scene between Bashir and Kira is just about as perfect as it gets. Very funny. Alexander Siddig (Bashir), who was credited as Siddig El Fadil in 1993, wasn’t great at playing Vantika during the possession, but he’s very good at playing Bashir’s egoism.
I’m not usually a fan of characters like Vantika, when all you ever learn about them is that they are evil with criminal superpowers. But it’s still a smart story. It was graceful to reveal that Vantika’s consciousness is hiding in Bashir just a few seconds after the audience figures it out for themselves. The story of the evildoer’s consciousness jumping from vessel to vessel is complex enough that I can imagine reading it in the pages of a science fiction short story anthology, if not in an anthology of Hugo or Nebula winners.
I thought we might see Vantika again, after he is imprisoned in DS9’s version of the bottle city of Kandor, but at least the ending is consistent with the Wild West ethos of the show.
3.5 of 5 prisons shaped like hockey pucks.
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